Thursday, May 5th, 2011 Crisis in Japan: The Unfolding Catastrophe

Description

Panellist bios:

Dr. Miriam L. Diamond is Professor at the University of Toronto in the Department of Geography and Program in Planning with cross-appointments to the Department of Chemical Engineering and Applied Chemistry and the Dalla Lana School of Public Health. She received her B.Sc. in Biology from the University of Toronto, M.Sc. from the University of Alberta in Zoology, M.Sc.Eng from Queen’s University (Kingston Ontario) in Mining Engineering, and her Ph.D. in environmental engineering from University of Toronto. Her research focuses on understanding the sources, emissions, fate and exposure from and to chemical contaminants in natural and human environments. This research has been published in over 100 articles and chapters in addition to receiving media attention. Dr. Diamond is a member of the Science Advisory Board of the International Joint Commission of Canada and currently sits on National Academies of Sciences Institute of Medicine panel reviewing the exposure of Blue Water Navy Vietnam Veterans to Agent Orange. She is a member of the Editorial Advisory Board for the journal Environmental Science and Technology and a member of the Board of Directors of the Canadian Environmental Law Association. She is a Fellow of the Canadian Geographical Society and was named Canadian Environmental Scientist of the Year in 2007 by that society.

Professor Donnelly is completing a manuscript on the political economy of nuclear energy in Japan. His research has included numerous field trips to nuclear power facilities, including Tokaimura, Rokkashomura and Fukushima Daiichi. He previously served as the founding Director of the Asian Institute and the first holder of the Dr. David Chu Professorship in Asia Pacific Studies.

Theodore (Ted) Goossen is Professor of Humanities at York University. He is the editor of The Oxford Book of Japanese Short Stories and a translator of numerous Japanese authors including Masuji Ibuse, Naoya Shiga, Hiromi Kawakami, Yoko Ogawa and Haruki Murakami His most recent publication is Monkey Business, the English version of a contemporary Japanese literary magazine, co-edited with Motoyuki Shibata.

André Sorensen is Associate Professor of Urban Geography in the Department of Social Science, University of Toronto Scarborough. He has published widely on urbanisation, land development, and planning history. His most recent book, titled Megacities: Urban Form, Governance and Sustainability was published by Springer in January 2011. His book ‘The Making of Urban Japan: Cities and Planning from Edo to the 21st Century’ (Routledge 2002) won the book prize of the International Planning History Association in 2004. In 2007 he was elected a Fellow of the University of Tokyo School of Engineering in recognition of his research on Japanese urbanism and urban planning. He is the editor with P. J. Marcotullio and J. Grant, of Towards Sustainable Cities: East Asian, North American and European Perspectives. (Ashgate 2004), and with C. Funck Living Cities in Japan: Citizens’ Movements, Machizukuri and Local Environments (Routledge 2007). His current research examines processes and institutions generative of urban form in the Tokyo and Toronto regions.