EARTHx
Some of the best talks on the planet
You are invited!
Join us for EARTHx, a series of talks by best-in-class speakers making a difference in their fields. No matter your age or level of expertise, these talks are for everyone. Whether you want to participate in person or online, we invite you to get inspired by our great lineup.
Philanthropic Supporters behind the Series:
This year's EARTHx series is possible due to a generous philanthropic contribution from the Gallagher family. Legendary oilman and geologist Jack Gallagher was a dedicated supporter of UCalgary, and his sons Thomas, Frederick and James have continued this tradition of generosity. The Gallagher family has also established the Gallagher Library, the Gallagher Fellowship in Geoscience, and many other university initiatives for more than 40 years. We thank the family for their continued support and contributions to UCalgary.
Contact us
If you would like to receive information about the EARTHx Series, please email scialumni@ucalgary.ca and ask to be included on the Faculty of Science events and communications list.
Stay tuned for our EARTHx presentations next year for the 2025-2026 season!
Ross Lockwood
Real Life on Fake Mars
Could you one day live on Mars? What kind of life would you have? What skills and technology would you need to survive? There’s no better way than to learn from someone who’s been there.
Well… sort of been there.
While Mars offers the promise of a second home for humanity, the technical challenges of getting there and back again are on a scale humanity hasn't seen since we first set foot on the Moon. One of the best ways to prepare for these challenges is through simulation – replicating the different environments and technologies that will be critical for future missions.
Dr. Ross Lockwood, who holds a PhD in Condensed Matter Physics and has researched and taught about black holes, was one of the crew chosen to experience the most realistic Mars simulations yet. For 120 days, he and a group of others stayed at the Hawaii Space Exploration Analog & Simulation (HI-SEAS), situated on the desolate lava fields of the Mauna Loa volcano in Hawaii.
Join Ross as he shares his unique story about this amazing experience and the insights it gave him about humanity’s possible future on the Red Planet!
Date: Thursday, March 20, 2025
Joining us in person:
- Networking Reception: 6:15 p.m. (MT)
- EARTHx Presentation: 7:00 - 8:15 p.m. (MT)
- Location: MacEwan Hall Ballroom (3rd Floor MacEwan Students Centre)
Joining us online (via Livestream):
- EARTHx Presentation: 7:00 - 8:15 p.m. (MT)
Our Speaker
Ross Lockwood is a scientist with a passion for learning, experimentation, and scientific outreach. In 2014 Ross volunteered to be a crew member for the HI-SEAS Mars Simulation, a 4-month NASA sponsored experiment on the slopes of Mauna Loa in Hawaii. He holds a PhD in Condensed Matter Physics, co-wrote an online course on Black Holes, and now works as a Data Scientist for KPMG Canada.
Riley Black
Chris Jackson
Extinction Edition
Earth’s history is full of extinctions and extremes – will we beat the odds?
For the average species, it’s not easy staying alive on this planet. If it’s not a six-mile-wide asteroid wiping out three quarters of all life, it’s extreme variations in climate testing the limits of adaptation and evolution.
Will we humans beat the odds? We have a fighting chance… and the past can teach us about the future.
On January 30, 2025, join renowned science communicators Riley Black and Dr. Chris Jackson as they talk about the changes – some dramatic, and some subtle – that have shaped our home planet, and the lessons they hold for us and the other Earth-bound species.
In person and online, this EARTHx double-header will bring some of the most exciting – and important – topics yet!
Date: Thursday, January 30, 2025
Joining us in person:
- Networking Reception: 6:15 p.m. (MT)
- EARTHx Presentation: 7:00 - 8:15 p.m. (MT)
- Location: MacEwan Hall Ballroom (3rd Floor MacEwan Students Centre)
Joining us online (via Livestream):
- EARTHx Presentation: 7:00 - 8:15 p.m. (MT)
Our Speakers
Title of Presentation: How to Survive a Mass Extinction
Chances that an asteroid will hit the Earth and cause a global disaster are small – but not nil. You’ll be assured to know NASA tracks the orbits of hazardous asteroids so if they are on track to hit the planet, they can be deflected.
We did not have this system in place 66 million years ago when one spring day, as dinosaurs roamed the Earth, an asteroid six miles wide struck the planet, sparking an unprecedented catastrophe for all life forms. The resulting sudden heat followed by an “impact winter” or blacking out of the sun, drove roughly 75% of known species to extinction practically overnight – including all dinosaurs except for birds. Despite the terrible consequences of the impact, some life survived. And the survivors set the foundation for life as we know it today.
Travel back in time with award-winning science writer Riley Black to relive the events of this mass extinction and find out what made the difference between life and death as the Cretaceous came to a close. The story is not merely one of loss, but how life bounces back from even the most unexpected disasters.
Bio:
Riley Black is the award winning author of The Last Days of the Dinosaurs, When the Earth Was Green, and many more fossiliferous books. A frequent contributor to National Geographic, Smithsonian, Slate, and other publications, Riley has also enthused over the latest fossil discoveries on NOVA, Science Friday, the CBC, and more, and she has acted as a science consultant for the Jurassic World franchise. When not writing or talking about fossils, Riley regularly joins museum field crews each summer to help uncover new prehistoric clues about life's deep history.
Title of Presentation: The Geological Record of Climate Change
The Earth is warming, with present and future changes in our climate posing a global concern. Yet since its formation approximately 4.6 billion years ago, Earth’s climate has always varied greatly – from periods when ice sheets could be found almost everywhere, to times when water at the Equator was as warm as bath water.
Occurring before humans inhabited the Earth, these often dramatic and rapid changes in climate were driven by a range of natural processes, controlling the habitability of our planet and its associated biodiversity.
