Speakers
Confirmed Speakers
Elder Harley Bastien, Piikani Nation
Harley resides on the Piikani Reservation where he was born. He was raised in the Oldman River valley and continues to call the river valley home. He was taught by his parents and grandparents how to live in harmony and balance with nature and how to live off the land. Today, Harley still lives a subsistence lifestyle of harvesting nature’s bounties.
Mr. Bastien’s upbringing and closeness to the land inspired him to embark on a career in environmental protection. In his earlier years, he was involved in the oil and gas industry that included oil well drilling and pipeline construction and other related components of the industry. It was during this time Mr. Bastien became aware of the neglect and negative effects to Mother earth by development that prompted him to make a career change. In 1990, he began working in the environmental protection industry.
In 2002, he founded Harmony Walkers Inc. (HWI), an environmental consulting company that provides environmental services nationally and internationally. He serves on the Indigenous Wisdom Advisory Panel (IWAP), providing strategic advice and recommendations as part of Alberta's environmental monitoring and science program. He currently owns and operates Buffalo Rock Tipi Camp, where visitors can learn about Blackfoot ways and culture, and is serving a term as President of the Board of Directors of Indigenous Vision, a nonprofit organization that aims to support projects and promote educational tools and resources throughout Turtle Island that honour the lands, traditions and contributions of Indigenous people. He is also actively involved with the Niitsitapi Water Protectors.
Dr. Trevor Day (Department of Biology, Mount Royal University)
Trevor's presentation is Your Body at High Altitude: Engaging undergraduate science students in research to high altitude.
Trevor holds a B.Sc. and a Ph.D. (University of Calgary). He is currently a Professor of Physiology at Mount Royal University, where he teaches courses in basic and applied human physiology. His research interests include the integration and interactions between the heart, lungs, brain and kidneys in response to acute and chronic blood gas stressors (e.g., high altitude). His federally-funded research program (NSERC Discovery) includes undergraduate trainees in every aspect of the research endeavour. He is also interested in science communication to broad audiences, and has over a decade of experience creating and performing music-driven art and science projects with his band and veteran Canadian science broadcaster and author, Jay Ingram. They were the recipients of the 2014 Canadian Science Writers Association "Science in Society Communication Award". Trevor was recently inducted into the Royal Society of Canada as a member of the College of New Scholars, Artists and Scientists (2020-2027).
Charley Hepler (Department of Math and Computer Sciences, Mount Royal University)
Charley will deliver the talk : Creativity and research in a junior science course for a general audience
Charley Hepler is an associate professor in the Department of Mathematics and Computing at Mount Royal University. He has been teaching at Mount Royal for more than two decades. During that time he has held a variety of positions including being an Associate Dean. Over the course of his career, he has developed and taught a wide variety of courses in multiple disciplines. Much of this has been made possible by the Department of General Education which has provided opportunities for collaboration with other professors in multi-disciplinary settings.
Karen Ho (Department of Chemistry and Physics, Mount Royal University)
Karen and her undergraduate research assistants will speak about their work on the integration and influence of Community service learning (CSL) water project in a post-secondary chemistry lab.
Karen Ho is a Laboratory Instructor in the Department of Chemistry and Physics at Mount Royal University. She has been teaching labs for various Chemistry courses for the past 15 years. Her research interests are focused on chemistry education in the laboratory. Her current research project is to understand whether reflection in the laboratory setting will deepen post-secondary students’ learning. She is currently taking her Doctorate of Education in Learning Sciences under the supervision of Dr. Douglas Clark at the University of Calgary.
Dr. Jon Mee (Department of Biology, Mount Royal University)
Jon will deliver the talk: From genetics to arithmetics: studying the evolution and diversity within species using genomic and computational analysis.
Dr. Jon Mee (he/him) is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Biology at Mount Royal University. He holds a Discovery Grant from the National Science and Engineering Research Council to study genetic and ecological differences within populations. Dr. Mee conducts genomic and ecological analyses of fish populations, and uses mathematical models and simulations to answer questions that can’t be addressed by analysing actual fish.
Dr. Jenni Scott (Earth and Environmental Sciences, Mount Royal University)
Jenni will talk about Solving the Mysteries of the Earth, from Africa to Canada, in the Classroom, Lab and Field
Dr. Jenni Scott is an Associate Professor in the Dept. of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Mount Royal University, where she has been active in prioritizing student engagement in course-based research as well as her research program. Jenni’s research uses an integrated approach to understanding changing sedimentary environments through Earth history and how they impact the distribution and evolution of animals, with a focus on lake basins and marginal marine settings. Her study areas include the rift valley lakes in Kenya and Ethiopia, the ~50 million-year-old lakes of the western U.S., and the badlands and foothills of Cretaceous Alberta.