Plenaries and Invited Speakers

Keynote Speakers

The 5th Science Centre World Congress will feature three keynote addresses, linked to the congress sub-themes. Keynote speakers were chosen from outside our field based on their ability to inspire delegates and promote dialogue both during the Congress and following.

Monday, June 16
The Role of Science Centres in Building the Future

Jennifer Corriero is co-founder and Executive Director of TakingITGlobal (TIG), a non-profit organization aimed at fostering cross-cultural dialogue, strengthening the capacity of youth as leaders and increasing awareness and involvement in global issues through the use of technology. TIG partners with five UN agencies, and is supported by several corporations and philanthropic foundations.

TakingITGlobal.org is an online community that connects youth to find inspiration, access information, get involved, and take action in their local and global communities. It's the world's most popular online community for young people interested in making a difference, with hundreds of thousands of unique visitors each month. 

In 2007, Jennifer was named as one of Canada's Top 100 Most Powerful Women by the Women's Executive Network and in 2005 she was named as a 'Young Global Leader' by the World Economic Forum. She has presented at events including the World Urban Forum, International AIDS Conference, World Summit on Sustainable Development, Youth Employment Summit and Global Knowledge Partnership International Forum. Jennifer has a BA (Liberal Studies) with a focus on 'Business, Communications, Technology and Culture' and a Masters in Environmental Studies from York University. Her area of concentration is 'Youth Engagement and Capacity-Building Across Cultures'. Jennifer is an alumna of the Ontario Science Centre Science School.

Keynote Presentation:
Jennifer Corriero, Co-founder of TakingITGlobal.org, a world-wide community of young people creating positive global change, takes us on a journey to discover how we can connect with the millions of young people who want to make a difference in the world. Jennifer will share how TakingITGlobal’s mission of Inspire, Inform, and Involve has translated into a number of virtual and on-the-ground programs in dozens of countries around the world, reaching young people in every corner of the planet, and bringing them together with educators, peers, and NGOs to work towards achieving some of the world’s greatest challenges – the Millennium Development Goals. Joined via webcast by young leaders in Egypt, Argentina, and China, these passionate young activists will share their stories, insights, and the huge opportunity that we all have to harness the power of technology and the Internet to take action in our communities.

Tuesday, June 17
Citizen Engagement and Social Responsibility

Stephen Lewis is one of the world's most influential speakers on human rights, social justice and international development, He is a gifted orator known for challenging and energizing his audiences. As a politician, diplomat and international envoy for humanitarian efforts, he has dedicated himself to improving the human condition.

Stephen Lewis is a Professor in Global Health, Faculty of Social Sciences at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario. He is co-Director of AIDS-Free World (www.aids-freeworld.org), an international AIDS advocacy organization based in the United States, and chair of the board of the Stephen Lewis Foundation (Www.stephenlewisfoundation.org) in Canada. 

The Stephen Lewis Foundation (SLF) helps to ease the pain of HIV/AIDS in Africa by funding grassroots projects that help individuals, families and communities ravaged by the pandemic. His 2006 best-seller, Race Against Time: Searching for Hope in AIDS-Ravaged Africa is a frank and heartfelt look at how the world is failing the UN's Millennium Development Goals, which were meant in part to cut poverty in half by 2015.

Lewis worked in a number of leadership positions with the United Nations from 1984 to 2006: as the UN Secretary-General’s Special Envoy for HIV/AIDS in Africa from 2001 – 2006; as Deputy Executive Director of UNICEF at the organization’s global headquarters in New York from 1995 to 1999; and as Canada’s Ambassador to the UN from 1984 to 1988.

Mr. Lewis holds 26 honorary degrees from Canadian universities and is a Companion of the Order of Canada, the country’s highest honour for lifetime achievement. In 2007, the Kingdom of Lesotho invested Mr. Lewis as Knight Commander of the Most Dignified Order of Moshoeshoe. The order is named for the founder of Lesotho; the knighthood is the country’s highest honour.

Wednesday, June 18
Planet Earth - Living On it, Changing it, Sustaining it

Sheila Watt-Cloutier, Climate Change Activist and Mohamed Hassan, TWAS - the Academy of Sciences for the Developing World will each speak about the impact of climate change on their respective areas of the world.   This session will challenge delegates to consider platforms to engage the public in discussion and debate around topics related to the general health of our planet and how we can better position ourselves as valued resources on global issues like climate change, infections diseases and pandemics and natural disasters.

Mohamed H.A. Hassan

Dr. Mohamed H.A. Hassan is Executive Director of TWAS - the Academy of Sciences for the Developing World and President of the African Academy of Sciences (AAS), and serves on a number of committees in other organizations worldwide. He was born in the Sudan in 1947, and holds a Ph.D. in Plasma Physics from the University of Oxford, UK (1974). A former professor and dean of the School of Mathematical Sciences at the University of Khartoum, he received the order of scientific merit of Brazil. He is a fellow of TWAS, AAS, and the Islamic Academy of Sciences as well as honorary member of the Colombian Academy of Exact, Physical and Natural Sciences, corresponding member of the Belgian Royal Overseas Academy of Sciences, and foreign fellow of the Pakistan Academy of Sciences. His research areas include theoretical plasma physics, physics of wind erosion and sand transport.

