Lecture Series Archives

Winter 2004 Lecture Series

Friday February 27, 2004 – 7:30 p.m. at the Almonte Public Library

Speaker: Donald Wiles

Topic: The Artist Meets a Chemist: Fun with Colours.

Don Wiles, a retired Carleton University professor and former Chairman of the Chemistry Department, is also a local farmer on the Peter Robinson Road west of Almonte.

Originally from Nova Scotia, Don Wiles developed an early interest in radiochemistry, a subject on which he is one of Canada’s leading authorities. He obtained a Ph.D. from MIT where, most importantly, he met and married his wife Elisabeth (Billy). Some years ago Don created a course on “The Chemistry of Art and Artifacts” that became quite popular and led to the creation of a book of the same name. While he claims no expertise with art, he does know his chemistry, and he is a magnetic speaker, eager to share his knowledge with others.

Don Wiles has this to say: “The Artist meets a Chemist seeks to uncover parts of a very large subject. I will discuss the nature of colour and how humans perceive colour with their eyes. The talk will also introduce how coloured pigments are made, and how we blend these to generate still other colours. I hope to spend some time discussing the deterioration of coloured materials, patinas, and forgeries. There will be lots of opportunity for questions and further discussion.”

To find out more about Don Wiles, visit his personal website: www.carleton.ca/~dwiles/.

*****

Friday, March 26th, 2004, 7:30 PM at the Almonte United Church Social Hall

Speaker: A. Trevor Hodge

Topic: Ancient Greek Fighting Ships

Trevor Hodge was born in Belfast, N. Ireland, and holds the degrees of BA, MA, and PhD from Cambridge University. Also, since 1960, a Professor of Classical Archaeology at Carleton University, Ottawa. An expert on ancient art and archaeology, his main field of research is Roman aqueducts. As well as being a frequent contributor to Canadian newspapers, he is a popular speaker for the Archaeology Institute of America and CBC National Radio.

Trevor Hodge is now retired and holds the title of Distinguished Research Professor. He admits, his chief ambition is to some day combine his talents as detective, writer, archaeologist, and railway-man by straightening out Agatha Christie on what really did happen during the Murder on the Orient Express. Hodge’s Almonte Lecture on ancient warships will include slides and a short (4.5 minute) videotape of the rebuilt trireme Olympias in action, showing the rowers at work.

*****

Friday, April 23, 2004, 7:30 PM, at the Almonte United Church Social Hall

Speaker: J. Allan Donaldson

Topic: The Geoheritage Project: Where does Almonte fit in?

Allan Donaldson, a graduate of Queen’s and John Hopkins’ Universities, spent 10 years carrying out systematic stratigraphic mapping and research for the Geological Survey of Canada before joining Carleton University in 1968, where, until his retirement in 1998, he taught in the Department of Earth Sciences. He is currently co-supervising precambrian sedimentology research in Yukon, Alaska, Nunavut & Ontario to focus on devising better ways to interpret the geohistory of our planet. To do this, he has visited many parts of the Canadian Arctic, travelling by foot, canoe, Super Cub & helicopter. Part of Donaldson’s lecture will be devoted to this aspect of his interests.

The majority of his talk will describe the accomplishments of The Ottawa-Gatineau Geoheritage Project (O-GGP) which he helped launch in 2003 to promote better public understanding & appreciation of the significant geology and geo-heritage in the National Capital Region.

Donaldson explains: “Impressive overlaps with the living components of nature are provided by fossils, trace fossils and biogenic structures in sedimentary rocks. In the latter category, important records of biological history are provided by stromatolites and biofilm structures, especially well-preserved in strata found throughout Eastern Ontario. Excellent examples occur in and around Almonte–some can be seen in the building stone of landmark buildings.”

*****

Friday, May 21, 2004, 7:30 PM at the Almonte United Church Social Hall

Speaker: Jane Thompson

Subject: Sustainable Homes and Communities

Architect Jane Thompson is a graduate of the University of Waterloo School of Architecture and now operates her own architecture firm in Ottawa. Her first introduction to Mississippi Mills was through her involvement in the historic research, planning and site documentation project for the Victoria Woolen Mill, in Almonte. Also, several years ago, she presented a lecture to the Almonte Chamber of Commerce on alternatives to typical suburban housing developments.

During her fifteen years of architectural practice, Jane has become increasingly interested in environmentally sustainable building and community design. Her interests include residential and mixed-use urban in-fill projects and public education reform. She strives to incorporate environmentally responsible principles into her design projects.

Jane’s lecture examined the potential to create communities and lifestyle patterns that have a positive affect on our natural and built environment. Jane presented examples from close to home and around the world that ranged from utopian visions to small, practical solutions to our common social and environmental problems. After her presentation, Jane discussed the local environmental and social impact of the recent and proposed housing and commercial developments in the Mississippi Mills area.

2004-05 Lecture Series

Friday September 17, 2004 – 7:30 p.m. at the Almonte United Church Social Hall

Speaker: Bob Burk

Topic: Analytical Chemistry of Environmental Pollutants – A discussion on environmental and other pollutants

Bob Burk is a Professor of Chemistry at Carleton University and a Carleton “lifer”. He earned his B.Sc., M.Sc., and Ph.D. in Chemistry at Carleton, and has been teaching there since 1993. He is the Director of the College of Natural Sciences and the Undergraduate Advisor in the Chemistry Department. His research is in the area of developing new analytical methods for organic species in water and researching the physical chemistry of high pressure fluid systems. He comments on his lecture as follows:

Analytical chemistry is central to our lives, even if we are not aware ofits existence. This talk traces the subject from some of its earliest uses through to modern day technologies and applications. Also discussed is our ability to detect ever lower quantities of most chemical species, and the ramifications this has on our lives, for instance with respect to toxic species in the environment, performance enhancing drugs, drug smuggling, terrorism and so on.

*****

Friday October 15, 2004 – 7:30 p.m. at the Almonte United Church Social Hall

Speaker: Michael Dunn

Topic: A Virtual Tour of Almonte’s Textile History

The lecture will concentrate mainly on the spectacular rise and subsequent demise of the wool industry. Mitigating factors relating to the industry such as water and steam power, the arrival of the railroad, local and world conditions and tariffs will be expounded upon. Many digitized images of old photographs and post cards will be shown as well. Most of these images come from Michael’s “Walking Tour of Almonte” website (almonte.clal.ca).

Michael Dunn is a retired federal civil servant who laboured for many years in the high voltage electricity industry and electricity metering field. He is the son of John Dunn who, for many years, has been the preeminent local historian and was raised in Almonte. His primary interest these days is the marriage of old information and new computer technology. He makes his home in a two storey apartment in the old Thoburn Woollen Mill in Almonte.

*****

Friday November 19, 2004 – 7:30 p.m. at the Almonte United Church Social Hall

Speaker: Carl Widstrand

Topic: Archaeology and Ancient Music – Historical Overview of Music in Classical Greece and Ancient Middle East

Carl Widstrand is an Adjunct Professor at Carleton University where he teaches courses on Classical History, Classical Mythology, Ancient Science and other subjects. He has a string of awesome academic qualifications to his name too long to list here in full. He studied at the universities of Stockholm (Classics, Archaeology, Anthropology), Berlin and Uppsala (Ph.D. in Anthropology), and he took a particular interest in things African. For many years he was the Director of the Scandinavian Institute of African Studies at Uppsala, an avocation that also led to university teaching positions in East Africa and Tanzania, and to a stint as Resident Rep for UNDP in Burika Faso.

Dr. Widstrand taught a course in Egyptian culture, and he has spent a lot of time on archaeological sites in the Nile valley, in Sweden, in Africa and in the Aegean. As well, he has found the time for numerous papers and seventeen books, including a cookbook especially for lamb, entitled Agnus Deli.

But at Carleton University, the classical scholar also fetched up as a research associate in the Department of Music, indicative of his other passion in life, music. After a stint as a trombonist in an army band and a classical training on the bassoon, he has now calmed down to play the double bass in the Divertimento Orchestra in Ottawa.

*****

Friday January 21, 2005 – 7:30 p.m. at the Almonte United Church Social Hall

Speaker: Don Wiles

Topic: The Problems of Nuclear Fuel Waste Disposal

Don Wiles, with whom this lecture series started and who gave its first lecture, takes to the rostrum again on a topic on which he is a recognized authority.

Don studied nuclear fission chemistry at McMaster University in Ontario, at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, MA, and at the University of Oslo, Norway. After following other branches of radiochemistry at Carleton University, at the Institul fe Fisica Atomica in Bucharest, at the Brookhaven National Laboratory and at the Kernforschungzentrum Karlsruhe, Germany. But it was his later membership in the Scientific Research Group, established under the auspices of the Federal Environmental Assessment Review Office (FEARO) , which provided him with the insights the shares with his readers in his book “The Chemistry of Nuclear Fuel Waste Disposal”.

In the often divisive public debate on the science of nuclear waste disposal, Don’s claims to impartiality are buttressed by the fact that he was employed neither by the uranium industry nor any branch of government.

Don’s lecture is aimed at the inquisitive layman who is interested in sorting scientific fact from at times subjective perceptions of the nature and the extent of problems associated with nuclear waste disposal.

To find out more about Don Wiles, visit his personal website: www.carleton.ca/~dwiles/.

*****

Friday February 18, 2005 – 7:30 p.m. at the Almonte United Church Social Hall

Speaker: Peter Fried

Topic: A Joint a Day Keeps the Doctor Away – Possible Medical uses of Marijuana

Peter Fried is Professor of Psychology at Carleton University and has been in that Department since 1968. About 30 years ago, he began examining the consequences of marijuana smoking, particularly, the effects of long term use. In 1978, work began on investigating the possible impact that drug may have upon pregnancy and offspring. This seminal work, still ongoing, has involved following the same offspring from birth to young adulthood. It has resulted in over 100 scientific publications and is the most widely cited research in the field. As a result, Dr. Fried has been involved in numerous international panels, governmental committees and other marijuana related research undertakings underway at various institutions. One of the latter is an investigation of some of the issues dealing with the medical use of marijuana.

The Almonte lecture will discuss a number of aspects centered around marijuana as a treatment for a variety of illnesses. Included in the talk will be the Canadian government’s position, other countries’ approaches, evidence (both supportive and non-supportive) for marijuana’s efficacy, and a few non-medical conundrums (e.g. how should it be administered, should patients receiving the drug be allowed to drive?). However, no samples will be provided.

*****

Friday March 18, 2005 – 7:30 p.m. at the Almonte United Church Social Hall

Speaker: Don Westwood

Topic: A History of the Two-by-Four: Why Buildings Stand Up

Don Westwood has had a distinguished career in architecture, both in Canada and England, before returning to Canada in 1971 to teach in the School of Architecture at Carleton University, Ottawa, becoming a full professor in 1990.

His students have always identified with and celebrated his wit, enthusiasm and mastery of his subjects, primarily in the areas of architecture and stage-set design, structures, technology and building construction. He has also taught courses in the School of Industrial Design and Civil Engineering, and at the opposite end of the University he became involved in a Childrens Classic Literature course by creating a popular video series recreating for adult students the childhood experience of hearing these stories read by a master story-teller. He has won two Carleton Teaching Achievement awards in 1993 and 1998, was named as the inaugural Teaching and Learning Scholar to the Teaching and Learning Resource Centre in 1994, and in 1997 became the first professor of architecture in Canada to win a National 3M Teaching Fellowship. He has constantly attempted to bridge the gap between academe and the general public with his publicly televised lectures, which led to writing and hosting the TVOntario series “The Science of Architecture” in 1988, and “A Sense of Design” in 1991. These have been distributed in over 30 countries and have earned him five ACTRA Awards.

Don’s current research interests range from an exploration of multi-media applications in design education, to on-location studies of the architectural, social and cultural history of Southwest France.

*****

Friday April 22, 2005 – 7:30 p.m. at the Almonte United Church Social Hall

Speaker: Robert Dick

Topic: Astronomy Then and Now – An Eclectic Tour from Ancient Mythology to Modern Science

Synopsis:

The night sky has not changed for aeons. But how we interpret the night sky and how we study it certainly has. As new investigative methods are developed, science undergoes dramatic change. This leads to a profound reassessment of our place in the Universe. Current technology is producing the latest in a series of these revolutions.

The lecture explores the evolution of astronomical ideas and we’ll discover the surprising connections currently underway.

Speaker’s Profile:

Few people can claim to have combined their passion and their profession. The night sky has drawn Robert Dick outside for forty years. For over thirty of these years, Robert has been sharing his knowledge and interest with the public. He has given many presentations to general audiences at the Canada Science and Technology Museum in Ottawa and has taught full credit introductory courses on astronomy that are distributed across North America on videotape. Based on his reputation as a communicator and educator, he was invited by the Canadian Space Agency to be the astronomy instructor for the Canadian Astronauts. He has developed astronomy education products that are sold internationally through the company Starlight Theatre (www.starlight-theatre.ca).

As an active member in the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada (RASC) Robert co-created the Light Pollution Abatement Program in Ottawa and later transferred this program nationally through the RASC.

With articles in newspapers and magazines, with contributions to several CD-ROM products and appearances on television and radio, Robert brings a lifelong interest and respect for the Universe to the public of all ages.

