Join us for Toronto’s first show of 2020 featuring five true, personal stories about science inspired by the times we need to find that silver lining – because no matter how bad it gets there’s always something positive to take away.
Hosted by Misha Gajewski and Munera Yusuf.
Doors at 6:00pm. Show at 7:30pm.
Stories by:
Samantha Yammine is a Neuroscientist and Science Communicator who earned her PhD from the University of Toronto researching how stem cells build the mammalian brain before birth and maintain it throughout adulthood. In addition to her doctoral research, Samantha co-authored a crowd-funded research study exploring the effects that #ScientistsWhoSelfie on Instagram can have on public perceptions of scientists. She founded Science Sam Media to bring science out of the lab, and create new opportunities to engage folks in the wonder of the world around us.
Samantha uses her platform as @science.sam on Instagram to empower people to explore science by making it more familiar, accessible, and inclusive. Averaging over a million views per month on Instagram, Samantha is an innovative leader in sharing science through social media. She's a popular guest science expert in the popular media, appearing in shows on Netflix, CBC Gem, AsapSCIENCE, TVO Kids, and Leafs Nation Network. When she's not presenting fun science, she's likely dreaming up ideas for her next #ScienceIsADrag event! You can learn more about Samantha at samanthayammine.com.
Massieh Moayedi is an Assitant Professor at the Faculty of Dentistry, University of Toronto, and Co-Director of the Centre for Multimodal Sensorimotor and Pain Research. His research focus in on understanding how pain is processed in healthy individuals and how this is altered by chronic pain. Specifcally, he uses non-invasive brain imaging techniques, neurostimulatory techniques, computational methods and novel behavioural paradigms to investigate the structure and function, including indices of network connectivity, in the brain of healthy subjects and patients with chronic pain.
Shane Saunderson received a B.Eng. in mechanical engineering from McGill University in 2005 and a M.B.A. in technology and innovation from Ryerson University in 2011. He is currently a Ph.D. candidate studying social Human-Robot Interaction under Prof. Goldie Nejat within the Autonomous Systems and Biomechatronics Laboratory (ASBLab) in the Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering at the University of Toronto. Shane holds a Vanier Canada Graduate Scholarship and is a Junior Fellow with Massey College. His research focuses on psychological influence caused by robots during social interactions with particular interest in topics such as persuasion, trust, and leadership.
Paul Battista holds B.A. (Honours) and M.Acc. degrees from the University of Waterloo and leads the financial services practice for EY Canada.. He leads a team responsible for helping build and maintain a stable, resilient and highly competitive Canadian financial services sector which in turn serves to underpin a strong and vibrant Canadian economy. Over the course of his career with EY, Paul has held a number of senior leadership roles including chairing the Canadian Firm’s partner board as well as representing over 3,500 partners on the Firm’s global governance board when he served as the chair of the Americas Region. In the wake of the tragic loss of his daughter in 2017 as a result of a flawed diagnostic protocol, he founded the Leah Battista Foundation (leahbattista.org) which is dedicated to improving, enriching and empowering the lives of youth and the disadvantaged.
Madeleine Starowicz drove her father’s Buick into a mailbox, was mauled by monkeys, and went through a brief phase in her early twenties in which she liked to moon people. She lives in Toronto with two stray cats that she found in a swamp. She’s passes out when she stands up too quickly, definitely has a job, and sometimes writes things down.