Lakehead University Gairdner lectures a huge success

As a wrap up to the 2016 Canada Gairdner National Program, a final series of lectures took place at Lakehead University in early March.

The Gairdner lecture boasted its largest crowd in Thunder Bay to date as Dr. Adrian Owen, Canada Excellence Research Chair in Cognition and Neuroimaging at Western University and member of the Canada Gairdner Awards Medical Review Panel presented The Search for Consciousness: Detecting Awareness in the Vegetative State to a full room, and via broadcast to an overflow space.

Dr. Owen also delivered a Student Outreach lecture centred on a more personal account of the factors that drive his research and his key achievements along his career path. More than 150 high school student were bussed in from five local high schools to hear Dr. Owen speak. The lecture, which took a more conversational tone, gave the students a more in-depth look into what it might be like to pursue an interest in the study at the secondary level or a career in science.

Gairdner National and Student Outreach lectures take place at more than 15 universities across Canada throughout the academic year. In 2016, more than 7,500 faculty members, post docs, trainees and high school students had first-hand experiences and interaction with the world-renowned Gairdner laureates and committee members through the program.