As the April 15th deadline for early bird registration draws closer, SI are posting a special series of blog posts introducing some of brilliant key note and plenary speakers who will be appearing at Convention. Remember, the early bird gets the worm – register now!

When Canadian medical geographer Dr. Kirsty Duncan read about the 1918 Influenza pandemic that swept the world to become the worst plague in human history, she was horrified that we still knew so little about the flu and why it had spread so quickly. In an effort to prepare for what is thought by experts to be inevitable – another such pandemic, she lead an international, multi-discipline scientific expedition to exhume the bodies of a group of Norwegian miners, all victims of the epidemic.

Her expedition culminated in her writing a book, Hunting The 1918 Flu: One Scientist’s Search For A Killer Virus. The book was short-listed for the 2004 Canadian Science Writers’ Association awards. Dr. Duncan’s second academic book, Environment and Health: Protecting Our Common Future was published in the

United Kingdom in March, 2008. She completed work, regarding climate change and human health for
North America, for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (
IPCC), a joint venture of the United Nations Environmental Programme and the World Meteorological Organization. She was recognized on Parliament Hill in 2008 for her contribution to the Nobel-Prize winning Canadian team on the
IPCC.

Dr. Duncan is currently the Liberal Member of Parliament in the Etobicoke North riding, as well as an Associate Professor at the

University of
Toronto where she teaches health studies. Additionally, she is an Adjunct Professor at

Royal
Roads
University. She formerly taught corporate social responsibility at the Rotman School of Management, and has held appointments with the

University of
Windsor. Prior to being elected, she sat on the Advisory Board for Pandemic Flu for the Conference Board of Canada, the

University of
Toronto, and was also helping organizations prepare throughout the

United States. She currently sits on the Boards of the St. Andrew’s Society of Toronto and the Toronto Foundation for School Success. In 2006, she co-developed and ran the Millennium Goals Bus Tour, which visited tier-one business schools in

Canada and the

United States, and inspired students to take action locally and globally.

In 2001 and 2000, Dr. Duncan was nominated for the Order of Ontario. She was awarded the Arnold G. Wedum Memorial Lectureship for 1999 at the 42nd Biological Safety Conference for ‘outstanding contributions to biological safety’. Dr. Duncan was nominated for

Canada‘s Top 40 Under 40 in 1997, 1998, 1999 and 2001. During the spring of 2009, much attention was paid to Dr. Duncan’s knowledge and research concerning influenza pandemics, and the rising alarm in

Canada caused by the H1N1 flu.

To register, visit: www.si-montreal2011.org.

To find out more about the workshops SI are planning, keep checking Twitter  (search #SIConv2011) as we post clues about the exciting workshop themes! Want to find out more about Montreal? Read the news story to read all about this fantastic city.

We look forward to seeing you!