Past Canada Research Chair Seminars - Abstracts

Currently thirty-eight Simon Fraser University faculty members are Canada Research Chair holders. They achieve research excellence in natural sciences, engineering, health sciences, humanities, and social sciences. The focus of the SFU Canada Research Chairs Seminar Series is to provide an opportunity to the wider SFU community to learn more about the current research interests of the SFU Canada Research Chair holders.

SFU Canada Research Chairs Seminar Series: "The Psychology of Improving Relations between Groups: Friendship, Prejudice Reduction, and Social Change"

Stephen Wright

Canada Research Chair in Social Psychology, Department of Psychology

Date: Nov 24, 2011
Time: 11:30 - 12:30
Room: ASB10900
WebSite: Click Here

Abstract

Abstract: Negative attitudes and unequal treatment across social groups remains a compelling human problem, and understanding the nature, the causes and the reduction of prejudice has been a major theme in social psychology. One thing that seems fairly clear is that friendly contact between members of different groups can lead to reductions in prejudice. However, what is less clear is why. Contemporary research and theorizing has focused on three distinct but related issues surrounding cross-group contact. First, what are the psychological processes that underlie attitude change during friendly cross-group contact? Second, what are the barriers to meaningful friendly contact? Third, while it is certainly true that those who are the targets of the most virulent kinds of prejudice will benefit from its reduction, cross-group contact may not be a panacea if the ultimate goal is create great equality between groups.

Bio

Steve is Professor and Canada Research Chair in Social Psychology at Simon Fraser University. He received his PhD from McGill and was a faculty member at the University of California, Santa Cruz from 1991 to 2003, when he moved to SFU. He is a fellow of the Association of Psychological Sciences, the Society of Experimental Social Psychology, and the Society for the Psychological Study of Social Issues. He has served as associate editor of Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin and the British Journal of Social Psychology. His research focuses on intergroup relations, with specific interests in: the consequences of membership in stigmatized groups, collective action participation, prejudice and its reduction, and issues of minority languages and cultures.

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Canada Research Chairs Special Session: Les Ecologistes Seminar "Biodiversity and ecosystem functioning: How linking societal concerns, theory and experiments is transforming ecology"

Michel Loreau, Biology

Canada Research Chair in Theoretical Ecology, McGill

Date: Nov 10, 2011
Time: 13:00 - 14:30
Room: ASB10900

Abstract

Dr. Loreau is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada. He initiated and chaired the consultative process towards an International Mechanism of Scientific Expertise on Biodiversity, which gave birth to the Intergovernmental science-policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services.

Canada Research Chairs Seminar Series: "China's Quest for "Soft Power": Imperatives, Impediments, and Irreconcilable Tensions?"

Yuezhi Zhao

Canada Research Chair in the Political Economy of Global Communication, School of Communication

Date: Nov 10, 2011
Time: 11:30 - 12:30
Room: ASB10900
WebSite: Click Here

Abstract

From establishing Confucius Institutes all over the world to mounting an advertising blitz in New York's Times Square, the Chinese state's multifaceted endeavour to strengthen its "soft power" has been highly visible and the subject of much recent journalistic and scholarly attention. This talk locates the Chinese state's "soft power" quest within historical and geopolitical contexts and critically examines its profoundly contradictory underpinning political economy and cultural politics. While this campaign's political and moral imperatives appear self-evident, its structural and ideological impediments seem to be insurmountable. Furthermore, there are irreconcilable tensions between the drive to pursue an elitist and cultural essentialist agenda in global communication and the capacity to articulate an alternative political and social vision that has popular appeal in a deeply divided and crises-laden global order.

Bio

Dr. Yuezhi Zhao received her B.A. in Journalism in China and her M.A. and Ph.D. in Communication at Simon Fraser University. She worked as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Communication at the University of California, San Diego between 1997 and 2000, and returned to SFU in 2000. Currently a Tier I Canada Research Chair and the Associate Director of the School of Communication, Dr. Zhao has a broad research interest on media, communication technologies, and democratic governance in North American, Chinese, and global contexts. Her recent books include Communication and Society: Political Economic and Cultural Analysis (in Chinese, 2011); Communication in China: Political Economy, Power, and Conflict (2008), Global Communications (co-edited, 2008), and Democratizing Global Media (co-edited, 2005).

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SFU Canada Research Chairs: Seminar Series "Saving Nemo: The science of ocean conservation"

Nicholas Dulvy

Canada Research Chair in Marine Biodiversity and Conservation, Department of Biology

Date: Oct 27, 2011
Time: 11:30 - 12:30
Room: ASB10900
WebSite: Click Here

Abstract

"How inappropriate to call this planet Earth when it is quite clearly Ocean." Arthur C. Clarke The most recent geological epoch was defined by the discovery of agriculture ten thousand years ago. In this short space of time we have put one third of the Earth's ice-free land to the plough. In an even shorter space of time, over the last century, we have turned our technology to sieving the ocean for wild food. The supermarket shelf tells us that the oceans are inexhaustible, but without science we can never hope to know differently. Fisheries catches are stagnating and the seas are warming, raising questions as to whether we face the end of the oceans as we know them. There is no doubt that we have drawn heavily from our oceans to feed millions of people, but the question is whether we have done irreversible harm to the biodiversity of our seas? Here, I tell a travelogue of my wanders from library archives to some of the most remote islands and coasts in the world to bring back a story of the state of the oceans, and the possible futures of the oceans.

Bio

Dr Nicholas Dulvy completed his B.Sc. in Animal Zoology at the University of Birmingham, UK before taking up a position as scientific officer for an expedition to Mafia Island, Tanzania. On his return he completed his Ph.D. in evolutionary ecology at the University of East Anglia, UK in 1999, before moving to Fiji to begin a postdoctoral fellowship on "alternate stable states of coral reefs". On his return he was a lecturer at the University of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, UK and in 2003 he became a policy advisor and research scientist at the UK government fisheries agency. Nick is a Professor in the Department of Biological Sciences after joining SFU in 2008 as an Associate Professor and CRC tier II in Marine Biodiversity and Conservation. He has been the Co-Chair of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature Shark Specialist Group - a global volunteer network of around 160 scientists and experts from 90 countries in 12 ocean regions. The SSG has a mission: "to secure the conservation, management and recovery of the world's sharks, rays and chimaeras through the mobilisation of global technical expertise". The focus of his work is to understand the nature and scale of global change using comparative analyses of populations, communities and ecosystems along temporal and spatial gradients of human impact. He has published over eighty peer-reviewed paper and book chapters on life histories, extinction risk, the ecosystem impacts of fishing and the ecological and socioeconomic impacts of climate change. In 2009 he was presented with the Zoological Society of London's Marsh Award for Marine and Freshwater Conservation which is awarded for "contributions of fundamental science and its application to the conservation in marine and/or freshwater ecosystems". The award citation was for "research on the effects of climate change on fisheries and coastal communities, as well as threat and extinction risks in the context of improving fisheries management". In 2010, he was made a Conservation Fellow of the Zoological Society of London, an award "to honour individuals who have made exceptional contributions to conservation".

Video Archive

SFU Canada Research Chairs Seminar Series: "Controlling the Surfaces of Matter"

Byron Gates

Canada Research Chair in Surface Chemistry, Department of Chemistry

Date: Mar 24, 2011
Time: 11:30 - 12:30
Room: ASB10900
WebSite: Click Here

Abstract

We aim to understand the scale to which the surface chemistry of materials can be uniformly manipulated and the robustness of these alterations. Of particular importance is our ability to alter the surface chemistry of materials on the nanoscale. Developments in nanotechnology have opened the doors to our ability to manipulate and design materials on a scale approaching that of a single atom. Harnessing these achievements requires an ability to match this level of design with molecular-scale control over the surface chemistry of nanomaterials. One approach is to coat the surfaces of these materials through the selective assembly and adhesion of organic molecules. Such surface modifications can modify the chemical and physical properties of a material without significantly changing its appearance or dimensions. We are pursuing the use of these single-molecule thick coatings for a diverse range of applications that include remotely controlled release of molecules for stimulating biological systems, and improved techniques for incorporating nanoscale electrical and optical materials into devices. How durable are single-molecule thick coatings? How do the observed properties correlate with non-uniformities in the assembled films? This presentation will introduce the tools and techniques we are developing to evaluate the homogeneity and durability of these surface modifications, how we are improving their stability, and how we are utilizing these molecular-scale coatings to harness the advantages of nanoscale materials.

Bio

A Tier II Canada Research Chair in Surface Chemistry at Simon Fraser University, Byron Gates has built a research program to investigate the surfaces of materials, which includes the interface between nanoscale materials and their surrounding environment. Byron is currently working to develop new approaches to bio-sensing, bio-imaging, self-assembly, and nanofabrication. To achieve these goals, he is developing new synthetic strategies to nanostructures, techniques to investigate the specific surface chemistry of these structures, and new methods to position these structures into well-defined patterns. Byron received his Ph.D. from the University of Washington in Seattle, Washington while working with Professor Younan Xia on new routes to structured optical materials, such as photonic crystals. He studied the limits of soft lithography while working as a postdoctoral fellow at Harvard University with Professor George M. Whitesides before joining the faculty at Simon Fraser University where he is an Associate Professor of Chemistry and Director of Nanofabrication Facilities in 4D LABS at SFU.

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SFU Canada Research Chairs Seminar Series: "The Known Knowns, Known Unknowns, and Unknown Unknowns of Atmospheric Carbon Dioxide through the Ice Ages"

Karen E. Kohfeld

Canada Research Chair in Climate, Resource, and Global Change, School of Resource and Environmental Management

Date: Mar 10, 2011
Time: 11:30 - 12:30
Room: ASB10900
WebSite: Click Here

Abstract

Atmospheric carbon dioxide levels have increased by about 37% since pre-industrial times due to human activities, and they are projected to continue rising. One great challenge we face is understanding the impacts of these dramatic changes on the earth and climate system. How can we be sure that we understand how the global carbon cycle and its relationship with climate may change in the future? One way of approaching this question is to study past changes in atmospheric carbon dioxide. Antarctic ice core records show us that atmospheric carbon dioxide actually decreased by 33% relative to pre-industrial times during the last ice age, a pattern repeated every 100,000 years for at least the 800,000 years. Yet the exact causes of these rhythmic changes remain somewhat of a mystery. This presentation will explore some of the leading hypotheses put forth to explain the ice age CO2 mystery.

Bio

After completing her Ph.D. at Columbia University in 1998, Karen Kohfeld was a researcher at Lund University (Sweden) and then the Max Planck Institute for Biogeochemistry (Germany) before joining the School of Resource and Environmental Management at SFU in 2006. She is interested in understanding natural variability within the ocean and climate system, in order to better understand how the earth system responds to anthropogenic perturbations. Her research focuses on biogeochemical linkages between carbon, dust, and climate.

