This appointment of Stephen Hawking to Waterloo University Perimeter Institute is a perfect example of what Alberta ought to be doing. We have the resources and facilities to actively attract and engage the best and brightest minds in the world today to come to our universities and research institutes.
We are doing this in medicine and nanotech and some other areas but not nearly enough and definitely not aggressively enough. With the economic down turn there will be a lot of great scientists and researchers who will no longer have access to the kind of funding they need to do their work. They will be looking for new sources and new relationships. Those folks ought to be found and recruited to our province to pursue their work in this tough time.
Alberta’s hydrocarbon economy, no debt, capital investment that is in place and still being pursued, safe communities, and stable government provides us with the best prospects going forward in all of North America – at least for the foreseeable future – but not forever. We can’t presume that our growth and sustainability will be assured by continuing to try to perfect yesterday's hydrocarbon economy.
Carbon is not king anymore. There will be significant efforts to replace it and to neutralize its impacts on the planet. Albertans support those efforts because we are the highest CO2 emitters on the planet on a per capita basis and know something has to change. Alberta has a serious transition and transformation in its future that will be more dramatic and demanding than the advent of the oil sands. Are we ready for that? Are we designing our economy, ecology and society for that destiny? Are we adaptive, engaged and nimble enough to make the changes we need and to show the leadership necessary to make a difference? I think so but it is not a given…it takes an attitude adjustment. That it never easy but it will be necessary.
We now have a slowdown in Alberta, not a recession, and that is good in so many ways. The Alberta slowdown is due to the market responding to untenable high costs, lower oil price, uncertainty and turmoil in financial markets and increasing environmental regulatory requirements.
We needed a slowdown happen so we could catch our breath and to bring some cost control and sanity back into our economy and our society. We have to take advantage of this breather to reflect and rethink about what we are doing, where we are going and how we are going to get there as a province.
We still have a secure energy based economy that will serve us well for a good while longer….but not forever. So I urge the Alberta government to not only actively pursue people to come to our province to help meet the skills shortages in so many sectors of the economy. I also urge them to add a focused effort to seek out and recruit the best innovation and science minds in green industries and ecological technologies. We have the right mix of elements to entice them to come and set up shop in our universities and research institutions. We need them to also engage with our private sector corporations who are increasingly focused on profiting from sound corporate social responsibility practices.
There are going to be effective alternatives for fossil fuels in the future. Alberta better be actively creating that new future and not be passively indifferent to change. Otherwise we will be overwhelmed by it when it happens. We ought to be bring the most promising of these people from all over the globe to Alberta.
We need to prepare and position ourselves to be at the leading edge with thought leaders and leading researchers who a re crating that new world orders. We can supporting and sustain their work with our wealth and potential. That is the smartest way for us to go forward to get through these difficult economic times. We have something significant to offer them…funds and facilities through our publicly funded endowment programs.
What do you say Mr. Premier?
Well, I can't answer wht the Premier will say to this, but judging from his record, the answer is along the lines of "That sounds like work might be involved."
ReplyDeleteI still can't believe you supported this guy during the election Ken.
At the end of October Premier Stelmach was at the U of L where he announced the U of L had attracted one of the world's foremost neuroscientists. This was due in part to the investment the Alberta government is making to attract the brightest minds in the world. Below is part of the news release.
ReplyDeleteAlberta partners invest $20 million in the inaugural Alberta Heritage Foundation for Medical Research Polaris Award
One of the world’s foremost brain scientists, Bruce McNaughton, PhD, has moved his research program from the University of Arizona to the Canadian Centre for Behavioural Neuroscience (CCBN) at the University of Lethbridge.
McNaughton is the first scientist to win Alberta’s AHFMR Polaris Award, the richest health research award in Canada.
“Alberta’s bold investment in this top health researcher will benefit people with brain injuries, addictions and age-related brain disorders not only in our province, but around the world,” says Alberta Premier Ed Stelmach.
“A strategic investment like the Polaris Award is what we need to support the next generation economy – an economy in which knowledge is our foremost renewable resource. That investment will pay dividends – for our health, and in the health of our new economy.”
The Alberta government investment of $10 million, through the Alberta Heritage Foundation for Medical Research (AHFMR), has been matched by the University of Lethbridge and the Informatics Circle of Research Excellence (iCORE) for a total investment of $20 million into McNaughton’s research and the CCBN.
“This multi-partner award is an outstanding example of the kind of alignment we want to see throughout Alberta’s research and innovation system,” says Doug Horner, Minister of Advanced Education and Technology. “Health research is an international enterprise, and to be competitive, it is essential that we align our resources. I look forward to witnessing the discoveries and breakthrough technologies that this new team will generate.”
“This award was created in order to attract superstar medical researchers to Alberta,” says Gail Surkan, Chair of the AHFMR Board of Trustees.
“We worked with government and other partners to identify priority health areas to invest in. A rapidly emerging area of concern for everyone as we age is how to protect and heal the aging brain. Together with University of Lethbridge and iCORE, we chose Dr. McNaughton for the excellence and pace of his science, and his reputation as a consummate collaborator. His science shows us how brain cells work with the very latest imaging techniques.”
