Dr. Marc Renaud

By Deborah Inkpen
On, Feb. 23-24, the Graduate Students' Union and the School of Graduate Studies at Memorial University will present the 2004 Aldrich Interdisciplinary Lecture and Conference. During the course of the conference graduate students will present 20-minute long papers on their research.

The conference will be held in the Education Building. The presentation of papers begins at 9 a.m. in rooms ED-4008, ED-4011 and ED-4015. There is no conference fee and all members of the university community and members of the general public are encouraged to attend. A schedule of presentations, along with abstracts, can be found at www.mun.ca/gsu.

A highlight of the event is the Aldrich Lecture, which will be delivered by Dr. Marc Renaud, president of the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) since 1997. Dr. Renaud will present the lecture, Human Science: Dreams, Barriers and Opportunities. The lecture will address the value of traditional research in the social sciences and humanities. How can we transfer our knowledge further into the world? How can the work of scholars in the human sciences enhance Canada's role on the world stage? How can researchers in history, literature, philosophy, sociology, etc., contribute to the transformation of the world itself?

Dr. Marc Renaud taught in the Department of Sociology at the Université de Montréal where he created a multidisciplinary research center on the social aspects of health and prevention. His expertise is in the field of health sociology, more specifically on determinants of health, health policies and the social impact of technological development in medicine. He has been a pillar of the Québec Commission on Health and Social Services (1986-88) and of the National Forum on Health in Ottawa (1994-96). He is past president of the Conseil québécois de la recherche sociale, a Webster Fellow and vice-president of the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research and officer (vice-president, then president) of the International Association of Health Policy. Several honours have been bestowed upon him, among which include his election at the Royal Society of Canada (1992) and an honorary doctorate (University of Ottawa, 2000).

Dr. Renaud, a passionate advocate for the importance of humanities and social sciences research, has been very active in the transformation of the Medical Research Council into the Canadian Institutes of Health Research. He has also been part of several boards or steering committees (Canadian Foundation for Innovation, Canada Health Services Research Foundation, Genome Canada, Trudeau Foundation, Industry Portfolio, Science and Technology (Environment Canada and Statistic-Canada), Networks of Centres of Excellence, Expert Panel on Research Ethics and Canada Research Chairs). Dr. Renaud is also a dynamic speaker with a great sense of humour and an uncanny ability to challenge any audience.

The public is invited to attend this lecture, which begins at 7:30 p.m. in Robert G. Reid III Theatre, Arts and Administration Building. Free parking is available in lot 15. Gate operated parking ($2) is available in lot 15B.