Links among human health, animal health and environmental well-being will be explored in this year’s Derry Dialogues, an annual interdisciplinary speaker series at the University of Guelph.

The event takes place Wednesday, Jan. 15, 5:45 p.m., in Rozanski 101.

This year’s One Health theme embodies the concept that humans, animals, plants and their shared environment are interconnected and that tackling challenges of each requires a collaborative approach.

Under One Health, researchers work toward holistic, comprehensive solutions to complex problems, achieving optimal health outcomes for both people and animals from local to global levels.

Speakers will address the following:

• emerging global threats of antimicrobial resistance and infectious diseases
• the veterinary and medical interface in East Africa
• environmental change due to anthropogenic early life stresses in wildlife

This year’s panel members are:

• Janetrix Hellen Amuguni, veterinarian and professor in infectious diseases, Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine at Tufts University
• Alice Hovorka, dean of the Faculty of Environmental Studies, York University, who studies animal geographies, gender and environment, urban geography, and southern Africa
• Amy Newman, Department of Integrative Biology, University of Guelph, an ecophysiologist who studies how early life stress exposure influences physiology, behaviour and fitness
• Scott Weese, Department of Pathobiology and chair of the Centre for Public Health and Zoonoses at U of G, who studies infectious and zoonotic diseases, multidrug-resistant pathogens and interspecies transmission of pathogens.

Stressing interdisciplinary approaches to major issues, particularly those in which U of G has research expertise, the Derry Dialogues have previously discussed Mars exploration and artificial intelligence.

The series is supported by a donation from former U of G Board of Governors chair Douglas Derry and his wife, Margaret, an adjunct professor in the Department of History.