Media Releases

U of T celebrates National Science Literacy Week with free public events

September 21, 2015

TORONTO, ON – The Uni­ver­si­ty of Toron­to cel­e­brates Nation­al Sci­ence Lit­er­a­cy Week by host­ing two free pub­lic dis­cus­sions Sep­tem­ber 23 and 24 on Health Care and Aging, and Sus­tain­abil­i­ty and Ener­gy.

The dis­cus­sions, fea­tur­ing promi­nent U of T researchers and rep­re­sen­ta­tives from busi­ness and indus­try, are being orga­nized by U of T’s Sci­ence and Engi­neer­ing Engage­ment pro­gram, which works to fos­ter engage­ment between U of T sci­en­tists and the pub­lic and stim­u­late dis­cus­sion about new dis­cov­er­ies.

Health Care and Aging: Mod­er­at­ed dis­cus­sion on aging, end of life care, assist­ed death, and the rela­tion­ship between diet and brain func­tion.

When: Sept. 23, 7:00 pm — 9:00 pm

Where: Isabel Bad­er The­atre, 93 Charles St. West, Vic­to­ria Uni­ver­si­ty at U of T

Speak­ers: Dis­cus­sion to be mod­er­at­ed by Toron­to Star sci­ence & tech­nol­o­gy reporter Kate Allen. The pan­el includes bioethi­cist Dr. James Dow­nar, dis­cussing “The future of assist­ed and unas­sist­ed death in Cana­da”; Depart­ment of Nutri­tion­al Sci­ences Prof. Car­ol Green­wood on “The Fruits and Nuts of Bet­ter Brain Aging”; Dept. of Mechan­i­cal & Indus­tri­al Engi­neer­ing Prof. Mike Carter speak­ing about how to improve our health­care sys­tem; Ron Baeck­er, Emer­i­tus Pro­fes­sor of Com­put­er Sci­ence, talk­ing about how to keep social­ly iso­lat­ed and lone­ly seniors con­nect­ed tech­no­log­i­cal­ly to fam­i­ly and friends; and clin­i­cal ethi­cist Ker­ry Bow­man of  Mount Sinai Hos­pi­tal, speak­ing on “The Chang­ing Land­scape of End of Life Care in Cana­da.”

Tick­ets: Reserve free tick­ets through Eventbrite.  Please let U of T Media Rela­tions know if you’ll be attend­ing at media.relations@utoronto.ca.

Sus­tain­abil­i­ty and Ener­gy: Mod­er­at­ed dis­cus­sion on build­ing ener­gy effi­cient cities, renew­able ener­gy, solar cells and nuclear ener­gy.

When: Sept. 24, 7:00 pm — 9:00 pm

Where: Isabel Bad­er The­atre, 93 Charles St. West, Vic­to­ria Uni­ver­si­ty at U of T

Speak­ers: Dis­cus­sion to be mod­er­at­ed by Globe & Mail sci­ence reporter Ivan Seme­niuk. The pan­el includes Archi­tec­ture Asso­ciate Prof. Aziza Chaouni dis­cussing “Toward Ener­gy Effi­cient Cities: Inte­grat­ing Infra­struc­ture with Archi­tec­ture”; Ravi Seetha­p­a­thy, Adjunct Pro­fes­sor of Elec­tri­cal and Com­put­er Engi­neer­ing on “Dis­trib­uted Renew­able Ener­gy: Glob­al Impact & Poten­tial New Busi­ness Mod­els”;  Aero­space Stud­ies Prof. David Zingg on “Envi­ron­men­tal­ly Sus­tain­able Avi­a­tion”; PhD stu­dent Bran­don Suther­land, who is devel­op­ing low-cost and mass-man­u­fac­turable solar cells; and Ron Oberth, Pres­i­dent of the Orga­ni­za­tion of Cana­di­an Nuclear Indus­tries, talk­ing about “Nuclear Ener­gy: a major play­er in the fight against cli­mate change.”

Tick­ets: Reserve free tick­ets through Eventbrite. Please let U of T Media Rela­tions know if you’ll be attend­ing at media.relations@utoronto.ca.

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For more infor­ma­tion, please con­tact:

Jele­na Dam­janovic
U of T Media Rela­tions
(416) 978‑0100
media.relations@utoronto.ca

Stephan­nie Roy
Vice-Provost, Fac­ul­ty and Aca­d­e­m­ic Life
(416) 978‑6662
stephannie.roy@utoronto.ca