Tang Lee shares hope for the future and reflects on 4+ decades as a green architect and designer.
Tang Lee sees the global pandemic as a wakeup call. We have the need and the capacity to change on a grand scale, and Covid-19 isn't the only crisis on our doorstep.
To protect the health of the planet and its inhabitants, we must anticipate and to develop a new paradigm for how we live on Earth. The next generation of students will need creative strategies to lead us to a sustainable future.
In this lecture, Lee will draw on over 45 years of experience to examine the creation of manufactured objects and buildings for responsible use of resources and how they can interact with nature to minimize harm.
Tang Lee is a professor emeritus after four decades teaching architecture, engineering, and environmental health at the University of Calgary. He also taught in other Canadian universities, in USA, Europe and Asia.
He has served as an expert witness in over 80 civil and criminal cases pertaining to building failures and indoor air quality problems. Professor Tang Lee tries to make a difference in food security with his fish farm, reducing energy use with solar energy, and addressing Covid-19 with a new type of germicidal air purifier.
Other upcoming talks
Degrowth in the time of COVID-19
Joëlle Saey-Volckrick and Nick von Andrian
Two leaders of the website degrowth.info present this introduction to degrowth as a critique of the current system, as a way of rethinking the foundations of our economies, and as a three-fold strategy for the post-COVID-19 world: produce less, share more, and decide together.
Into the Arctic: Awakening
Film screening and live Q&A
Cory Trepanier and Fiona Schmiegelow
See incredible images of a rapidly landscape under threat. Join filmmaker Cory Trepanier and UAlberta North's Fiona Schmiegelow for a free film screening and discussion.
Book launch for Right Research: Modelling sustainable research practices in the Anthropocene
What accountability do educators and researchers have in righting their relationship to the environment? Educational institutions play an instrumental role in social and political change, and are responsible for the environmental and social ethics of their institutional practices.
As such, the University of Alberta’s Chelsea Miya, Oliver Rossier and Geoffrey Rockwell invite the academic community to reflect on what their research looks like, how it is conducted, and how it might be developed so as to increase accessibility and sustainability, and decrease carbon footprint.
Please join for a book launch and a timely discussion. All are welcome!
Chelsea Miya is a PhD candidate in the Department of English & Film Studies, University of Alberta. She is a Research Associate at the Canadian Writing Research Collaboratory (CWRC) specializing in usability and documentation, and she coordinated the annual Around the World livestreamed conference.
Oliver Rossier is Senior Officer in Arts Collaboration Enterprise, University of Alberta, and recently completed an MA in Communications and Technology focused on econferencing. Oliver has over 20 years of post-secondary administrative experience including department management, human resources, finance, and research grants administration.
Geoffrey Martin Rockwell is a Professor of Philosophy and Humanities Computing at the University of Alberta. He was born in Philadelphia, and raised in Rome, Italy. He studied philosophy at Haverford College (BA) and the University of Toronto (MA, PhD). He is currently the Director of the Kule Institute for Advanced Study.
We regret that in-person lectures have been cancelled throughout March and April, 2020.
The COP 101 e-conferences will continue as planned.
| Date | Speaker | Time |
| Feb. 24 | Geeta Belas: Bridging the Gender Gap with Design | Noon–1 p.m. |
| Mar. 4 | Kari Marie Norgaard: Nature, colonialism and sociology | 3 p.m. |
| Mar. 10 | PearlAnn Reichwein: Banff School of Fine Arts | 12:30–1:30 p.m. |
| Mar. 24 | Ashley Dawson: Environmental Justice in Pandemic-era NYC | TBA |
| Mar. 31 | Kristof Van Assche: Environmental policy and governance | Noon–1 p.m. |
| Apr. 7 | Joëlle Saey-Volckrick: Degrowth | Noon–1 p.m. |
The Sustainability Council’s ongoing lecture series explores local and global perspectives on sustainability, equity and climate action. Hear researchers and practitioners from the University of Alberta and beyond in fields ranging from engineering to ecology, public health to poetry, native studies to nanotechnology.
Steering Committee
The Sustainability Council’s Research Steering Committee guides the selection of speakers for this lecture series.