On December 3, David Saint-Jacques will launch with two crewmates from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on a Russian Soyuz rocket to the International Space Station. David will spend six months aboard the Station as part of the ‘C3’ expedition, Canada’s third long-duration mission. Preparation for an ISS expedition is a significant undertaking requiring the […]
Innovation
Being Mindful of Everyday Encounters
Gathie Falk is a beloved and unconventional artist from Vancouver. She has a reputation in the art world for skillfully using a wide variety of media to venerate the ordinary. ‘Venerating the ordinary’ means that she incorporates commonplace objects into her artworks and invites us to reconsider the role of these objects in our lives. […]
The Spirit of Innovation
I had the pleasure to meet Margaret Nazon at the opening of the Cosmos exhibition at the Glenbow Museum in Calgary. Margaret is a contemporary artist and delightful woman from the Gwich’in First Nation in the Northwest Territories. Tsiigehtchic, the small (150 people) remote community where she lives, is situated on the Mackenzie River south […]
Rendezvous of the Arts and Sciences
A new art exhibition entitled Cosmos opened Saturday at the Glenbow Museum in Calgary. The exhibition features intriguing works by three esteemed Canadian artists – Gathie Falk, Margaret Nazon and Erik Olson – on the subject of space. A few months earlier, Melanie Kjorlien, Glenbow Vice President, approached me to submit a narrative about her […]
Skills for Success in the Digital Economy
I dropped in last week on an educational workshop being held at the Vancouver office of SAP Canada. 40 Grade 6 to 9 students and their teachers from local schools were engaged in a hands-on project called Living Space. As I moved about their workspace, I noted that the students and teachers were coding tiny […]
Let’s regain our place as a nation of explorers
I noticed a tweet this morning from my space colleague Natalie Panek stating that the federal government’s Standing Committee on Finance had launched its pre-budget consultations and deliberations in advance of the 2019 federal budget. Natalie encouraged us to make our voices heard by sharing our priorities with the Committee. I was eager to help. […]
Deep space exploration and healthcare innovation
Last month I was in Vancouver to attend the e-Health 2018 Conference. This annual conference and tradeshow brought together 1,250 digital health professionals from diverse backgrounds and across Canada. It was a good opportunity to network, share ideas and learn from each other. I participated in a plenary session at the conference. Sonny Kholi (physician […]
The Pursuit of Excellence
This week I attended the gala for the 2012 Canada Gairdner Awards held at the Royal Ontario Museum (ROM) in Toronto. In the shadows of towering dinosaur skeletons and in front of an audience of the who’s who of health research, six international and one Canadian researcher were presented with their awards.
The stuff of dreams
I had the privilege this morning to meet Canada’s outstanding elementary and secondary school teachers. 27 of our nation’s best educators were in Ottawa as recipients of the Prime Minister’s Award for Teaching Excellence and for Excellence in Early Childhood Education. Their visit coincided with World Teachers’ Day which is held annually on October 5th.
One Month and Counting
For the last 28 years I served as an astronaut of the Canadian Space Agency and was privileged to fly twice in space. I have a lifetime of wonderful memories of both of those missions and long-lasting friendships with my crew mates.