2005-06 Lecture Series

Friday September 23, 2005 – 7:30 p.m. at the Almonte United Church Social Hall

Speaker: Randal Marlin

Topic: Media and War Propaganda: WW I and today

Synopsis:

It is now well-documented that British and American administrations were aware that Iraq had little if any capability of imminently threatening either country with weapons of mass destruction. The march to war was based on deceptions, foisted on the public by mostly uncritical and supportive mass media. How does it happen that those who engage in deceptive war propaganda are not brought to account? In this lecture a perspective is provided by looking briefly at two other famous
deceptions: the “corpse utilization factory” story of World War I.

Speaker’s Profile:

Randal Marlin has degrees in philosophy from Princeton (A.B.), McGill (M.A.) and Toronto (Ph.D.) and has taught at Carleton University since 1966, retiring in 2001. He continues to teach “Truth and Propaganda,” cross-listed with Mass Communications, and does research as an Adjunct Research Professor at Carleton. He is the author of “Propaganda and the Ethics of Persuasion”
(Broadview, 2002) and “The David Levine Affair” (Fernwood, 1998). A semi-retired community activist, he now devotes time and energy to community, environmental, and civil liberties issues.

*****

Friday October 21, 2005 – 7:30 p.m. at the Almonte United Church Social Hall

Speaker: Angela Marcus

Topic: Painting Canadian Modern – Emily Carr, David Milne, Lawren Harris

Synopsis:

The 1913 Armoury Show in New York brought American art together with avant garde art from Europe. The modern age was dawning and the world’s technological and scientific advances reflected itself in the thinking and imagery of the works of European artists such as Pablo Picasso, Henri Matisse and Marcel Duchamp who were represented in the New York Show. It was a turning point for American artists while the visual arts in Canada continued to cling to the traditions of academic European painting. Using the event of the 1913 Armoury Show as a reference, this talk explores how Canadian painters Emily Carr, David Milne and Lawren Harris, broke rank with tradition early in the Twentieth Century and explored and mastered the modernist mode.

Speaker’s Profile:

Angela Marcus is an independent art historian with an M.A. in Canadian Studies from Carleton University. Over a period of twenty-five years she has taught art history and art appreciation, written art criticism, curated art exhibitions, been a member of art juries, done research for National Film Board art documentaries and catalogued and researched art works at the Canadian War Museum. She has recently added to a busy schedule teaching art appreciation courses in Carleton University’s Learning in Retirement Program.

*****

Friday November 25, 2005 – 7:30 p.m. at the Almonte United Church Social Hall

Speaker: Professor Trevor Hodge

Topic: The Auxerre Goddess: An Archaeological Detective Story

Synopsis:

A question often asked about scholarly research is: How do you find things? From an episode in his own research, Professor Hodge illustrates the detective work into which he was led by the Auxerre Goddess – an ancient Greek statue now in the Louvre, Paris. It is also a salutary warning of how, by doing the right thing in the correct way, you may come up with a completely wrong result.

Speaker’s Profile:

Prof Hodge, a native of Belfast, Ireland, was educated at Cambridge University. He has taught at Stanford University, Cornell University and the University of Pennsylvania. In 1960, he joined the faculty of Carleton University, Ottawa, and has been there ever since, except for study tours in Greece, France, Italy and Australia, and many lecture tours all over the world. He retired in 1996, and now holds the position of Distinguished Research Professor.

The Almonte Lectures are geared for eager audiences of all ages and are offered free of charge. (Although a free-will donation is much appreciated and goes toward hall rental and advertising the series.) For further information, please phone Don Wiles at 256-4376. The Almonte Lectures are affiliated with the Mississippi Mills Residents’ Association (www.mmra.ca). One head can not hold all wisdom.

*****

Friday January 20, 2006 – 7:30 p.m. at the Almonte United Church Social Hall

Speaker: Brian Cousens, Department of Earth Sciences, Carleton University

Topic: In Harms Way: Active Volcanism and Volcanic Hazards

Synopsis:

Over the past few years, we have witnessed a dramatic increase in “natural disasters”, including hurricanes, tsunamis and volcanic eruptions. However, is it the number of disasters that are increasing, or is it the number of people putting themselves in harms way that has increased? A major part of the solution to mitigating the effects of natural disasters is public education and preparedness for emergencies. The US government reaction to Hurricane Katrina is a superb example of neglect of scientific and engineering data and a failure to understand geologic hazards. In contrast, recent studies leading to a better understanding of volcanic systems is leading to improved volcanic eruption forecasting, although it is still impossible to accurately predict the exact day and time that any volcano will “blow its top”.

The goals of this presentation are to introduce the various types of volcanoes on our planet and discuss the various hazards to human life and economics that they impose. For example, are you safer living on a volcanic island in Hawaii or in southern Italy? Why do volcanoes in different parts of the world present different hazards, and what factors determine volcanic hazards? Do we need to worry just about volcanic eruptions, or are there other ill-defined hazards associated with active volcanoes that need to be monitored? We can minimize the potential effects of volcanic eruptions, but in many cases this can be achieved only through significant changes in lifestyle. Minimization of volcanic hazards will only be attained through public education.

At the top of Mt. Etna, Sicily, April 2004.

Speaker’s Profile:

Brian Cousens grew up in Montreal and received his B.Sc. in Geological Sciences from McGill University in 1979. He then pursued his interest in oceanography at the University of British Columbia, completing an M.Sc. Marine Geology in 1982. After spending three years as a technician in the Oceanography Department at UBC, Brian traveled south to the University of California, Santa Barbara, where he completed his Ph.D. in 1990. He returned to Canada and took a two-year position at the Université de Montréal, and in 1992 moved to the Earth Sciences department at Carleton University. Brian’s speciality is seafloor volcanism at mid-ocean ridges, but he has also completed projects at Hawaii, the Canary Islands, French Polynesia, the Japan Sea, eastern and northern California, western Nevada, and several locations in northern Canada.

*****

Friday February 17, 2006 – 7:30 p.m. at the Almonte United Church Social Hall, Elgin Street, Almonte

Speaker: Dr. Carl Widstrand

Topic: The Vikings in North America

Synopsis:

The Vikings, feared warriors, intrepid explorers and early colonists first migrated to Iceland from Norway. Erik the Red was expelled from Iceland and went out to settle in Greenland. Some years later his son, Leif, explored the northern coast of North America and founded a new settlement called Vinland. By three centuries later, they were all gone, leaving no trace as to where they went or why. Dr Carl Widstrand will fill in many interesting details in the history of these fascinating people.

Professor Widstrand is a noted anthropologist, archaeologist, historian, classicist, musician and gourmet chef. Descended from a Viking background he is able to give us a new perspective on the history of the Vikings and their early settlements in North America. His lecture will be as memorable as his earlier lecture on ancient music. He will probably not speak in Old Norse – but you never know!

Speaker’s Profile:

*****

Note the change of date. We are unhappy to note that John Sigler will be unable to join us as was previously scheduled. However, we are happy to make friends with his colleague Farhang Rajaee, who is an authority on the very currently topical political situation a bit further east.

Thursday March 30, 2006 – 7:30 p.m. at the Almonte United Church Social Hall, Elgin Street, Almonte

Speaker: Farhang Rajaee

Topic: Muslims, Violence and Terrorism

Synopsis:

Islam has acted as the middleman between the classical world and the modern one by safeguarding and then transferring human achievement of the ancient world to the modern, yet its own people are caught in violence and terrorism. Professor Rajaee explains the present state of the Muslim world for a general audience. He will concentrate mainly on the following questions. Why is so much turbulence in the Muslim world? Why is violence and terrorism so prevalent among Muslims?

Speaker’s Profile:

Farhang Rajaee is an Associate Professor and the Director of the College of the Humanities at Carleton University. He is educated in Iran and the United States where he obtained his PhD in 1983. He has taught in Iran (Tehran and Beheshti Universities), England (Oxford), and the US (Virginia and Shawnee State) before coming to Canada. He has written many books and articles. Some of his books are as follows: The Battle of Worldviews (1995 and 1997); The Development of Political Ideas in the Ancient East (1993) Globalization on Trial (2000); and The Problematique of Contemporary Iranian Identity, (2004 and reprinted 2005).

*****

Friday April 21, 2006 – 7:30 p.m. at the Almonte United Church Social Hall, Elgin Street, Almonte

Speaker: George Carmody

Topic: The nature of forensic DNA

Synopsis:

George Carmody will talk about the nature of forensic DNA studies, their basis in science and the development of methods of detecting similar patterns at the April Almonte Lecture. You won’t want to miss George’s lecture, on this popular subject.

Speaker’s Profile:

Dr. Carmody is a prominent geneticist and forensic scientist. Having studied at Columbia and other US Universities, he has been in the Biology Department at Carleton University since 1969. During that time he has been Associate Dean of Science and Chairman of the program of Integrated Sciences, in addition to being an active Professor of Biology. He has published many research papers and gives many lectures on the topic of DNA pattern recognition. In March and early April of 2006, he was in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, volunteering to help identify many of the still-unknown remains left in the aftermath of hurricane Katrina.

Sneak preview: An additional lecture is added to this Spring’s lecture offering!

On Friday, 19 May (same time and place), local farmer and chemistry professor extraordinaire, Don Wiles, will speak on the topic: Chernobyl – 40 seconds to disaster!

Don says: It is now twenty years since the MKBR-4 Nuclear Reactor at Chernobyl, in the Ukraine, blew up and spewed radioactive materials over a large part of eastern Europe. While there were many claims of doom at the time, the actual death rate has been small. This lecture will focus on the things that went wrong and why the incident occurred: Poorly trained operating staff? Bad protocol from Moscow? Bad reactor design? A trip through the last hours, minutes and seconds will help us understand what went wrong. Can such an accident happen again? Can it happen here??

*****

Friday May 19, 2006 – 7:30 p.m. at the Almonte United Church Social Hall, Elgin Street, Almonte

Speaker: Don Wiles

Topic: Chernobyl – 40 seconds to Disaster!

Synopsis:

It is now twenty years since the MKBR-4 Nuclear Reactor at Chernobyl, in the Ukraine, blew up and spewed radioactive materials over a large part of eastern Europe. While there were many claims of doom at the time, the actual death rate has been small. This lecture will focus on the things that went wrong to make the incident happen – was it poorly trained operating staff ? Was it bad protocol from Moscow? Was it bad reactor design? A trip through the last hours, minutes and seconds will help us understand what all went wrong. This lecture will be at the level of the intelligent layman, and will explain how things work. Can such an accident happen again? Can it happen here??

Speaker’s Profile:

Don Wiles has taught nuclear chemistry at UBC, Carleton University and other places for about 50 years. While he makes no claim to being an authority on nuclear reactor technology, he does claim to be able to explain most aspects of these complex devices.

To find out more about Don Wiles, visit his personal website: www.carleton.ca/~dwiles/.

2006-07 Lecture Series

Friday October 13, 2006 – 7:30 p.m. at the Almonte United Church Social Hall

Speaker: Peter Watson

Topic: Future Imperfect: did Science Fiction get it Right?

Synopsis:

We have often been told that Science Fiction predicted something years before it became a reality. There is no point in looking at today’s science fiction to answer the question, but it is fascinating to look at the SF of 50 or 100 years ago, since we live in their future.

Speaker’s Profile:

Peter Watson has been in the Carleton physics department since 1971. Educated in the UK, he has spent time in Africa and Switzerland as well as Canada. His main research is in theoretical particle physics, and he has published about 45 papers in the area: currently he is working on the Sudbury Neutrino Observatory. He has taught a wide variety of courses, both inside and outside of physics.

His only qualification for giving this talk is that he read far too much science fiction as a child, particularly when his father said he should be doing more useful things.

*****

Friday November 17, 2006 – 7:30 p.m. at the Almonte United Church Social Hall

Speaker: Gitte Lindgaard

Topic: Technology that feels right

Synopsis:

Usability is the term we have long used to describe how ‘intuitive’, ‘easy to learn’ or ‘easy to use’ a particular software application is, but most efforts invested in this area have concentrated on supporting cognitive work tasks to increase human productivity. In more recent times, it has become increasingly obvious that the aesthetic, emotional side of interactive technologies play a far more important a role in supporting work tasks than hitherto assumed and acknowledged. If we assume that each of us has a certain amount of energy at our disposal to devote to our work tasks, we can argue that the extent to which a given technology irritates or gets in the way of working efficiently reduces that amount of energy, and that therefore, it affects our ability to work effectively and efficiently. From that point of view an interactive system that ‘feels right’ for the task is likely also to have a calming influence and, that way, to improve our performance. These are the issues addressed in this talk.

Speaker’s Profile:

Gitte Lindgaard
B.Sc (Hons); M.Sc.;
PhD (Monash University, Australia)

Professor Gitte Lindgaard is currently Director of the Human Oriented Technology Lab (HOTLab) and a full professor in the Department of Psychology at Carleton University. She was the Principal Scientist and Head of the Human Factors Division at Telstra Research Laboratories, Australia. After a stint as Director of a private consultancy, she joined Carleton University in 2000 where she is responsible for building and expanding ties between academia, industry and Government in Canada in research and HCI training. She was Chair of CHISIG (Computer Human Interaction Special Interest Group) of the Ergonomics Society of Australia (ESA) during which she founded the OZCHI conference. She is an adjunct professor and a research associate at several Australian Universities and a Fellow of the HF&ESA. She represents Canada on the IFIP TG13, Human Computer Interaction, and she deputy editor of the journal ”Interacting with Computers”. Her research interests include Human Computer Interaction, especially in multimedia/multimodal systems, Computer Supported Cooperative Work, and human decision making in medicine. She has published extensively in scientific journals, from user interface design, task analysis, human judgement and decision making to pleasurable design and usability.

