We are back for our first live Nerd Nite of Fall 2021! Join us at the Victoria Event Centre for an evening of science, beer, learning, and good times! Tickets are available through the VEC website here. Doors open at 7PM, and our show starts at 8PM. We are committed to providing a safe experience during the COVID-19 pandemic. Our health and safety measures for the event can be viewed here.

Our talks for the October 18th event are:

3D Bioprinting Human Tissues On Demand” – Stephanie Willerth

Dr. Stephanie Willerth, a Full Professor in Biomedical Engineering, holds a Canada Research Chair in Biomedical Engineering at the University of Victoria where she has dual appointments in the Department of Mechanical Engineering and the Division of Medical Sciences. She also holds an appointment with the School of Biomedical Engineering at the University of British Columbia. She recently founded the start-up company – Axolotl Biosciences that sells high quality bioinks for bioprinting human tissue models. She is an active member of the steering committee of the B.C. Regenerative Medicine Initiative and the Stem Cell Network. She also serves as a staff scientist at Creative Destruction Lab. She served as the Acting Director of the Centre for Biomedical Research and the Biomedical Engineering undergraduate program at the University of Victoria from 2018-2021 and as the President of Canadian Biomaterials Society from 2018-2019. 

What’s In Your Pond? Developing Microbial Diagnostics” – David Goodlett

David Goodlett’s 30 year career using mass spectrometry (MS) to solve biomedical problems via novel technology and software developments led him to the University of Victoria in 2020 where he holds the Don and Eleanor Rix BC Leadership Chair in Biomedical & Environmental Proteomics as Professor. He is also Director of the internationally acclaimed Genome BC Proteomics Centre. His research interests lie in developing the lipid A structure-activity relationship in order to elucidate the basis by which lipid A acts as agonist or antagonist on binding MD2/TLR4. He has two startups: Deurion.com and Pataigin.com focused on MS uses in the life sciences. He is a co-organizer of MSBM.ORG, a mass spectrometry summer school, and is an Editor at Rapid Communications in Mass Spectrometry.

Deep Sea Halloween: The Creepy Creatures of the Pacific” – Monika Pelz

Monika will present some of the most monstrous, spine-tingling, creepy creatures of the Pacific Ocean’s abyss. She will share some macabre scientific decay experiments and the nightmarish creatures recorded by Ocean Networks Canada’s underwater cabled observatories located in all three of Canada’s oceans. Be prepared to see some of the weird, wonderful and fiendishly freaky organisms of Canada’s west coast. Enjoy exploring the science behind finding mysteries and curiosities of the deep sea environment

Monika Pelz is a K-12 Education Coordinator with Ocean Networks Canada. She holds a BEd from the University of Victoria and also works as a Teacher On Call. Monika enjoys nature, despite what it did to her, and enjoys the small pleasures in life, like phoning in sick to places she doesn’t work and giving a fake name when ordering a coffee or receiving a speeding ticket.