Eminent scientists gather to talk dirt and the origin of life

  • Event: Science symposium
  • Date: Saturday, May 3, 1997
  • Time: 9 a.m.
  • Cost: $40 ($20 for students)
  • Place: Ponderosa Building, 2071 West Mall. Parking is
    available in the West Parkade on West Mall. Enter at Gate 6 off
    Southwest Marine Drive.

The origin of life and finding new drugs in dirt are among the
topics for discussion at a gathering of eminent scientists on campus
May 3.

Sponsored by the Royal Society of Canada’s Academy of Science,
the day-long symposium will feature six presentations by Canadian
and US scientists. The symposium wraps up with an evening address
by Thomas Brzustowski, president of the Natural Sciences and Engineering
Research Council of Canada, called “Discovery: A Feat of Technology,
or a Genie Out of the Bottle?”

Prof. Steve Calvert, symposium organizer and fellow of the Royal
Society, says the event is the second biannual symposium presented
by the Academy of Science.

“The purpose is to discuss exciting new research and the ramifications
which this research will have on society,” says Calvert, who studies
the chemistry of oceans in UBC’s Dept. of Earth and Ocean Sciences.

Symposium speakers and topics are: Stuart Kauffman, Santa Fe Research
Institute, “Complexity and Origin of Life;” George Boer, Canadian
Centre for Climate Modelling and Analysis, “Climate Models and Climate
Change Prediction;” Jamie Smith, UBC Dept. of Zoology, “Bears, Birds,
Bugs and Biodiversity: Debunking the Myths of Biological Conservation;”
Julian Davies, UBC Dept. of Microbiology and Immunology, “New Drugs
from Dirt;” Physicist Martin Duncan, Queen’s University, “New Perspectives
on Planet Formation;” and Indira Samarasekera, UBC Centre for Metallurgical
Process Engineering, “Materials: Enhancing Our Lives from Travel
to Communciation.”

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