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SFU Canada Research Chairs Seminar Series: "At the confluence of exterior calculus, approximation theory and numerical analysis: high-order FEM approximation on pyramids"

Nilima Nigam

Canada Research Chair in Applied Mathematics, Department Of Mathematics

Date: Feb 24, 2011
Time: 11:30 - 12:30
Room: ASB10900
WebSite: Click Here

Abstract

The finite element method is a popular technique for approximating weak solutions of PDE, particularly in the presence of geometric or structural features. Typically a physical domain is tessellated ('meshed') by either tetrahedral or hexahedral subdomains, and the global solution is approximated from locally-defined bases. High order approximation is achieved by a combination of mesh refinement and increased order of (local) approximants. How does one choose appropriate approximation spaces with a view to accuracy, stability and efficiency? This question has spurred an explosion of research over the last 4 decades, and recently been addressed in a systematic and elegant fashion by the finite element exterior calculus. In essence, discrete approximants must satisfy a discrete exact sequence property akin to the deRham sequence at the continuous level, and interpolants must allow for this pair of sequences to have a 'commuting diagram' property.

Certain applications necessitate hybrid meshes consisting of both hexahedral and tetrahedral elements, which must then be glued together by pyramidal elements. For the past thirty years researchers have sought high-order finite elements for pyramids, with only partial success. Some of the challenges are due to the geometric degeneracy of the pyramid. We present the first construction of conforming high-order finite elements on a pyramid, which satisfy the exact sequence property, the commuting diagram property, and which are compatible through exterior traces with neighbouring tetrahedral and hexahedral elements'.

Video Archive

SFU Canada Research Chairs Seminar Series: "Organizing space and time inside simple cells"

Eldon Emberly

Canada Research Chair in Materials and Structural Biology, Department of Physics

Date: Feb 10, 2011
Time: 11:30 - 12:30
Room: ASB10900
WebSite: Click Here

Abstract

Cells display a rich assortment of organized spatial structure that is often also meticulously regulated in time. A variety of cellular processes require spatial organization of various components, from the segregation of the DNA in dividing cells to the detection of vital food on the cells surface. In large eukaryotic cells, much of the spatial organization emerges as a result of active transporting mechanisms but in much smaller bacteria, many patterns emerge purely spontaneously due to specific interactions between biomolecules. In this talk I will highlight how a bacterial cell can spontaneously detect its left from right and how it uses this information to regulate DNA segregation. I will discuss a simple quantitative model of the process and show how computational simulation is able to make novel predictions for how spatial ordering arises. Lastly, a brief discussion on the application of simple physical models to cell biology will be attempted.

Bio

Dr. Emberly studied physics during his undergraduate education at the University of Manitoba. He then pursued a Ph.D. in physics at Simon Fraser University, carrying out computational modeling of molecular electronic systems. He graduated from SFU in 2000. From there he moved into the area of biophysics, taking up two postdoctoral research positions at the NEC Research Institute in Princeton, NJ and The Rockefeller University. He returned to SFU in 2004, taking up a faculty position in Physics. His research group is interested in a broad range of topics in the area of quantitative biology, applying physical modeling to a variety of molecular biology problems.

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SFU Canada Research Chairs Seminar Series: "Vectors and Parasites: What Can We Learn from Insects to Treat Human Diseases?"

Carl Lowenberger

Canada Research Chair in Parasitology and Vectors of Disease Entomology, Department of Biology

Date: Jan 27, 2011
Time: 11:30 - 12:30
Room: ASB10900
WebSite: Click Here

Abstract

Insect vectors transmit parasites and pathogens that cause significant human morbidity and mortality. Most insects recognize and eliminate these parasites using components of their innate immune system. Why then do all insects not eliminate their parasites? Understanding the molecules involved in recognizing parasites, activating the correct pathways, communication between cells and tissues, and producing effector molecules that eliminate parasites is a rapidly developing, multidisciplinary area of research. The response of any vector depends in part on the location and movement of the parasite in the host: vectors respond differently to nematodes that move through their body cavity than towards intracellular viruses. A major impetus in our field has been the advent of large scale sequencing of genomes and transcriptomes. We have available several field collected vector strains that are resistant or susceptible to specific parasites. We take advantage of gene silencing and transgenic approaches to evaluate the role of specific genes in determining whether an insect will kill or transmit a parasite. This talk will focus on our current understanding of insect innate immunity, the development and use of tools to evaluate responses to different parasites, the effector molecules used to kill parasites, and how we might exploit these molecules to develop novel drugs to treat human infections.

Bio

Carl Lowenberger has combined his interests in Entomology (U. of Guelph), Medical Entomology (Simon Fraser University) and Parasitology (McGill) to develop a research program around insects that transmit parasites to humans. He moved to the University of Wisconsin-Madison initially as a post doctoral Fellow and then as a Faculty member. In 2002 he was appointed to the Department of Biological Sciences as a CRC in Parasites and Vectors of Disease. He is a Scholar of the Michel Smith Foundation for Health Research and is an Associate Member of the Centre for Forensic Research (Criminology) and the Department of Molecular Biology and Biochemistry at SFU. Dr. Lowenberger collaborates extensively with researchers in areas where malaria, Dengue and Chagas diseases are endemic, and leads a team of researchers that uses multi-disciplinary approaches to identify targets and weak links in the vector-parasite interface we might exploit to reduce disease transmission or to develop new drugs to treat disease.

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SFU Canada Research Chairs Seminar Series: "How to Improve Education with Educational Research that Focuses on Each Learner"

Philip H. Winne

Canada Research Chair in Self-Regulated Learning and Learning Technologies , Faculty of Education

Date: Nov 25, 2010
Time: 11:30 - 12:30
Room: ASB10900
WebSite: Click Here

Abstract

Educational research has a ghost in its closet. Researchers acknowledge that learners can shape how they learn as well as many conditions that affect learning. Indeed, proclamations that students should develop ``personal skills for life long learning" depend on this view. In seeming opposition to this is an obvious fact: A research methodology that relegates this intrinsic human agency to ``error variance" has generated powerful, replicable (but sometimes counterintuitive) principles about how to improve learning - on average. What's scientifically trustworthy or educationally useful about principles if any student can reshape them at almost any time? How useful to educators are principles that poorly fit learners who differ from the average? A model of self-regulated learning can map this territory but a fundamental shift in research methodology is needed that embraces rather than dismisses human agency. A key to realizing the modified paradigm I will describe is intensive use of computing technologies throughout education. I sketch an ideal scenario that could have two happy results: accelerating the trajectory of research and simultaneously helping learners build personal skills for life long learning.

Bio

Phil Winne joined the Faculty of Education at SFU after completing his PhD in educational psychology at Stanford University in 1975. He investigates how learners build and manage skills for learning, and how research methods might be fine tuned to study those phenomena. Phil is a Canada Research Chair and a Fellow of the American Educational Research Association, the American Psychological Association, the Association for Psychological Science and the Canadian Psychological Association. He is most proud of being honored by the Mentorship Award, given by the Canadian Committee of Students in Education within the Canadian Society for the Study of Education; and the Robbie Case Memorial Award for outstanding contributions to educational psychology in Canada, given by the Canadian Association for Educational Psychology.

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SFU Canada Research Chairs Seminar Series: "Beyond Pain"

Diane Gromala

Canada Research Chair in Multidisciplinary and Multimedia Arts , School of Interactive Arts & Technology

Date: Oct 28, 2010
Time: 11:30 - 12:30
Room: ASB10900
WebSite: Click Here

Abstract

Pain is a universal human experience, our essential warning system for danger and injury. However, for reasons yet to be discovered, the pain response system in some people becomes "stuck" in a kind of permanent overdrive, known as chronic pain. Chronic pain is a disease in its own right, an often degenerative and debilitating condition that often lasts a lifetime. By conservative estimates, one in five Canadians suffer from chronic pain, from children to the elderly. Managing chronic pain poses many difficulties for patients and health care providers alike: because researchers are just beginning to understand how chronic pain works, it is often difficult to diagnose and manage. Further, once diagnosed, most Canadians must wait for years to gain access to pain experts and multidisciplinary pain centres. The consequences of the so-called "silent epidemic" of chronic pain are immense: time lost in jobs, disability, depression, social isolation and the loss of mobility are just a few. New technologies, however, hold great promise as additional tools for addressing chronic pain and the many difficulties it poses. For example, immersive virtual reality (VR) has proven to be more effective than opiods -- the gold standard used by humans for thousands of years -- in alleviating some forms of pain. Other technologies under development range from highly specialized biomedical devices to commonly accessible technologies, such as social media, mobile devices, robotics and visualization. This talk explores how many forms of new technologies are being developed, tested and used to help those who live with chronic pain, along with their care givers and healthcare professionals.

Bio

Canada Research Chair Diane Gromala is an Associate Professor in the School of Interactive Arts and Technology at Simon Fraser University. Her research focuses on the potential of emerging technologies to address the problems faced by those who live with chronic pain, and is conducted in close collaboration with healthcare experts and patients. Gromala was recently appointed to the Faculty of the Michael G. DeGroote National Pain Centre, and is a frequent participant in initiatives between Canada's National Networks for Centres for Excellence (NCE GRAND) and the National Science Foundation in the U.S. Gromala is the founding director of the Transforming Pain Research Group, comprised of researchers and practitioners in pain medicine, neuroscience, psychology, computer science, engineering, health communications, design and interactive art. She holds a PhD in Computing Science from the University of Plymouth, England, and an MFA in Design from Yale University. Her work is currently in use in over 20 hospitals and clinics worldwide.

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SFU Canada Research Chairs Seminar Series: "The New Complex Patient? Diseases, Systems, and Interventions"

Cynthia K. Patton

Canada Research Chair in Community, Culture and Health, Department of Sociology and Anthropology

Date: Oct 14, 2010
Time: 11:30 - 12:20
Room: ASB10900
WebSite: Click Here

Abstract

At first glance, the terms ``co-morbid patient," ``dual/multi-diagnosed/co-occurring diagnosis patient," and ``complex patient" seem to apply to the same people-those with more than one specific, single diagnosis. However, a search in medical, allied health, mental health, and social science journals reveals that each term is employed by a specific subset of health disciplines (medicine, epidemiology, mental health, nursing, health services) in research and clinical practice, and that all three terms are used in ways that differ ontologically, epistemologically, and/or methodologically. There is no clear, unified object of study or object of intervention in these terms. Thus, while there is robust and voluminous research in each of the relevant health disciplines about the problem of increasing complexity in medicine, there remains a major conceptual gap because the research is carried out under different epistemological frameworks and for different purposes. This seminar will present some ethnographic findings from completed research in clinic settings, and place these in the context of historical changes in scientific understanding of disease, health actuarial systems, and clinical practice that have resulted in the parallel invocation of `complexity', but possibly incommensurable uses of the concept in research and clinical practice.

