Jesus Calling Feb 2

Friday, Feb 2, 2011

A Special Encouragement to the Reading Group

On behalf of our President Frank J. Wiegers, Chairman for the 2015-2016 Annual Meeting of the Royal Canadian Academy of Sciences (R.C.A.R.), I'd like to extend a special encouragement to the members of the R.C.A.R. reading group. I am truly honored to be hosting a reading group and hope everyone will attend.

The purpose of the reading group is to bring together scientists engaged in different disciplines and research areas for a short-term interaction. This is aimed at deepening a scientific exchange within the academy.

I recently spoke on a radio show about the challenges of such extended interaction but still succeeded in attracting more than 60 scientists from various disciplines to speak with this group. Two members of our reading group today stated they were lucky to have found a reading group because they are otherwise preoccupied with a number of other things. This is especially true for the group of American scientists from a very diverse American academy who speak in English, all in a relaxed environment. We welcome all of these individuals as well as the experts represented.

The members of our reading group today are members of the R.C.A.R. Standing Committee. I would like to compliment the panel that was assigned to explain how this reading group works. The members of this committee are all from the R.C.A.R. Science Committee where they manage science programs. One of them reviewed the whole process and stated that the committee that planned the reading group also visited other Academy scientists such as the Vice-President of Academia Canada and Mr. Hoge. Another committee member stated he is in touch with some people from both Academics Canada and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences who are experts in this area. He also saw the working group who helped plan and instruct all of these scientists. Here are some details about the committee members and the process.

(On the left of the background on the left of the picture are five committee members during the 2014 annual meeting)
Chairman of the R.C.A.R. Science Committee
Charles Martens (Canada Post – Canadian diplomat and ambassador to Canada)
Consultant in Chemistry – Nobel Laureate in chemistry
Elin Selig (NED – R.