Appointment of Dr. James Olson, Dean, Faculty of Applied Science, for a second term

A message from Dr. Gage Averill (Provost and Vice-President, Academic, UBCV) and Dr. Rehan Sadiq (Provost and Vice-President, Academic, UBCO) 

We are pleased to announce that the UBC Board of Governors has approved the extension of the appointment of Dr. James Olson as Dean, Faculty of Applied Science, for a second five-year term, commencing July 1, 2023.

During his first term as Dean, Dr. Olson has made many notable achievements. He led a community-engaged process to co-create the Faculty’s strategic plan, Transforming Tomorrow, and nearly doubled annual research funding from $53 million to $99.8 million.  

The Faculty also invested in new facilities, including construction of a new School of Biomedical Engineering building and the new Gateway Building, the latter of which will include a home for the School of Nursing. Plans are currently underway for Applied One — a $325-million, 328,300 sq. ft home for integrated, interdisciplinary research and learning.  

Under Dr. Olson’s leadership, the schools of community and regional planning, nursing, and architecture and landscape architecture each now rank first in Canada. Engineering ranks second in the country but has risen in global rankings from 70th to 33rd since he was appointed as Dean.   

We would like to thank students, faculty and staff for participating in the search process and for providing valuable feedback to the President’s Advisory Committee.  

We appreciate Dr. Olson’s commitment to UBC and look forward to continuing to work with him during his second term. Please join us in congratulating Dr. Olson on the extension of his appointment.