Honorary Address
Islands of Time – Microevolution: The 2009 Honorary Address
The mandate of the CSPG Honorary Address Committee is to provide an exciting and dynamic scientific presentation targeted at junior high and high school students who could potentially become Canada's future geoscientists during the morning event, and at the general public in the evening. The committee believes that it has accomplished its goal once again in 2009.
The Committee would like to thank both speakers for their exciting and knowledgeable talks. Dr. Paul Johnston, a Professor in the Earth Sciences Department at Mount Royal University and also a guide with The Burgess Shale Geoscience Foundation in Field, B.C., gave his morning talk to a packed auditorium of Calgary students and put foward an interesting comparison between his mud flow theory at the Burgess Shale and what is interpreted to be a similar set of conditions on Lo, one of the four Galilean moons of the planet Jupiter. The students could not help themselves from asking questions about when the aliens were going to invade the earth and what they might look and smell like. The evening event was Dr. Johnston's opportunity to introduce the audience to his new theory on the Burgess Shale and its original environment half a billion years ago. The audience was excited to hear this new theory.
Our second and keynote speaker, the popular Brian Keating, currently holds the position of Director of Conservation Outreach for the Calgary Zoo, and as always was exciting and dynamic. He impressed the students during the morning event with stories of his travels around the world identifying species in remote areas. Keating's evening talk was just as remarkable and he again spoke about his travels and about the different ways in which animals have evolved due to the pressures, or lack thereof, that their local environments impose upon them. Keating gave the audience a 50 minute visual tour of Papua, New Guinea, Madagascar, the Galapagos, northern Canada and lastly, locally here in Calgary. The most enjoyable of all was his last story about a beaver outside of his home on the Bow River that walked on its two hind legs while carrying a large amount of twigs used in re-building its lodge. This beaver could be the only "Bipedal Bow River Beaver" in existence... for now!
This year, the morning presentation was attended and appreciated by 1,751 Calgary students. The evening event was attended by 350+ individuals of many ages.
The Honorary Address is presented each year by the CSPG in partnership with APEGGA and the CSEG. However, this event would not be possible without the support of the following sponsors: Alberta Lotteries Fund, Nexen Inc., AJM Petroleum Consultants, Sundog, MacLaren McCann, AVW TELAV and the Burgess Shale Foundation. All of the contributors were very gracious and supportive with their donations, especially in a very difficult financial climate, to help us to fulfil our vision of raising interest in science, in particular geoscience, among junior high and high school students and also the general public. As in past years, Telus World of Science again gave all of the children that attended the morning event a free day pass to their facility.
Of course every year there are a number of individuals that put the Honorary Address together and we need to acknowledge and thank them for their hard work that made this event such a success: Alyssa Middleton (CSPG), Stacey Sudlow (University of Calgary and Arcis), Alex Wright (Darian Resources), Tom Sneddon (APEGGA), Annette Milbradt (CSEG Outreach), Devon Henderson (Hotwell Canada), Jay Williams (Hotwell Canada), Shawn Lafleur (Caltex Energy Inc), Stephen Kotkas (Sigma Explorations), Jen Dunn (ConocoPhillips), Marissa Whittaker (Oilsands Quest), Dayna Rhoads (CSPG), and Mike DesRoches (Talisman).
The Committee wishes to also thank, once again, the CSEG and APEGGA for their donations and hands on assistance with this year's event.
