Canadian Science Dinner 2015: Table Hosts
Table 1: Isaac Tamblyn
Faculty of Science, University of Ontario Institute of Technology
Leaving money in the ground
The global energy supply mix is heavily weighted toward carbon-producing sources such as
coal, oil, and natural gas. Projections for the future paint a similar picture well into the 21st
century. Global climate change driven by these energy sources is expected to have significant
negative impacts on human health, worldwide economic growth, and geopolitical stability.
Despite this, affluent countries such as Canada continue to invest heavily in carbon-intense
infrastructure. How can we alter our economic incentives to overcome costs associated with a
move away from carbon, all the while leaving “money” in the ground?
Isaac Tamblyn obtained his PhD in Physics from Dalhousie University. Before joining UOIT, he completed
postdocs in the US Department of Energy at Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. Dr.
Tamblyn conducts research in the field of computational nanoscience with applications in renewable energy technology.
Table 2: Gilles Gerbier
Queen’s University, Department of Physics, Engineering Physics and Astronomy
Dark Matter in the Universe: it should be there but what is it?
Astronomical and astrophysical observations since the 1930s point to the presence of a large
mass of invisible matter in our universe − dark matter – which is roughly 6 times the size of
known matter. Most scientists now agree that this invisible dark matter consists of new
elementary particles and have actively looked for them, including in experiments run deep
underground in SNOLAB, a laboratory 2 km underground near Sudbury, Ontario. Still they
have not been detected and keep their mystery. Explore new methods that hope to uncover
these elusive particles.
Dr. Gerbier was director of research at the French Atomic Energy Commission (CEA) in Saclay. He is a graduate of the Ecole
Centrale Paris and obtained his PhD from the Université Paris XI for work on neutrino interactions in bubble chambers at CERN. He
has been involved in the direct search for Dark Matter particles as a founding member and team leader of the Beijing, Paris,
Rome, Saclay (BPRS) Collaboration, and as team leader of the European EDELWEISS collaboration. He was director of the Modane
Underground Laboratory, project manager of the Integrated Large Infrastructures for Astroparticle Science and coordinator of the
France-China Underground Lab network. He has served on many committees including the NSERC Subatomic Physics evaluation
committee.
Table 3. Ahmed El-Sohemy
Canada Research Chair in Nutrigenomics, Department of Nutritional Sciences,
University of Toronto
Nutrigenomics: Do our genes determine the foods we eat?
There is increasing awareness among researchers and consumers that the one-size-fits-all
approach to nutritional guidance is inefficient and often ineffective. Knowledge gained from the
Human Genome Project has shed light on how human genetic variation can explain why some
individuals respond differently from others to the same foods, beverages and supplements they
consume. Can this information now be used to provide more reliable dietary advice to optimize
health?
Dr. Ahmed El-Sohemy is an Associate Professor at the University of Toronto and holds a Canada Research Chair in Nutrigenomics.
He completed a postdoctoral fellowship at Harvard and joined the faculty at UofT in 2000. Dr. El-Sohemy has published over 100
peer-reviewed articles and has given over 150 invited talks around the world. He was named one of the top 10 inventors of the
year by UofT and awarded the Centrum Foundation New Scientist Award for Outstanding Research by the Canadian Nutrition
Society. Dr. El-Sohemy is the Founder of Nutrigenomix Inc., which provides a genetic testing service for healthcare professionals.
Table 4. Valerie Fox
Executive Director, Digital Media Zone
Struggling with speed to market versus IP protection
Patenting ideas requires both time and money. How can startups balance protection of their IP
with the need to bring a product or idea to market quickly? Are there specific considerations
that would help entrepreneurs to decide on the best approach?
Valerie Fox is the Executive Director and co-founder of the Digital Media Zone at Ryerson University (DMZ), Canada's number one
university business incubator. Since opening in 2010, the DMZ has become Canada’s largest incubator and multi-disciplinary coworking space, helping over 180 startups and ranking fifth in the world on the UBI Index. With more than 30 years of experience in
the digital technology industry, Fox is an active advocate of the user experience. In 2012, Valerie was presented with the
prestigious Canadian Women in Technology Sara Kirke Award for Entrepreneurship and Innovation. She has also been awarded
multiple patents, including the Universal Shopping Cart for the Web.