Bio

Professor Cindy Patton (Harvard Divinity School, MTS 1977; University of Massachusetts, PhD 1992) holds the Canada Research Chair in Community, Culture and Health in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology. She has a long participated in community health and community development initiatives as an activist and scholar. Her Health Methods Research and Training Facility (SFU-Harbour Centre) provides pro bono research assistance to community groups, focusing particularly on housing, community arts, and social welfare. She has published extensively on social aspects of the HIV epidemic, beginning with her 1985 Sex and Germs: The Politics of AIDS and most recently, a editor of Rebirth of the Clinic, a book devoted to questions of the historical and contemporary place of clinics and clinical practices.

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SFU Canada Research Chairs Seminar Series: "Fantastic voyage: To nano and back"

Erol Girt

Canada Research Chair in Condensed Matter Physics, Department of Physics

Date: Sep 30, 2010
Time: 11:30 - 12:30
Room: ASB10900
WebSite: Click Here

Abstract

In the last four decades interest in material research and industry has shifted from bulk materials to rapid quenched ribbons and thin films. Advances in lithography have enabled the fabrication of features several tens of nanometers in size. Progress in film growth has lead to formation of nano-sized dots with atomic scale composition control along the growth direction. Advances in scanning tunneling microscopy have even enabled the manipulation of single atoms and molecules. The trend of reducing material size has been driven by the search for novel physical properties on the nano and sub-nano scale and the need for smaller electronic devices. However, recently the emphasis has shifted toward renewable energy and microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) where the critical dimensions are of the order of a micron. I am interested in both nano and micro science and technology. In the first part of my talk I will discuss the importance of reducing size in magnetic recording. At the nanometer scale both magnetic moment reversal, and the conductivity across the interface between a ferromagnet and metal (or oxide), have unique characteristics that have been used to increase recording media density almost one million times in last three decades. I will review recent developments in recording industry with emphasis on our current work and our future plans. In the second part of my talk I will discuss the importance of permanent magnets in MEMS and give a quick tour of the Surface Science Lab and the development of instruments for both MEMS and solar cell research.

Bio

Erol Girt joined SFU as associate professor in the department of physics in 2009. Prior to joining SFU he was the head of research and one of the principal designers of the process of the fabrication of thin film solar cells at Applied Quantum Technology in Santa Clara, California. From 2000 to 2007 he worked at Seagate Technology, in Fremont, California, where he received an Outstanding Technical Contributions Award for his contributions in developing recording media. Erol Girt obtained his B.Sc and M.Sc. degrees in Physics from the Faculty of Natural Sciences in Bosnia and Herzegovina, and his PhD in Physics from McGill University. He was also a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Department of Material Science at Berkeley University and the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.

Video Archive

SFU Canada Research Chairs Seminar Series: "From Distance to Diversity: Extending the Concept of a Metric Space"

Paul Tupper

Canada Research Chair in Applied Mathematics, Department of Mathematics

Date: Sep 16, 2010
Time: 11:30 - 12:30
Room: ASB10900
WebSite: Click Here

Abstract

In mathematics and related disicplines a metric space is a mathematical abstraction of our everyday concept of space with a corresponding notion of distance. For each pairs of points in a metric space there is a number which represents the distance between the points. Metrics spaces play an important role in phylogenetics, in which the genetic history of a collection of species is reconstructed from the species' genomes. One important construction in the theory of metric spaces is the tight span. The tight span of a metric space can be thought of as a generalization of the idea of a convex hull in linear spaces and is the basis for much work in the study and visualization of finite metric spaces. Motivated by problems in phylogenetics, we have developed a generalization of the concept of metric spaces, which we call diversities. In a diversity, every subset of points in the space corresponds to a number, not just pairs, and there is a more general version of the triangle inequality. Besides encompassing a number of interesting examples as special cases, diversities have a natural tight span construction with corresponding theory. I will give an introduction to metric spaces, phylogenetics, and tight spans, and then present some of our own work on diversities. Much of the talk will be accessible to a general audience. This is joint work with David Bryant (University of Otago, New Zealand).

Bio

Paul Tupper graduated from Simon Fraser University with a BSc in Mathematics in 1997, and went on to do a PhD in the Scientific Computing-Computational Mathematics Program at Stanford. After two years as a post-doc in Physics at McGill, Dr Tupper took a position as Assistant Professor in Mathematics and Statistics at McGill. In 2008 he joined SFU as Associate Professor and Canada Research Chair of Applied Mathematics. Dr Tupper's interests span numerical analysis, molecular dynamics, phylogenetics, mathematical modelling in linguistics. In 2005 he won 1st place in the Leslie Fox Prize competition for his work on ergodicity and simulation of Hamiltonian systems. Asked how it feels to be a professor in the same department where he was a student, Dr Tupper replies "It is a thrill to be able to work beside my boyhood heroes, in such an excellent department."

Video Archive

SFU Canada Research Chairs Seminar Series: "Advancing Population Health in Canada: What We Can Learn from Children's Mental Health"

Charlotte Waddell

Canada Research Chair in Children's Health Policy, Faculty Of Health Science

Date: Apr 08, 2010
Time: 11:30 - 12:30
Room: ASB10900
WebSite: Click Here

Abstract

Children's mental health presents a striking illustration of the need to advance population health ideas in public policy-making more generally. At any given time, 14% of children (or an estimated 800,000 in Canada) experience mental disorders that cause significant distress and impairment and reduce their educational and employment chances throughout the lifespan. Despite Canada's substantial investments in healthcare, fewer than 25% of these children receive appropriate services. Meanwhile, few public programs address the upstream causes of mental health problems early in life, leaving children vulnerable to the downstream consequences of mental disorders later in life. Yet there is increasingly persuasive evidence for programs that can prevent the most common mental health problems in childhood, including depression, anxiety and antisocial behaviour. Children's mental health is not unique in this regard, but it does provide a particularly stark example of the challenges in shifting public priorities towards policies and programs with the potential to improve the health and wellbeing of the whole population. This talk will describe a research program that is exploring these challenges in order to advance population health ideas. Located at the intersection of three fields (children's mental health, population health and health policy), this program has three overarching goals: (1) evaluating existing public investments in children's mental health; (2) improving the evidence base for population health interventions to inform policy-making; (3) exploring how policy-makers, researchers and others can make better collective ethical judgments on behalf of children and the population.

Bio

Charlotte Waddell is a child psychiatrist with longstanding interests in health policy and population and public health. She holds the Canada Research Chair in children's health policy in the Faculty of Health Sciences at SFU, where she is also Associate Professor and Director of the Children's Health Policy Centre. Charlotte's research addresses mental health disparities, starting in childhood, by improving the connections between research and policy. As a child psychiatrist, Charlotte also continues to work with children involved with the child protection and youth justice systems. It is working with these children that ultimately informs and inspires her research and teaching. To learn more about the Children's Health Policy Centre, please visit www.childhealthpolicy.sfu.ca.

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SFU Canada Research Chairs Seminar Series: "Increasing Risk from Natural Disasters in the Twenty-first Century"

John J. Clague

Canada Research Chair in Natural Hazard Research, Department of Earth Sciences

Date: Mar 25, 2010
Time: 11:30 - 12:30
Room: ASB10900
WebSite: Click Here

Abstract

Global risk from hazardous natural processes will increase through the remainder of this century, not because the incidence of natural disasters is changing, but rather because our exposure to them is growing. The human population will reach more than 9 billion by the middle of this century, about one-third larger than our population of 7 billion. Much of this growth will occur in areas that experience large earthquakes, cyclones, or floods. The growth in human numbers will be accompanied by continuing urbanization, an inevitability that will see well over half the world's population living in cities by the middle of the century. With urbanization will come a rapid increase in the number of megacities, many of which are, or will be, located in areas prone to natural disasters; this trend will be accompanied by greater concentrations of infrastructure, human capital, and national wealth. A large earthquake in a growing city such as Tokyo, Los Angeles, or Istanbul, or a powerful hurricane along the Washington, New Jersey, or New York coast, would be a national disaster with global economic fallout. The global economic consequence of natural disasters is a developing issue, first illustrated in 1995 by the Kobe earthquake and later, in 2005, by Hurricane Katrina. A discussion of vulnerability to natural disasters must distinguish risk to human life from economic risk. Major technological and engineering improvements in developed countries, such as those of North America, Europe, and Japan have reduced the risk to human life to a very low level. Large earthquakes in California in 1989 (Loma Prieta) and 1994 (Northridge), for example, each caused less than 70 fatalities. However, no such improvements have happened in earthquake-prone developing countries, consequently the risk to human life there is growing. In contrast, economic risk is increasing in both developed and developing countries due to the aforementioned trends in urbanization and concentration of economic wealth in cities. The Loma Prieta and Northridge earthquakes, for example, caused a total of $20-25 billion damage, yet they were by no means the largest earthquakes that are possible in San Francisco and Los Angeles. Natural catastrophes causing more than $100 billion damage are likely in coming years.

Bio

John Clague is a environmental geologist with 40 years research experience in natural hazards (earthquakes, tsunami, landslides, and floods) and climate change, both in Canada and abroad. His other professional interest is improving public awareness of earth science by making relevant geoscience information available to students, teachers, and the general public. John holds a Canada Research Chair in Natural Hazard Research and is Director of the SFU Centre for Natural Hazard Research. Prior to joining to SFU's faculty in 1998, John was a Senior Research Scientist at the Geological Survey of Canada. He gives frequent talks to school and community groups and is regularly called on by the media to comment on a range of earth science issues. For more information about the Centre for Natural Hazard Research and Dr. Clague's research, please see: www.sfu.ca/cnhr/ and //www.sfu.ca/~qgrc/

Video Archive

SFU Canada Research Chairs Seminar Series: "The Molecular Basis of Myocardial Function: Novel Designs to Meet Physiological Challenges and Inherited Errors in Design which Result in Congenital Heart Disease"

Glen F. Tibbits

Canada Research Chair in Molecular Cardiac Physiology, Department of Biomedical Physiology and Kinesiology

Date: Mar 11, 2010
Time: 11:30 - 12:30
Room: ASB10900
WebSite: Click Here

Abstract

Although the heart is a remarkable organ which has the capability of responding to a wide range of physiological demands over many decades of continuous strenuous effort, its function is often not fully appreciated until it fails. Two critical elements of cardiac cells (cardiomyocytes) are: 1) an elaborate system of electrical signalling comprised of membrane spanning molecules which serve as ion channels and transporters and 2) a contractile system made up of an elegant series of molecular motors. The latter respond to the electrical signalling with a coordinated and highly synchronized generation of cardiomyocyte tension and cell shortening which serves to propel the blood into the circulation. These molecular motors are made of up of contractile proteins which, although being highly conserved throughout vertebrate evolution, have still evolved to meet unique environmental challenges. In humans single point mutations in genes which encode ion channels and molecular motors often result in life threatening cardiac arrhythmias and or cardiomyopathies. The etiology of these diseases will be discussed with an eye to understanding these how these flawed molecular designs affect function and the resultant advanced treatments that are moving into the realm of personalized medicine.

