Science conference sure to boost city’s brain power

For a few days next month, Vancouver may well be the smartest city in the world.

More than 8,000 scientists working on some of the most pressing challenges of our time will descend on the city in February for an international conference that will tackle science, technology and education — and all points in between.

The four-day conference marks the first time in 30 years that the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), a scientific organization and publisher of Science, brings its annual meeting to Canada.

“This is one of the world’s heavyweight science conferences. The intellectual brain infusion into Vancouver will be something else,” said Vancouver Aquarium president John Nightingale. The conference also acts as a training ground for graduate students, he said.

“It opens your eyes when you’re in a university program and then you get into something like this. You think, ‘Wow, it’s an even bigger world than I ever thought.’”

And while 800 journalists will be covering the discussions into advanced biofuels, HIV/ AIDS and even the rights of whales, families will be able to attend presentations on such kid-friendly topics as live sea creatures and alien planets.

The free family days are geared to Grades 6 to 12 students and will be held Feb. 18 to 19.

Locally, University of B.C. researchers will lead more than two dozen of the nearly 170 symposiums on offer. One of those is dirk zeller, part of a team at the UBC Fisheries Centre that show show many countries dramatically under report how many fish are being caught in their waters, leading to a flawed assessment of ocean health and the impact of large fisheries.

The conference runs Feb. 16 to 20.