Science and Friendship at McGill: A Few Insights
Virtual event description:
A symposium on the stories, innovations, and scientific discoveries fueled and supported by extraordinary friendships.
Presentations:
- Fossils, Friendship and Scientific Connections: Exploring the Unsettling Lives and Correspondence of Gordon Hewitt and Marie Stopes. Ingrid Birker and Laura Cameron.
- Birds of a Feather: Lomer, Wood and the Creation of an Extraordinary Natural History Collection. Chris Lyons.
- “Two Heads on the Same Body”: How Wilder Penfield and William Cone Discovered the Human Brain and Lost Each Other. Eric Andrew-Gee.
- Science as an Inspiration to Art/Art as an Inspiration to Science: The collaboration of Hans Selye and Marian Dale Scott. Gwendolyn Owens.
About the Speakers:
Christopher Lyons is the head librarian of Rare Books and Special Collections.
Ingrid Birker manages the Public Program at the Redpath Museum. She has published and edited a variety of booklets including: Tea and fossils – a brief history of the Redpath Museum (2007); A Leafy Legacy (2009); the gallery guide A Fossils’ Tale (2010); Redpath Museum Kid's Colouring and Activity book (2019). She has organized many public events and activities such as the first Women in Science, Engineering and Medicine Symposium (2012) and the Cutting Edge Lectures in Science (2006 - 2022). In 2015 she completed a M.A. (McGill) with a thesis entitled What I learned about learning at the Redpath Museum.
Laura Jean Cameron is professor of historical geography at Queen’s University. She is the author of Friend Beloved (2021), Openings (1997), co-author with John Forrester of Freud in Cambridge (2017) as well as the co-editor of Emotion, Place and Culture (2009) and Rethinking the Great White North (2011).
Gwendolyn Owens is Director, Visual Arts Collection, McGill University. Her scholarly publications include articles, exhibition catalogues, and books on artist/architect Gordon Matta-Clark; painters Maurice Prendergast, Lawren Harris, and David Milne; Montreal artist/architect Melvin Charney; 20thcentury art markets; and kitchen wallpaper. She is currently researching the art of Marian Dale Scott.
Eric Andrew-Gee is the Globe and Mail’s Quebec correspondent, based in Montreal. He studied history at McGill and has worked as a reporter at the Globe for six years. His work focuses on the intersection of the Canadian past with current events.