*****

Date: Friday January 26, 2007 – 7:30 p.m. at the Almonte United Church Social Hall

Speaker: Alan Gillmor

Topic: The Imperial Mystique: Sir Edward Elgar and the Twilight of Empire

Synopsis:

Elgar reached middle age in the heyday of British Imperialism, and for a time he succumbed to the glory of it all. He was forty years old in 1897, the year of Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee, and he saw himself then as a musical laureate, summoned by destiny to hymn Britannia’s greatness. Between 1897 and 1898 he wrote three celebratory works. There was a cantata called The Banner of St. George, with a grand finale glorifying the Union Jack. There was another called Caractacus, predicting out of its ancient context the fall of the Roman Empire and the rise of the British. There was an “Imperial March,” played first by massed bands at the Crystal Palace, and later, by special command of the Queen, at a State Jubilee Concert. Then in 1901 came the first Pomp and Circumstance march, whose trio section, later set to the famous words, “Land of Hope and Glory,” gave Britain a virtual second national anthem. In short, Elgar became the musical laureate of the late Victorian and Edwardian eras, and the mixture of idealism and imperialism prevalent during those years found perfect expression in his music.

This talk will demonstrate that this popular view of Elgar as the very musical incarnation of British Imperialism is seriously unbalanced, for there is another side to Elgar that is often missed by those who equate his name almost exclusively with high Victorian jingoism. In his greatest music (the three symphonies, the violin and cello concertos, the late chamber music) many hear the funeral march of a great civilization. As James Morris has written: ‘It is as though he sensed that all the pride of Empire, expressed at such a comfortable remove in the country drawing-rooms of his beloved West Country, would one day collapse in bloodshed and pathos.’ Thus it was that Sir Edward Elgar, who wrote the triumphant hymn of Empire, lived to compose its elegy.

Speaker’s Profile:

A native of Fort Frances, Ontario, Alan Gillmor was educated at the University of Michigan (B.Mus., M.A.) and the University of Toronto (Ph.D.). He taught at McGill University and Carleton University, from which he retired in 2003 as Professor Emeritus. Among his professional honours are teaching awards from Carleton (1982, 1992), the prestigious 3M Teaching Fellowship (1995), and the Capital Educators’ Award (2002). Dr. Gillmor’s scholarly publications have appeared in professional journals both in North America and Europe, and his monograph on the French composer Erik Satie (1988, 1990) was shortlisted in 1990 for the Ottawa-Carleton Book Award for non-fiction. He lives in Ottawa with his artist wife Susan and, when not travelling, puttering in the garden, or listening to music accompanied by a decent single malt, continues to pursue scholarly research and writing.

*****

Date: Friday February 23, 2007 – 7:30 p.m. at the Almonte United Church Social Hall

Speaker: John Buschek

Topic: Evolution: Evidence For and Against

Synopsis:

In Evolution: Evidence For and Against we’ll start by exploring the biological evidence for evolution with emphasis on neo-Darwinism. We’ll follow this by examining the various forms of Creationism that are found in North America, and we’ll look at the major arguments against evolution. We’ll end with a brief look into the future with some speculations on how technology may force significant change in the evolution/creationism debate.

Speaker’s Profile:

John Buschek received a BSc. in chemistry from Syracuse University and a Ph.D., again in chemistry from the University of Wisconsin, Madison. He has worked as a research chemist for E.I. DuPont, been a visiting scientist at the Hahn-Meitner and Max Planck Institutes in Germany, and was for several years an adjudicator on the Environmental Appeal Board of Ontario. He has been teaching at Carleton for the last fifteen years, and he is presently co-chair of the Technology, Society, Environment Studies Program.

*****

Date: Friday March 16, 2007 – 7:30 p.m. at the Almonte United Church Social Hall

Speaker: John M Firth

Topic: Energy Supply: A Vital Component of Civilised Society

Synopsis:

From the Roman empire, through the industrial revolution, to today’s global society, mankind has harnessed ever increasing energy usage to increase and sustain the standard of living. We have used half the world’s reserves of fossil fuels in 200 years.
Can we continue on the present course?

Speaker’s Profile:

John M Firth Hons. Class II , Engineering, U. Cambridge, 1957. 1957-58 Graduate year in electronics.
1958-61 Smiths Aircraft Instruments
1961-64 Dept. of Radio Astronomy, U.Cambridge, posted to Washington DC as a team member supporting Ariel II, an early British scientific satellite.
Recruited by RCA Victor, Montreal, for the ISIS satellite team.
In 1965 he joined the Cosmic Ray group at the National Research Council, later expanded as Space Physics.
From 1978 to 91 was a team member on the Ulysses International (European) spacecraft.
An expert glider pilot , he was a Canadian team member for ten years, and also set numerous Canadian records.
As a keen amateur violinist, he played in many orchestras and chamber music groups over the years.
Since retirement in 1995 he continued his interest in renewable energy technologies and the increasing problems of energy supply.

*****

Date: Friday April 13, 2007 – 7:30 p.m. at the Almonte United Church Social Hall

Speaker: Kieran Broadbent

Topic: The Language and Culture of China and its relevance to current development issues

Kieran Broadbent was educated at the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London and Wolfson College, University of Oxford in Chinese (Mandarin). He worked first in Hongkong on Chinese development issues for the British government before joining the Commonwealth Agricultural Bureaux where he specialised in China’s economy. He compiled a Chinese-English Dictionary of China’s Rural Economy which was published by the Bureaux in 1976, and was also a contributor to the first computerised Chinese-English Scientific and Technical Dictionary (CETA) project sponsored by a consortium of US Government Agencies. He later joined the International Development Research Center, Ottawa, where as an Associate Director he continued his professional interest in China until retirement . He has been a frequent visitor to China over the years and has authored several academic papers.

The talk will focus on three main questions:

What virtues caused the endurance of Chinese civilisation when all others have faded away?
What made China the most advanced place in the world for several centuries before the European industrial revolution and what were the reasons for its decline?
Why is China suddenly poised to become the new ‘workshop of the world’ and what are the implications of this for the world economy and the environment?

Kieran Broadbent studied Chinese (Mandarin) at the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London and Hongkong University and qualified as a Civil Service Interpreter, and later received an M.Litt from Oxford in Agricultural Economics for research into the Transformation of China’s Rural Economy and its Effect on the Environment. He also published a Dictionary of China’s Rural Economy. He made his first of many visits to China in 1978 at the invitation of the Chinese Academy of Sciences as a member of an international academic advisory consortium (CETA ) based in Washington DC that was engaged in the first attempt to produce a computerised Chinese-English Scientific Dictionary. He retired from the International Development Research Centre( IDRC) in Ottawa after many years of international development work. He lives on a farm outside Almonte.

2007-08 Lecture Series

Date: Friday September 21, 2007 – 7:30 p.m. at the Almonte United Church Social Hall

Speaker: Jean-Jacques van Vlasselaer

Topic: Music in the Nazi Camps

The first Almonte lecture of the new season is scheduled for the 21st of September, and is entitled “Music in the Nazi Camps”. Carleton University Professor Jean-Jacques van Vlasselaer is presenting the lecture,

Jean-Jaxques van Vlasselaer is originally from Belgium, and has been a Professor of French at Carleton University for several decades. He is also the music critic for Ottawa’s Le Droit. Music is his passion and he frequently rushes off to Europe to attend the opera. (He claims to have seen the whole Ring Cycle 35 times!) He is a frequent speaker at the NAC Concert Series, either in French or in English. He is a most entertaining and enthusiastic person, and his lecture will be memorable.

Music in the Nazi death camps is a subject to interest a wide spectrum of our audience. Music composed and performed by the inmates of these camps has only recently been discovered and made public. It is hoped that the lecture attendees will be able to listen to some of these compositions during the evening.

All lectures take place at 7:30 at the United Church Social Hall, 106 Elgin Street in Almonte. Others in this year’s series include “The Science of Climate Change”, “Canada’s Peacekeeping Myth”, “The Mechanics of Colour Vision” and “Time in a Bottle – a History of Wine”.

*****

Friday October 19, 2007 – 7:30 p.m. at the Almonte United Church Social Hall

Speaker: Tim Patterson

Topic: The Science of Climate Change

Dr. Tim Patterson is Professor of Geology at Carleton University in Ottawa as well as a Senior Visiting Fellow in the School of Geography at the Queen’s University of Belfast.

Professor Patterson’s research emphasizes the dynamics of climate change and sea level change through the last few thousand years. In this capacity he also serves as Canadian leader of UNESCO International Geological Correlation Program (IGCP) Project 495 “Quaternary Land-Ocean interactions”, which is mandated to study the record of sea level change past and future. He has been Principal Investigator of large Natural Science and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) and Canadian Foundation For Climate and Atmospheric Sciences (CFCAS) projects, examining high-resolution climate records from marine basins off the west coast of Canada.

He was a founding editor of the journal Palaeontologia Electronica and is presently Associate Editor for the Journal of Foraminiferal Research. He has to-date published 125 articles in peer-reviewed journals and was the recipient of a 2002-2003 Carleton University Research Achievement Award. He has also presented professional briefings to Canadian government staff and the Parliamentary Standing Committee on the Environment and Sustainability and is a frequent contributer in the popular media, primarily on the topic of climate change.

Dr. Patterson says:

“During its history our planet has been subject to dramatic climate shifts that have ranged from near global glaciations to planetary greenhouse conditions. Although this extreme climate variability can be linked to a variety of factors (e.g. plate tectonics, changes in paleoceanographic circulation) the strongest influence on climate change at various time scales has probably been the result of variations in the cosmic-ray flux due to solar magnetic activity. During the past few years members of my research group have carried out detailed analysis of marine-laminated sediments from oxygen-starved basins in several fjords along the coast of British Columbia, which we have found to archive Holocene records of climate variability and marine productivity at annual to millennial scales. Our results indicate that the marine productivity and sedimentary record of the North East Pacific responded to abrupt changes and long-term variation in climate that can clearly be linked to external forces (e.g. solar and cosmic irradiance).

“Using my own research results as an example I will explain why I am now convinced that celestial drivers are the primary control over climate change and why I now reject the common view that variations in atmospheric CO2 concentrations are the primary influence over climate change.”

His only qualification for giving this talk is that he read far too much science fiction as a child, particularly when his father said he should be doing more useful things.

*****

Friday November 23, 2007 – 7:30 p.m. at the Almonte United Church Social Hall

Speaker: MAJOR GENERAL (ret’d) LEWIS MACKENZIE, CM, O Ont, MSC and Bar, CD
President, General MacKenzie Enterprises Inc.

Topic: Canada’s Peacekeeping Myth

Synopsis:

Successive governments have perpetuated the myth that Canada invented peacekeeping and that it defines us as a nation in their own partisan self-interests. Lewis will trace the history of this deception and concurrently expose the sorry record of an outdated UN Security Council that continues to prove itself incapable of dealing effectively with issues of international peace and security. Having visited our troops in Afghanistan on two occasions and about to return for a third the retired general will discuss the mission and NATO’s inadequate response-to date.

Speaker’s Profile:

General Lewis MacKenzie was born in Truro, Nova Scotia a long time ago. He is a graduate of Xavier Junior College of Sydney, Cape Breton and the University of Manitoba. During his thirty six years of military service in the Infantry he served nine years in Germany with NATO forces and managed to fit in nine peacekeeping tours of duty in six different mission areas – the Gaza Strip, Cyprus, Vietnam, Cairo, Central America and Sarajevo.

In 1990 General MacKenzie was appointed commander of the United Nation’s Observer mission in Central America. Two years later he was assigned to the United Nation’s Protection Force in Yugoslavia. In May of that year he created and assumed command of Sector Sarajevo and with a contingent of soldiers from 31 countries opened the Sarajevo airport for the delivery of humanitarian aid during the height of the Bosnian civil war. As a result he became the only Canadian, military or civilian, to be awarded a second Meritorious Service Cross. He retired from the Canadian Forces in 1993.

His personal account of his military experiences, “Peacekeeper, Road to Sarajevo”, became a number one best seller in 1993. A two hour TV documentary based on the book and hosted by the general was aired internationally and won a New York film festival award in 1997 Since his retirement from the military, Lew MacKenzie has been under contract to CTV and CBS and frequently appears on many of the international TV and radio networks as a commentator. He is a regular contributor to the Globe and Mail and is in demand as a lecturer on the subject of leadership. He currently chairs an international advisory board on homeland security.

Lew is active in motor racing having won numerous national and provincial titles in sports car and open wheel racing. He currently competes in selected professional races and the 12 race Ontario Formula Ford Championship. In 2004 he won his category at the 2000 km Targa Newfoundland and is the 2007 Ontario Formula Ford champion in the Diamond class.

Lew was made an Honorary Chief of the Metro Toronto Police Force in 1993. He holds Honorary Doctorates from numerous Canadian Universities and is a member of the Board of Advisors of the Canadian Federation of AIDS Research. He was Tourism Canada’s Canadian of the Year in 1992 and he is an alumnus of the Maclean’s role of Honour. In 2002 and 2006 respectively he was invested with the Order of Ontario and the Order of Canada for his humanitarian work in Africa.

Following the attacks of 11 September 2001 General MacKenzie was appointed one of two advisors to the Government of Ontario on counter-terrorism and emergency measures.