Table 5. Maurice Bitran
CEO Ontario Science Centre
Topic TBA: Science policy
Prior to joining the Ontario Science Centre as Chief Executive Officer in 2014, Dr. Bitran was the Assistant
Deputy Minister (ADM) of the Integrated Environmental Policy Division, Ministry of the Environment, ADM
of Policy and Programs at the Ministry of Economic Development and Trade, ADM of the Secretariat to the
Premier’s Jobs and Prosperity Council, and Ontario’s Chief Negotiator for the Comprehensive Economic and
Trade Agreement (CETA) negotiations with the European Union. Maurice has an academic background in
physics and astronomy. As Ontario Visiting Fellow at the University of Toronto, he taught a graduate course on the role of science
in public policy. Maurice has served on the boards of MaRS Landing, Soy 20/20, The Challenge Factory, and is an advisor to the
Toronto Hispanic Chamber of Commerce.
Table 6. Ernesto Guzman
Director of the Honey Bee Research Centre, School of Environmental Sciences,
University of Guelph
Why are honey bees dying?
Colonies of honey bees have been dying at annual rates exceeding 30% in North America. These
substantial losses have endangered the continuous supply of honey bees as pollinators, which
has very serious economic and ecological implications. We will discuss the likely causes of this
decline as well as research being conducted on this matter.
Dr. Guzman started to keep bees in 1978, has taught courses in Apiculture and Genetics and has conducted multiple research
projects at different institutions in Mexico, USA and Canada. His research focusses on the genetics, behaviour, and parasitic mites
of honey bees. His studies have contributed to the understanding of foraging behaviour, defensive behaviour, and the
mechanisms that confer resistance to honey bees against parasitic mites. Ernesto Guzman is author and co-author of more than
300 publications and has received numerous honours and awards.
Table 7. Adèle Hurley
Director of the Program on Water Issues at the Munk School of Global Affairs at the University
of Toronto
The Canadian Water Narrative: Exploring the myths
How Canada's groundwater is (not?) being mapped and monitored and what this means for
future water/energy security in an era of climate change. Imagining a future where real estate
values increase if land has not undergone hydraulic fracturing (fracking). What we are really
saying when we talk about glacial melt water being "one time water"? Updating Canadian
bulk water export legislation and providing insight into whether the Americans are trying to
'get' our water or the Canadians are trying to sell it.
In the 1980s, during the early days of the Reagan Administration, Adèle moved to Washington and co-founded the Canadian
Coalition on Acid Rain. For several years she worked on a successful campaign that brought about amendments to the US Clean
Air Act, as well as regulations that reduced acid rain-causing pollutants from large Canadian emitters. In the early 1990s, she was
appointed to the Board of Ontario Hydro. In 1995, she was appointed by the Prime Minister’s Office to serve as Canadian Co-Chair
of the International Joint Commission, which oversees Canada/US Boundary water issues under the Boundary Waters Treaty of
1909. Adèle has served as a member of the Canadian Federal Government’s International Trade Advisory Committee–Task Force
on Environment and Trade Policy, the Board of Directors of the Ontario Power Authority, and the Water Advisory Board of the
Columbia Basin Trust. She is Member of the Order of Canada and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada.
Table 8. Jennifer Baltzer
Canada Research Chair in Forests and Global Change, Wilfrid Laurier University
Climate warming and land cover change in the Arctic
Amplified high latitude warming has led to increases in air temperature in Canada’s far
north of as much as 2-3C and it is predicted that by the end of the 21st century that
temperatures may warm by an additional 3-6C. Across the region warming is driving
changes in the extent and nature of disturbance processes including rapid rates of
permafrost thaw and increasingly frequent and severe wildfire resulting in widespread land
cover changes with major ramifications for the function of northern ecosystems.
Jennifer Baltzer is a terrestrial ecologist and ecophysiologist. Her work aims to better understand the patterns and processes of
land cover change in response to key climate warming-related disturbances and the implications of these changes for ecosystem
function. She currently holds a Canada Research Chair in Forests and Global Change and is a recipient of the Ontario Ministry of
Research and Innovation’s Early Researcher Award.
