VanBUG 2014-2015 Season

Hi all,

Will

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Dear VanBUGger,

I hope you had a wonderful summer break.  VanBUG is kicking off its 13th season on Thursday, September 25th at 6pm with Dr. Jennifer Gardy from BC Centre for Disease Control.  Dr. Gardy’s talk is titled:
“Investigation of a tuberculosis outbreak in a BC homeless shelter: from bunk bed maps to bacterial genomes to Bayesian phylogenetics”.

Dr. Jennifer Gardy is both a scientist and science communicator. By day, she is fulfilling her childhood dream of being Dustin Hoffman in “Outbreak”, working at the British Columbia Centre for Disease Control.  As Senior Scientist, Jennifer leads BCCDC’s Genome Research Laboratory, where she uses genome sequencing to understand how outbreaks of infectious disease begin and spread. Her group was the first to use genomics to reconstruct a large outbreak of tuberculosis, and she is continuing to apply this novel technique to other outbreak scenarios. Jennifer completed her B.Sc. in Cell Biology and Genetics at the University of British Columbia (2000), and her PhD in Molecular Biology and Biochemistry at Simon Fraser University (2006), and is currently an Assistant Professor in UBC’s School of Population and Public Health, where she holds a Canada Research Chair in Public Health Genomics.
By night (well, on days off work, really) Jennifer works in science communication. She’s hosted an 8-part science documentary series for CBC Television, multiple episodes of CBC’s The Nature of Things, and is a regular guest host on Discovery Channel Canada’s flagship science newsmagazine, Daily Planet, in addition to recurring appearances as a guest scientist on shows like The Social and CTV Morning Live. She’s also blogged and written for the Globe and Mail, wrote the children’s book “It’s Catching! The Infectious World of Germs and Microbes”, is a member of OWL Magazine’s Advisory Board, and runs a series of workshops on how to communicate science effectively. In 2014, she was named a YWCA Woman of Distinction in the Science, Technology, and Research category for her work in both science and science communication.

The rest of the season is equally exciting!

October 9th (Thursday) 2014: Dr. Dave Clarke Department of Biomedical Physiology and Kinesiology, Simon Fraser University

November 20th (Thursday) 2014: Film Screening – The Perfect 46.  In collaboration with ReelCauses, we will screen the Sci-fi Docudrama, the Perfect 46 (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2771506/) at the SFU Woodward’s Theatre.  It is a thought provoking film on genetic engineering. The director of the film will be attending in person to talk about his film.  We are also in the process organizing a discussion panel.  We will be raffling off tickets to the screening to members on our mailing list. So don’t forget to invite friends and colleagues to sign up to our mailing list!

December 12th (Friday) 2014: Annual Christmas Social with Lightning Talks

February 12th (Thursday) 2015: Dr. Nick Loman, University of Birmingham University, UK

March 12th (Thursday) 2015: Mystery Speaker (To be Confirmed)

April 9th (Thursday) 2015: Dr. Martin Hirst, Michael Smith Genome Sciences Centre, BC Cancer Agency and University of British Columbia

Seminar is followed by complementary pizza, refreshments and great networking.
For updates on seminar topics and abstracts, please check out our website at http://vanbug.org.

Please note:
Trainees are invited to meet with the VanBUG speaker for open discussion
of both science and career paths. This takes place 4:30-5:30pm in either
the Boardroom or Lunchroom on the ground floor of the BCCRC

Location:
675 West 10th Avenue
Gordon and Leslie Diamond Family Theatre
BC Cancer Agency

Date/Time:
See above for this year’s dates
Start Time: 6:00 PM (except for the film screening which will starts at 7 PM)
End Time: 7:30 PM (followed by pizza and drinks)

Contact Name:
William Hsiao
dev@vanbug.org
http://vanbug.org

The VanBUG team:
Cedric Chauve
Rodrigo Goya
William Hsiao
Kieran O’Neill
Raunak Shrestha
Shing Hei Zhan

VanBUG is generously sponsored by the CIHR Bioinformatics Training Program, BCCDC Foundation, MITACS, GenomeBC, and the Canadian Bioinformatics Workshops. We thank our major sponsors CIHR Bioinformatics Training Program and welcome a new major sponsor, the BCCDC Foundation.