University faculty and students traveled to Vancouver, British Columbia last weekend for the American Association for the Advancement of Science's Annual Meeting. Assistant Professor of Environmental Studies and Biology Heather Leslie participated in a symposium on marine conservation and management and Professor of Biology Ken Miller '70 spoke about the intersection of religion and science education. Emily Hartman '12 presented her research on pollen grain germination at the student poster session Saturday.
"It's a really fun and interdisciplinary meeting and great for students to attend," Leslie said, adding that next year the meeting will be in Boston.
Leslie spoke about drawing on different "knowledge bases" — from anthropology to economics to geography — to better understand how humans are connected to marine systems.
The focus of the symposium was "recognizing that people are part of ocean systems," Leslie said, drawing on examples from Narragansett Bay. "(This) is quite a big shift in terms of the science and also in terms of how we use the science to inform policy and management."
In his talk, Miller suggested strategies for teaching students who have reservations regarding the intersection of faith and science. This is an important topic, since about 75 percent of college students say they believe in God, he said. Every year, he has a couple of students ask him if they have to believe in evolution in order to get an A in his class, he told a group of alums Saturday night at a Brown Club of Vancouver event.
Miller himself is Catholic and explained how he has reconciled his religious beliefs with the concept of evolution. "If properly presented, science need not be compromised or soft-pedaled to accommodate religious concerns," he wrote in the description of his AAAS lecture.
Hartman presented her research on pollen grain germination and the resulting elongation of pollen tubes after pollen lands on a flower. The research has potential applications for biofuels, she said.
The student poster session "was a really great way to talk about my research and get used to speaking about it with people who aren't necessarily from a plant biology background," Hartman added. More than 150 students participated in the session, a majority of whom were from the University of British Columbia or schools on the West Coast. Hartman was able to attend through a research fellowship from the American Chemical Society, the academic portion of which she spent attending the AAAS meeting because she wanted to learn more about how to communicate science, she said.
Barry Connors, professor and chair of the Department of Neuroscience, Diane Lipscombe, professor of neuroscience and David Rand, professor of biology, were named AAAS fellows this past November for their contributions to science but were unable to attend the awards ceremony Saturday due to prior commitments.
