Today I registered for the CSEE conference and attended the welcome speech. In recognition of the fact that the conference is being held on traditional territory of the WS'ANEC' (Saanich) & Lkwungen (Songhees) peoples, one of the opening speakers was a First Nations Elder woman, who blessed us in her native language, and with a moving traditional song. It was a very special moment which I did not capture on video since I did not want to ruin the moment by grabbing my cameraphone. There was a longer talk by this year’s President’s Award winner, Dr. Sally Otto. She is an evolution biologist combining mathematical models with evolutionary lab experiments. My scientific background was definitely tested trying to comprehend her research, and I will graciously admit I didn’t fully understand every part. It was about the chance of ‘evolutionary rescue’ i.e.: how can species effectively evolve to survive an ever quicker changing environment. If there was one thing I picked up, it’s that I’m definitely in an academic environment here. I do feel at home between scientists, but I also feel I may have been away for too long. It will certainly be a challenge to follow along with whatever science I will encounter in the next 3 days. Tomorrow the program starts at 8:00 am, so after this central opening I quickly went home to get some sleep. There’s still the jet lag to shake and I want to be rested and fully engaged in the morning! Excited! The short clip here is mostly footage I shot while hiking through Victoria yesterday, and a bit of footage from the CSEE opening.
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In May 2017, I will spend some time in Victoria & Vancouver, British Columbia, as part of a 'Teacher's Internship'. You can follow my adventures in this blog. Archives
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