Open Access / Data release discussion at Genome Canada Conference

It is encouraging to see a session at the upcoming Genome Canada conference (Genome Canada Third International Conference, 2020 Vision: The Impact of Science on Society, Vancouver, October 22 - 24, 2008) entitled "Commercialization, Data Release, and Open Access: Incompatible Objectives?".

Other sessions at the conference:
  • Human Genetic Variation
  • Science should be on Tap not on Top: the Role of Government Science Advisers
  • A New Paradigm for Drug Discovery (Round table discussion)
  • Green Genomics
  • Genomics of Childhood Diseases
  • Stem Cells
The session: "Science should be on Tap not on Top: the Role of Government Science Advisers" is to be chaired by Arthur Carty, the former president of the National Research Council (NRC), and the former science advisor to the Canadian prime minister. I was unaware that Dr. Carty had recently been named the first executive director of the Waterloo Institute of Nanotechnology (web site??), as indicated in this news release from April, 2008. The construction of a $160M building (The Mike and Ophelia Lazaridis Quantum-Nano Centre) to house the institute has begun. The building will also house the Institute for Quantum Computing - whose chairman is Tom Brzustowski, the former president of NSERC - and the undergraduate program in nanotechnology engineering. It looks like these two scientists and science leaders have returned to the University of Waterloo, back to where they were when I was attending the university in the mid-late 1980s.

Related:

Disclosure: I am employed by the NRC.

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