2006-2007
News Release
REF NO.: 215
SUBJECT: Nominations for the inaugural Earth and Oceans Sustainability lecture sought
DATE: June 15, 2007
Memorial University of Newfoundland will be hosting an annual lecture on Earth and Oceans Sustainability. Dr. Robert Lucas, Memorial’s dean of Science, invites interested persons to nominate a speaker for the first Earth and Oceans Sustainability Lecture, which will be held in St. John’s during the next academic year (September 2007 to May 2008). The speaker should have a national or international profile in the field. This lecture will be a premier venue to hear an outstanding speaker bridge the divide between science, policy and public understanding. The lecture will be open to the public, so the lecturer must have demonstrated experience in making complex issues understandable and interesting to a lay audience.
“Our society faces enormous environmental challenges,” said Dr. Lev Tarasov, Memorial University’s Canada Research Chair in Glacial Dynamics. “Yet we have limited capacity to address global change issues involving complex Earth systems. An obvious example is the lack of a credible action plan to respond to the challenge of global warming. Closer to home, a stark regional example of the impact of this incapacity is the collapse of the cod stocks. On local to global scales, we are facing numerous challenges and potentially major environmental changes, with consequent impacts on society and on the health of humans and ecosystems. Our incapacity arises in part from the fundamental divides between science, policy and public understanding.”
“Newfoundland and Labrador is well positioned to be a leader in the debate about these issues, because of its location in the environmentally-sensitive North Atlantic and because of its recent history with the cod fishery” according to Dr. Lucas.
Nominations can be sent to the Dean of Science’s Office and must include: the nominee’s name, contact information and reason why he or she should be selected as lecturer. Out of respect for the dignity and reputation of nominees, the selection of the lecturer is by nature a confidential process. With the exception of the selected lecturer, the outcome of any individual nomination is not released. As a result, nominators are asked not to contact the nominee prior to submitting his/her name to the dean of Science. The first successful nominator will also be invited to a luncheon with the president of Memorial and the nominee.
The deadline for nominations is 4 p.m. on Friday, June 22, 2007. Nominations should be submitted to Mary Wall in the Dean of Science’s Office at maryw@mun.ca.
REF NO.: 215
SUBJECT: Nominations for the inaugural Earth and Oceans Sustainability lecture sought
DATE: June 15, 2007
Memorial University of Newfoundland will be hosting an annual lecture on Earth and Oceans Sustainability. Dr. Robert Lucas, Memorial’s dean of Science, invites interested persons to nominate a speaker for the first Earth and Oceans Sustainability Lecture, which will be held in St. John’s during the next academic year (September 2007 to May 2008). The speaker should have a national or international profile in the field. This lecture will be a premier venue to hear an outstanding speaker bridge the divide between science, policy and public understanding. The lecture will be open to the public, so the lecturer must have demonstrated experience in making complex issues understandable and interesting to a lay audience.
“Our society faces enormous environmental challenges,” said Dr. Lev Tarasov, Memorial University’s Canada Research Chair in Glacial Dynamics. “Yet we have limited capacity to address global change issues involving complex Earth systems. An obvious example is the lack of a credible action plan to respond to the challenge of global warming. Closer to home, a stark regional example of the impact of this incapacity is the collapse of the cod stocks. On local to global scales, we are facing numerous challenges and potentially major environmental changes, with consequent impacts on society and on the health of humans and ecosystems. Our incapacity arises in part from the fundamental divides between science, policy and public understanding.”
“Newfoundland and Labrador is well positioned to be a leader in the debate about these issues, because of its location in the environmentally-sensitive North Atlantic and because of its recent history with the cod fishery” according to Dr. Lucas.
Nominations can be sent to the Dean of Science’s Office and must include: the nominee’s name, contact information and reason why he or she should be selected as lecturer. Out of respect for the dignity and reputation of nominees, the selection of the lecturer is by nature a confidential process. With the exception of the selected lecturer, the outcome of any individual nomination is not released. As a result, nominators are asked not to contact the nominee prior to submitting his/her name to the dean of Science. The first successful nominator will also be invited to a luncheon with the president of Memorial and the nominee.
The deadline for nominations is 4 p.m. on Friday, June 22, 2007. Nominations should be submitted to Mary Wall in the Dean of Science’s Office at maryw@mun.ca.
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