Table 9. Andreas Laupacis
Executive Director, Li Ka Shing Knowledge Institute, St Michael's Hospital
Which drugs should be paid for from the public purse? The intersection of science,
advocacy, business and politics
Dr. Laupacis is a practicing physician and professor in the Faculty of Medicine at the University
of Toronto. His research interests cover a variety of topics in clinical epidemiology, health
services research, health technology assessment and health policy. Recently he has become
interested in engaging the public about health care issues (he founded the
website www.healthydebate.ca). He holds a Canada Research Chair in Health Policy and Citizen
Engagement. He has served on numerous academic and governmental advisory committees,
including ones that have recommended which drugs should be paid for by the publicly funded
health care system (and which should not). Dr. Laupacis was awarded the annual Health
Services Research Advancement Award from the Canadian Health Services Research Foundation and was also named the Justice
Emmett Hall Laureate in 2010.
Table 10. Jeremy McNeil
Distinguished University Professor and the H. Battle Professor of Chemical Ecology at
the University of Western Ontario.
Topic TBA
Jeremy was a professor in the Biology Department at Laval University and was a Humboldt
Fellow at the University of Hamburg. Professor McNeil has an interdisciplinary research
programme in chemical ecology studying pheromone mediated mating of insects, with on
migratory moths. He has received a number of national and international awards, including the
C. Gordon Hewitt Award and Gold Medal from the Entomological Society of Canada, the Fry Medal of the Canadian Society of
Zoologist, a Humboldt Prize, the Silver Medal of the International Society of Chemical Ecology and the Delwart Prize in Chemical
Ecology. Professor McNeil has been the President of Entomological Societies of Ontario, Quebec and Canada, as well as the
International Society of Chemical Ecology. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada and has served on a diversity of
committees, currently as the RSC Foreign Secretary. For over 30 years he has been engaged, both at home and abroad, in
activities relating to the public awareness of science. In 2014 he was appointed to the Order of Canada for his research and for his
dedication to increasing public appreciation of science.
Table 11. Matthew Johnson
Physics and Astronomy, York University & Associate Faculty, Perimeter Institute.
What Banged?
What happened during the earliest moments of the Universe? How big and how old is the
Universe? Questions like these have long been the topic of speculation, but only recently
have cosmologists started to uncover the answers. The age of precision cosmology, ushered
in by measurements of the Cosmic Microwave Background radiation (13 billion year old
light), has shed new light on some of the most interesting questions about the origin and
evolution of the Universe.
Dr. Matthew Johnson earned his PhD from the University of California, Santa Cruz. Following his PhD, he was the Moore
postdoctoral scholar at the California Institute of Technology and a senior postdoctoral fellow at the Perimeter Institute. Dr.
Johnson is currently a joint faculty member at York University and the Perimeter Institute. His research focuses on theoretical
cosmology and gravitation.
Table 12.Ian Clarke
Associate Dean, Faculty of Liberal Arts and Sciences, Faculty of Interdisciplinary Studies,
OCADU
Topic TBA (Biomimicry in technology)
Ian Clarke started teaching at OCAD in 2003 in the Faculty of Liberal Studies. He has taught biology
and biochemistry in various capacities at Queen's University and for the British Columbia Open
University. He is a Biomimicry 3.8 Institute Fellow and is active in Biomimicry education and research.
Previously to joining OCAD University full time he was researching the role of cancer stem cells in
brain tumours at the Arthur and Sonia Labatt Brain Tumour Research Centre at the Hospital for Sick Children.
Table 13. Ron Dizy
Managing Director, Advanced Energy Centre | MaRS Discovery District
Canada’s Energy Future – Is it Bright or Dim?
Despite the adverse and known effects of climate change, human beings continue to burn
fossil fuels to supply electricity, for transportation and to maintain their quality of life.
Climate change is perhaps the most pressing issue facing the world today. Yet the nature of
this issue does not lend itself to a sense of immediacy and a sense of ownership amongst
populations. How do we motivate the changes necessary for the planet’s survival? What
could a future with high quality of life and sustainability look like? How can we get there?
