I have been in Delhi, and in one of its many surrounding suburbs (Greater Noida), this past week, with YorkU colleague, Dr. Nivedita Das Kundu, networking and building CIPRI (Canada-India Project for Research and Innovation) connections for the York Centre for Asian Research. Nivedita, a political scientist and International Relations scholar, lived, studied and worked in […]
Climate Change
Hear about the latest UN Climate Change talks on January 4, 2018
In 2009, Annette Dubreuil and I obtained observer status from the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. This not only allowed members of the pan-university organized research unit, the Institute for Research and Innovation in Sustainability (2004-2015), but any and all York University members interested in climate change-related research, education and administration to attend […]
What Trees Talk About features the excellent research of Canadian ecologists
I'm always thrilled when one of my colleagues contacts me, to alert me to their research hitting the mainstream media. On November 26th, 2017, CBC's Nature of Things, which is introduced by Dr. David Suzuki, broadcast an absolutely fabulous documentary on the ecology of Canada's boreal forest: What Trees Talk About. I loved the programme […]
Science, Art, Policy and Politics at the United Nations Climate Change Meetings
I'll be posting 12 blogs between December 1st and 24th to reach my goal of 24 posts for 2017. I'm behind because my sabbatical has kept me too busy to maintain my blogging schedule! Back in 2009, when I was director of the Institute for Research and Innovation in Sustainability (IRIS), I applied for York […]
Gardening for biodiversity & local food in Carolinian Canada
Two excellent Canadian documentaries, The End of Suburbia (2004) and Escape from Suburbia (2007), discuss the enormous implications of our unsustainable North American car culture, which has spawned sprawling suburbs and gridlock in southwestern Ontario, and the Greater Toronto Area. These films include fascinating conversations with "futurists" about how people will convert their (sub)urban lawns into vegetable patches to grow local […]
Science Fairs & Science on Ice at York University
The annual Science Fair is a right of passage for many aspiring, young scientists. I've been fortunate (if that's the right word), to experience them as both a judge, and a parent. Back in the 1990s, I was blown away by the creativity and enthusiasm of the young citizen scientists when I was a judge at the annual […]
YorkU's COP22 delegation will debrief on 11 January 2017
Every November and December, the news fills with reports about the United Nations climate change talks. The UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, UNFCCC, is one of two main international platforms where climate climate change impacts, mitigation and adaptation are addressed, the other being the Inter-governmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). The Kyoto Protocol and […]
My 6 favourite #SciComm tweets since I got back on the grid
Where do professors go every 7 years? Professor Shibani Chaudhury's sabbatical
The biggest perk of being a tenured professor has got to be the sabbatical. Every 7 years, we have the chance to finish research, including writing papers and books, learn new things, meet new colleagues and find new collaborators. Often, given the hours that many academics work, their sabbatical is also a chance to breathe, and catch up […]
My first MOOC: UQx's Denial101x Making Sense of Climate Science Denial
Update August 4, 2015: Unfortunately, my lower back & hip injury, has taken up ridiculous amounts of my life, and limited me to a max of 7 hours a day work, standing up, since late April. I was very sad that this meant I simply couldn't complete this very worthwhile, beautifully organized MOOC. I watched the first […]
