Registered AAAS conference delegates have the opportunity to attend pre-conference tours on Wednesday, February 15. These site visits will take delegates to see some of the most prominent centres of innovation, technology and research in and around Vancouver. Advance registration, using the links below, is required.
How It’s Organized
Site visits have been grouped into thematic tours or tracks. Each tour will feature several stops and will include guided visits and discussions about local research excellence. Transportation to and from the Vancouver Convention Centre will be provided. Most tour tracks will take a half-day or less; check the registration pages below for specifics. Registrations for tours will be capped at maximum number for each track and will also close in advance.
TRACK: Discovery, Science & Innovation
Visit TRIUMF, Canada’s national laboratory for particle and nuclear physics, and learn about superluminal neutrinos, the search for the Higgs boson, how stars burn their nuclear fuels and synthesize the elements, and how medical isotopes are made and used for the diagnosis and treatement of brain disease and cancer. Then visit the National Research Council Institute for Full Cell Innovation next door and learn about the race for high-efficiency energy storage materials and clean energy production.
TRACK: Public Health
Join a walking tour of Vancouver’s downtown east side to learn the extent of the city’s challenges with the homeless and drug-addicted and to see some of the most innovative solutions in North America. Researchers such as clinical psychologist Julian Somers and criminology professor Neil Boyd will lead the tour through Canada’s poorest urban landscape with visits to new shelters for the homeless and Vancouver’s INSITE safe injection site, the only place in North America where drug addiction is treated as a public health problem rather than a crime. After the walk there will be a briefing session indoors with short presentations from the researchers and a question and answer period. Meet at 9:00am Feb 15 in the lobby of the Pan Pacific Hotel. A light breakfast will be provided. Tour lasts 90 minutes. Wear suitable clothing for a walk in February. Total walk distance 3.7Km.