In spite of all the above, Dora MacKinnon of Baysville, Ontario is still married to the General. Their daughter Kimm, works, rides and resides in Ottawa.

*****

Friday January 25, 2008 – 7:30 p.m. at the Almonte United Church Social Hall

Speaker: Rod Phillips

Topic: Time in a Bottle: A History of Wine

Synopsis:

This talk will look at the emergence of quality wine during the last two centuries. The focus will be on the way French wine became known as the best wine in the world during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, despite the disastrous phylloxera epidemic of the 1860s-1870s that wiped out most vineyards in France. We will take the story through to the 1990s, when France was challenged by New World producers (especially Australia, California and Chile) and we will consider the current responses of French wine producers to their reduced share of the global wine market.

Speaker’s Profile:

Rod Phillips teaches History (including the history of alcohol and the history of food and drink) at Carleton, and is also a wine writer, reviewer and judge. His wine books include A Short History of Wine (Penguin, UK, 2000; HarperCollins US, 2001; and seven foreign translations), Ontario Wine Country (Whitecap Books, 2006), and The 500 Best-Value Wines in the LCBO (Whitecap Books, 2007). He has written entries on wine for a number of encyclopedias, contributes to wine magazines in Canada, the US and the UK, and judges in wine competitions in Canada and Europe. He writes a weekly wine column for the Ottawa Citizen and was named “Wine Journalist of the Year” at the 2007 Ontario Wine Awards. He is currently completing a global history of alcohol for the University of North Carolina Press.

*****

Friday March 21, 2008 – 7:30 p.m. at the Almonte United Church Social Hall

Speaker: Louise Heslop

Topic: Canada’s Brand Image

Synopsis:

This presentation will address the following questions:

What is a brand, and can a country be “branded”?
What do people around the world think of Canada, i.e., what is the basis of the “Canada brand”?
How well is the “Canada brand” being managed?
What does that country brand mean for Canada’s success in international politics, trade, and in attracting companies and people to engage with us?

Speaker’s Profile:

Louise Heslop is Professor of Marketing in the Sprott School of Business at Carleton University. She has been conducting research on country images and country branding issues with colleagues around the world on a 25-year stream of research, including survey and experimental research on consumers, business buyers, and international investors in over two dozen countries. She has also served in several administrative position at Carleton including director of the School of Business and Associate Dean in Business and in the Faculty of Social Sciences. She has over 150 publications as books, journal articles, and conference proceedings.

*****

Friday April 18, 2008 – 7:30 p.m. at the Almonte United Church Social Hall

Speaker: Mark Forbes

Topic: Parasite Design and Manipulation

Synopsis:

Parasites, broadly defined, are thought to account for more than 50% of living organisms. What makes their various ways of living so successful? We tend to think mostly from the viewpoint of hosts, as history has taught us to be wary of things like malaria and plague. In this talk, I explore parasite design, using ‘selectionist thinking’. I focus on examples of parasite manipulation or alteration of host behaviour, and parasite distortion of offspring sex ratios, using model invertebrates. I then ask what factors influence the range of host species used by parasites. I provide examples from birds and dragonflies to demonstrate that the geographic range of parasites relates to host species range, and that relative abundance of host species relates to effective parasitism. Such studies have implications for problems that plague us from understanding factors important in disease transmission, to helping protect species of economic or environmental value.

Speaker’s Profile:

Mark Forbes is Professor of Biology and Associate Dean of Research and Graduate Affairs in the Faculty of Science and Carleton. He has received many awards, both for his research and for his teaching. He was renewed as a Canada Research Chair in Ecological Parasitiology/Wildlife Health at Carleton in 2007 and has published over 100 research papers in peer-adjudicated journals. His Web Site gives much more information about our next Almonte Lecturer: www.carleton.ca/science/forbes

2008-09 Lecture Series

Friday September 19, 2008 – 7:30 p.m. at the Almonte United Church Social Hall

Speaker: Guy Thatcher

Topic: A Journey of Days

Synopsis:

Guy Thatcher walked the Camino de Santiago, an ancient pilgrimage route, hoping to discover the reason for the compulsion that drove him there. What he found instead was the timeless land of northern Spain, beauty, silence, mountains and plains, rain and relentless sun, snow in May, heartbreaking climbs, fatigue, and injury; friendly and welcoming people, new friendships, despair, transcendental joy, birth and death, and churros con chocolate. He came away with a renewal of his belief in the remarkable goodness of ordinary people from all over the world as they shared an extraordinary journey.

Join Guy Thatcher as he shares his days and his experiences on the camino with you.

Speaker’s Profile:

Guy Thatcher served in the Canadian regular armed forces from 1955 to 1980 as a tank officer, helicopter pilot, anti-tank missile instructor and computer analyst, serving in Germany, Belgium, Cyprus, Texas and Alabama, as well as various bases in Canada. He then pursued a second career for a further 25 years as a management consultant, working primarily in the field of facility planning and management.

He is married to Carroll Thatcher, with whom he has four grown children and one new grandson, clearly the most beautiful baby in the world. For the past 18 years he has been a home support volunteer for the Hospice at May Court. He skis, travels as much as he can, gardens, scuba dives (occasionally), reads voraciously, mostly history and science, square dances and plays a truly dreadful game of golf.

All of this, however, has nothing to do with the walk he took across Spain … or perhaps it has everything to do with the walk he took across Spain. He lives in Ottawa, Canada.

*****

Friday October 17, 2008 – 7:30 p.m. at the Almonte United Church Social Hall

Speaker: Claudio Aporta

Topic: Inuit Hunters and a Geography Based on Memory

Synopsis:

The presentation will discuss the main characteristics of the Inuit perception and representation of their territory. It will focus on how locations and directions are described through oral means, without the use of maps. A significant aspect of this approach to geography is the extensive use of trails. Although Inuit trails disappear every year (as the snow melts), their spatial locations are remembered, and the itineraries are recreated year after year on the same places.

This presentation will show ethnographic and historic evidence for the existence, in time and space, of a network of well-established trails connecting most Inuit settlements and significant places across the Canadian Arctic. It will also relate the experience of traveling a traditional trail connecting the communities of Iglulik and Naujaat (Repulse Bay). One of the goals of the presentation is to show that some types of oral history and knowledge can be accurately transmitted through generations.

Speaker’s Profile:

Claudio Aporta was born in the province of Mendoza, Argentina. He did his BA in Communication at Universidad Nacional de Cuyo, Argentina and moved to Canada in 1997 to pursue graduate studies (a Ph.D.) at the University of Alberta. He also spent a year as Postdoctoral Fellow at Université Laval.

Since 1998 he has been involved in ethnographic research in several Inuit communities of Nunavut, particularly in Igloolik. His major interests are connected to how Inuit relate to their physical environments and to the transmission of Inuit oral knowledge in contemporary contexts. He also likes to explore new ways of representing oral knowledge, using such tools as multimedia technologies, GIS, GPS and Google Earth. This research has been funded by Wenner-Gren, SSHRC, NSERC, National Geography, and the Nunavut Government. He is presently the Principal Investigator of ISIUOP (Inuit Sea Use and Occupancy Project), working with several researchers and northern participants in the documentation and mapping of Inuit use and knowledge of the sea ice in Nunavut and Nunavik (Northern Quebec) He is a member of the Faculty in the Department of Anthropology at Carleton University.

*****

Friday November 21, 2008 – 7:30 p.m. at the Almonte United Church Social Hall

Speaker: Jacques Roy

Topic: Angola’s Fight for Independence

Synopsis:

As a protest against the minority rule and racist government of Angola, Jacques Roy joined the Angolan freedom fighters in 1967, as a communication expert. From the jungles of Angola, Jacques proved that he could adapt to the rigors of guerrilla warfare and soon the leaders of the movement MPLA gave him new responsibilities. These included film maker, journalist, recruiter, intelligence officer and political representative in Canada. He also served as chief lobbyist in bringing and end to the civil war in 2001. In 2008, Roy was inducted into the Veterans for the Liberation of Angola. Today he continues to serve as advisor to the Embassy of Angola in Ottawa.

He will discuss his life story within the liberation movements and provide insight to the ongoing reconstruction since the arrival of peace in April 2002. Jacques is a professional speaker, author and an expert with hands-on experience in the liberation of Southern Africa. His story was described in Le Droit as ” …. worthy of Indiana Jones and James Bond…”.

*****

Friday December 5, 2008 – 7:30 p.m. at the Almonte United Church Social Hall

Speaker: James Bartleman

Topic: Residential Schools the Apology

Synopsis:

Our next lecture will be by Hon. James Bartleman, former Lieutenant Governor of Ontario. Starting as the son of a second-generation Scottish immigrant and a Chipewyan mother, he knows a lot about discrimination. His achievements and successes are too many to mention here, but you can Google “James Bartleman” to learn a lot about him, about courage, about hope and hopelessness and about ourselves.

We welcome you on Friday, 5 December, at 7:30, in the United Church Hall in Almonte.

*****

Friday January 23, 2009 – 7:30 p.m. at the Almonte United Church Social Hall

Speaker: Mike Nickerson

Topic: Living on Earth as if we Want to Stay

Synopsis:

What do climate change, high gas prices and the financial crisis have in common? Mike Nickerson will explain how these problems all result from the maturation of the human species. After thousands of years of apparent abundance, we are now finding limits to the availability of some natural resources and limits to the amount of pollution we can tolerate. Economically, we are finding limits to how much real wealth the Earth can provide to back up exponentially expanding economies. Physical maturity in our own lives provides us each with the foundation for the relationships, talents, skills and adventures that make our lives rewarding. Similar opportunities await society if we can let go of our societal adolescent growth and plan for sustainability.

Speaker’s Profile:

Mike Nickerson has spent 35 years studying cultural evolution and communicating the sustainability message. His writings include: “Bakavi; Change the World I Want to Stay On” (1977), “Let’s Talk About Sustainability” (1987), “Planning for Seven Generations” (1993) and the newly released “Life, Money & Illusion; Living on Earth as if we want to stay.”

With “Life, Money & Illusion” in hand to provide details, Nickerson is now on a cross country tour introducing the Question of Direction. The program encourages people to think and talk about changing our present customs and institutions into ones capable of maintaining long-term well-being while decreasing impacts on the planet and each other.

Along with his wife, Donna, Mike lives in Eastern Ontario. They have five grandchildren. To support his studies and writing Mike designs and builds custom furniture.

*****

Friday February 20, 2009 – 7:30 p.m. at the Almonte United Church Social Hall

Speaker: Gray Merriam

Topic: Ecology and Environmentalism –- What’s the Difference?

Synopsis:

Ecology is a science with a long history. Environmentalism is a relatively recent social, political and economic movement. ‘Green wash’ now appears in many facets of society. In it, ecological benefits often are confused with human amenities. How do the interests of environmentalists coincide with and support the ecological pursuits of scientists?

Speaker’s Profile:

Gray Merriam retired in 1997 from the Biology Department at Carleton University. He has taught, directed graduate students and done research at the University of Texas and Carleton University and had academic affiliations in Poland, Sweden, France, the Netherlands and Utah.

He was President of the International Association for Landscape Ecology, Series Editor of the IALE Study Series in Landscape Ecology, and on the Editorial Board of Landscape Ecology. He directed: the Landscape Ecology Research Laboratory, the Environmental Science Program, the Environment and Policy Institute, the Department of Biology and the Ottawa-Carleton Institute of Biology at Carleton University.

In 1997 he received the Distinguished Landscape Ecologist Award from the United States Chapter of the International Association for Landscape Ecology and in 1999 he received the Distinguished Scholarship Award of the International Association for Landscape Ecology. In 2003 he received an honourary Doctor of Science degree from the University of Moncton. In 2005 he received a Latornell Conservation Pioneer Award.

In retirement, he has tried to apply his ecological knowledge to the landscapes where he lives. He was the founding President of the Friends of the Salmon River is the Chair of the Frontenac Stewardship Council and is ecological advisor to the Kennebec Lake Association.

*****

Friday March 20, 2009 – 7:30 p.m. at the Almonte United Church Social Hall

Speaker: Warren Thorngate

Topic: Daily life in Iran

Synopsis:

Just as Canada is more than hockey, winter and Celine Dion, Iran is more than beards, chadors, friday prayers, fiery rhetoric, and rumours of nuclear weapons development. His twenty teaching visits to Iran since 1993 have given the gift of learning — about Iran culture, its complexities and contradictions, and about the humanity of Iranians revealed in their daily life. In words, photos and videos of Iranian families going about their daily acts of living, he will share some of this gift. Included will be stories of education, child rearing, meals, work, leisure, relations between men and women, public and private selves, and the delicate navigation of an Islamic toilet. He may also hope to bring some of his Iranian students to help answer questions.

Speaker’s Profile:

Another in a long line of aging social psychology professors, Warren graduated from UBC and taught at the University of Alberta for nine years before jumping to Carleton in 1979. Though he specializes in research on the psychology of decision making, random acts of fate led him to undertake research and teaching throughout Latin America, Poland, Russia and eventually Iran, where he now serves as Scientific Director of the Centre for Social Psychology Research at Shahid Beheshti University in Tehran. Finalist, then loser, in TVO’s first Best Professor contest, Warren was a co-founder of Opera Lyra Ottawa and the National Capital FreeNet. He lives with Barbara Carroll by the high school playing field in Almonte, where they can frequently be seen pulled by their chocolate lab, Abby.

