Past Campus Cafés
café date: March 19, 2009
café topic: Jamie Benidickson, University of Ottawa The Culture of Flushing
Jamie Benidickson teaches courses on water law, environmental law and sustainability at the Faculty of Law, University of Ottawa. His book The Culture of Flushing: A Social and Legal History of Sewage is an interdisciplinary study of wastewater and water pollution in the United Kingdom, Canada and the United States. The Culture of Flushing was short-listed for the 2008 Harold Adams Innis prize for the best English-language book in the social sciences. Jamie was Director of the IUCN Academy of Environmental Law from 2004-2008.
Photos March 19
café date: February 12, 2009
café topic: Tomorrow's Weather Forecast: Warm, Wet and Wild?
David Phillips has been with Environment Canada's Weather Service for over 40 years where he studies and promotes awareness and understanding of Canada’s weather and climate. He has published several bestselling books including The Climates of Canada, The Day Niagara Falls Ran Dry, and Blame It On The Weather, numerous papers and reports including essays in The Canadian Encyclopedia, and a decade-long Weather-wise column in the Canadian Geographic magazine. He is the originator and author of the Canadian Weather Trivia Calendar, the most popular calendar sold in Canada, now in its 21st year. David appears frequently on national radio and television as a commentator on weather and climate matters.
David is a fellow of both the Royal Canadian Geographical Society and the Canadian Meteorological and Oceanographic Society. He has been awarded the Patterson Medal for Distinguished Service to Meteorology in Canada, and has twice received the Public Service Merit Award. David is the recipient of two honorary doctorates from the University of Waterloo and Nipissing University. In 2001, David was named to the Order of Canada.
Photos from Feb 12
café date: Jan 20, 2009
café topic: Earth: Profile of a Planet
Bob McDonald has been communicating science internationally through television, radio, print and live presentations for more than thirty years. Currently the host of CBC Radio’s Quirks and Quarks, he is also Science Correspondent for CBC television’s The National and science commentator for CBC NewsMorning. He is, or has been, the host, writer, and co-producer of award-winning children’s programs including Head’s Up and Wonderstruck. He has authored three books, and contributed to numerous science textbooks, newspapers and magazines including The Globe and Mail and Owl Magazine. Through his company, Event Horizon, Bob has produced and hosted more than 100 educational videos in use across North America. Bob was formerly an instructor at the Ontario Science Centre, he is now Chairman of the Board for Geospace Planetarium.
Bob has been honoured with numerous awards including the 2001 Michael Smith Award for Science Communication from the National Research Council, the 2002 Royal Canadian Institute’s Sir Sanford Fleming Medal for extraordinary contributions to Public Awareness of Science and the 2005 McNeil Medal from the Royal Society of Canada. Bob holds Honourary doctorates from Laurentian University, Carleton University, McMaster University, and the University of Guelph
Photos from Jan 20
café date: Nov 20, 2008
café topic: The Global Water Crisis and the Coming Battle for the Right to Water
Maude Barlow is the National Chairperson of the Council of Canadians, Canada’s largest public advocacy organization, and the founder of the Blue Planet Project, working internationally for the right to water. She serves on the boards of the San Francisco-based International Forum on Globalization and Washington-based Food and Water Watch and is a Councillor with the Hamburg-based World Future Council.
She has just been appointed as the United Nation's first senior adviser on water issues. Maude is the recipient of seven honorary doctorates, the 2005/2006 Lannan Cultural Freedom Fellowship Award, the 2005 Right Livelihood Award (known as the “Alternative Nobel”) for her global water justice work, is the Citation of Lifetime Achievement winner of the 2008 Canadian Environment Awards, and is the best selling author or co-author of 16 books.
café date: Oct 16, 2008
café topic: Deep Ocean Discoveries: Life at Extremes on the Seafloor?
Dr. Verena Tunnicliffe earned her undergraduate degree at McMaster University, her PhD at Yale University, worked as a Postdoctoral Fellow for Fisheries and Oceans Canada and has been a professor at the University of Victoria since1982. She has received numerous honours including being named a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada. She has supervised over 25 Honours, Masters and PhD students and PostDoctoral Fellows over the past 5 years, and has more than 95 publications.
Her work focuses on animal adaptations to the challenges of the physical, chemical and geologic world. Her work on hot vent communities has included an examination of how animal vent faunas around the world are related. Current work examines animal communities that survive on undersea volcanoes. She has pursued interests in technological advances to improve deep ocean studies. She was the lead proponent and now is Project Director of the underwater cabled laboratory called VENUS that runs arrays of instruments on the seafloor near Victoria and Vancouver.
Photos from Oct 7
