At last week's York University convocation for the Faculty of Science and Lassonde Engineering School, I was made University Professor. That's me with the Dean of Science, Dr. Ray Jawawardhana. But, I'm already a university professor, so what does this mean? University Professor is an honorific title that exists at many North American universities, including University of Toronto […]

Continue reading

Two excellent Canadian documentaries, The End of Suburbia (2004) and Escape from Suburbia (2007), address our unsustainable North American car culture, and how it has spawned sprawling suburbs. The films include conversations about how, in the future, people will convert(sub)urban lawns into vegetable patches to grow local food. That's me, at left, with an okra flower. When we grew okra in […]

Continue reading

  I doubted that much could top how my 2013 Skype chat about plant defences ended up getting me a movie credit in a science fiction feature film! But, you never can tell where science outreach and engagement will take you. Just a few weeks after hearing about my Botanical Consultant film credit, some of my other Public Science led to […]

Continue reading

These days, science communication, outreach, and engagement are all the rage. But when I joined York University's Biology Department as an assistant professor in 1990, the notion, that part of our responsibility, as taxpayer-funded professors, might include spending valuable time away from research, engaging with non-academics, other than our students, was rather a minority opinion amongst many YorkU faculty. […]

Continue reading

The annual Science Fair is a right of passage for many aspiring, young scientists. I've been lucky (if that's the right word) to experience science fairs as both a judge, and a parent. As a judge, back in the 1990s, I was blown away by the creativity and enthusiasm of the citizen scientists that I […]

Continue reading