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Dawn's Blog and General News Items
More evidence that using Social Media in Science isn't frivolous
Who can resist being entranced by the gorgeous Fall colours around us? I find them distracting, even as Canada's science and sustainability communities have been focussed on much more weighty issues of a general election and Ada Lovelace Day, a celebration of Women in STEM. In the midst of the latter socially important stuff, I couldn't help […]
Now the hard work of restoring Canadian Science begins
On Monday 19th October, the highest number of eligible voters in Canada turned out since 1993, to hand the Liberal Party of Canada, led by Justin Trudeau, a majority government. The Green Party returned Elizabeth May to the House of Commons, while the NDP saw a huge drop in seats, and the Conservative Party of […]
Ada Lovelace Day 2015 at York University: 26th & 29th October 2015
Ada Lovelace Day was launched in 2009, by Suw Charman-Anderson, as way of drawing attention to and celebrating the under-appreciated contributions of women to STEM fields: Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics. I first came across Ada Lovelace Day in 2013, when I added a post to the international map (below right), about one of my female mentors, Professor Emerita […]
Open Letter asking the Canadian academic STEM community to improve gender balance in speaker line-ups
To my tenured, and tenure-track colleagues in the STEM subjects in Canada, and also to administrators in organizational units that control budgets providing funding for STEM speakers, and conferences. Re: The need, across Canada, for targeted policy on achieving gender balance in STEM conference plenary and prestigious lecture speakers, that is widely adopted at all academic scales: from individuals to institutions I'm a Full […]
Applying Adaptive Management thinking to my boring back injury
Adaptive management is a term coined by Holling (1978) to describe a process for moving forward on some kind of natural resource management issue, e.g. fisheries, where the best form of action isn't totally clear. The basic idea is to do an experiment, where one of the treatments is a particular proposed management action for the ecosystem, then to track the response, and then, […]
Why academics should regularly attend conferences where we don't present our work. Pt 2
Update: in response to Twitter peer review by @JWoodgett, I added a short section for people like him & me (STEM types) at the end, with clear, concise explanations of the concepts I discuss. If I had a penny for every colleague and student at York University who mentions the topics of colonialism, post-colonialism and our need to decolonize, […]
Why academics should regularly attend conferences where we don't present our work. Pt 1
It is a truth universally acknowledged, that in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering & Mathematics), one always presents new research at every conference one attends. (Or at the very least, one must be a co-author on a talk or poster). Growing up as an ecological researcher, I've observed that there are two main reason for this ALWAYS […]
Prof. Marc Spooner's next course should be "Best practices in conference organizing"
I fell behind with my blogs at the end of June, when my back pain flared up. I'd probably gone a bit overboard with driving and sitting/standing, and I spent Canada Day flat on my back, groaning. I'm again doing well with moving around and having the energy to stand and work. so I'm dealing with my 2 missing July posts, by (1) updating the […]
Getting back to field work at #BioBlitz2015 in the Don River Watershed
I took up field work for the 2nd time this season at the Ontario Bioblitz flagship event on the Don Watershed. The Ontario Science Centre was the HQ. I was joined by Vithuja Vijayakanthan, one of my remaining 2 graduate students from my IRIS director days. Her research, looks at the inherent tensions between the Bioblitz as a research vehicle, and […]
