Two U of G scholars have been invited to take part in the annual American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) conference in Vancouver Feb. 16 to 20.
U of G graduate student Sherilee Harper has been invited to a panel on oceans and the Arctic Feb. 17.
Food science Prof. Ricky Yada is the organizer of a Feb. 18 panel on whether public health and food safety policies impede innovation.
The annual gathering is one of the most widely recognized global science events and attracts hundreds of people from around the world. AAAS is an international non-profit organization and publishes the journal Science.
Harper, a PhD student in the Department of Population Medicine, will be a panellist with Kate Moran, a world-renowned ocean engineer and head of NEPTUNE Canada, and several Canada Research Chairs and scholars.
Harper studies the potential impacts of climate change on drinking water quality and infectious gastrointestinal illnesses in Inuit Nunaat. Her interests include indigenous health, epidemiology, infectious disease, climate change, ecohealth and capacity development.
In 2009, she received an inaugural Vanier Canada Graduate Scholarship, the most prestigious doctoral award in Canada. Worth $50,000 a year for up to three years, the scholarships recognize leading students from Canada and abroad.
Her co-advisers are population medicine professor Scott McEwen and adjunct professor Victoria Edge of the Public Health Agency of Canada.
Yada’s panel includes scholars from the United States, Italy and Japan.
Yada is an international food industry leader who has been recognized for making impactful contributions to food science research inside the classroom and in the food industry around the world.
At U of G, he holds the Canada Research Chair in Food Protein Structure and has served as chair of the Food Science department and as the scientific director of the Advanced Foods and Material Network.
The author of more than150 refereed journal publications and several book chapters; Yada is the North American editor for Trends in Food Science and Technology and is on editorial boards for several journals.