McNaughton was most recently the Director of the Arizona Research Laboratories Division of Neural Systems, Memory and Aging at the University of Arizona. His research focuses on how brain cells process information and form memories, and how those processes are altered by aging, trauma or substance abuse.
“Every scientist dreams of this kind of opportunity,” says Bruce McNaughton, PhD, AHFMR Polaris Awardee, and Professor of Neuroscience, University of Lethbridge. “I am joining a team, lead by Drs. Bryan Kolb, Rob Sutherland and Deb Saucier, that is already known globally for its groundbreaking work in behavioural neuroscience. I want Albertans to know that this award allows us to attract some of the best young minds in neuroscience to tackle the complex problems of the brain.”
“This is a great day for our university and the province of Alberta,” says University of Lethbridge President Bill Cade, PhD. “We are thrilled that Dr. McNaughton has joined our team of world-renowned researchers at the CCBN. The CCBN has already established an unequaled reputation of innovative research; McNaughton’s addition primes the U of L neuroscience team for unprecedented breakthroughs in discovery.”
The Alberta Heritage Foundation for Medical Research currently provides funding for more than 600 researchers and researchers-in-training at the University of Alberta, the University of Calgary, and the University of Lethbridge.
AHFMR's commitment is to fund health research based on international standards of excellence. In 2005 the Alberta Government pledged an additional $500 million to the Foundation’s endowment.
The endowment supports an annual investment of approximately $60 million in health research in Alberta. Since 1980 AHFMR has committed more than $1 billion in funding to Alberta's medical research community. For more information, visit www.ahfmr.ab.ca
The University of Lethbridge is home to the Canadian Centre for Behavioural Neuroscience (CCBN) and to a team of internationally acclaimed faculty members who engage in leading-edge brain research. The CCBN, which opened in 2001, is the only research facility of its kind in Canada.
While continuing to maintain its tradition in undergraduate liberal education, the University of Lethbridge is emerging as a leading comprehensive academic and research institution, and is expanding its graduate programming. The U of L provides a personal, supportive learning environment for approximately 8,000 students on campuses in Lethbridge, Calgary and Edmonton, and offers relevant, progressive programs through six Faculties and Schools.
iCORE (Informatics Circle of Research Excellence) invests in people – the highest calibre research scientists who work on fundamental and applied problems in informatics. It operates several grant programs to develop iCORE Chairs at Alberta universities, around which world-class research teams are developed. Since its inception, more than 25 research chairs have been established to focus on emerging areas such as wireless communications, artificial intelligence, bioinformatics, and quantum and nanocomputing. For more information, visit www.icore.ca
I couldn't agree with you more. The University of Alberta's endowments took a huge hit recently and now every faculty is being asked to scale back their budget by 2%. That doesn't sound like the kind of situation conducive to recruiting internationally renowned researchers to me.
ReplyDeleteeh,
ReplyDeleteIt's called realism. Harvard itself has received word to cut expenses by 5% given the shellacking that its endowment has taken in this market downturn.
As for the silly first anonymous comment, I think the second poster pretty much cleared that up.
Careful with the Keynesianism, Ken. Ramping up spending in a recession looks good as a theoretical argument, but in practice it is nearly impossible to then cut spending when back in growth mode. Most people are only Keynesians in a recession.
Might I suggest an interesting book for these times - "The Collapse of Complex Societies" by Joseph A. Tainter.
ReplyDeleteKen, you should be flattered that PC communications people think highly enough of you to anonymously re-post press releases on your wall. I think that Lethbridge press release came at about the same time that we lost the top neonatologist in Canada to Toronto because of the lack of sufficient research infrastructure.
ReplyDeleteHI eh! I am even flattered when you comment on my Blog. Thanks for adding to the conversation.
ReplyDeleteI know there are about 37 top medical scientists and researchers who have agreed to relocate to the U of A and the matching funds have been found to access the Alberta government funding. The Alberta government has not yet come up with the money promised to make the match happen so these brains are in limbo and their impressions of Alberta must be suffering.
We are quick to give oil and gas royalty holidays for short term subsidy goals. But our government not yet sufficiently committed to taking a longer view transformational change opportunities outside the hydrocarbon economy that come to us. Not good enough.
Hi Ken
ReplyDeleteIn my view while we continue to import salad greens from 3000 miles away the Alberta government still doesn’t get it. We have three coal fired power plants around lake Wabumun and the excess heat from them goes back into the lake or the air, the Alberta gov . cannot in my view take any credit regarding mitigating the issues of reducing the carbon footprint of the province while that heat is wasted. We could build a series of greenhouses that use the excess heat to provide a market garden within 50 miles of Edmonton. Light would not be an issue, they make power! and after all they want to sell the excess power to people south of the border. While that is a profitable endeavor it does little to mitigate climate issues. The transition that you speak of can be achieved by may small steps that do not cost millions of dollars. The citizens of Alberta need a government that can see the big picture and I don’t think this present administration does.