*****

Friday April 17, 2009 – 7:30 p.m. at the Almonte United Church Social Hall

Speaker: Terry Currie

Topic: The Great Fire of 1870

We are in for another interesting evening!

Terry Currie was born and raised in the rural Ottawa Valley in Fitzroy Township. He has fond childhood memories of working on the family farm as a little boy and of going to school at SS#3 Fitzroy, where the thirty-odd pupils were more like a gang of brothers and sisters than just classmates. He attended Arnprior High School where he was a first class honour student in history and language and nearly failed math with annual regularity.

He taught French at Almonte High for most of his teaching career. During his time at Almonte He married a fellow teacher, Shirley Anne Jones and they raised four children on the Currie family farm before Shirley’s death in 1986.

He finally achieved a long-held desire when he returned to the University of Ottawa to complete his M.A. in History in 2005. His thesis topic was The Ottawa Valley’s Great Fire of 1870. He continues to write scholarly historical works in retirement on the farm and has not abandoned the idea of pursuing a doctorate.

2009-10 Lecture Series

Friday September 18, 2009 – 7:30 p.m. at the Almonte United Church Social Hall

Speaker: Brian Burns

Topic: Packaging, RE-cycling, and ‘Re’ words

Synopsis:

For about the last 25 years we have grown used to blue and black boxes, with a developing realization that we really need to look after the environment. However, after thousands of years of evolution that was geared to the exploitation of the planet as if it were infinite, looking after the environment isn’t all that easy.

This lecture will offer a kind of progress report of our efforts so far, using the everyday issues of packaging and recycling as a barometer of human activity – to highlight what we have learned, what is going well, what is not, and what the next 25 years might involve.

Speaker’s Profile:

Brian Burns came to Carleton University in 1980, to become a member and soon the Director of the School of Industrial Design. He remains a prominent member of the School.

Over 30 years ago he started working on environmental design issues and what was termed ‘The Throwaway Society’.

Before coming here, he studied both Mechanical Engineering and Industrial Design in England, and has worked on the design of products ranging from domestic appliances to boats, and from cigarette rolling machines to corporate identity. He has spent a lot of time researching Obsolescence, Packaging, Waste and Recycling, and why Canada creates a lot of it.

He just finished a book with 35 students called ‘EcoSuss’ which attempts to put EcoSustainability into perspective.

He currently wonders if we were to ride into ‘Ecoville’ late one night – how would we recognise it, and would he like to live there?

*****

Friday October 16, 2009 – 7:30 p.m. at the Almonte United Church Social Hall

Speaker: David C. Coll, Ph.D., LFIEEE, FCAE, P.Eng. Professor Emeritus, Carleton University

Topic: Social Impacts of the Web

Synopsis:

Social Networking: Whether or not one has their own Facebook site, uses YouTube to view the latest video on Susan Boyle, or ignores it entirely, web-based Social Networking is changing the world we all live in. This talk will look at the extent of the phenomenon, its technological basis, review some popular sites, and explore its social impact.

Speaker’s Profile:

David C. Coll has fifty-odd years of experience in engineering research, teaching, consulting and professional activities. He received his B.Eng. and M.Eng. degrees from McGill University, studied Information Theory at MIT, and received his Ph.D. from Carleton University. Dr. Coll is a Fellow of the Canadian Academy of Engineering and a Life Fellow of the IEEE. Before joining Carleton in 1967, he was with the Defence Research Board. His research interests include adaptive communications, signal processing, “Wired City” concepts, and applications of broadband multimedia networks. He retired as Professor Emeritus in 1998, but still lectures – in the Carleton Learning-in-Retirement series.

*****

Friday November 20, 2009 – 7:30 p.m. at the Almonte United Church Social Hall

Speaker: Professor Moses N. Kiggundu

Topic: Africa and Canada in A Changing World: A Conversation

Synopsis:

Professor Moses N. Kiggundu will make a brief introduction about Africa in the context of globalization, review progress made to date, and discuss opportunities and challenges for the future. He will then talk about the long standing relationships between Africa and Canada, propose a different way forward, and advance the idea of Canada as a Southern partner that could make a significant contribution to the controversial Africa-China relationships. He will end his comments by advocating for better people-to-people institutional relationships, including faith-based human development contacts.

Speaker’s Profile:

Moses N. Kiggundu, Professor, Management and International Business, Sprott School of Business, Carleton University, was born, raised and educated on the northern shores of Lake Victoria, and became of age during the heady days of the post-independence struggles and conflicts. After graduating from Makerere University, Kampala (BA, Honours, Upper Second) and working briefly as a Research Officer for the Central Bank, he had to leave the country. He attended The University of Alberta (MBA), and joined the University of Nairobi, as a junior professor, teaching in undergraduate and graduate students in commerce and business administration. He got involved in various programmes aimed at preparing East African nationals to take over positions previously held by expatriates. Leaving Kenya, he joined the University of Toronto, Faculty of Management where he earned his doctoral degree in Organizational Behaviour and Administrative Science. After a few years in private practice, he joined McGill University’s Faculty of Management, and then Carleton University in 1982.

He has dedicated his academic and professional life to understanding the challenges of development and underdevelopment, and seeking practical and sustainable solutions for human development. He teaches and is associated with universities in different countries including in China, Iran, Africa, the UK, and the West Indies. He consults widely for international and Canadian organizations including the UN, World Bank, UNDP, ILO, Africa Development Bank, CIDA, IDRC, and volunteers for NGOs and the Africa Capacity Building Foundation. His publications have appeared in many journals, and his books include: Managing Organizations in Developing Countries (1989), and Managing Globalization in Developing Countries and Transition Economies: Building Capacities for a Changing World; 2002).

Professor Moses Kiggundu is married to Dr. Kabahenda Kiggundu (Ph.D. University of London), two adult children and a lovely daughter in law.

*****

Friday January 22 – 7:30 p.m. at the Almonte United Church Social Hall

NOTE: To help relieve the conflict between our lecture and the Haiti Benefit gathering on Friday, all donations to the Lecture Series on Friday will be given to the Haiti Benefit Concert. Come to the Lecture and still help Haiti!

Speaker: Brian McKillop

Topic: The Berton We Forgot We Knew

Synopsis:

PIERRE BERTON. A name, and person, we all know, since he was so omnipresent in the last third of the last century — Canada’s historian, its most popular chronicler of Canada’s history. But that is not BERTON in full. Perhaps we’ve forgotten his earlier role as gonzo journalist, as champion of social justice, as consumer crusader, as pioneer TV interviewer, and much else. This talk will attempt to remind us of the career that served as the basis of Berton’s reputation as a “national icon.” Do we remember the time he let loose a pig in the ballroom of the Hotel Vancouver?

Brian McKillop is Chancellor’s Professor at Carleton University and former chair of its History Department. His book Pierre Berton: a Biography, appeared in 2008.

*****

Friday February 19 – 7:30 p.m. at the Almonte United Church Social Hall

Speaker: Denis A. St-Onge, O.C.

Topic: What do Glaciers tell us when they Growl

Synopsis:

The lecture will examine the role of glaciers, past and present, in shaping the landscape, as well as the causes for their rapid retreat since the early 1900s. Also included will be a discussion of the disappearance of sea ice in the past decades, and its consequences. The lecturer is truly an authority in his field:

Speaker’s Profile:

Denis A. St-Onge began his career as a geoscientist at the University of Manitoba where, through the Collège de St-Boniface, he received his bachelor’s degree in 1951. In 1957 he obtained a L.Sc. from l’université de Louvain, Belgium and, soon after, joined the Geographical Branch of the Department of Mines and Technical Surveys. He was a member of the original group of the Polar Continental Shelf Project which took him to Ellef Ringnes Island where he carried out geomorphological surveys during the summers of 1959 to 1961. He was awarded his D.Sc. by l’université de Louvain in 1962.

St-Onge worked as a research scientist with the Geological Survey of Canada and Professor at the University of Ottawa where he held a series of positions, among them Chair of the Department of Geography and Vice-dean of the School of Graduate Studies and Research. At the Geological Survey he was Director of the Terrain Sciences Division and Scientific advisor to the Polar Continental Shelf Project. St-Onge has also been active in many national and international bodies.

Among the honours St-Onge has received in recognition for his scientific research are Honorary Doctorate in Science from the University of Manitoba in 1990. In September 1994, he was awarded the Scottish Geographical Medal by the Royal Scottish Geographical Society. His induction as an Officer of the Order of Canada in May1996 was in recognition of his long and distinguished career. In 2002 he was awarded the Queen Elizabeth II Golden Jubilee Medal. In 2005 the Royal Canadian Geographical Society awarded him with the Camsell medal for exceptional service to the Society.

*****

March 19, 2010
Bob Morrison
Nuclear Energy and its Risks

*****

Friday April 16 – 7:30 p.m. at the Almonte United Church Social Hall

Speaker: Paul van Geel

Topic: Landfills: A Viable Waste-to-Energy Alternative for Ottawa?

Synopsis:

Bioreactor landfills are increasingly being viewed as an effective waste disposal option because they help to speed biodegradation and the production of landfill gas and also increase waste disposal capacity of landfills. Adding to these benefits, many supporters have proclaimed bioreactor landfills as a sustainable waste-to-energy alternative. But this methodology too is not without its critics. Concerns related to odour, leachate seeps, efficient collection of landfill gas, and the historic image of a landfill all impact the public’s perception of this waste-to-energy alternative. Professor Van Geel, who is studying the waste stabilization process at a full scale bioreactor landfill in Ste. Sophie, Québec, will discuss the implications and effects of the use of bioreactor landfill technology, provide an overview of the research being conducted at Ste. Sophie, and shed some light on the ongoing debate on sustainability of this waste-to-energy alternative.

Speaker’s Profile:

Dr. Paul Van Geel is Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Carleton University. His expertise is primarily focused on the transport and fate of contaminants in the subsurface and issues related to waste management. He developed and taught a landfill design course and has supervised several students on waste management related topics including; the use of seismic techniques to map the moisture distribution in landfills, impacts of saline water on degradation kinetics in bioreactor landfills; life cycle analysis approach to evaluating different waste management strategies and his current research related to understanding and optimizing waste stabilization in bioreactor landfills operated in northern climates.

2010-11 Lecture Series

Friday September 24 – 7:30 p.m. at the Almonte United Church Social Hall

Speaker: Blythe Robertson

Topic: Meteorite Impact on Earth

Synopsis:

Canada has led the world in establishing the evidence that Earth has experienced the same bombardment history depicted by the large and ubiquitous impact craters on the Moon and other terrestrial planets. Dr. Robertson’s research on hypervelocity impact on earth has involved the study of large meteorite craters in all regions of Canada, with a focus on the effects on the target rocks and minerals of the extreme pressures and temperatures generated by a major impact. From his experience as part of the scientific team, Blyth will summarize this research by taking the audience on a tour of many of the world’s impressive craters, discussing the evidence for their origin and particular form, and their possible influences on the geologic and biologic evolution of our planet.

Speaker’s Profile:

Blyth Robertson, a native of Ottawa, earned degrees in geology from Carleton University, The University of Pennsylvania and The University of Durham, England. His entire research and management career, spanning over forty years, has been spent in the federal Department of Natural Resources, with the Earth Physics Branch and the Geological Survey of Canada, where he is currently an emeritus scientist. One of his continuing interests is geoscience education and promoting geoscience awareness to the general public, which he pursues through membership on the Ottawa-Gatineau Geoheritage Committee, the Canadian National Committee for the International Year of Planet Earth, and the Canadian Geoscience Education Network.

*****

Friday October 29 – 7:30 p.m. at the Almonte United Church Social Hall

Speaker: Nancy E. Binnie

Topic: Paint detectives: Colour & chemistry
Hidden by design: Paint research and the re-discovery of historic building decoration

Synopsis:

Architectural paint research is a discipline faced with the challenge of trying to understand the decorative changes which have taken place in buildings over time. Old private homes and public buildings were sometimes decorated with coloured paint, gilding, stencil work, faux finishes, murals, wallpaper, and other embellishments to the architectural design. Traces of original or earlier paint and decoration now hidden from view can often be found by the systematic sampling of surfaces. The comprehensive examination of all types of surfaces (for example – floor, baseboards, walls, cornices, ceilings, medallions, door and window casings, etc.) can result in the discovery of earlier colour chronologies and coordinated design changes can often be suggested. The information generated from these investigations contributes to an understanding of the heritage character of the building, and can be used to develop specifications for building rehabilitation or for the interpretation of earlier design schemes. This presentation will describe the stages of an architectural paint research project including how samples are taken, methods of analysis and how the colour/composition chronology are presented. Examples will be presented from the following buildings:

Glanmore House National Historic Site (1882-83), Belleville – a historic house museum;
The Federal Building, Winnipeg (1937) – a stenciled ceiling in the entrance lobby;
The former Bank of Montreal building (1928-1931) located on Sparks Street, Ottawa – to be refurbished as the new Ceremonial Room 200 for the House of Commons;
The tropical greenhouse (1928) located at the Central Experimental Farm in Ottawa – a working greenhouse scheduled for maintenance rehabilitation.