Bio

Glen Tibbits grew up in Montreal and after graduating from McGill University, went on to pursue graduate studies at the University of California, Los Angeles. Seemingly paradoxically, he developed a passion for the intricacies of cardiac function while working towards a PhD in the Brain Research Institute at UCLA. Supported by the American Heart Association, Dr. Tibbits set out for Japan to engage in post-doctoral studies in Pharmacology at Niigata Yakka Daigaku and subsequently in Membrane Biophysics back at UCLA. After serving as a faculty member at the UCLA School of Medicine and the University of Washington, he came to Simon Fraser University in 1985 where he is currently Professor of Biomedical Science and Kinesiology and Canada Research Chair in Molecular Cardiac Physiology. He is an Associate member of the departments of Bioscience and Molecular Biology and Biochemistry at SFU and an Adjunct member of several departments at UBC including Cellular and Physiological Science. He served as Director of Cardiovascular Sciences at the Child and Family Research Institute from 2000 until 2007 and maintains an active laboratory at that site in which basic scientists from his group engage in multidisciplinary dialog with pediatric cardiologists, cardiac surgeons and other clinicians at BC Children’s Hospital. His research program is funded by operating grants from NSERC, Heart and Stroke Foundation and the CIHR.

Video Archive

SFU Canada Research Chairs Seminar Series: "Ten Paradoxes of Technology"

Andrew Feenberg

Canada Research Chair in Philosophy of Technology, School of Communication

Date: Feb 11, 2010
Time: 11:30 - 12:30
Room: ASB10900
WebSite: Click Here

Abstract

Though we may be competent at using many technologies, most of what we think we know about technology in general is false. Our error stems from the everyday conception of things as separate from each other and from us. In reality they belong to an interconnected network the nodes of which cannot exist independently qua technologies. What is more we tend to see technologies as quasi-natural objects, but they are just as much social as natural, just as much determined by the meanings we give them as by the causal laws that rule over their powers. The errors of common sense have political consequences in domains such as medicine and environmental policy. In this talk I will summarize many of the conclusions philosophy of technology has reached reflecting on the reality of our technological world. These conclusions appear as paradoxes judged from our everyday perspective. Here is the list of paradoxes discussed in the talk:

1. The paradox of the parts and the whole: The apparent origin of complex wholes lies in their parts but in reality the parts find their origin in the whole to which they belong.
2. The paradox of the obvious: What is most obvious is most hidden.
3. The paradox of the origin: behind everything rational there lies a forgotten history.
4. The paradox of the frame: Efficiency does not explain success, success explains efficiency.
5. The paradox of action: In acting we become the object of action.
6. The paradox of the means: The means are the end.
7. The paradox of complexity: Simplification complicates.
8. The paradox of value and fact: Values are the facts of the future.
9. The democratic paradox: The public is constituted by the technologies that bind it together but in turn it transforms the technologies that constitute it.
10. The paradox of conquest: The victor belongs to the spoils.

Bio

Andrew Feenberg is Canada Research Chair in Philosophy of Technology in the School of Communication, Simon Fraser University, where he directs the Applied Communication and Technology Lab. He has also taught for many years in the Philosophy Department at San Diego State University, and at Duke University, the State University of New York at Buffalo, the Universities of California, San Diego and Irvine, the Sorbonne, the University of Paris-Dauphine, the Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales, and the University of Tokyo. He is the author of Lukacs, Marx and the Sources of Critical Theory (Rowman and Littlefield, 1981; Oxford University Press, 1986), Critical Theory of Technology (Oxford University Press, 1991), Alternative Modernity (University of California Press, 1995), and Questioning Technology (Routledge, 1999). A second edition of Critical Theory of Technology appeared with Oxford in 2002 under the title Transforming Technology. Heidegger and Marcuse: The Catastrophe and Redemption of History appeared in 2005 with Routledge. Between Reason and Experience: Essays in Technology and Modernity is scheduled to appear with MIT Press in June 2010. Dr. Feenberg is also co-editor of Marcuse: Critical Theory and the Promise of Utopia (Bergin and Garvey Press, 1988), Technology and the Politics of Knowledge (Indiana University Press, 1995), Modernity and Technology (MIT Press, 2003), and Community in the Digital Age (Rowman and Littlefield, 2004). His co-authored book on the French May Events of 1968 appeared in 2001 with SUNY Press under the title When Poetry Ruled the Streets. With William Leiss, Feenberg has edited a collection entitled The Essential Marcuse published by Beacon Press. A book on Feenberg's philosophy of technology entitled Democratizing Technology, appeared in 2006 with the State University of New York Press. In addition to his work on Critical Theory and philosophy of technology, Dr. Feenberg has published on the Japanese philosopher Nishida Kitaro. He is also recognized as an early innovator in the field of online education, a field he helped to create in 1982. He led the TextWeaver Project on improving software for online discussion forums under a grant from the Fund for the Improvement of Post-Secondary Education of the US Department of Education. For the latest web based version of this software, see http://www.geof.net/code/annotation/. Dr. Feenberg is currently studying online education on a grant from the Social Science and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC).

Video Archive

SFU Canada Research Chairs Seminar Series: "Glycobiology: Recent Advances and the Development of Chemical Tools"

David Vocadlo

Canada Research Chair in Chemical Glycobiology, Department of Chemistry

Date: Jan 28, 2010
Time: 11:30 - 12:30
Room: ASB10900
WebSite: Click Here

Abstract

Carbohydrates are ubiquitous biological molecules found in organisms ranging from bacteria to humans. Within the cells of organisms specific carbohydrate building blocks, known as monosaccharides, are assembled by specialized enzymes into complex structures and attached to other parts of the cell. The resulting materials, known as glycoconjugates, are emerging as a new frontier in understanding the molecular biology of cells. Far from simply serving to maintain the structures of cells, or act as nutrients, these glycoconjugates have now been found to play vital roles within the cell; enabling communication between neighbouring cells, verifying the quality of other biomolecules made within the cell, and regulating how cells respond to their environments. This rapidly moving area of research, termed glycobiology, requires a multidisciplinary approach with contributions from chemistry and biology. A major impetus in the field glycobiology is the development of new chemical tools that can enable the perturbation and observation of glycconjugates of interest. This talk will focus on recent advances in understanding the different enzymes that assemble and dismantle glycoconjugates, the development of tools to perturb various glycoconjugates found in humans and bacteria, and the potential beneficial impact of these advances on human health.

Bio

David Vocadlo completed his Ph.D. in 2002 and his interest in fusing chemistry and biology drew him to the the University of California at Berkeley where he was a CIHR Postdoctoral Fellow. He won the 2003 NSERC Doctoral Prize and in 2004 Dr. Vocadlo was appointed to the Department of Chemistry at Simon Fraser University where he is now an Associate Professor and Canada Research Chair in Chemical Glycobiology. He is a Scholar of the Michel Smith Health Research Foundation, an Affiliate of the Brain Research Centre at UBC, and an Associate Member of the Department of Molecular Biology and Biochemistry at SFU. Dr. Vocadlo collaborates extensively with researchers around the world and leads a talented team of 15 researchers at SFU that is using a multi-disciplinary approach to generate new tools to further our understanding of the role of glycans in health and disease.

Video Archive

SFU Canada Research Chairs Seminar Series: "What is the Point of Cultural History?"

Mary-Ellen Kelm, Canada Research Chair in Indigenous Peoples of North America,

Department Of History

Date: Nov 26, 2009
Time: 11:30 - 12:30
Room: ASB10900
WebSite: Click Here

Abstract

The tendency of governments to cut funding to cultural organizations in times of fiscal restraint suggests that, for some, culture is a frivolous pursuit. How much more frivolous, then, is cultural history? Using the history of rodeo in the Canadian West as an example, this talk will sketch out the ways that history can reveal how culture builds communities, identities and relationships. Finally, it will suggest how awareness of this history can change how we think about one of the intractable social issues of our time, building new relationships with First Nations in the Canadian West.

Bio

Kelm's work has examined the impacts of colonization on Aboriginal health and healing in British Columbia. She is finishing a book on rodeo as an example of Pratt's `contact zone,' in which both settler and Aboriginal communities, identities and affinities are produced and performed at small town Stampedes. Her new research returns to medical history to study the production of knowledge about Aboriginal health over the course of the 20th century.

Video Archive

SFU Canada Research Chairs Seminar Series: "Investigating the Origin and Evolution of Culture with Phylogenetic Techniques"

Mark Collard, Canada Research Chair in Human Evolutionary Studies

Department of Archeology

Date: Nov 12, 2009
Time: 11:30 - 12:30
Room: ASB10900
WebSite: Click Here

Abstract

My undergraduate training was in archaeology. Subsequently, I gained a PhD in hominin palaeontology. Over the last 10 years, I have attempted to bridge these two disciplines by addressing questions regarding culture with techniques that are used by hominin palaeontologists to reconstruct the descent or `phylogenetic' relationships among our fossil relatives. In this talk, I will review a number of these studies. I will begin by describing a group of studies in which my colleagues and I have used the cladistic method of phylogenetic reconstruction to assess competing claims about the existence of culture in the chimpanzee (Pan troglodytes). I will then outline a group of studies in which my colleagues and I have used a range of datasets and phylogenetic techniques to investigate the processes that give rise to cultural similarities and differences among human populations. These two groups of studies suggest that some long-standing archaeological assumptions about culture may not be correct. More importantly, they show that culture is amenable to scientific study.

Bio

Prof. Collard joined the SFU Department of Archaeology in July 2007 as an Associate Professor and Canada Research Chair in Human Evolutionary Studies. He is also a principal investigator of the Centre for the Evolution of Cultural Diversity at University College London, which is funded by the UK's Arts and Humanities Research Council. He carries out research on a number of topics in biological anthropology. Among these are the identification of species in the hominin fossil record, the reconstruction of fossil hominin and non-human primate evolutionary relationships, and the estimation of body mass, stature and age from skeletal material. In addition, he uses methods and theory from biology to address question about the evolution of culture.

Video Archive

SFU Canada Research Chairs Seminar Series: "We Are Impatient Because We Die. But Why Do We Die?"

Arthur Robson, Canada Research Chair in Economic Theory and Evolution

Department of Economics

Date: Oct 29, 2009
Time: 11:30 - 12:30
Room: ASB10900
WebSite: Click Here

Abstract

A Darwinian perspective sheds light on why we are impatient, that is, why we discount future rewards. This evolutionary explanation derives from our basic demography during our history as hunter-gatherers. Given what must have been low long run rates of population growth, our impatience can be linked to our mortality. Roughly, we are impatient because we die. Indeed, a Darwinian perspective helps to explain how the rate of discount or impatience might vary with age. Although at first blush, this perspective might suggest that the old should be impatient to an unrealistic degree because their mortality rates are high, a fuller treatment produces greater patience.

