Dr. Richard D. Hansen has identified some of the largest and earliest ancient cities of the Mayan civilization in Central America with a major international archaeological research team with scholars from around the globe. His work has been featured in 36 film documentaries.

Dr. Maryanne Wolf has dedicated her professional career to children with learning challenges. Her research focuses on dyslexia, literacy in digital culture, and the reading brain circuit. She designed the RAVE-O reading intervention for children with dyslexia. Dr. Wolf is the author of Proust and the Squid (2007), translated into 13 languages, Tales of Literacy for the 21st Century (2016), and Reader, Come Home: The Reading Brain in a Digital World (2018).

Dr. Lara Boyd is a Neuroscientist and Physical Therapist. At the Brain Behaviour Lab at UBC, she performs research designed to advance theoretical conceptualizations of how brain function relates to behaviour during learning. She is an expert in mapping how behaviours, environments and experiences affect brain health and learning, using techniques such as magnetic resonance imaging and non-invasive brain stimulation.

Dr. Janet Rossant’s contributions have shaped the way we understand the human genome, congenital abnormalities, and the use of cancer drugs. Her innovation in manipulating the mouse genome led to the mouse becoming the dominant model in understanding the function of the human genome sequence.

Jonathan Manthorpe has been a foreign correspondent and international affairs columnist for Southam News, the Toronto Star, andthe Vancouver Sun. He is a founding columnist with Facts and Opinions, and contributor to iPolitics. Mathorpe's talk will include a conversation with Dr. Paul Evans, HSBC Chair in Asian Research and Professor in the UBC School of Public Policy and Global Affairs.

Robert Bilott gained international prominence by raising awareness and exposing the global environmental contamination produced by highly toxic fluorinated chemicals (“forever chemicals”) associated with the production of Teflon. His book Exposure: Poisoned Water, Corporate Greed, and One Lawyer’s Twenty-Year Battle against DuPont (2019) is a personal account of the litigation process leading to DuPont ceasing production and use of “forever chemicals” in 2013, and was also the inspiration for the feature film, Dark Waters (2019) and the documentary, The Devil We Know (2018).

Dr. Deanna Reder’s research focuses on Indigenous literature and literary history. A Cree-Métis scholar, she is a founding member of the Indigenous Literary Studies Association (ILSA), co-chair of the Indigenous Voices Awards, and the Editor for the Indigenous Studies Series at Wilfrid Laurier University Press. Dr. Reder was the winner of the 2013 Canadian Literature Essay Prize for “Thinking Together: A Forum on Jo-Ann Episkenew’s Taking Back Our Spirits: Indigenous Literature, Public Policy and Healing.”

Professor Hermiston is a distinguished opera singer, stage director and educator. She debuted in New York at Carnegie Hall, and her European début led to a permanent engagement with the prestigious Nürnberg Opera. She has held numerous appointments as voice teacher and as stage director at the Meistersinger Konservatorium, Nürnberg, and the University of Toronto Opera and Performance Divisions.

Brett Finlay’s research is at the forefront of the field of cellular microbiology, making several fundamental discoveries in this area that have made him recipient of numerous prestigious awards. Jessica M. Finlay specializes in environmental gerontology and clinical geography. She has authored publications in leading health, geography, and gerontology journals.