Speaker’s Profile:

Nancy E. Binnie, Senior Conservation Scientist, Canadian Conservation Institute, Department of Canadian Heritage, Ottawa, Canada

Nancy Binnie has worked at the Canadian Conservation Institute since 1988 as a Conservation Scientist after graduating from Carleton University with BSc and MSc degrees in chemistry. One of her main areas of work involves colour documentation and the development of long-term monitoring programs for archival and museum artifacts including documents such as the Proclamation of the National Flag of Canada, and paintings and Inuit textiles on long-term museum display. Her work in the architectural conservation field has contributed to reinstatement projects for nationally important heritage sites as well as buildings of regional heritage importance. Recent projects include

Rideau Hall – the Ballroom and front entrance lobby
Fanshawe Pioneer Village – Churches, a schoolhouse and several homes
Harrington Lake, Stornoway, and Kingsmere — Official Residences of the Prime Minister, the Leader of the Opposition, and the Speaker of the House
London Normal School — now a teacher’s college in London, Ontario,

*****

Friday November 19 – 7:30 p.m. at the Almonte United Church Social Hall

Speaker: Michael Gnarowski

Topic: The Strange Case of Grey Owl: Imposter and Conservationist

Synopsis:

This talk is about the extraordinary life of Archibald Stansfield Belaney (1888-1938), a blue-eyed Englishman become Wa-Sha-Quon-Asin, a sort of Ojibway Indian who, in spite of a chaotic and “disorderly” life (five wives, more or less !) managed to transform himself into one of the best-known conservationists of his time; author of five best-selling books; drawing standing room only crowds in England and America; and succumbing to drink and exhaustion before his fiftieth year. It is also thought that he was instrumental in saving the Canadian beaver from extinction. Not bad for a badly run life !

Speaker’s Profile:

Michael Gnarowski, Professor Emeritus in the English Department of Carleton University. Educated at McGill University, University of Montreal, Indiana University and the University of Ottawa. Won a C.D. Howe Fellowship and a Commonwealth Fellowship and was a Research Associate of The Royal Commission on Bilingualism and Biculturalism. Long involved in the study and production of Canadiajn Literature and materials relating to Canadian Studies, as well as in the study of Modernism. Lectured on Canadian Literature in Canadian and European Universities (Universities of Leningrad, Warsaw, Bonn, Mainz, Siegen etc…) Was long-serving Editor of the Carleton Library Series and founding Director of Carleton University Press. Has written for The Canadian Encycopedia, the McGraw-Hill Dictionary of World Biography, the Encyclopedia Americana and the Oxford Companion to Twentieth Century Poetry. Presently Series Editor of Voyageur Canadian Classics and Editor of the re-issuing of the fiction of Hugh MacLennan. His edition of Grey Owl’s PILGRIMS OF THE WILD has been published this year and will be available at the local bookshop.

*****

Friday January 21 – 7:30 p.m. at the Almonte United Church Social Hall

Speaker: Alain Miguelez

Topic: A City Grows Up

Synopsis:

This presentation will recap some the salient changes and transformations in Ottawa over the last decade, and delve into the major projects and initiatives that are in the pipeline and will further transform the city and its region. Particular attention will be placed on the urban core, where significant investments in rapid transit, commercial and residential projects, and a renewed attention on urban design, are placing a new spotlight on one of Canada’s most liveable and enjoyable downtowns. The session will conclude with remarks on some of Ottawa’s key up-and-coming areas and neighbourhoods.

Speaker’s Profile:

Alain Miguelez is currently the program manager of Development Review for the Inner Urban area of Ottawa. He has been with the City since 2002, and started in the Planning Policy branch where he worked on long-range population and housing forecasts for the City, the new Residential Land Strategy and the Annual Development Report. Prior to that, he was Senior Market Analyst for Ottawa at CMHC. He started out in planning with McNeely-Tunnock of Orleans and also consulted with Maxgroup Associates of Ottawa.

*****

Friday February 18 – 7:30 p.m. at the Almonte United Church Social Hall

Speaker: Warren Thorngate

Topic: The Competition for Attention

Click here to view the slides from this lecture.

Synopsis:

Attention is the stuff we “pay,” like the time we “spend,” to convert information into knowledge and knowledge into information. Attention, however, does not expand to accommodate the information available; it is a finite and nonrenewable resource. The amount of information in the world now doubles about once per decade; there is about twice as much information available today as there was in the year 2,000. So as time goes by we must be increasingly selective in what we pay attention to. How do we make our selections? What criteria do we use to choose what to attend to and what to ignore? How are these criteria shifting? And what are the consequences of the shifts? The lecture will examine the economics of attention, the competition for attention, and how it will shape the future of information production and consumption.

Speaker’s Profile:

Warren Thorngate is a freshly retired professor of social psychology and decision making at Carleton University. He has served as a visiting professor in Australia, Chile, Poland, Russia, England, the United States, and Iran. Warren’s research on the social psychology of contests and competitions lead to his recent book, Judging Merit (with Margaret Foddy and the late Robyn Dawes). His research on the economy of attention and the marketplace of ideas lead to a course called Psychology and Journalism (taught with Susan Harada) and to this Almonte lecture. Warren and Barbara Carroll have been residents of Almonte for six years.

We hope to see you all there!

*****

March 18, 2011
Brian McKillop
The Invisible Woman

*****

Friday April 22 – 7:30 p.m. at the Almonte United Church Social Hall

Speaker: Ken Torrance

Topic: Soil: The Earth’s Skin at Work

Synopsis:

Soils are among the most important, most complicated and most under-appreciated of the World’s natural resources. In this lecture, the discussion will include how soils have developed as a natural body at the Earth’s surface in response to the influences of climate, parent material, organisms, topography and time. The resultant soils vary greatly in appearance, feel, colour, fertility etc. at both local and world scales. They are also viewed in different manners in different contexts – engineering, agriculture, home owner. They form the ‘skin’ of the Earth and are very important in terms of food production, organic matter recycling, the hydrological system, and engineering and construction. Most importantly, soils constitute an ecosystem that hosts more organisms and is more diverse than the above-ground ecosystem that it supports.

Speaker’s Profile:

Dr. Ken Torrance grew up on a mixed/potato farm with Honeywood silt loam soil in Dufferin County, Ontario. His education includes a B.S.A. from OAC, Guelph, and M.S. and Ph.D. at Cornell University in soil science, with his research on soil freezing and frost heave. Then he was awarded a NATO Postdoctoral Fellowship at the Norwegian Geotechnical Institute – where he studied further soil chemistry, mineralogy and quick clays. He has been a Professor in the Geography Department at Carleton University since 1970, with his specialty being soils, geomorphology, Leda clay; soil freezing, the roles of soil and clays in many different situations. He was awarded an OCUFA Teaching Award in 1975.

We hope to see you all there!

2011-12 Lecture Series

September 30, 2011
Ivan Fellegi
The long-form census

*****

Friday October 21, 2011 – 7:30 p.m. at the Almonte United Church Social Hall

Speaker: Roseann Runte

Topic: Post Secondary Education

Synopsis:

Universities in Ontario face a new set of challenges today. Economic, legislative, and political factors combine to create both pitfalls and opportunities. Among the major issues we will encounter this fall are: evaluation and quality, differentiation, teaching, management agreements, globalization and funding. We will look both seriously and lightheartedly at the race to innovate, linguistic impediments to global understanding, and what happens to your schedule when your Blackberry changes time zones!

Carleton University is poised to take on a leadership role while collaborating with other universities, colleges, businesses, non-government organizations and industries. We will seek to serve ever more effectively both our local and regional communities (including Almonte) and the world.

Speaker’s Profile:

Dr. Roseann O’Reilly Runte is President and Vice-Chancellor of Carleton University.

Dr. Runte graduated with a BA summa cum laude in French from the State University of New York and obtained her MA and PhD from the University of Kansas. She has previously served as president of l’Université Sainte-Anne, principal of Glendon College, president of Victoria University and of Old Dominion University.

Dr. Runte is the author of numerous scholarly works in the fields of French, comparative literature, economic and cultural development, higher education and the importance of research. In addition, she is a creative writer and has received a poetry prize from the Académie française.

Dr. Runte has been awarded the Order of Canada and the French Order of Merit and is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada. She has also been awarded the Palmes Académiques and several prizes for her work on the environment, for community and national service. In addition, Dr. Runte holds a number of honorary degrees.

Dr. Runte has served on numerous boards and commissions in both Canada and the United States. She was president of the Canadian Commission for UNESCO, president of the Humanities Federation of Canada, a member of the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons, the Foundation for International Training, the Gardiner Museum of Ceramic Art, the Virginia Industrial National Development Authority and the Virginia Advanced Shipbuilding Integration Center. She currently serves on the advisory board of SunGard SGT, the board of the National Bank of Canada, the executive of the Royal Society, the non-profit LifeNet Health Board, the board of Fulbright Canada-U.S. and the Ontario-Quebec Private Sector Advisory Committee. She is a member of both the European and the World Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Dr. Runte took up her duties at Carleton University on July 1, 2008.

*****

Friday November 25, 2011 – 7:30 p.m. at the Almonte United Church Social Hall

Speaker: Alain Miguelez

Topic: Ottawa: A City Grows Up

Synopsis:

Speaker’s Profile:

*****

Friday January 20, 2012 – 7:30 p.m. at the Almonte United Church Social Hall

Speaker: Kieran Broadbent

Topic: Porcelain Trade with China

Synopsis:

China has been producing fine porcelain since antiquity. When the first Europeans were able to bring back samples in the seventeenth century it brought about a revolution in manners and customs. The aristocracy resorted to startling means to acquire examples of this hitherto unkown form of ceramics while at the household level it caused a leap in general standards of dining. The lecture will explore the early history of development delineating various styles and emergence of designs and art motifs with examples as well as standardisation in production introduced at the Imperial potteries in Jingdezhen by the Emporer, Qian long. causing his name to become to this day the epitome of design. It will consider the all important quest for authenticity in collectables, the pitfalls and the enormous market in fakes. Consideration will also be given to european struggles to master the production technique as well as the art and design showing, at the same time, how the trade finally came full circle with the chinese catering to the western markets and adopting european paints and enamels. The impact of this trade has been so profound that today porcelain and its copies occupies an important position in many of our homes where it is simply referred to as: “china”.

Speaker’s Profile:

Kieran Broadbent was educated at the University of London, School of Oriental and African Studies(SOAS) in Mandarin Chinese and did his M.Litt at Wolfson College Oxford in China’s Economy. He was an Associate Director at the International Development Research Cente (IDRC) here in Ottawa until retirement.

*****

Friday February 17, 2012 – 7:30 p.m. at the Almonte United Church Social Hall

Speaker: Peter Larson

Topic: Palestine Today

Synopsis:

The conflict between Israelis and Palestinians has been going on for my whole life – without ever seeming to improve. On taking my retirement in 2008, I decided to take a trip there to see what things look like. I spent two weeks with an Israeli organization dedicated to finding a just solution. Most of my time was spent in East Jerusalem, and the occupied Palestinian territories of the West Bank. I will share with you what i saw, and how my trip has changed my perspective on the key issues.

Speaker’s Profile:

Peter Larson spent most of his professional career in Ottawa. He has worked for Le Droit, the Conference Board of Canada and the Public Policy Forum. He has also spent many years as a facilitator and consultant to several federal government departments and agencies. He has a B.A. in Economics from UWO, and a Ph.D. in Political Economy from the University of Grenoble. He is the father of two adult boys, and lives happily with his wife in Ottawa.

*****

Friday March 23, 2012 – 7:30 p.m. at the Almonte United Church Social Hall

Speaker: Maureen Nevins

Topic: There’s Musical Gold in Them Thar Archives: Unsuspected Riches at Library and Archives Canada

Synopsis:

A glimpse into the work of a music archivist and into the letters, scores, photographs and sound recordings; all treasures from Gregorian chant through Beethoven to the present day.

Speaker’s Profile:

A music archivist with Library and Archives Canada (LAC) since 1989, Maureen Nevins completed a Bachelor of Music degree at the University of Ottawa and a Master of Arts degree in musicology at the Université de Montréal. She pursued her studies in archival science at the Université du Québec. Ms. Nevins has been responsible for the preparation of major exhibitions on Canadian musicians Claude Champagne and Sir Ernest Macmillan as well as involved in the preparation of a major exhibition on Canadian jazz icon Oscar Peterson. In addition to her activities at LAC, Maureen Nevins has been artistic director since 2002 of Almonte in Concert, an organization in existence since 1980 and which presents an annual series of solo recitals and chamber music concerts featuring renowned Canadian and international artists.

*****

April 20, 2012
Brian Burns
Science in the 21st century

2012-13 Lecture Series

Friday September 21, 2012 – 7:30 p.m. at the Almonte United Church Social Hall

Speaker: Maria de Rosa

Topic: Nano-tech on the Farm

Synopsis:

Can the new fields of nanotechnology and nanoscience help improve the efficiency of fertilizers, pesticides and herbicides? Can DNA help us provide nutrients to crops “on demand”? What are the possible risks and benefits of using this new technology? This presentation will look at nanoscale crop inputs and describe the latest work being done around the world in this area.

Speaker’s Profile:

Dr. Maria DeRosa is an Associate Professor in the Department of Chemistry at Carleton University. Her research examines a type of nucleic acid called ‘aptamers’ that can fold into 3D nanoscale shapes capable of binding tightly to a specific target molecule. Dr. DeRosa received her Ph.D in Chemistry from Carleton University in 2003 and was presented with a University Senate Medal. She was awarded an NSERC Postdoctoral Fellowship to do research at the California Institute of Technology from 2004-2005 with Prof. Jackie Barton, a world-leader in DNA sensor research. In 2005, she returned to Carleton as a faculty member in the Chemistry Department. She was a recipient of the John Charles Polanyi Research Award for new researchers in 2006 and an Ontario Early Researcher Award in 2010.