Ron is the Managing Director of the Advanced Energy Centre at MaRS, focusing on fostering the adoption of innovative energy
technologies in Ontario and Canada, and leveraging those successes and experiences into international markets. He was
previously the President and CEO of ENBALA Power Networks, a smart grid technology company that offers grid optimization
services to utilities and system operators to increase the overall efficiency and reliability of the power system. Ron is viewed as a
thought-leader on innovation opportunities that lie within the evolution of the modern power system. Ron holds a degree in
Industrial Engineering from the University of Toronto.
Table 14. Randy McIntosh
Director Rotman Research Institute, Baycrest Centre
If your computer got Alzheimer’s disease, could we cure it?
There numerous international research efforts that target Alzheimer’s disease and related
dementias. Many of these involve collection of massive amounts of data and the use of
sophisticated data analysis and computer modeling. Are we getting to the point where these
models give us new clues on a cure? What’s missing from these efforts?
Dr. Randy McIntosh is a world-renowned expert in the use of neuro-imaging methods (fMRI, PET, EEG
and MEG) and computational modeling to understand how brain networks change with aging and how the brain recovers from
damage or disease. Randy is leading a multi-million dollar project with an international team of scientists to build the world’s first,
functional virtual brain (thevirtualbrain.org). The massive project – akin to decoding the human genome – has the potential to
revolutionize how clinicians assess and treat various brain disorders, including cognitive impairment caused by stroke and
Alzheimer’s disease. The Virtual Brain also was at the heart of a more recent effort merging art and science, called My Virtual
Dream (myvirtualdream.ca), which debuted at the ScotiaBank Nuit Blanche event in Toronto, September 2013. The immersive
audio-visual installation makes use of cutting-edge brain-computer interface technology to have the participants join in a
conversation with the Virtual Brain to drive dream sequences of animations and music .
Table 15. Narayan Kar
University of Windsor
Topic TBA: (Innovations in electric vehicles)
Dr. Narayan Kar received his Ph.D. degree from the Kitami Institute of Technology in Japan in the
area of design and operation of electric machines. He was a post-doctoral fellow and at the
University of Saskatchewan and then joined the University of Windsor. His primary areas of
research have been the application of electric machines and power electronics in wind power
generation and hybrid electric vehicles. He is a Special Session Co-Organizer on the Automotive
Power Electronics and Motor Drives at the Annual Conference of the IEEE Industrial Electronics
Society to be held in Florida and a steering committee member of the International Conference
on Electrical Engineering Design & Technologies, Tunisia.
Table 16. Ann Chambers
Canada Research Chair in Oncology, Professor, Department of Oncology, Western University
Cancer Challenges: Metastasis and Dormancy
In spite of major advances in the detection and treatment of cancer, about one-quarter of
Canadians will die of this disease. Most of these deaths will be due to metastatic disease,
cancer that has spread from its site of origin to other parts of the body. Sometimes cancer is
detected after it has already spread, and sometimes metastasis occurs years or even
decades after apparently successful treatment of the initial cancer. To make further
reductions in cancer mortality, we need to tackle metastasis and tumor dormancy. Research
is contributing to understanding these challenges and what we still need to learn.
Having studied cancer metastasis for the whole of her research career, Dr. Chambers has recently has extended this to tumor
dormancy. She is Director of the Pamela Greenaway-Kohlmeier Translational Breast Cancer Research Unit at the London Regional
Cancer Program where she and her colleagues have developed new imaging tools to study dormant and metastatic cancer cells in
experimental models and have shown that tumor dormancy might be more common than previously appreciated, providing
opportunities to learn how the body may be able to suppress metastatic recurrence.
Table 17.Walter Craig
Professor of Mathematics and the Canada Research Chair of Mathematical Analysis and its
Applications at McMaster University, Director, Fields Institute for Mathematical Research
Rogue waves and other mysteries
One of the classical sailors' terrors of the sea is the rogue wave, which is said to arise from
nowhere to break the back of ships, sinking them in minutes without a trace. Until recently
this phenomenon was considered to be the material of legends, until observational data
and survivors' tales convinced oceanographers otherwise. To understand this phenomenon
and other not-necessarily-intuitive behavior of waves, whether in the ocean, or on a
cosmological scale, or as aspects of a quantum system, takes precise mathematical modeling.
