Breathtaking in its super­latives, Antarctica mes­mer­izes visitors with its com­pel­ling beauty, awe-inspiring land­scapes and im­pos­ing grandeur. No con­ti­nent is its equal. More­over, its ever-changing and elusive light can paint and trans­form the spectacle with often fan­tas­ti­cal shapes and colours. Antarctica animates, inspires, and humbles.

Canadian artist Arnold Zageris has travelled to Antarctica five times, fascinated by the limitless but challenging opportunity to capture its compelling vistas digitally and on 4 x 5 inch film. When possible, Zageris uses a tripod and a large format camera to take only a few photographs, carefully selecting his subject and planning his com­po­si­tion. He shares his images and stories in this richly illustrated talk.

Mr. Zageris’ work has won awards, been exhibited widely and appears in private, corporate and public collections, including the National Gallery of Canada. He is author of three books: On the Labrador, Antarctica and Iceland.  |  Less..

Date:     Note that this is a Wednesday event with an earlier than normal start time.

Venue:  St. Paul's church, 29 Park St W, Dundas, ON  L9H 1X3

Hamilton Phihar­monic Orches­tra Com­poser-in-Resi­dence Abigail Richard­son-Schulte will take us on a jour­ney through the life, music and cul­tur­al influ­en­ces of the Austrian com­po­ser Franz Schubert (1797–1828) in this fasci­na­ting talk pre­sent­ed in colla­bor­a­tion with the HPO.
 
Explore the music world of the late Clas­si­cal and early Roman­tic eras and hear Abigail’s piano demonstrations of key works by Schubert and his con­tem­por­aries.  |  Less..

The enormous proliferation of knowledge in early modern Europe gave rise to numerous challenges for scholars and readers alike. How was it possible to contend with the sheer volume of information now available? Drawing from original works held by McMaster University Library, this talk will explore three such attempts: the Nuremberg Chronicle of 1493, which tried to encapsulate the entirety of world history; Agrippa’s Three Books of Occult Philosophy, which drew on linguistically and geographically disparate traditions of magical thought; and Aldrovandi’s Natural History, which in the late sixteenth century aimed to present a comprehensive synthesis of existing zoological thought and illustration.

Myron Groover is Archives and Rare Books Librarian at McMaster University.  |  Less..

Commissioner Licker's lecture was cancelled due to illness. We hope to be able to present this lecture in 2023.

Henry Lickers has spent much of his life thinking about the im­por­tance of bridg­ing science and local know­ledge gained by Indigenous commu­ni­ties from experi­ences with the land, water and their in­ha­bi­tants. Appoint­ed to the Inter­national Joint Com­mis­sion (IJC) in 2019 as the first Indigenous com­mis­sioner, he has brought an aware­ness of ‘two-eyed seeing’ gained through his own experi­ence and previous work as the environ­mental science officer for the Mohawk Council of Akwesasne.

Commissioner Lickers is a member of the Seneca Nation, Turtle Clan and a biologist. The IJC is a group that over­sees all bodies of water shared by Canada and the United States. The six com­mis­sion­ers inves­ti­gate and recom­mend actions related to issues such as water levels, water quality, pollu­tion and climate change.  |  Less..

Much of what we know about mo­lecu­lar and cell bio­lo­gy has come from study­ing viruses. Under­standing how viruses evolve with their natural host has taught us about diseases ranging from COVID to cancer. The work in the Mossman lab ranges from understanding very early interactions between a virus and the cell it infects to developing novel antiviral and cancer therapies. More recently, more pieces of the puzzle have been put together by studying bats, flying mammals that appear immune to some of the most deadly viruses.

Dr. Mossman is Vice-President, Research; Professor of Medicine, McMaster Immunology Research Centre, McMaster University.  |  Less..

Biodiversity is under threat on mul­ti­ple fronts. One of the greatest — but perhaps least talked about — threats comes from bio­logi­cal inva­sions. In wet­lands, alien inva­sive plants change how eco­systems function and jeopardize critical services that wetlands provide.

Over 60 in­va­sive wet­land plants threaten the Great Lakes region, but one in particular, European Common Reed, is a direct threat to 25% of all spe­cies at risk in Ontario. The plant can grow taller than a single story house, inter­cept­ing the sun and changing conditions around it.

Can we ever get back the bio­diverse native marsh that pre-existed the invasion? How should we define success and what tools could achieve it?

Dr. Rebecca Rooney is a professor in the Department of Biology at the University of Waterloo.  |  Less..

The Niagara Escarpment is a natural ridge that snakes through the Ontario landscape from Manitoulin Island to the Niagara River. Its present appearance is the result of erosion that has occurred over the past 250 million years. Adam Brylowski will talk about the escarpment and the Bruce Trail, an ongoing public project to promote this unique feature and protect the natural habitats along its heights, with the help of local landowners and volunteers.

Adam Brylowski has been at the Bruce Trail Conservancy for 12 years, co-ordinating its Conservation and Trail programs. Prior to that he was a Natural Resource Management Technician for the City of Toronto and has worked for Urban Forest Associates.  |  Less..

Join pastel artist Clarence Porter as he takes you on his journey from Indi­an­apo­lis to Tor­onto to Hami­lton with com­men­tary and slides of his colour­ful artwork. Some­times it is through the eyes of a child that we can better see our world.

A single event, a con­ver­sa­tion while travel­ling over the Sky­way Bridge with his son, is the event that began Clarence Porter’s love of Hamilton and his life in the Hamilton Arts community. Mr. Porter is an artist and art instructor at the Dundas Valley School of Art who has had a long career in graphic design and illus­tra­tion.  |  Less..

In medi­cal school, Dr. Sheila Singh met two child­ren who influ­enc­ed her deci­sion to be­come a cancer re­search­er, seek­ing to better under­stand child­hood brain cancers at a cellu­lar level. Her work and con­tinu­ing research in the Sheila Singh Lab at Mc­Master have made strides to explain what drives the growth of tumours and, through that under­standing, propose more effect­ive indivi­dual­ized treatments to combat these resistant forms of cancer. In her talk, Dr. Singh explains changes to traditional understanding of brain tumours and the ramifications of her research.

Dr. Sheila Singh MD, PhD, FRCSC, is a professor in the Department of Surgery, an associate member of both the Department of Biochemistry & Biomedical Sciences, and the Department of Pediatrics, Director of the Pediatric Brain Tumour Study Group, Director of the Centre for Discovery in Cancer Research, and Director of the Surgeon-Scientist Program, all at McMaster University. To learn more about our speaker and her lab's research visit:  https://experts.mcmaster.ca/display/ssingh.  |  Less..