Bio

Arthur Robson received a B.Sc.(Hons) in mathematics from Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand, in 1968; and a Ph.D. in economics from MIT in 1975 under the supervision of Professor Robert M. Solow. He was an assistant, associate and full professor at the University of Western Ontario before moving to SFU in 2003. Currently, he is a full professor and Tier 1 Canada Research Chair in Economic Theory and Evolution in the Department of Economics. Dr. Robson is an international leader in theoretical and evolutionary economics. By bridging biology, anthropology, and economics, he has produced unique insights into the origin of economic preferences that are transforming how scientists look at economic behavior and economic theory in general. Dr. Robson has published influential articles in the top journals of the profession (for example, the Citations in Economics Project lists 290 scientific papers that have cited Dr. Robson's publications) and continues to break new ground with research on how evolution has shaped the links between longevity, intelligence, and aging. In his current research, Prof. Robson is using data collected from contemporary hunter-gatherer societies as the inspiration for theoretical models of the evolution of economic characteristics. These characteristics include attitudes toward risk, time preference, social status, the quality and quantity of children, intelligence, and longevity, for example.

Video Archive

SFU Canada Research Chair Seminar Series: "Combinatorial Algorithms for Structural Variation Detection in High-throughput Sequenced Genomes"

S. Cenk Sahinalp, Canada Research Chair in Computational Genomics

School Of Computing Science

Date: Oct 15, 2009
Time: 11:30 - 12:30
Room: ASB10900
WebSite: Click Here

Abstract

Recent studies show that along with single nucleotide polymorphisms and small indels, larger structural variants among human individuals are common. The Human Genome Structural Variation Project aims to identify and classify deletions, insertions, and inversions (>5 Kbp) in a small number of normal individuals with a fosmid-based paired-end sequencing approach using traditional sequencing technologies. The realization of new ultra-high-throughput sequencing platforms now makes it feasible to detect the full spectrum of genomic variation among many individual genomes, including cancer patients and others suffering from diseases of genomic origin. Unfortunately, existing algorithms for identifying structural variation (SV) among individuals have not been designed to handle the short read lengths and the errors implied by the "next-gen" sequencing (NGS) technologies. In this talk we will describe combinatorial formulations for the SV detection between a reference genome sequence and a next-gen-based, paired-end, whole genome shotgun-sequenced individual. We will provide efficient algorithms for each of the formulations we give, which all turn out to be fast and quite reliable; they are also applicable to all next-gen sequencing methods (Illumina, 454 Life Sciences, SOLiD, etc.) and traditional capillary sequencing technology.

Bio

Cenk Sahinalp is a Professor of Computing Science at Simon Fraser University, Burnaby BC, Canada where he directs the Lab for Computational Biology and co-leads the program on Bioinformatics for Combating Infectious Diseases. He is also an associate faculty at the Department of Molecular Biology and Biochemistry and a visiting scientist at the Department of Genome Sciences, University of Washington. Cenk's research focuses on problems in sequence alignment, and search, biomolecular sequence analysis and in particular search and analysis of genome wide structural variations through the use of high throughput sequencing, RNA structure and interaction prediction, biomolecular network analysis and small molecule bioinformatics. Cenk received a B.S. in Electrical Engineering from Bilkent University. His Ph.D. was in Computer Science with Uzi Vishkin from University of Maryland, College Park. He was then a postdoc with Yossi Matias at Bell Labs, Murray Hill, and subsequently a research associate with Chris Overton, at the first lab ever established for Bioinformatics in the University of Pennsylvania. During this time he also held a faculty position at the University of Warwick and was a frequent visitor to DIMACS and AT&T Research. Before moving to SFU in 2003 he was a faculty member at Case Western Reserve University where he had co-founded the Case Center for Computational Genomics. Cenk has published over 75 refereed full length papers in some of the flagship venues in computer science, computational biology and genomics. He has received an NSF Career Award, a Glennan Teaching Award from CWRU, a BC Advanced Systems Institute Fellowship a Michael Smith Foundation Scholarship.

Video Archive

SFU Canada Research Chairs Seminar Series: "New Product Development: From Linear To Chaos And Back Again"

Ian P. McCarthy, Canada Research Chair in Technology & Operations Management

Segal Graduate School of Business

Date: Oct 01, 2009
Time: 11:30 - 12:30
Room: ASB10900
WebSite: Click Here

Abstract

Research and management practice have tended to understand the new product development process using linear, recursive or chaotic system frameworks, each of which promotes a different approach to the organization and control of the process, along with different innovation outcomes. It has also been assumed that these frameworks are fixed for individual product development processes; that is, it is unlikely that a single process will toggle between linear, recursive and chaotic behaviours. In this talk I explain how new product development processes can switch between these behaviours, and that variations in control systems, decision rules and the connectivity between members of the process, combine to alter the levels of linearity and self-organization in the process. This in turn influences the potential for the process to generate different types of innovation that can range from incremental to radical in nature.

Bio

Dr. Ian McCarthy completed his undergraduate degree in Manufacturing Systems at Kingston Polytechnic and his M.Sc. and Ph.D. degrees in Technology and Operations Management at the University of Sheffield. Prior to joining Simon Fraser University in 2003, he was a faculty member within the Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Sheffield, and the Warwick Manufacturing Group, University of Warwick. He has also worked in project and operations management roles at Philips Electronics and Alcan. Dr. McCarthy is interested in the genesis and diversity of technology-based firms, as well as the methodologies by which these may be studied. Using evolutionary and complex adaptive systems theories, his work advances and complements existing strategy-industry structure explanations of the diversity of firms, by showing the ways and the extent to which the success of these firms depends on operations level management rather than on their technology, strategy and founding conditions alone. In particular, he is interested in how firms differ in their new product development processes, management control systems and outsourcing practices. In 2009 Dr. McCarthy became a Fulbright New Century Scholar (NCS). As an NCS Scholar, he is working with a select group of research scholars and professionals from around the world to investigate the design and management of university research parks.

Video Archive

SFU Canada Research Chairs Seminar Series: "Why Education is Difficult and Contentious"

Kieran Egan, Canada Research Chair in Cognitive Development and the Curriculum

Faculty Of Education

Date: Sep 17, 2009
Time: 11:30 - 12:30
Room: ASB10900
WebSite: Click Here

Abstract

Everyone in universities is an expert in education, everyone in universities tends to assume. The aims of education promoted by such people are designed to produce people like themselves, perhaps without the warts they are willing to acknowledge. But, because people differ, the conceptions of education one can excavate in such aims are different, which makes deciding on educational policy fraught with problems. In general most people are inclined to conceive of education as comprising three general purposes: socialization (derived from oral cultures long ago and continuing today), academic (derived from Plato's and Aristotle's program of shaping minds to perceive "the truth about reality"), and developmental (derived from Rousseau's claim that successful education requires attending to the natural or spontaneous forms of individual difference and development). It is generally assumed that these ideas are essential components of any reasonable educational program, and assume too that the trick for educational institutions is to keep these somewhat competing aims for the process in balance. I will try to show that our problems are due to the fact that these aims are at a fundamental level incompatible and that any institution that tries to incorporate all three as aims is doomed to consistent frustration and general failure. After this cheering opening, a way around this trilemma will be suggested.

Bio

Kieran Egan read History (Hons.) at the University of London, graduating with a B.A. in 1966. He worked for a year as a Research fellow at the Institute for Comparative Studies in Kingston-upon-Thames and then moved to the U.S.A. to begin a Ph.D. in Philosophy of Education at Stanford University. He worked concurrently as a consultant to the I.B.M. Corp. on adaptation of a programming method, called Structural Communication, to new computing systems. He completed his Ph.D. at Cornell University in 1972. His first job was at Simon Fraser University in British Columbia, where, lacking all initiative, he has remained ever since. He is the author of about twenty books, and co-author, editor, or co-editor of a few more. In 1991 he received the Grawemeyer Award in Education. In 1993 he was elected to the Royal Society of Canada, in 2000 he was elected as Foreign Associate member to U.S. National Academy of Education, he received a Canada Research Chair in 2001, a Killam Research fellowship from 2001-3, won the Whitworth Award in 2007, and is dripping with gongs. His main area of interest is education. His work focuses on a new educational theory, which he has developed during the past two decades, and its implications for a changed curriculum, teaching practices, and the institution of the school. His work deals both with innovative educational theory and detailed practical methods whereby implications of his theory can be applied at the classroom level. Various of his books have been translated into about ten European and Asian languages. His recent books include The Educated Mind: How cognitive tools shape our understanding (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1997), Getting it Wrong from the Beginning: Our progressivist inheritance from Herbert Spencer, John Dewey, and Jean Piaget (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2002), An imaginative approach to teaching (San Francisco: Jossey-Bass,2005), and most recently The Future of Education: Reimagining our schools from the ground up. (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2008.)

Video Archive

SFU Canada Research Chairs Seminar Series: "The Challenge of Putting Ecological Stressors in Context; Three Stories from the Conservation of Freshwater Species"

Wendy Palen, Canada Research Chair in Aquatic Conservation

Department of Biological Sciences, Simon Fraser University

Date: Apr 09, 2009
Time: 11:30 - 12:30
Room: ASB10900
WebSite: Click Here

Abstract

Ecology is among the most challenging of scientific disciplines, encompassing microns to thousands of kilometers, seconds to millions of years, and the complex interactions of individuals to ecosystems. Modern environmental problem solving strives to predict the emergent behaviour of species and ecosystems in the face of a diversity of human impacts to natural systems. Ecologists, conservation biologists, and natural resource managers are increasingly appreciating that predicting the dynamics of even a single species is impossible without consideration of this surrounding complexity. In particular, one of the central limitations to making predictions about ecological systems lies in resolving the discontinuity between the scale at which ecological processes are often experimentally tested and the broad spatial and temporal scales relevant to natural resource conservation and management. My research program is focused at the intersection of these conceptual and applied challenges. My group draws on investigations across a variety of spatial and temporal scales and levels of biological organization to improve our understanding of both the mechanistic underpinnings of patterns and the broader ecological context within which those mechanisms are embedded. In this talk I will discuss three current research interests that highlight some of these challenges and possibilities for modern environmental problem solving; 1) predicting montane amphibian species responses to accelerated global change, 2) evaluating the population consequences of altered river hydrology for declining amphibians, and 3) tracking the consequences of movement and habitat use by highly mobile juvenile salmon.

Bio

Dr. Wendy J. Palen graduated with a B.A. degree in Biology with a highest distinction at the University of Virginia. She obtained her Ph.D. degree in Zoology at the University of Washington under the supervision of Professor Daniel Schindler. Her dissertation research was aimed at improving our understanding of the risk that current and future levels of ultraviolet-B radiation (UV-B) pose to montane amphibian species of the Pacific Northwest by critically evaluating the role of UV-B across a variety of ecological conditions. In the period 2005 - 2007, Dr. Palen was a Post-Doctoral Fellow at the National Center for Earth-surface Dynamics and the Department of Integrative Biology, University of California-Berkeley. Dr. Palen joined Simon Fraser University in 2007 as an Assistant Professor and a Tier II Canada Research Chair in in Aquatic Conservation in the Department of Biology. Among other scientific activities, Dr. Palen has published multiple scientific papers and has been a recipient of a number of awards, grants, and fellowships. Currently Dr. Palen is working on the following projects: Increasing ultraviolet radiation impacts on amphibians, Amphibian metapopulation dynamics, and Pacific salmon in coastal ecosystems. Dr. Palen describes her current research interests in the following way, "I rely heavily on field-based experimental manipulations to tease apart the mechanistic underpinnings of ecological patterns, from species physiology to food web interactions. However, I am also fundamentally committed to the growing necessity for understanding the dynamics of individuals, populations, and communities at the broad spatial and temporal scales relevant to the conservation and management of aquatic systems."