*****

Friday October 19, 2012 – 7:30 p.m. at the Almonte United Church Social Hall

Speaker: Robert Biddle

Topic: Computer Security for Humans

Synopsis:

Computer security as a field was based principally on mathematics and technology but, with the widespread use of computers, the human factors have begun to receive much attention, giving rise to the subfield known as usable security: the human factors of computer security. Computers are now ubiquitous and using computers is a part of work and play for much of the world. In particular, we use computers to manage much of what we value in life, from financial resources to social relationships. Computer security involves protecting all that, including techniques for authentication, authorization, and keeping track of what happens. Usable security presents some interesting challenges and opportunities where principles of human behaviour can guide understanding and improvement. This talk surveys some of these challenges and opportunities, with a particular focus on research on password authentication.

Speaker’s Profile:

Robert Biddle is Professor of Human-Computer Interaction at Carleton University. He is appointed both to the School of Computer Science and the Institute of Cognitive Science. He has won awards for teaching and research, and his research program involves active collaboration with a range of government and industry partners. His research is primarily in human factors in cyber-security and software design, especially creating and evaluating innovative designs for computer security software. He leads research themes for cross-Canada research networks on human-oriented computer security, for software engineering for surface applications, and for privacy and security in new media environments. Robert grew up in Ottawa, was a student at the Universities of Waterloo, Toronto, and Canterbury; he has a PhD in Computer Science and was a British Commonwealth Scholar.

*****

Friday November 23, 2012 – 7:30 p.m. at the Almonte United Church Social Hall

Speaker: Claudia Schröder-Adams

Topic: The Cretaceous Greenhouse Planet

Synopsis:

Arctic sea ice is melting at unprecedented rates leading to predictions of an Arctic Ocean that could be ice-free during the summer months in the not so distant future. During the geological past the world’s Polar Regions have experienced phases that were ice free and one of those was the Cretaceous Period marked by times of extreme greenhouse temperatures. The Cretaceous strata of the Sverdrup Basin in the Canadian High Arctic provide a geological archive that allows us to envision Arctic ecosystems under a Greenhouse climate and with that an ancient analogue for a future warmer Arctic. Field exposures on Axel Heiberg and Ellef Ringnes islands provide a window into a complex depositional and paleoecological history of the central Boreal Sea. Cretaceous sediments and fossil content tell a story of fluctuating sea-levels, rich ecosystems and burial of large amount of carbon during a changing greenhouse climate. Marine plankton assemblages are dominated by siliceous organisms. Waters were corrosive in respect to calcium carbonate prohibiting calcareous plankton. During the presentation we will visit Cretaceous marine paleoecosystems of the Canadian Arctic and terrestrial and marine ecosystems of and around the Antarctic Peninsula. These differ greatly from those presently found in these respective regions. We will learn about past paleogeographic settings and their drivers in respect to climate change and how such large scale changes affected flora and fauna.

Speaker’s Profile:

Claudia Schrӧder-Adams is a professor in the Department of Earth Sciences at Carleton University. Claudia teaches geology and paleontology courses including ‘Dinosaurs’, ‘Paleobiology’, and ‘Oceanography and Marine Geology’, but is most passionate about hands-on learning experiences for her students. She is leading an annual field trip to Nova Scotia and to places such as Germany, Switzerland and recently to Antarctica. Her research focuses on basin analysis, stratigraphy, paleoceanography and micropaleontology. She also works in eastern Australia where she uses marginal to deep marine settings as modern analogues for interpretations of ancient marine systems. As part of the Canadian GEM (Geo-mapping for Energy and Minerals) program, Claudia is presently conducting a multi-year geological investigation assessing a number of sedimentary basins in both the Eastern and Western Arctic regions to produce a pan-Arctic biostratigraphic framework for the Cretaceous Period. Claudia has just completed a three year term on the National Science and Engineering Research Council Discovery Grant Selection Committee. She served as Chair of Carleton’s Earth Sciences Department from 2003 to 2006 and is active in several science outreach programs.

*****

Friday January 25, 2013 – 7:30 p.m. at the Almonte United Church Social Hall

Speaker: Stephen Fai

Topic: New Tools for Heritage Buildings
Although Carleton University didn’t follow through with our initial expectations, the Azrieli School of Architecture and Urbanism at Carleton has been very active here. Peter Mansfield brought his class here to study the Old Town Hall and to design possible additional facilities there. Professor Stephen Fai has assigned a Graduate Student the task of studying what can be done with the Old Town Hall and has come up with some exciting views. He will explore these ideas with us in the next Almonte Lecture on Friday, 25 January. Some of his new photos will blow you away!

Synopsis:

The application of new digital technologies for the documentation, performance, and rehabilitation of our architectural heritage is one of the key research areas at the Carleton Immersive Media Studio (CIMS). In his Almonte lecture, Professor Fai will present various projects that CIMS is currently involved with, including the documentation of the Almonte Old Town Hall, and discuss the advantages and challenges of the ‘digital’ for heritage conservation.

Speaker’s Profile:

Stephen Fai holds a professional BArch (Carleton) and a PhD in Religious Studies (Ottawa). He is an Associate Professor at the Azrieli School of Architecture and Urbanism where he teaches in the design studio and in the PhD program. He has taught courses on hand drawing and on various themes in the history and the theory of architecture. Professor Fai served as the Acting Director of the School of Architecture (2002 – 2004), Director (2004 – 2005), and Associate Director, Graduate Programs (2006 – 2010). He became the Director of Carleton Immersive Media Studio (CIMS) in 2007. Stephen’s research interests are at the intersections of architecture, religion, and representation. These have played out through various projects during his time at CIMS. His most recent focus is on applications of building information modelling for heritage conservation and cultural landscapes.

The Almonte Lectures are geared for eager audiences of all ages and are offered free of charge. (Although a free-will donation is much appreciated and goes toward hall rental and advertising the series.) For further information, please phone Don Wiles at 613-256-4376. The Almonte Lectures are affiliated with the Mississippi Mills Residents’ Association www.mmra.ca and Carleton University www.carleton.ca. One head can not hold all wisdom.

*****

Friday February 22, 2013 – 7:30 p.m. at the Almonte United Church Social Hall

Speaker: Brian Burns

Topic: Evolving Communication

Synopsis:

While the invention of the printing press is heralded as one of man’s greatest achievements, the development of electronic communication technology has made an even greater impact. This talk will discuss the impacts of various current modes of communication, and question whether we have passed a ‘tipping point’ through which the ‘receiver’ is now more important than the ‘writer’.

Speaker’s Profile:

Brian Burns studied Mechanical Engineering, Industrial Design, and Design for the Environment in England, before joining Carleton University some 30 years ago. He has been engaged in many fields since then, and the communication of information that has resulted. He has written, with Don Westwood, a TV series for TV Ontario about Design. Three years ago he published a book with 35 students called ‘EcoSuss’ which attempted to put EcoSustainability into an everyday Canadian perspective. This year he has published a book of maxims about Design called ‘People Want Toast not Toasters’. He is fascinated by the changing modes of communication now available and their effectiveness.

The Almonte Lectures are geared for eager audiences of all ages and are offered free of charge. (Although a free-will donation is much appreciated and goes toward hall rental and advertising the series.) For further information, please phone Don Wiles at 613-256-4376. The Almonte Lectures are affiliated with the Mississippi Mills Residents’ Association www.mmra.ca and Carleton University www.carleton.ca. One head can not hold all wisdom.

*****

Friday March 22, 2013 – 7:30 p.m. at the Almonte United Church Social Hall

Speaker: James Wright

Topic: Beethoven’s Immortal Beloved

Here is the information about the coming lecture “Beethoven’s Immortal Beloved” by Professor James Wright. He will be performing a song he wrote about these letters of Beethoven. This song series was performed recently by Julie Nesrallah.

Synopsis:

As Beethoven lay in his bed in waning health on July 6 and 7, 1812, the great composer authored three passionate love letters to a woman he addressed as “meine unsterbliche Geliebte” (“my immortal beloved”), but whose identity has never been clearly established. Virtually all of Beethoven’s closest female friends and acquaintances have been proposed as “immortal beloved” candidates, including the Countess Giulietta Guicciardi (to whom the “Moonlight Sonata” is dedicated), the Countess Thérèse von Brunswick (Giulietta’s cousin), Antonie Brentano (dedicatee of the Diabelli Variations) and her sister Bettina, Magdalene Willmann, Thérèse Malfatti (to whom “Für Elise” is dedicated), Amalie Sebald, Marie Erdödy, Dorothea Ertmann, Almerie Esterházy, and the Countess Josephine von Brunswick (Giulietta Guicciardi’s cousin and Thérèse von Brunswick’s younger sister). A source of speculation and fascination to musicologists for more than two centuries, Beethoven’s mysterious “Immortal Beloved” letters shed light on his personal relationships when he was at the height of his creative powers, and serve as a rich source of insight into who Beethoven was as a man.

Speaker’s Profile:

James Wright is an Associate Professor of Music and Supervisor of Performance Studies at Carleton University. A Governor-General’s Gold Medal winner with a Ph.D. from McGill University, his scholarly contributions include two books on the life and work of Arnold Schoenberg. In addition to Schoenberg studies, Dr. Wright’s research interests encompass music philosophy and aesthetics, performance studies, music perception, post-tonal theory and analysis, twentieth-century music history, Glenn Gould Canadian film music, music and ludology, and the history of music theory. He is also known as a composer of vocal and choral music whose published works have been performed and recorded by choirs throughout North America

The Almonte Lectures are geared for eager audiences of all ages and are offered free of charge. (Although a free-will donation is much appreciated and goes toward hall rental and advertising the series.) For further information, please phone Don Wiles at 613-256-4376. The Almonte Lectures are affiliated with the Mississippi Mills Residents’ Association www.mmra.ca and Carleton University www.carleton.ca. One head can not hold all wisdom.

*****

Friday April 26, 2013 – 7:30 p.m. at the Almonte United Church Social Hall

Speaker: Sali A. Tagliamonte

Topic: Local accents in the Ottawa valley: Sociolinguistic perspectives on history, culture and language in Ontario

Synopsis:

Why does language change and how? Sociolinguists have discovered that the tracks of history tend to be retained in the cultural heritage and dialects of rural areas (e.g. Chambers & Trudgill 1980). This means that local accents offer important insights into the history and development of Canadian English. In this presentation, I introduce the Almonte project, which is founded on earlier research in the region, i.e. the Linguistic Survey of the Ottawa Valley (Pringle 1983). The project is part of a larger research program which aims to provide a grassroots perspective on history, cultural and language in Ontario.

In the spring of 2012, I visited the Almonte area in hopes of uncovering some of the Scottish and Irish features of the area. With the help of interested local residents, I interviewed 26 members of the oldest generation. The many stories and reminiscences that people shared with us contain an extraordinary reservoir of cultural, social and economic information. We documented innumerable unique expressions and sayings. Indeed, an unprecedented record of dialects unfolds in these materials, including deep-rooted verb forms, pronunciations and grammatical features, many of then harkening back to ancient times in the British Isles. Where once sociolinguists thought that Canadian English is “remarkably homogeneous across the vast expanse of the country” (Chambers 2010), this research affirms a treasure trove of dialect differentiation.

While it will still be some time before these extensive materials will be fully analyzed, I will report on the project so far, offer a description of the data and demonstrate the wealth of information that can be found in story-telling by playing choice audio clips as illustrations.

Selected References:
Chambers, J. K. & Trudgill, P. (1980). Dialectology. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Chambers, J.K. (2010). English in Canada. In Gold, E. & McAlpine, J. (Eds.), Canadian English: A linguistic reader. Kingston, Ontario: Strathy Language Unit, Occasional Papers, No. 6. 1-39.
Pringle, Ian (1986). The concept of dialect and the study of Canadian English. In Allen, H. B. & Linn, M. D. (Eds.), The Concept of Dialect and the Study of Canadian English. Dialect and language variation: London. 217-236.

Try also: http://www.news.utoronto.ca/sali-atagliamonte-language-detective

Speaker’s Profile:

Sali Tagliamonte is on the Faculty in the Department of Linguistics at the University of Toronto. She has studied the various accents and dialects in the Ottawa Valley and will tell us all about them, with audio examples. She has recently been awarded a Killam Research Fellowship – one of Canada’s most prestigious academic awards.

The Almonte Lectures are geared for eager audiences of all ages and are offered free of charge. (Although a free-will donation is much appreciated and goes toward hall rental and advertising the series.) For further information, please phone Don Wiles at 613-256-4376. The Almonte Lectures are affiliated with the Mississippi Mills Residents’ Association www.mmra.ca and Carleton University www.carleton.ca. One head can not hold all wisdom.

