Writer in Residence, ISSP, uOttawa
Author and Performer
The unprecedented COVID-19 pandemic is the world’s most widespread and longest running case of shared public science and health communication. One lasting impact is that it will change science popularizing.
Viruses fly all the time, but rarely have they been as deadly as COVID-19, which will change aviation security as much as 9/11. The novel Coronavirus is changing our appreciation of risk; it has flipped the question of the global aviation sector from surge capacity to viability; and it demonstrates the levels of cultural shift and honest public discussion needed in Canada.
Disabled people know a lot about social isolation. Many – including those with intellectual and psychiatric disabilities – are relying on the success of COVID-19 containment strategies, and lives are indeed at risk if they are not taken seriously. However, public health measures that restrict visiting rights to those in institutional settings are putting many at risk in other ways.
Many governments, including Canada’s, have taken too long to recognize the seriousness of the coronavirus pandemic when even days of delay can have large effects on the ultimate death toll. Our governments are only now recognizing that successfully flattening the epidemic curve means that we could be self-isolating for more than just a month or two.
Core Member and Science Advice Research Cluster Lead, ISSP
Full Professor at the Department of Geography, Environment and Geomatics, Faculty of Arts, uOttawa
We all know the risk of crying wolf: if we do it too often then people will stop believing us. As a result, risk communicators must not cry wolf too often—but not too rarely either.
On Thursday, April 29, at 12:00 PM, the Institute for Science, Society and Policy will host Prof. Mariam Humayun, Faculty Affiliate, ISSP and Assistant Professor, Marketing, Telfer School of Management, uOttawa, to discuss the emergence and resilience of Bitcoin.
On Tuesday, May 11, from 5:00 PM to 6:30 PM, the ISSP and the RCIS will host an expert panel discussion on AI and machine learning.
Will AI and machine learning augment or replace human creativity? How do we teach creativity to the next generation in a world of AI and machine learning? And how do we ensure teaching creativity and innovation in this world remains inclusive?
On Thursday, May 27, at 12:00 PM, the Institute for Science, Society and Policy will host Prof. Handan Tezel, Faculty Affiliate, ISSP and Full Professor, Department of Chemical and Biological Enginnering, Faculty of Enginnering, uOttawa, to discuss how we can capture carbon dioxide from combustion gases or from air and recycle it back to make fuels and other useful chemicals, instead of releasing it into the atmosphere.
At this event, Professor Monica Gattinger, Director of the Institute for Science, Society and Policy at the University of Ottawa, launched her new book, 'The Roots of Culture, the Power of Art: The First Sixty Years of the Canada Council for the Arts' (McGill-Queen's University Press, 2017).
The Institute for Science, Society and Policy had the pleasure to host Dr. Pnina Geraldine Abir-Am, Resident Scholar, WSRC, Brandeis University, USA on the University of Ottawa campus, for her presentation on Women Scientists of the 1970s: An Ego-Histoire of a Lost Generation.
The ISSP was honoured to partner with the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre to host the Scientists as conveners and ambassadors for facts? Evidence co-creation for a hyper-complex post-fact politics panel at the Canadian Science Policy Conference 2017. The discussion was focused on evidence-informed decision-making in a complex, post-truth world. The panel explored contemporary policy and political decision-making, the role of scientists in evidence-informed decision-making and the challenges and opportunities of measuring the impact of evidence in decisions.
The ISSP was pleased to partner with the Science Writers and Communicators of Canada to organize a panel on science communication, regulation and trust at the SWCC’s annual conference in Ottawa. The panel explored the challenges science communicators face in overcoming low levels of public trust in government, expertise and industry by drawing on panellists’ experiences in diverse sectors and communications methods. Moderated by ISSP Director Monica Gattinger, the event featured panellists Jacob Berkowitz, Science Writer and ISSP Writer-in-Residence; Jason Cameron, Vice-President and Chief Communications Officer, Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission, and Vanessa Nelson, Vice-President, External Relations, Let’s Talk Science.
The Institute for Science, Society and Policy hosted a special presentation by ISSP Fulbright Visiting Research Chair in Science and Society 2016-2017, Dr. Dee Williams, who lives in Anchorage, Alaska, where he currently serves as the Deputy Director of the Alaska Regional Office of the US Geological Survey-the science agency of the US Department of the Interior.
Congratulations to Sandra Schillo, Core Member of the ISSP and Associate Professor at The Telfer School of Management, uOttawa for being selected as a speaker on the upcoming TEDxKanata.
Congratulations to Jackie Dawson, Core Member and Canada Research Chair in Environment, Society and Policy at the ISSP uOttawa, recipient of the 2020 SSHRC Impact Connection Award for her climate change research.
How has COVID-19 affected Canadians' attitudes towards climate action? The sense of urgency appears to be trending up. Nik Nanos returns to the podcast to discuss results from the latest Positive Energy/Nanos quarterly tracking survey, including the appetite for climate ambition and levels of public trust in different information sources.
Op-ed written by Monica Gattinger, Director, ISSP and Chair, Positive Energy, and Nik Nanos, CEO, Nanos Research, discussing the new Positive Energy survey results Climate ambition steady: Urgency to act now trending up, for Maclean's.