Walter Craig is a Professor of Mathematics and the Canada Research Chair of Mathematical Analysis and its Applications at
McMaster University. His doctorate is from the Courant Institute and he has held faculty positions at Caltech, Stanford
University and Brown University, where he was department chair, before moving with his wife to McMaster. His interests
include partial differential equations, Hamiltonian dynamical systems and their applications to the physical sciences. His
contributions include advances in the mathematical theory of water waves and their modeling, as well as to other applications
to fundamental problems in physics, and to theoretical aspects of these fields. He is the recipient of a Bantrell, a Sloan
Foundation and Killam Research Fellowships and was elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, of the AAAS and AMS,
and he is a Fields Institute Fellow.
Table 18. Tyler Hamilton
Editor-in-chief at Corporate Knights magazine; adjunct professor, environmental
studies, York University.
Low-carbon Energy Innovations
Within the context of climate change mitigation and adaptation, there is a general
belief that low-carbon energy innovations are crucial to the effort of keeping the
increase in average global temperature from surpassing 2 degrees C. There is
considerable debate, however, over the degree to which we should deploy the
innovations we have today or wait for the innovations of tomorrow. In other words,
are the existing low-carbon technologies in our toolkit good enough to manage the
climate threat we face, or will breakthroughs be required to achieve what many
consider an extremely ambitious 2-degree goal?
Tyler Hamilton leads the editorial team at Corporate Knights magazine, which reports on the intersection of business,
economy and sustainability. Prior to this, he was energy reporter and columnist for the Toronto Star, where he wrote about
clean technology trends, innovations, and the people behind them. He published Mad Like Tesla: Underdog Inventors and
Their Relentless Pursuit of Clean Energy and is adjunct professor in the Faculty of Environmental Studies at York University.
Table 19. Eduardo Martin-Martinez
Research Assistant Professor, Institute for Quantum Computing at the University of Waterloo
and the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics.
Quantum Theory and the structure of Spacetime:
From the Early Universe to Relativistic Quantum technologies.
Over the past decade, a new field has emerged: Relativistic Quantum Information (RQI). RQI
brings together information theory with the two pillars of modern physics: General Relativity
and Quantum Theory. The results range from new insights into the most fundamental laws of
Nature: quantum entanglement, the structure of spacetime, black hole physics, cosmology
and the very early Universe, all the way to concrete applications in quantum computing and
emerging quantum technologies.
Eduardo completed his PhD in Theoretical Physics at Universidad Complutense de Madrid and the Spanish High Council of
Scientific Research (CSIC) with “summa cum laude, receiving the "2010-2011 extraordinary PhD thesis award” for his pioneering
thesis on Relativistic Quantum Information. He has visited and collaborated with top scientists in Canada, United Kingdom,
Australia, Austria, Japan and Poland. In October 2012 he was awarded the prestigious Banting Postdoctoral Fellowship and in
2014, he received the prestigious John Charles Polanyi Prize for Physics.
Table 20. Gord Miller
Environmental Commissioner of Ontario
What’s in store for energy storage?
Ontario is producing an ever-increasing share of its electricity from variable energy sources
such as wind and solar power. If we are to make full use of these renewable resources, energy
storage at a reasonable cost becomes a necessity. Ontario has long made use of large-scale
electricity storage using pumped water technology at Niagara Falls. But many smaller
demonstration projects using a variety of technologies ranging from compressed air to
flywheels are under development and will integrate storage with microgrids/smart grids. We
will discuss large, “grid-scale” storage and smaller, “behind the meter” options, as well as
thermal (heat) storage.
Prior to his appointment as Environmental Commissioner on January 31, 2000, Gord Miller worked as a scientist in pollution
abatement and in environmental education and training. As Environmental Commissioner, Gord Miller has released twelve annual
reports, seven special reports, four Greenhouse Gas Progress Reports and four Energy Conservation Progress Reports to the
Ontario Legislature.