2013-14 Lecture Series

Friday September 27, 2013 – 7:30 p.m. at the Almonte United Church Social Hall

Speaker: Allan Donaldson

Topic: Geoheritage of Eastern Ontario

Synopsis:

The Ottawa-Gatineau Geoheritage Project continues to work with other natural science organizations to promote scientific literacy. Collaboration with Ontario’s Highlands Tourism Organization has resulted in new museum displays in Perth and Eganville, as well as the production of descriptive brochures for associated outdoor displays of rock specimens. Geoheritage posters continue to draw attention at annual events in Ottawa such as Heritage Day at City Hall in February, and the Gem and Mineral Show in the Nepean Sportsplex in September. Lectures and field excursions are still in demand, and Geoheritage Day on October 20 will include two new locations, bringing the total to eight field sites in Ottawa and Gatineau where a geoscientist will be present from 10 am to 3 pm to explain the geological features at each site. In Almonte, although Metcalfe Geoheritage Park was dealt a setback two years ago due to failure of a storm-sewer beneath the original site, the outdoor display of rock specimens will soon be restored and upgraded, thereby enhancing the expanding network of geoscience attractions in Eastern Ontario.

Speaker’s Profile:

Allan Donaldson (B.Sc., Queen’s University ’56; Ph.D., Johns Hopkins ’60) spent 10 years studying areas north of the tree line as a Research Scientist with the Geological Survey of Canada, followed by 30 years as a Professor of Geoscience at Carleton University. He has presented 125 papers at conferences and published 130 articles in scientific journals. In 2002 he initiated the Ottawa-Gatineau Geoheritage Project, collaborating since then with other geoscientists to develop programs to encourage public awareness and respect for significant elements of natural landscapes. For his part in this outreach initiative he has given 40 talks, presented four mini-courses and led 24 field trips for both geoscientists and the general public.

The Almonte Lectures are geared for eager audiences of all ages and are offered free of charge. (Although a free-will donation is much appreciated and goes toward hall rental and advertising the series.) For further information, please phone Don Wiles at 613-256-4376. The Almonte Lectures are affiliated with the Mississippi Mills Residents’ Association www.mmra.ca and Carleton University www.carleton.ca. One head can not hold all wisdom.

*****

Friday October 25, 2013 – 7:30 p.m. at the Almonte United Church Social Hall

Speaker: Bryne B. Purchase

Topic: Why Catastrophe is Inevitable

The lecture promises to be a very exciting discussion of our governments’ actions (and inactions) in forestalling such calamities as climate change, rising oil prices and others. We hope to see you all on Friday!

Synopsis:

Bryne will argue that the dominant decision-making institutions in our society, including governments, make our society extremely dynamic. But, in doing so, they allow societal risk, even existential risk, to accumulate. Our most important public and private institutions cannot act, except in response to a “clear and present danger”. Accordingly, they open our society to the potential, and perhaps the inevitability, of catastrophe. At the core of this failure in governance is “moral hazard”.

Speaker’s Profile:

Bryne Purchase is an Adjunct Professor at the School of Policy Studies, Queen’s University, a Fellow (and the founding Director) of the Queen’s University Institute of Energy and Environmental Policy and a regular columnist for the Torstar publication, QP Briefing. He is a former Chief Economist and Deputy Minister of Finance, of Revenue and of Energy Science and Technology of Ontario. He has a Ph.D. in economics from the University of Toronto and is the author and editor of a number of publications relating to economics, governance and competitiveness. His most recent book is Navigating on the Titanic: Economic Growth, Energy and the Failure of Governance, 2013, McGill-Queen’s University Press.

The Almonte Lectures are geared for eager audiences of all ages and are offered free of charge. (Although a free-will donation is much appreciated and goes toward hall rental and advertising the series.) For further information, please phone Don Wiles at 613-256-4376. The Almonte Lectures are affiliated with the Mississippi Mills Residents’ Association www.mmra.ca and Carleton University www.carleton.ca. One head can not hold all wisdom.

*****

Friday November 29, 2013 – 7:30 p.m. at the Almonte United Church Social Hall

Speaker: Rafik Goubran

Topic: Sensor Technologies for Monitoring Daily Living Activities

Synopsis:

Technology can play a positive role in improving our quality of life especially as we age. We all know the role that technology can play in improving our mobility (wheelchairs or walker), cognition (reminders) and in monitoring our vital signs (blood-pressure or glucose meters). This talk will address the role of technology in monitoring our daily living activities to detect any deviations from our normal thresholds. Analyzing these changes can lead to the early detection of some diseases and to the prevention of some conditions (falls).

The lecture will demonstrate some pressure-sensitive technology to monitor our sleep quality, our breathing characteristics and our bed exit routine. It will describe the concept of microphone arrays and its use in monitoring cough and snoring. It will also describe some novel sensor technologies such as electronic noses that can smell and accelerometers that can detect our physical activities.

Speaker’s Profile:

Rafik Goubran received the Ph.D. degree in Electrical Engineering from the Department of Systems and Computer Engineering, Carleton University in 1987. He is now the Dean of the Faculty of Engineering and Design at Carleton.

Dr. Goubran was involved in several research projects with industry and government organizations. His main research expertise is in the area of signal processing. He led many research projects in the areas of sensors, data analytics, security, microphone arrays, speech processing, and the design of smart homes for the independent living of seniors. His research covers the areas of feature extraction, pattern recognition, noise cancellation, and classification.

He has co-authored over 200 papers and 12 patents. He has co-supervised 18 PhD and 60 Master’s students. Dr. Goubran was the founding Director of the Ottawa-Carleton Institute for Biomedical Engineering from 2006 to 2009 and the Chair of the Council of Ontario Deans of Engineering from 2009 to 2011.

Dr. Goubran is an IEEE Fellow and a CAE Fellow. He is now a member of the executive committee of the Global Engineering Deans Council and a member of the Board of Directors of the National Medical Devices Alliance.
The Almonte Lectures are geared for eager audiences of all ages and are offered free of charge. (Although a free-will donation is much appreciated and goes toward hall rental and advertising the series.) For further information, please phone Don Wiles at 613-256-4376. The Almonte Lectures are affiliated with the Mississippi Mills Residents’ Association www.mmra.ca and Carleton University www.carleton.ca. One head can not hold all wisdom.

*****

Friday January 24, 2014 – 7:30 p.m. at the Almonte United Church Social Hall

Speaker: Jeff Manthorpe

Topic: Discovery, development and marketing of pharmaceutical drugs

Synopsis:

Have you ever wondered why pharmaceuticals cost so much? Where do they come from? How are they discovered? What has to be done before they can be prescribed? Why do we have many drugs for certain medical problems and virtually none for other ailments? This lecture will address all of these issues and provide an overview of the drug discovery process, from the understanding of a disease to the drug arriving on the market.

Speaker’s Profile:

Jeff Manthorpe was born and spent most of his youth in Belleville, Ontario.

In 1994, he started a B.Sc. in biomedical science at the University of Guelph, with the goal of becoming a dentist. We should all be thankful that he decided instead to follow his passion and switched to chemistry instead.

In 2003, he graduated with a Ph.D. in synthetic organic chemistry from McGill University and moved to Zurich to carry out postdoctoral research at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology.

In 2006, he became a professor at Carleton University and carries out research in several areas, including organosulfur chemistry, improving chemical sensors, and improving the analysis of biological molecules to aid disease detection.

He is also active in chemistry outreach and continues the tradition started by Professor Wiles of hosting chemistry magic shows for the public.
The Almonte Lectures are geared for eager audiences of all ages and are offered free of charge. (Although a free-will donation is much appreciated and goes toward hall rental and advertising the series.) For further information, please phone Don Wiles at 613-256-4376. The Almonte Lectures are affiliated with the Mississippi Mills Residents’ Association www.mmra.ca and Carleton University www.carleton.ca. One head can not hold all wisdom.

*****

Friday February 21, 2014 – 7:30 p.m. at the Almonte United Church Social Hall

Speaker: Jordan Smith

Topic: The Lost Iron Mines of Lanark County

Synopsis:

In the late 1800s, Lanark County was transformed by discoveries of rich deposits of iron ore and other minerals. Demand in Kingston for local iron sources to feed the booming industry there led to the creation of the Kingston and Pembroke Railway. As the rails pushed north, mines and towns sprung up along the way and helped turn eastern Ontario into one of the most active mining regions in Canada. But the boom was short-lived. By the early 1900s the ore deposits proved uneconomical. The mines closed, communities became ghost towns, and finally the rails were pulled up. Dense overgrowth now hides the few remaining clues.

In this lecture, Jordan Smith of Almonte will present the story of the Wilbur iron mine, once the largest iron mine in Ontario. He will share insights gained from exploring the mine site itself, a project he started after discovering some curious gaps in the historical record.

Speaker’s Profile:

Jordan Smith holds a combined degree in physics, engineering, and English from the University of Waterloo. Following careers in high tech and the arts, he now works at Deloitte where he advises clients on finance matters relating to R&D. Jordan’s many interests include history, archaeology, and teaching which is especially close to his heart. He can often be found deep in the backcountry on his motorbike exploring old trails and ghost towns.
The Almonte Lectures are geared for eager audiences of all ages and are offered free of charge. (Although a free-will donation is much appreciated and goes toward hall rental and advertising the series.) For further information, please phone Don Wiles at 613-256-4376. The Almonte Lectures are affiliated with the Mississippi Mills Residents’ Association www.mmra.ca and Carleton University www.carleton.ca. One head can not hold all wisdom.

*****

Friday March 21, 2014 – 7:30 p.m. at the Almonte United Church Social Hall

Speaker: Hugh Hope

Topic: Freezing and Chilling Tolerance in Common Plants

Synopsis:

Who among us hasn’t looked at the blackened remains of squash plants following a late spring frost? But yet surprisingly cilantro seedlings nearby are undamaged. Why do native maple flowers tolerate low temperatures that kill every flower on a magnolia bush the same cold night? Hugh will talk about the many conundrums surrounding plants that die in the fall, plants that live all winter with no problem and some introduced southern species that survive immersion in liquid nitrogen. A talk about this real cool topic is just not complete without considering why several successive nights at temperatures around +10C will chill damage your precious tomatoes that you recently transplanted into the garden. Differences between chilling and freezing damage will be outlined. We will also dig a bit deeper (pun intended) into the topic of what parts of plants tolerate freezing, how much freezing and why this toleration is minimal in mid summer but very high by early December.

Speaker’s Profile:

Hugh Hope has spent a lifetime involved one way or another with plants. He grew up on a dairy farm at Leitrim just south of Ottawa and learned at an early age about the very direct connection between a hoe and the family vegetable garden. For his B.Sc studies at Carleton University he studied plant structure, function and classification and also chemistry. Combining his background in plants and chemistry he went on to do a Masters degree at Carleton in plant physiology and a Ph.D in plant biochemistry at Dalhousie University in Halifax. Following two years of postdoctoral research work on the chemical changes in plants caused by air pollution at the University of California, Riverside Campus, he began work at Agriculture Canada first in Quebec City and later at the Central Experimental Farm. His research work concentrated on studies of the effects of low temperatures on biochemical reactions in plants using important agricultural plants such as alfalfa and grain corn. In retirement, Hugh has been an avid gardener and has collections of rhododendrons, tree peonies and hellebores as well as alpine plants.
The Almonte Lectures are geared for eager audiences of all ages and are offered free of charge. (Although a free-will donation is much appreciated and goes toward hall rental and advertising the series.) For further information, please phone Don Wiles at 613-256-4376. The Almonte Lectures are affiliated with the Mississippi Mills Residents’ Association www.mmra.ca and Carleton University www.carleton.ca. One head can not hold all wisdom

*****

Friday April 25, 2014 – 7:30 p.m. at the Almonte United Church Social Hall

Speaker: Barbara Carroll

Topic: Understanding Grief

Synopsis:

The lecture will begin by defining grief and outlining the grief process. It will then discuss how our understanding of grief is shaped by a society that is uncomfortable with death, loss and bereavement, and look at the ways in which this understanding influences how we grieve and how we respond to those who have suffered a loss. The speaker will identify the ways our learned responses are unhelpful for those who are bereaved or for those who support them. It will conclude by introducing more adaptive strategies for grieving our own losses, and for supporting others who are grieving.

Speaker’s Profile:

Barbara Carroll has a PhD in psychology from Carleton University with specialities in grief and bereavement and group processes. She taught psychology at Carleton, McGill, and Trent Universities for 15 years, consulted for organizations, and now works as a grief and bereavement specialist in Lanark County. She has trained with leaders in the field of grief, bereavement, traumatic loss and palliative care, and is a Certified Grief Recovery Specialist and Group Facilitator. Barbara provides one-on-one grief counselling for those suffering a loss due to death as well as losses due to major life transitions. She also offers specialty bereavement groups in areas such as losses due to suicide, multiple losses, loss of a spouse, and neonatal loss, and groups for those who experience loss due to infertility, separation and divorce, job loss, or retirement. In addition, Barbara continues to write and speak publicly about grief, loss, and bereavement.
The Almonte Lectures are geared for eager audiences of all ages and are offered free of charge. (Although a free-will donation is much appreciated and goes toward hall rental and advertising the series.) For further information, please phone Don Wiles at 613-256-4376. The Almonte Lectures are affiliated with the Mississippi Mills Residents’ Association www.mmra.ca and Carleton University www.carleton.ca. One head can not hold all wisdom.

2014-15 Lecture Series

26 September
Matthew Bellamy
Beer and the Canadian Brewing history

24 October
Ron Ayling
Canada and China in Forestry

28 November
Peter Ricketts
What the Oceans tell us about Climate Change

23 January
Bob Miller
How Democratic Government works

27 February
Christopher Prince
Privacy, Surveillance and Transparency

27 March
Jeff Smith
Airport Inspection Technology

24 April
Andrew Wilson
Landmarks of Engineering History

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