Video Archive

SFU Canada Research Chairs Seminar Series: "To Be (Attended) or Not To Be (Attended): Recent research on attention capture from the SFU Human Electrophysiology Lab"

John McDonald, Canada Research Chair in Cognitive Psychology

Department of Psychology, Simon Fraser University

Date: Mar 26, 2009
Time: 11:30 - 12:30
Room: ASB10900

Abstract

When searching the visual environment for an object of interest, the presence of a salient-but-irrelevant stimulus creates competition for access to conscious awareness. This competition can be influenced by top-down attentional control strategies aimed at selecting relevant information and ignoring irrelevant information, as well as by bottom-up activation triggered by the stimuli themselves. It is unclear how - and at what processing stage - top-down strategies can override bottom-up activation to enable selection of relevant objects. Some researchers have proposed that top-down control can override bottom-up activation at preattentive stages of visual processing by suppressing information arising from the location of irrelevant objects. Others have proposed that top-down control can override bottom-up activation only after attention is deployed automatically to the most salient stimulus. We resolved this controversy using event-related potentials (ERPs) to pinpoint the processing stages at which distracting information can be suppressed. We show that, when confronted with a search display containing a target and a more salient distractor, observers suppress information arising from the distractor either early on or later on in the processing stream, depending on whether or not the observer has advance knowledge of the defining feature of the to-be-ignored distractor. When the colour of the distractor was predictable, the distractor was suppressed before it captured attention. When the colour of the distractor was unpredictable, the distractor was suppressed after it captured attention but before distractor information was transferred to working memory. The finding of early suppression is inconsistent with the notion that salient stimuli capture attention automatically and independently of top-down control.

Bio

Dr. John J. McDonald completed his undergraduate degree in Psychology and Geography at Simon Fraser University in 1993 and his Ph.D. in Psychology at the University of British Columbia in 1999. In the period 1999 - 2000, Dr. McDonald was an NSERC Postdoctoral Fellow in Neurosciences at the University of California San Diego. He joined Simon Fraser University in 2001 as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychology. In 2004 he was awarded a Canada Research Chair in Cognitive Neuroscience. Dr. McDonald is also the Director of the Human Electrophysiology Laboratory at Simon Fraser University. As the Canada Research Chair, Dr. McDonald is shedding light on the neural underpinnings of attentional and perceptual processing in the visual and auditory modalities. In addition to studying the ways in which attentional and perceptual processes spread across the modalities, Dr. McDonald also investigates attentional processes within each modality. Current research projects involve visual search, inhibition of return, and the executive control of spatial attention. Among other scientific activities, Dr. McDonald has published multiple scientific papers and book chapters and gave presentations at numerous scientific conferences. Dr. McDonald together with his Ph.D. student Ms. Jessica Green have successfully used electroencephalography (EEG) to pinpoint, in space and time, the neural activities involved in paying attention. The pair used a signal-processing technique called beamforming, which was originally used for radar and sonar which enabled them to decipher the timing and sequence of brain activity coinciding with an individual's attention to different visual objects in his/her environment. Dr. McDonald and Ms. Green have high-hopes for future brain-function research using this new technique. In Dr. McDonald's words, "The ability to identify human brain activities in both space and time is an important achievement in cognitive neuroscience."

Video Archive

SFU Canada Research Chairs Seminar Series: "Research for improving the understanding, conservation, and management of Pacific salmon populations"

Randall M. Peterman, Canada Research Chair in Fisheries Risk Assessment and Management

School of Resource and Environmental Management

Date: Mar 12, 2009
Time: 11:30 - 12:30
Room: ASB10900
WebSite: Click Here

Abstract

Our research group has contributed to conservation and management of Pacific salmon populations. We have applied advanced statistical methods to large data bases to extract clearer understanding of salmon population dynamics from "noisy" data. Such data are clouded by large natural environmental variability, climatic trends, and measurement error. One finding is that productivity tends to be positively correlated across salmon populations, with the strength of that correlation decreasing with increasing distance between populations. These results led to identifying early summer ocean conditions (reflected by sea-surface temperature) as an important environmental driver of productivity of salmon populations. Our research also includes developing empirically based decision analyses and computer simulation models to evaluate options for managing healthy populations, as well as rebuilding depleted ones. These "closed loop" simulation models include key components of salmon fisheries systems, plus major sources of uncertainty such as measurement error and uncertainty in how actual outcomes differ from management goals. These risk assessment models help inform trade-off decisions that must be made among ecological and economic objectives. We have also quantitatively evaluated models and indicators of conservation concern to increase chances of correctly identifying conservation status of salmon populations.

Bio

Dr. Randall M. Peterman completed his B.Sc. in Biological Sciences at the University of California at Davis and his Ph.D. degree in Zoology at the University of British Columbia. Dr. Peterman is a Professor in the School of Resource and Environmental Management at Simon Fraser University. In 1990, Dr. Peterman won SFU's Excellence in Teaching Award. He has held a Canada Research Chair in Fisheries Risk Assessment and Management since 2001. Dr. Peterman is also the founder and past Director of the Cooperative Resource Management Institute, a unit on campus that facilitates collaboration among university researchers, resource management agencies, and industry. Dr. Peterman's research focuses on fish population dynamics, uncertainties affecting conservation risks and management decisions, and approaches to reducing uncertainties. His research group specializes in developing and applying quantitative methods for risk assessment to improve fisheries conservation and management. The group uses large data sets, simulation models, Bayesian and other statistical methods, and formal decision analysis. Peer recognition for his research includes the 1990 J.C. Stevenson Award for "... creative research on the cutting edge of an aquatic discipline." Other awards include the 2006 Robert L. Kendall "Best Paper Award" from the American Fisheries Society, "The Most Significant Paper in the North American Journal of Fisheries Management" (1992), and the 1994 W.F. Thompson Award from the American Institute of Fisheries Research Biologists. Dr. Peterman has participated in numerous international scientific meetings and has served on various expert advisory groups. He co-chaired a panel for the Canadian Global Change Program of the Royal Society of Canada and was one of the authors of the now widely used 1995 "Precautionary Approach to Capture Fisheries" of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). Dr. Peterman also collaborates with several fisheries management agencies in western North America. He has been particularly involved in Pacific salmon research in British Columbia.

Video Archive

SFU Canada Research Chairs Seminar Series: "How to draw with small number of crossings"

Bojan Mohar, Canada Research Chair in Graph Theory

Department of Mathematics, Simon Fraser University

Date: Feb 26, 2009
Time: 11:30 - 12:30
Room: ASB10900
WebSite: Click Here

Abstract

The problem of drawing graphs with the number of crossings of edges minimized has many applications. In addition to its mathematical importance, this concept is relevant in the design of integrated circuits, for the aesthetics of data visualization, and has recently found beautiful applications in combinatorial geometry and in number theory. Although the problems about crossing numbers are easily understood, they lead to challenging and notoriously hard mathematical problems. The history of crossing number problems along with the main theoretical milestones will be presented. The talk will conclude with the presentation of some recent advances in this area. The exposition will mostly be accessible for general audience with little or no mathematical background.

Bio

Dr. Bojan Mohar completed his Ph.D. degree in mathematics at the University of Ljubljana, Ljubljana, Slovenia, in 1986. He is a Professor at the Department of Mathematics, University of Ljubljana, and at the Institute of Mathematics, Physics and Mechanics in Ljubljana. He joined Simon Fraser University in 2005 as a Professor and Canada Research Chair in Graph Theory at the Department of Mathematics. Dr. Mohar's connection with Simon Fraser University goes many years back. During 1986 and 1987 he spent 12 months as a post-doctoral fellow at SFU. Throughout his successful career he has been a Fulbright Scholar at the Ohio State University (1988) and Visiting Professor at the Institute for Mathematics And its Applications at the University of Minnesota (1992), the Technical University of Denmark(1994), Georgia Institute of Technology (1996/97), Technische Universitaet Ilmenau (1998), The Ecole des hautes etudes en sciences sociales, Paris, (2002), and at McGill University (2002). Dr. Mohar's main research interests are: topological graph theory, graph minors, graph colorings, algebraic graph theory, and graph algorithms. Among other scientific activities, Dr. Mohar has published about 200 scientific papers and two monographs, has organized numerous international scientific meetings, and has been a member of editorial boards and reviewer for a number of scientific journals. He has been a plenary speaker at more than 60 international conferences and an invited speaker at many universities around the world. Dr. Mohar has supervised and co-supervised numerous young researchers at various stages in their careers; post-doctoral fellows, graduate, and undergraduate students. Dr. Mohar describes his current research activities at SFU in the following way, "With an extremely strong presence in graph theory in our department, and also in the School of Computing Science, my dreams are coming true."

Video Archive

SFU Canada Research Chairs Seminar Series: "Efficient Emulators of Computer Simulators of Photometric Red-shifts Using Compactly Supported Correlation Functions "

Derek Bingham

Department of Statistics and Actuarial Sciences, Simon Fraser University

Date: Feb 12, 2009
Time: 11:30 - 12:30
Room: ASB10900
WebSite: Click Here

Abstract

Computer simulators are often used to study real-world processes that are too difficult to observe directly. Experimenter's are often interested in building a statistical surrogate (an emulator) for the computer model to avoid constantly running the model at different input settings. Building an emulator for a computer simulator using standard Gaussian process models can be computationally infeasible when the number of evaluated input values is large. As an alternative, we propose using compactly supported correlation functions, which produce sparse correlation matrices that can be more easily manipulated. Following the usual approach of taking the correlation to be a product of correlations in each input dimension, we show how to impose restrictions on the correlation range for each input, giving sparsity, while also allowing the ranges to trade-o? against one another, thereby giving good predictive performance when the data are anisotropic. As an illustration, the method is used to construct an emulator of photometric red-shifts of cosmological objects. This is joint work with Salman Habib, Katrin Heitman (Los Alamos National Lab) and Cari Kaufman (UC Berkeley).

