Event: | AAAS media tour at the University of British Columbia’s research facilities |
Date/Time: | 1:30-4:30 p.m., Wednesday, Feb. 15, 2012 |
Location: | The University of British Columbia, Vancouver |
Transportation will be provided to and from Vancouver Convention Centre. |
Accredited newsroom registrants of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) 2012 Annual Meeting are invited to an exclusive media tour of two research facilities and meet scientists at the University of British Columbia on Feb. 15.
The Centre for Interactive Research on Sustainability (CIRS) is North America’s “greenest” building and one of only a handful worldwide that provides net positive benefits to the environment.
Led by Prof. John Robinson, who was part of the team that shared the 2007 Nobel Prize with Al Gore for their work on the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report, the tour will cover:
- A net positive energy system that includes solar collectors and photovoltaic panels, a geo-exchange system that scavenges heat from a neighbouring building, a living wall, green roof, and an on-site rain water collection and waste water treatment system featuring solar aquatic plants
- “Living laboratory” features that monitor, test and advance new technologies in sustainable, regenerative building design
- A Decision Theatre outfitted with simulation technology (to be presented at AAAS 2012) that helps scientists, policy makers and communities find solutions to the impacts of climate change
The Beaty Biodiversity Museum and the adjoining Biodiversity Research Centre are home to Canada’s largest blue whale skeleton exhibit and more than two million specimens in six research collections.
Guests are invited to meet museum curators and biodiversity researchers to:
- Learn how scientists and articulators exhumed a 25-metre blue whale carcass from Canada’s Atlantic Coast and immortalized it in the species’ signature lunge-feeding pose on the country’s opposite coast – and in the process, solved a 20-year mystery of its cause of death
- See the only specimen of Lapsias lorax, a jumping spider discovered in 2010 in Eucador by UBC Prof. Wayne Maddison and to be named after a well-loved Dr. Seuss character
- See some of the 30 species of fish that were first documented by UBC researchers, and some of the “youngest” fish species on Earth that are giving scientists new insights into evolution
For an itinerary, to RSVP and to learn more about UBC research being presented at AAAS, visit http://aaas.ubc.ca. To register as a newsroom attendee at the AAAS Annual Meeting, visit http://meeting2012.aaas.org/pressreg/default.aspx.