Table 21. Lesley Warren
Professor, Aqueous and Microbial Geochemistry, School of Geography and Earth Sciences,
McMaster University
You Can’t Drink Money: the Resource Sector Metagenome
The energy and resource sectors are vital to Canada’s economic engine. However resource
extraction consumes freshwater at a rate of the volume of Lake Ontario annually and
produces potentially hazardous waste or tailings (metal mining ~950,000 tons daily, the oil
sands ~20,000 cubic meters per 100,000 barrels of oil) at staggering scales. Sustainability is
now a critical component to the viability of ongoing and proposed mine operations. Is it
feasible for this sector? Why metagenomics? We will discuss these ideas, and why improving mining sustainability is
critical to every Canadian in securing our future.
Dr. Warren’s multidisciplinary research program has pioneered investigation of bacterial roles in mine contexts. In the last 5 years,
she has brought in over $5,500,000 in energy sector and mining partnered research funds, spoken to MPs and Senators on “The
Science of Canada’s Oil Sands” on Parliament Hill, trained over 50 HQP, and developed a high school science outreach program,
“Green Mining” targeting mining and rural areas across the country.
Table 22 Maria Cristina Nostro
Harry Rosen Chair in Diabetes and Regenerative Medicine Research, McEwen Centre for
Regenerative Medicine, UHN
Type 1 diabetes: stem cells to the rescue.
Type I diabetes is caused by the destruction of insulin-producing cells (beta cells) by the
immune system. The goal of regenerative medicine is to use stem cells to produce an unlimited
and transplantable source of beta cells in the petri dish to treat this chronic disease.
Dr. Maria Cristina Nostro completed her degree in Biology at the University of Florence and Ph.D. in Biomolecular Sciences from
The University of Manchester. Driven by her passion for research and strong interest in stem cell biology, she started her
independent career at UHN. Her laboratory focuses on the generation of functional pancreatic beta cells from human embryonic
and induced pluripotent stem cells, with the ultimate goal of translating her discoveries to potential treatments for Type I
Diabetes.
Table 23. Terry Sachlos
CSO, Bikanta Corp, Senior Research Associate, Lassonde School of Engineering, York University
Nanodiamonds – Redefining imaging for early cancer detection
Early detection of cancer, and its deadly metastasis, is widely accepted as the most effective
method to increase survival rates. However, current cancer screening methods are unable to
detect small tumours or breakaway tumour cells that lead to micro-metastatic tumours.
Bikanta is an early-stage startup company that has developed a revolutionary nanotechnology
platform based on fluorescent nanodiamonds that identify smaller tumours and consequently
detect cancer earlier.
A serial entrepreneur, Terry’s current endeavour is as the Chief Scientific Officer of Bikanta Corp. He completed his doctorate in
tissue engineering at the University of Oxford and pursued postdoctoral research in stem cells at MIT, Harvard University and
more recently McMaster University where he co-developed a novel stem cell screening platform.
Table 24. Kristiina McConville
Associate Professor, Electrical and Computer Engineering, Ryerson University, and Adjunct
Professor, Institute of Biomaterials and Biomedical Engineering, University of Toronto
Table topic: Space Research is Down to Earth
Space research is often broadly categorized as astronomy or 'rocket science'. Rarely do we hear
about space motion sickness, or how seedlings grew there. How can this research help to make
Earth a better place? Kristiina will show how biomedical sensors and virtual reality training can
help maintain muscle strength, improve balance, and prevent falls. Life sciences challenges also
relate to keeping the planet healthy. How can we bring the lessons learned from observing our
ecosystem from afar to keeping our own environment healthy?
Kristiina has been applying space research to life sciences problems on Earth for over 25 years. She became interested in space
motion sickness in Systems Design Engineering at the University of Waterloo, and then continued to study human perception and
the vestibular system in the Institute of Biomedical Engineering at the University of Toronto for her MSc and PhD degrees. She
worked in the Canadian Space Agency when it was formed in 1989, and in the aerospace industry for 10 years, and has been doing
Biomedical Engineering research at Ryerson University for 10 years on human balance system rehabilitation. She is now
interested in investigating how to keep people healthy with a back to nature approach.
Table 25. TBA