Symposium Schedule
Tuesday | October 22
Roundtable Session: 1:30pm - 3:00pm
Moderated by Joe Schwarcz PhD, Director, McGill Office for Science and Society
Participants:
- Arie Benchetrit PhD., Plastic Surgeon, Medical Director - Cosmedica Clinic
- Laurie Betito PhD., Clinical Psychologist and Radio Talk Show Host with a specialty in Sexual Health
- David Sinclair PhD., Professor of Genetics at Harvard University
- Ruth Westheimer PhD., Psychosexual therapist and author
Symposium: 7:00pm - 9:00pm
Speakers:
Dr. Joe Schwarcz, Longing for Longevity
Dr. David Sinclair, Why We Age and Why We Don't Have To
All events will take place at the Centre Mont-Royal (1000 Sherbrooke Street West, corner Mansfield).
FREE. General Seating. No reservations required.
WEDNESDAY | October 23
Symposium: 7:00pm - 9:00pm
Dr. Ruth Westheimer in conversation with Dr. Joe Schwarcz - Sex After 50
David Sinclair | Why We Age and Why We Don’t Have To
It’s a seemingly undeniable truth that aging is inevitable. Even the most valiant fight against old age ends the same way: time always wins. The best we can hope for is a life that’s (relatively) long and well lived. Dr. Sinclair is on a mission to change that. “Aging is a disease.... This disease is treatable.” He will present a new idea about why we age and why there may be a reset button. New discoveries in Dr. Sinclair’s lab and others around the world are showing it is possible to reset the actual clock of aging in animals to rejuvenate tissues and even restore eyesight, with clinical trials already in progress.
David A. Sinclair, Ph.D. is an entrepreneur and world leader in aging research. He is a tenured Professor of Genetics at Harvard Medical School, co-Director of the Paul F. Glenn Center for the Biology of Aging Research at Harvard Medical School, Professor and Head of the Aging Labs at UNSW, Sydney, and an honorary Professor at the University of Sydney. He is best known for his work on genes and small molecules that delay aging, including the Sirtuin genes, resveratrol and NAD precursors. He has published over 170 scientific papers, is a co-inventor on over 50 patents, and has co-founded 14 biotechnology companies in the areas of aging, vaccines, diabetes, fertility, cancer, and biodefense. He serves as co-chief editor of the scientific journal Aging, works with national defense agencies and with NASA. He has received 35 honors including being one of Australia's leading scientists under 45, the Australian Medical Research Medal, the NIH Director’s Pioneer award, TIME magazine’s list of the “100 most influential people in the world” (2014) and the “Top 50 people in Healthcare.” (2018)
In 2018, he became an Officer of the Order of Australia for his work in medicine and national security.
Follow David Sinclair on Twitter at @davidasinclair.
Joe Schwarcz | Longing for Longevity
Everybody would like to live longer but nobody wants to get old. Attempts to turn back the clock have a long history ranging from the ridiculous to the hopeful. The scientific search for anti-aging regimens has turned up some encouraging possibilities but the proverbial fountain of youth remains elusive.
Joe Schwarcz is Director of the McGill Office for Science and Society. He is well known for his informative and entertaining public lectures on topics ranging from the chemistry of love to the science of aging. Dr. Joe has received numerous awards for teaching chemistry and for interpreting science for the public and is the only non-American ever to win the American Chemical Society’s prestigious Grady-Stack Award for demystifying chemistry. He hosts "The Dr. Joe Show" on Montreal's CJAD and has appeared hundreds of times on The Discovery Channel, CTV, CBC, TV Ontario and Global Television. He is also an amateur conjurer and often spices up his presentations with a little magic. Dr. Joe also writes a newspaper column entitled “The Right Chemistry” and has authored a number of books including best-sellers, Radar, Hula Hoops and Playful Pigs, The Genie in the Bottle, The Right Chemistry, An Apple a Day, Is That a Fact?, and Monkeys, Myths, and Molecules. Dr. Joe was awarded the 2010 Montreal Medal, the Canadian Chemical Institute’s premier prize recognizing lifetime contributions to chemistry in Canada. In 2015 he was named winner of the Balles Prize for critical thinking by the US based Committee for Skeptical Inquiry in recognition of his 2014 book, Is That A Fact? His 17th book, "A Grain of Salt", was published last month.
Follow Joe Schwarcz on Twitter at @JoeSchwarcz.
Ruth Westheimer | Sex After 50
Growing older brings physical and psychological changes to one’s sex life and yet many people enjoy the best sex of their lives after 50. Keeping your sex life active is an important part of making sure your relationship is in good shape and while one needs to take certain steps to compensate for physical changes, one’s attitude adjustments become just as key. Dr. Ruth Westheimer brings not only decades of experience as a sex therapist to her lectures but also her unique and infectious joie de vivre.
Dr. Ruth Westheimer may best be known for having pioneered talking explicitly about sex on radio and television, but as it turns out, that is only a small part of her rich and diversified life. Born in Germany in 1928, Dr. Westheimer was sent to Switzerland at the age of ten to escape the Holocaust, which wiped out her entire immediate family. At the age of seventeen she went to then Palestine where she joined the Haganah, the Israeli freedom fighters, was trained to be a sniper and was seriously wounded in a bomb blast. She later moved to Paris to study at the Sorbonne and in 1956 went to the U.S. where she obtained her Masters Degree (M.A.) in Sociology from the Graduate Faculty of the New School of Social Research and Doctorate of Education (Ed.D.) in the Interdisciplinary Study of the Family from Columbia University Teacher's College.
Her work for Planned Parenthood led her to study human sexuality under Dr. Helen Singer Kaplan at New York Hospital-Cornell University Medical Center, where she became an Adjunct Associate Professor. Subsequently she taught courses at various institutions of higher learning including Princeton and Yale. She currently is teaching a course at both Columbia's Teachers College and Hunter College. She continues to lecture worldwide.
She is the author of 46 books, including Stay or Go, Roller Coaster Grandma and Crocodile You're Beautiful. She's been the executive producer of five documentaries. She can be found on Twitter @AskDrRuth where she has over 92,000 followers. A one-woman show about her life, “Becoming Dr. Ruth” has played in the Berkshires, Hartford and off-Broadway and continues to tour. And a documentary about her life, Ask Dr. Ruth, premiered at the Sundance Film Festival, was shown at the Tribeca Film Festival and is in theaters across the country before airing on Hulu in May 2019. Dr. Westheimer, a widow, has two children, four grandchildren and resides in New York City.
Watch the preview for Ask Dr. Ruth. The full documentary is now available on Hulu.