Convocation Speaker Jay Ingram Honorary Degree Recipient Wednesday, June 12, 2024, 10:00 a.m.
Ingram’s accessible approach attracted more attention: he began a weekly science column in the Toronto Star, which ran for 12 years, and expanded his publishing activity with science books on topics ranging from consciousness to mad cow disease. He also helped inspire a growing community of science communication professionals. From 2005 to 2015, he was Chair of the Science Communications Program at the Banff Centre and was co-founder of the arts and engineering spectacle in Calgary called Beakerhead in 2013. It attracted attention around the globe for its original take on science in mainstream culture. During this period, he pioneered a twist on the public science talk by performing with a band, which developed into rock’n’roll shows on science and culture that continue today. More recently, he conceived and co-hosted an award-winning podcast, Anthropomania. His latest podcast project, Defy Dementia, is funded by the Public Health Agency of Canada, for whom he has served as a national spokesperson. To date, Ingram has written 20 books, many reaching the bestseller list and published in translation around the world. He is now working on his 21st book, to be released next year. He has served as a member on numerous boards of directors including the Ontario Science Centre and Genome Canada. He has received the Sandford Fleming Medal from the Royal Canadian Institute, the Royal Society of Canada’s McNeil Medal for the Public Awareness of Science, the Michael Smith Award (now the NSERC Award for Science Promotion), the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal and was named the 2015 Winner of the Walter C. Alvarez Award by the American Medical Writers’ Association. In 2010, he was appointed as a member to the Order of Canada for his outstanding contributions to the popularization of science.
Jay Ingram is one of Canada’s most influential and inspiring communicators of science. His commitment to creativity has broken new ground in all mass media, from television and live performance to radio and podcasts, from newspapers and magazines to books translated into 15 languages. Ingram started his career in radio, first as a biology instructor delivering a radio course. He then moved to the CBC, where he hosted “Quirks and Quarks” for 12 years, earning two ACTRA Awards, and hosted two CBC Radio documentary series. With three young children at the time, he also wrote for the popular children’s science magazine, Owl, for ten years, and published the first of many science books. His work in radio led to an invitation to help design a daily science show for television. This was the beginning of a 16-year career as co-host of “Daily Planet” on Discovery Channel. The hour-long prime- time science program became a staple in homes across the country.
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