Keynote Presentation:
Homo sapiens have been living on Earth for ions of time. Indeed humans have been changing the Earth ever since we first emerged as a distinct species 200,000 years ago. But never before have we faced the existential question of whether we are capable of sustaining the Earth as we know it into the future. The atom bomb, which has haunted human existence for 68 years, has made it possible to destroy the Earth. But today we confront another disturbing reality: that we may indeed be using the Earth up. A key global challenge over the past half-century has been how to build scientific and technological capacity in ways that improve the lives of hundreds of millions of marginalized people in the developing world. In the past decade, however, an additional critical challenge has emerged: How can the developing world preserve, protect and rationally utilize its natural resource base so as not to undermine the economic and social progress that has taken place? This challenge has become increasingly difficult in view of the accelerating pace of global warming, rising urban air pollution, the growing conflict between food and fuel in agriculture, and declining supplies of safe drinking water. Just when things began to look promising, they are turning ominous again. My talk will focus on the enormous challenges that the developing world faces in building scientific capacity and successfully applying this capacity to global sustainability challenges. I will also examine the opportunities this creates for new and innovative North-South partnerships in science and the steps that should be taken to advance global economic and social well being while protecting the Earth’s enormous but not limitless resources for future generations.

Sheila Watt-Cloutier

Sheila Watt-Cloutier has made it her life's work to preserve the environment and advocate for the people of the circumpolar region. Born in the tiny community of Kuujjuaq in Northern Quebec, Ms. Watt-Cloutier was raised traditionally on the land for ten years, before attending school in Churchill, Manitoba. She currently makes her home in Iqaluit and is the Chair of the Inuit Circumpolar Conference, the  organization that represents the interests of the Inuit peoples of northern Canada, Greenland, Alaska and Russia. She was elected president of ICC in 1995 and reelected to this position in 1998. In this capacity, she was successful in persuading states to sign a global agreement to ban the generation and use of persistent organic pollutants, such as DDT and the PCBs that contaminate the Arctic food chain. For this work she received the inaugural global environmental award from the World Association of Non-Governmental Organizations. Ms. Watt-Cloutier is currently engaged in climate change initiatives with the aim of persuading states to reduce their emission of greenhouse gases. She visited Chukotka in Northern Russia earlier this year and announced a pilot project with the region's Indigenous peoples to promote international marketing of local arts and crafts. In addition to her work with the environment, Ms. Watt-Cloutier was the Corporate Secretary of Makivik Corporation, the organization that looked after the funds from the 1975 James Bay and Northern Quebec Land Claims Agreement. She has also worked extensively to improve health conditions and education for Aboriginal communities.

Keynote Presentation:
In the Arctic, we are in the midst of a historic transformation. This year alone we have witnessed entire icescapes on the move or disappearing because of climate changes. What does this transformation mean for citizens of the Arctic? What does it mean for Canada? For the World?  What does it mean at the local, regional and national level? The Global affects the local and the local affects the global- we must continually remind ourselves in our communities, cities and municipalities not to sway from the principled path of balanced sustainable development.  To address climate change, and to ensure that development across the North is conducted carefully, wisely and with balance, our world must reconnect around our shared Arctic, ultimately our shared humanity. Canada’s own rush to claim it’s slice of the Arctic will be best served very importantly by encouraging thriving human communities and municipalities across the North.

Plenary Sessions

Monday, June 16
Creating the Future – The Role of Science Centres

Science is an important tool for a better life on our planet. What roles do science centres play in contributing to the cultivation of an informed and creative population that is ready to understand, and respond to, the challenges and opportunities of the 21st century? Are we doing enough to respond to the very real challenges of the present and future? How do we expand our core audiences and extend their experience beyond the visit and beyond the walls of our institutions? How can science centres forge alliances, with each other and with external organizations, to address important local, national and global challenges. Four science centre leaders will consider the future, the challenges facing science centres and respond to the ideas proposed by Jennifer Corriero.

Wednesday, June 18
CEO Conversation on Social Responsibility

CEO Conversation on Social Responsibility CEO’s from five science centres and the CEO of Siemens Canada will discuss how their institutions demonstrate commitment to social responsibility and citizen engagement. After a brief personal introduction by each participant outlining their institution, its role in the community and their beliefs as the senior leader regarding social responsibility, the moderator will engage participants in a wide ranging series of questions on the topic. The format will be informal and conversational

Moderator:    Bryce Seidl, Pacific Science Centre, USA
Panelists:      Maya Halevy, Bloomfield Science Centre, Israel
                    Elizabeth Hoyos, Maloka, Colombia
                    Eric Jolly, Science Museum of Minnesota, USA
                    Rosalia Vargas, Ciencia Viva, Portugal
                    Guenther Scholz, CEO, Siemens Canada

Thursday, June 19
Frontiers of Science

Science and technology are constantly changing, and science centres must remain current. The final morning of the congress will feature a two-part plenary session.

First, delegates will hear from some of Canada’s leading researchers and scientists selected by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) and the Ontario Ministry of Research of Innovation. This session brings together researchers in some of today’s most exciting scientific fields, who will each speak to their cutting edge research and what the future may hold. Each scientist will speak for five to seven minutes about the research that they are engaged in and the passion that drives this research. The session will be introduced by Dr. Suzanne Fortier, the President of NSERC.

In Part 2, Dr. Pelle Persson of Heureka (Finland), will convene a panel of science centre CEOS to speak to the challenges faced by science centres and museums in responding to current research and bringing it to the public.

Confirmed participants are:

A question and answer period involving the scientists and science centre participants will follow.