Bio

Derek Bingham received his PhD from the Department of Mathematics and Statistics at Simon Fraser University in 1999, winning the Governor General's Gold. After graduation he joined the Department of Statistics at the University of Michigan as an Assistant Professor. Derek has been at Simon Fraser since the Fall of 2003 when he arrived as the Canada Research Chair in Industrial Statistics in the Department of Statistics and Actuarial Science. Since 2002, he has held a Faculty Affiliate position at the Los Alamos National Laboratory. The main focus of Derek Bingham's research is the development of statistical methodology for the design and analysis of industrial experiments. This work focuses on developing new methodology for: (1) Design and analysis of computer experiments; (2) Bayesian design and analysis of experiments in industrial problems such as optimal screening designs, response surface optimization and optimal robust parameter designs for product variation reduction; and (3) Design and analysis of fractional factorial plans for multi-stage processes. Most of the problems that motivate this research are the result of scientific collaborations. For example, recent work relating to experiments on computer simulators is the direct result of interaction with scientists at Los Alamos National Laboratory, the National Center for Atmospheric Research (Boulder, Colorado) and the Center for Radiative Shock Physics at the University of Michigan. Derek also is the Principle Investigator on the NPCDS funded project on the Design and Analysis of Computer Experiments for Complex Systems as well as NSERC Discovery and Accelerator grants on the design of industrial experiments. To facilitate interaction with industry, he helped create the CFI funded Industrial Statistics Laboratory within his Department. The Lab provides an environment for faculty, research scientists, students, post-docs and visitors to collaborate on research problems. SFU faculty interested in research collaborations are always encouraged to stop by. The Department of Statistics and Actuarial Science has several areas of strength, ranging from biostatistics and biometrics to survey sampling. In addition to developing fundamental theory and methodology, we are actively involved in applied problems that arise in such diverse fields as astronomy, biology, chemical engineering, finance, fisheries, forestry, medicine and space weather - only to name a few. We have forged strong interdisciplinary links with other departments and actively seek to recruit graduate students and faculty who can help to build and maintain such links.

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SFU Canada Research Chairs Seminar Series: "Materials for New Semiconductor Technologies"

Patricia M. Mooney, Canada Research Chair in Semiconductor Physics

Department of Physics, Simon Fraser University

Date: Jan 29, 2009
Time: 11:30 - 12:30
Room: ASB10900
WebSite: Click Here

Abstract

Abstract: The amazing developments in computer and communications technologies during the last 40 years have been driven by advances in semiconductor technologies. Research on new semiconductor materials has resulted in microprocessor integrated circuits having more than two billion transistors, solid state lighting, including devices that emit blue or white light, and the ubiquitous mobile communications that we enjoy today. The research in our laboratory focuses on novel semiconductor materials and structures, and contributes to the evolution of semiconductor devices and circuits that will continue to impact our way of life. Two on-going research projects will be discussed. The first is an investigation of defects in SiO₂/4H-SiC. Reducing the interface state density is essential for this emerging MOSFET technology for applications in high temperature and high power environments such as automotive and aircraft engine control and electric power transmission. A second project is the development of engineered substrates that have a surface lattice parameter which is different from that of the bulk semiconductor substrate material. Engineered substrates have led to enhanced performance of Si MOSFETs in microprocessors and we have shown that similar fabrication techniques can be applied to III-V semiconductors that are used for light emitting devices and detectors.

Bio

Dr. Patricia M. Mooney completed her undergraduate degree with honors in Physics at Wilson College in Chambersburg, PA, USA, and her Ph.D. degree in solid-state physics in 1972 at Bryn Mawr College, Bryn Mawr, PA, USA. Before joining IBM in 1980, Dr. Mooney was Assistant Professor of Physics at Hiram College (1972-74) and at Vassar College (1974-80), both in the USA. She was a Research Associate in the Physics Department at the State University of New York at Albany (1977-78), and a Visiting Scientist at the Groupe de Physique des Solide de l'ENS, Universit, de Paris VII (1979-80) and at the Fraunhofer Institut für Angewandte Festkörperphysik in Freiburg, Germany (1987-88). Dr Mooney was a Research Staff Member at the IBM T. J. Watson Research Center, Yorktown Heights, NY, USA for 25 years. She described her research at IBM to be "at the boundary of physics and technology, focusing on defects in epitaxial semiconductor films that have potential applications in high-speed field-effect transistors." Dr. Mooney joined Simon Fraser University in 2005 as a Professor and Canada Research Chair in Semiconductor Physics in the Department of Physics. Dr. Mooney is the author of 182 publications, including review articles, a monograph and four book chapters, and also has 15 issued patents. She received two outstanding Technical Achievement Awards from the IBM Corporation in addition to several patent awards. Dr. Mooney is a Fellow of both the American Physical Society (APS) and the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) and is a member of the Canadian Association of Physicists and the Materials Research Society (MRS). She currently serves on the Governing Board of the American Institute of Physics. She has served on the APS Council, representing the Forum on Industrial and Applied Physics, and on the APS Executive Board. She is Past Chair of the Division of Materials Physics (DMP) of the APS and has served on the APS Budget Committee, the APS Fellowship Committee and the APS Committee on the Status of Women in Physics. She has been a member of the editorial board of Physical Review B, Applied Physics Letters/Journal of Applied Physics and the Journal of Materials Science: Materials in Electronics. Dr. Mooney was chair of the Gordon Research Conference on Defects in Semiconductors, has organized symposia at MRS meetings, and has served on the program committee of numerous conferences, including the International Conference on Defects in Semiconductors (ICDS) and the Gordon Research Conference on Defects in Semiconductors. She currently serves on the International Advisory Board of ICDS.

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SFU Canada Research Chairs Seminar Series "Heterogeneous Microsystems and Enabling Technologies"

Bozena Kaminska, Canada Research Chair in Wireless Sensor Networks

School Of Engineering

Date: Dec 04, 2008
Time: 11:30 - 12:30
Room: ASB10900

Abstract

From the prosperous past of the Microelectronic industry the question is about the future during the years to come. Several visions of the future do exist: nanomachines that kill cancer cells within the human body, computer chips using living cells or affordable computers with the capacity of human brain. Miniaturization and complexity seem to be the common characteristic of future systems. Adding new functions as sensing and actuating that naturally drive to the integration of new functional materials and subsystems leads to the heterogeneous path. Heterogeneous microsystems offer an exciting opportunity for a new generation of advanced applications such as mobile devices, automotive, pharmaceutical and biomedical systems. Included in the miniature and compact system are sensor/actuator elements, signal conditioning and processing, wireless data communication, and system powering modules. Enabling technologies will be discussed including new transducers, micro-integration of multilayer 3D devices, powering and communication. Challenges of new integration and packaging will be presented related to the requirements of specific applications such as biomedical monitoring, healthcare and wellness screening, and intelligent environmental sensing. An example heterogeneous microsystem will be described for cardiac monitoring addressing the need to synchronously sense and process a multitude of signals. New powering and sensing will be integral part of the presented heterogeneous microsystem.

Bio

Dr. Bozena Kaminska completed graduate studies at Warsaw University of Technology, Warsaw, Poland. Dr. Kaminska was the CEO of a Montreal wireless system developer and the senior vice-president of advanced technology at Credence and Third Millennium Test Solutions in San Jose, California. Dr. Kaminska co-founded Opmaxx in Beaverton, Oregon, the first mixed-signal DFT (design-for-test) company. Her contribution to the industry has been described as "superb (...) with significant business and commercial achievements to match a long academic career highlighted by innovation and leadership". Dr. Kaminska's academic career spans two decades and three nations including posts at the University of Montreal, Ecole Polytechnique, Montreal. She joined Simon Fraser in 2005 as a Professor at the School of Engineering Science and the founder of the Centre for Integrative Bioengineering Research (CIBER). Among other scientific activities, Dr. Kaminska has authored or co-authored more than 400 papers, and holds several patents. In 2005 she was awarded a Tier 1 Canada Research Chair in Wireless Sensor Networks. Dr. Kaminska describes her current research interests in the following way: "We want to help in promoting preventive medicine by introducing new devices and technologies. Our highly integrated heterogeneous microsystems for heart diagnosis will help target at-risk individuals sooner and ensure they see a specialist early."

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SFU Canada Research Chairs Seminar Series "Fingerprinting Digital Documents"

Gabor Tardos, Canada Research Chair in Computational Complexity and Geometric Arrangements

School Of Computing Science

Date: Nov 20, 2008
Time: 11:30 - 12:30
Room: ASB10900

Abstract

Including a unique code in each copy of a distributed document is an effective way of fighting intellectual piracy. Codes designed for this purpose that are secure against collusion attacks are called fingerprinting codes. In this talk we describe the mathematical model for this cryptographic problem and survey old and recent results on fingerprinting. We will put special emphasis to show how the tight analysis of a simple looking problem can use results in several far away fields of mathematics and computer science. From the problem description it is not surprising that results from probability theory and coding theory are useful, but we will see - perhaps more surprisingly - that results from game theory, approximation theory, information theory and hypergraph theory all find their way into constructions of efficient fingerprinting codes, their analysis or into the proofs establishing bounds on how efficient such codes can possibly be. Many of the recent results surveyed represent joint work with Ehsan Amiri.

Bio

Dr. Gabor Tardos completed his undergraduate degree with a Diploma in Mathematics and his Ph.D in Mathematics, under the supervision of Professor László Babai and Professor Péter Pálfy, at Eötvös University, Budapest,Hungary. In the period 1990 - 2005 he was a Research Fellow at the prestigious Alfréd Rényi Institute of Mathematics at the Hungarian Academy of Sciences. Between 1992 - 2003 Dr. Tardos was a Professor at the Department of Computer Science, Eötvös University. He was also a Visiting Professor at the Computer Science Departments of the Rutgers University (1990 - 1992) and at the University of Toronto (1995 - 1996), and a Member of the Institute for Advanced Study (1996 - 1997). Dr. Tardos joined Simon Fraser University in 2005 as a Professor at the School of Computing Science and as a Canada Tier 1 Research Chair in Computational Complexity and Geometric Arrangements. In his scientific career Dr. Tardos has been the recipient of multiple grants, awards, and honors. The Prize of the European Congress of Mathematics and the Erdõs Prize of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences are just two examples. Dr. Tardos has authored a large number of scientific papers with topics in combinatorics, discrete and computational geometry, and complexity theory and has greatly contributed to each of those fields. D. Zeilberger describes Dr. Tardos' work on the Füredi-Hajnal conjecture in the following way, "Just because a conjecture has been posed by brilliant people, and attempted, unsuccessfully, by quite a few other brilliant people, does not mean that the ultimate proof has to be complicated. We saw this (...) with (...) the brilliant proof of the Füredi-Hajnal conjecture, and hence the Stanley-Wilf conjecture by Adam Marcus and Gabor Tardos. Once I saw their proof, I kicked myself, as I am sure did many other people. Once you see it is so NATURAL and "obvious". But if it is so "obvious", how come no-one (including myself) could come up with it? So like most of the truly great discoveries, it is a posteriori `obvious', but definitely not `a priori'."