In this talk, geologist and science communicator Dr. Chris Jackson will examine what the geological record of climate change tells us, how these changes impacted life on Earth, and how this can help us better understand our present and future climate. In fact, the past may just hold the secrets we need to mitigate the challenges of the future…
Bio:
Chris Jackson is Technical Director at the engineering consultancy WSP and Visiting Professor of Basin Analysis at Imperial College London. Chris is interested in understanding how we can use the Earth’s subsurface to safely store hazardous waste (‘geostorage’) and to develop low-carbon energy resources (‘geoenergy’). When not studying the subsurface of the Earth, Chris gives geoscience lectures to the public and in schools, having appeared on several, Earth Science-focused, television productions and podcasts. Chrisis engaged in efforts to improve equality, diversity, and inclusivity in Higher Education.
Wendy Bohon
Risky Business: Life Along an Active Plate Margin
California is known world-wide for its lofty mountains, cliff-lined beaches, and sweeping vistas, but the geologic processes that created this spectacular scenery can also threaten the lives and livelihoods of the nearly 40 million people that reside within the state. In this talk we’ll explore the faults of California and the hazards that they pose, tell the stories of the earthquake that changed California, and discuss ways that we can use science to inform decision making so that we can survive the earthquakes of the future and thrive in their aftermath.
Date: Thursday, November 21, 2024
Joining us in person:
- Networking Reception: 6:15 p.m. (MT)
- EARTHx Presentation: 7:00 - 8:15 p.m. (MT)
- Location: MacEwan Hall Ballroom (3rd Floor MacEwan Students Centre)
Joining us online (via Livestream):
- EARTHx Presentation: 7:00 - 8:15 p.m. (MT)
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Presented by:
Wendy Bohon
Seismic Hazards & Earthquake Engineering Branch Chief for the California Geological Survey)
Wendy Bohon is a geologist who studies earthquakes and works to improve the communication of science. She has a BA in Theatre and Geology from James Madison University, a MSc in Geology from Ohio State University, and a PhD in Earthquake Geology from Arizona State University. Currently, Dr. Bohon is the Seismic Hazards & Earthquake Engineering Branch Chief for the California Geological Survey. Previously she has worked as the Head of Strategic Communication at NASA Goddard for the Earth Sciences Division, the Senior Science Communication Specialist for the Incorporated Research Institutions for Seismology, and the Education and Outreach Coordinator for the USGS Earthquake Hazards Program in Pasadena, California. She is also a AAAS If/Then Science Ambassador and a mother of 3. Visit her website at: wendybohon.com.
Jeffrey Bond
Elizabeth Hall
Debbie Nagano
EARTHx & Alumni All-Access Presentation: The Ice Age Time Traveller
Placer gold miners discovered a mummified baby woolly mammoth (Mammuthus primigenius) in the Klondike region of the Yukon in the summer of 2022. Its discovery and rapid recovery was made possible because of the strong relationship between Yukon government scientists and the mining industry.
The mammoth was given the name Nun cho ga by the Tr’ondëk Hwëch’in First Nation, which means “Big animal baby” in the Hän language. They have also assumed a guardianship role of this mammoth and, importantly, introduced Indigenous spirituality to the discovery.
Travel back in time and learn about the discovery of Nun cho ga, our current understanding of the mammoth, the landscape it inhabited, and its mechanism of preservation. You'll also learn more about how important it is that the Tr’ondëk Hwëch’in First Nation uses culture as a leadership foundation when caring for ancient ancestors.
Date: Tuesday, October 15, 2024
Joining us in person:
Networking Reception: 6:15 p.m. (MT)
EARTHx Presentation: 7:00 - 8:15 p.m. (MT)
Location: MacEwan Hall Ballroom (3rd Floor MacEwan Students Centre)
Joining us online (via Livestream)
EARTHx Presentation: 7:00 - 8:15 p.m. (MT)
Watch a recording of the talk
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Speakers:
Jeffrey Bond
Founder, Mammoth Terrain Inc.
Jeffrey Bond, BSc’93, a surficial geologist and former manager with the Yukon Geological Survey, played a leading role in the recovery of the baby mammoth and led the geological investigation of the site. Bond completed his Bachelor of Science in physical geography at UCalgary and holds a Master of Science in geomorphology from the University of Alberta.
Elizabeth Hall
Assistant Palaeontologist with The Yukon Palaeontology Programme
Elizabeth Hall is the Assistant Palaeontologist with The Yukon Palaeontology Programme. She’s a long time Yukoner and is passionate about fossils, especially Ice Age Mammals. She decided to become a palaeontologist when she was six years old after spending time in the Alberta badlands. She spends most of the summer finding fossils and the rest of the year in the lab playing with bones. She is especially interested in pathologies in past and present animal populations.
Debbie Nagano
Director of Heritage, Tr’ondëk Hwëch’in First Nation
Debbie Nagano is an artist, a Tr’ondëk Hwëch’in citizen and a member of the Wolf Clan. She has worked for the Tr’ondëk Hwëch’in Government for most of her adult life, with a focus on culture and well-being. Her lifelong connection with the land has given her the knowledge about our role in maintaining its integrity. Lajit dedha’a ts’a lighe tr edaho ay. Respect one another in working together.
“The series is excellent and provides a good variety of speakers and subjects to keep it very interesting and give a good overview of what is happening in the scientific world. It also helps me keep up to date with what is going on in the world. It is one of the very few good things happening in the world these days. Thank you.”
Attendee from January 2020 lecture by Dr. Barbara Sherwood Lollar