SFU Canada Research Chairs Seminar Series "Glacier and ice-sheet dynamics in a warming world"

Gwenn Flowers, Canada Research Chair in Glaciology

Department of Earth Sciences

Date: Nov 06, 2008
Time: 11:30 - 12:30
Room: ASB10900

Abstract

Glaciers and ice sheets deform under their own weight, in addition to sliding over their substrates (rock or sediment), and under the right conditions, causing deformation of the substrate itself. Because water acts as a lubricant, glacier hydrology underpins much of what we understand about how fast, and the way in which, ice masses flow. It is becoming clear that dynamics must be considered in our estimates of the future mass balance of the terrestrial cryosphere, even on short timescales. Mountain glaciers are expected to make a larger contribution to sea-level than the ice sheets in this century, but uncertainty has prevented ice-sheet dynamics from being considered in the most recent projections of 21st century sea-level rise. In this talk we review the state of the cryosphere, the mechanisms responsible for glacier flow, and how we might expect these to change in our currently warming world. We also address how glacier dynamics are measured and modelled, and illustrate how computer models are used to project the response of glaciers to future climate. These projections serve as a basis for interpreting the impacts of global warming on the cryosphere, with respect to both sea-level rise and freshwater supply.

Bio

Dr. Gwenn Flowers graduated Suma Cum Laude with a B.A. degree in Physics with Chemistry Minor at the University of Colorado. She obtained her Ph.D. degree in Geophysics at the University of British Columbia. Through her Ph.D. research, Dr. Flowers incorporated soft-bed hydrological theory into a distributed multicomponent glacier-scale model. In the period 2000 - 2001, Dr. Flowers was a Post-Doctoral Fellow at the Science Institute, University of Iceland, Reykjavik, Iceland, and in the period 2002-2004 she was a Postdoctoral Researcher in the Department of Earth and Ocean Sciences, University of British Columbia. Dr. Flowers joined Simon Fraser University in 2005 as an Assistant Professor and a Tier II Canada Research Chair in Glaciology in the Department of Earth Sciences. Dr. Flowers is also an Associate Member of the Department of Earth and Ocean Sciences, University of British Columbia. In 2008 Dr. Flowers was awarded the prestigious Marie Tharp Fellowship by the Earth Institute at Columbia University, New York, NY. Currently Dr. Flowers is involved in the following projects: Glaciological and geophysical field investigations in the St. Elias Mountains, Yukon Territory; Tundra ecosystem dynamics, Kluane, Yukon Territory; Arctic tidewater glacier dynamics, Devon Island, Nunavut; and Glaciohydraulics and thermodynamics of glacier outburst floods (jökulhlaups). Dr Flowers describes her research interests in the following way, "I am interested in the glaciological elements of watershed hydrology, natural hazards and climate change. In the field, geophysical, meteorological and hydrological measurements are used to evaluate the geometry, mass balance and flow structure of a glacier. These data are the foundation for the development of theoretical and numerical models used to better understand the physics of various glaciohydraulic processes."

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SFU Canada Research Chairs Seminar Series "On-Command Control of Molecular & Nanomaterials Using External Stimuli"

Neil Branda, Canada Research Chair in Materials Science

Department of Chemistry

Date: Oct 23, 2008
Time: 11:30 - 12:30
Room: ASB10900

Abstract

We are motivated by the vision that molecules can act as the components of nano-scale machines - machines that, like their macroscopic counterparts, require controllable moving parts, ways to harvest and process energy, molecular circuitry, on-off switches, logic gates and information storage devices. Our research efforts focus on developing several aspects of this theme including the construction of molecular switches to deliberately trigger molecules to undergo structural and functional changes on command. Molecular systems that undergo reversible variations in their structural, optical and electronic properties will have significant roles in many applications, from electronics to medicine. Molecular switching is an interdisciplinary area of research that is key to the success of miniaturizing the components of nano-scale machinery. It has its main emphasis at the interfaces between chemistry and materials science (applications in electronics, optical recording and display materials, for example), and in structural biology and health sciences (drug delivery systems and sensors, for example). This talk will emphasize how molecular switches can be used in several application settings. The changes in how they absorb light, emit light, carry charge, react or interact with other chemicals, and unmask potential therapeutics as single molecules, polymers and on nanoparticle surfaces will be highlighted. An example of in vivo use of molecular switches will be emphasized.

Bio

Dr. Neil Branda completed his undergraduate degree in Chemistry and Biochemistry at the University of Toronto and his Ph.D. degree in Organic Chemistry at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. In the period 1994 - 1996, Dr. Branda was an NSERC Post-Doctoral Fellow at the Laboratoire de Chimie Supramoleculaire, Universite Louis Pasteur and in the period 1996-2001 he was an Assistant Professor at the Department of Chemistry, University of Alberta. Dr. Branda joined Simon Fraser University in 2001 as an Associate Professor and a Tier II Canada Research Chair in Materials Science in the Department of Chemistry. In 2003 he became an Associate Faculty Member in the Department of Molecular Biology and Biochemistry. In his scientific career Dr. Branda has been the recipient of multiple grants, awards, and honors. Here are some of the most recent: E.W.R. Steacie Memorial Fellowship, Canada Tier I Research Chair in Materials Science, Canada's Top 40 Under 40, and Canadian Who's Who Biographee. Dr. Branda is currently a Professor of Chemistry, the Executive Director of 4D LABS, a $40M research centre for advanced materials and nano-scale devices, CTO of SWITCH Materials Inc., a company he founded to commercialize his molecular switching technology and Founder and Director of the Nanomed Canada Research Network, a growing community of nanotechnology and medical researchers committed to sharing knowledge and working collaboratively to advance medical diagnostics and therapeutics. Dr. Branda describes some of his research goals in following way: "One of our many goals is to be able to use light to turn drugs 'on' or 'off,' and molecules that have therapeutic applications so they don't do what they are supposed to do until they reach the site."

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SFU Canada Research Chairs Seminar Series "Balancing acts, safe landing responses, and impact dynamics: how to avoid injury in the event of a fall"

Stephen Robinovitch, Canada Research Chair in Biomedical Engineering

School of Kinesiology and School of Engineering Science

Date: Oct 09, 2008
Time: 11:30 - 12:30
Room: ASB10900

Abstract

Preventing falls and their related injuries in the elderly is challenging, due to the myriad of associated risk factors. My talk will briefly discuss three aspects of our fall injury prevention research: (1) Balance maintenance and recovery. Risk for falls depends on one's ability to maintain balance while performing daily activities, and on one's ability to recover a stable upright stance in the event of imbalance. Our studies have yielded the following observations. First, declines among elderly in ability to recover balance are explained largely by slowing of reaction time. Second, elderly adults are just as accurate as young in perception of their postural limits, but are less likely to approach these limits during daily activities. Finally, among frail elderly, a range of balance measures do not easily distinguish fallers from non-fallers. (2) Safe landing responses. The intactness of "safe landing" responses is crucial to avoiding injury during a fall, since any fall from standing contains sufficient energy to fracture the proximal femur or distal radius. Through novel experiments in our "falling laboratory," we have found that stereotypical but context dependant protective responses govern falls. Stepping and impact to the hands are common, and both are protective to the hip. It is also possible to modify the direction of a fall (e.g., from sideways to forward or backward) while it is occurring, if initiated early during descent. However, in an unexpected fall, primitive responses tend to override training, as acquired through martial arts. (3) Padding the individual or environment. A practical method for preventing fall-related injuries is wearable protective gear (e.g, hip protectors, which can reduce fracture risk 4-fold) or compliant flooring in high-environments. Improvements in research and design should lead to increased compliance with these interventions. We have developed a biofidelic hip impact simulator (consisting of surrogate pelvis and impact pendulum), and used this to design a novel energy-shunting hip protector which reduces femoral impact force by 25%, and compliant flooring which attenuates impact force up to 54%.

Bio

Dr. Stephen N. Robinovitch completed his undergraduate degree in Mechanical Engineering at the University of British Columbia and his Ph.D. degree in Medical Engineering, Harvard University - Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Division of Health Sciences and Technology. In the period 1994 - 2000, Dr. Robinovitch was an Assistant Professor in-Residence in the Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, University of California, San Francisco, Director in the Biomechanics Laboratory, Division of Orthopaedic Surgery, San Francisco General Hospital, and a Member in the Bioengineering Graduate Group, University of California, San Francisco and University of California, Berkeley. Dr. Robinovitch joined Simon Fraser University in 2000 as an Assistant Professor in the School of Kinesiology, an Associate Member in the School of Engineering Science and a Member in the Institute for Health Research and Education. Among other scientific activities, Dr. Robinovitch has published multiple scientific papers, patents, and book chapters and has supervised and co-supervised numerous young researchers at various stages in their careers; post-doctoral fellows, graduate and undergraduate students. In his scientific career Dr. Robinovitch has been the recipient of multiple grants, and in 2006 was awarded a Tier 2 Canada Research Chair in Injury Prevention and Mobility Biomechanics. Dr. Robinovitch describes his research goals in the following way: "Our research seeks to develop improved techniques for preventing disability and injury, especially in elderly individuals. Laboratory projects are aimed at either enhancing our understanding of risk factors for injury and mobility impairment, or developing and testing novel interventions. Most projects combine experimental measures of human movement dynamics with computer-based modeling efforts."

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SFU Canada Research Chairs Seminar Series "Vaccination and the challenge of highly-mutable pathogens for vaccine design"

Jamie K. Scott, Canada Research Chair in Molecular Immunity

Faculty of Health Science and Department of Molecular Biology and Biochemistry

Date: Sep 25, 2008
Time: 11:30 - 12:30
Room: ASB10900

Abstract

Once it infects a cell, HIV-1 mutates at an exceptionally high rate. In addition, the HIV-1 genome integrates into the genome of the infected cell, allowing the virus to persist in a dormant state for long periods. While infected people can produce an effective immune response that clears the initial virus, its ability to hide from immune recognition, and to produce mutant offspring at a high frequency, allows the emergence of mutant viruses that can escape an on-going immune response. Typically, a new immune response is mounted to clear those mutants, but by the time it has done so, another wave of new mutants arises, and escapes the new immune response; this presents a huge challenge to the design of a vaccine that elicits protective immunity. My presentation will cover how vaccination works, and several different the projects my laboratory has undertaken over the years to design vaccines that will target highly-conserved sites on the virus.

Bio

Dr. Jamie Kathleen Scott completed with honors her undergraduate degree in Biological Sciences at Occidental College in Los Angeles, CA, and her Ph.D. degree in Biological Sciences at the University of Missouri-Columbia under the supervision of Professor George P. Smith. She held post-doctoral positions at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, University of Missouri-Columbia, and The Scripps Research Institute. Dr. Scott joined Simon Fraser University in 1993 as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Chemistry, and Member of the Institute of Molecular Biology and Biochemistry. Currently, she holds a joint appointment in the Faculty of Health Science and the Department of Molecular Biology and Biochemistry. Among other scientific activities, Dr. Scott has published multiple scientific papers, has organized numerous international scientific meetings, and has been a member of editorial boards and reviewer for a number of scientific journals. In her scientific career Dr. Scott has been the recipient of multiple grants, and was recently awarded a Tier 1 Canada Research Chair in Molecular Immunity. Dr. Scott describes her research goals in the following way: "One of our most interesting projects centers on developing peptides that will bind to the human monoclonal antibodies that abolish the infectivity of HIV-1. We hope to create a vaccine that will elicit these same antibodies in uninfected people, and thus protect them from AIDS."

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