Society of Italian Researchers & Professionals in Western Canada
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Prostate Cancer
Causes, prevention, and how to best treat it
20171107_EventProfile_Rennie.jpgCancer has now become the most common cause of death. While not the biggest killer of men, the most common potentially lethal cancer to afflict males is cancer of the prostate, accounting for over 20% of all cancers in this group. In fact, 1 in 7 men will develop prostate cancer some time in their lifetime. The presentation will deal with prevalence of prostate cancer, possible genetic and other links as causes of this cancer, what you can do to protect yourself from this disease, how it is diagnosed (PSA and other diagnostic measures), how it is initially treated, and what are some of the new treatments and diagnostic tests being developed here in Vancouver to deal with advanced disease. The audience will be encouraged to ask questions during and after the presentation.

Professor Paul Rennie is one of the co-founders (in 1998) and Director of Laboratory Research at the Vancouver Prostate Centre and also a Professor in the Department of Urologic Sciences, UBC. The Vancouver Prostate Centre is one of the world's largest research institutes focused exclusively on urological cancers. He was formerly a Senior Scientist and Research Director at the BC Cancer Agency. He is a Fellow of the Canadian Academy of Health Science (FCAHS).

Paul Rennie's laboratory has had a long history of studying androgen hormone regulation of prostate cancer and has contributed much of the experimental groundwork for the development of widely used, cost-efficient treatments for advanced prostate cancer and for providing the mechanistic basis for many treatment protocols. Recently, UBC licensed one of his patents to a large pharmaceutical company in the richest intellectual property deal in the university's history. He is currently an inventor on 51 UBC patent applications covering 8 different prostate cancer related inventions. His overall goal remains to find new treatments to extend the lives of men with advanced prostate cancer.

Please RSVP by end of day November 5th, 2017 to info@arpico.ca or preferably, EventBrite.

November 07, 2017 at 7:00pm

Hillcrest Community Centre - Room 328 - (4575 Clancy Loranger Way, Vancouver, BC)

Event Follow-up

20171107-Rennie-Inline1.jpgOn November 7, 2017 ARPICO organized its first event at the HillCrest Community Centre. Trying out a new venue was not the only question mark ahead of the event, since one's never sure how the logistics of a new location are going to work out. The other somewhat uncertain factor, at least in my mind, was the topic of prostate cancer, which I think I was entitled to fear, may not be so interesting to female attendees.

The venue overall worked out ok, if not perfectly, while I am pleased to report that the topic did not seem to influence the registration much. In fact, participants were treated to an extremely interesting overview of the status quo of research on prostate cancer by Professor Paul Rennie, who founded and is director of laboratory research at the Vancouver Prostate Centre and also a Professor in the Department of Urologic Sciences at UBC. He is one of the world luminaries, and leader of one of possibly the most advanced groups, in the field of prostate cancer research.

20171107-Rennie-Inline2.jpgThe ARPICO team did a great job of setting up a room new to us and get it ready on time for when people started showing up for the event. Overall the process of checking off registrants went very smoothly and perhaps with only a few minutes' delay I stepped up to interrupt the pleasant chatter that had been getting livelier among participants to introduce the speaker. People quieted down to listen... presumably to me, but instead we all started listening to a group of violins being played by a regular Tuesday night class in a room neighbouring ours. Apparently, I was the only one, who up to that point had yet to realize that we'd have to contend with an unwanted soundtrack that evening. All we could do at that point was to carry on with our program and I am glad our outstanding speaker did not seem very fazed by the "musical backdrop" to his talk.

Other than that minor disturbance, the audience, especially the male fraction, enjoyed a rather sobering message on the progress and successes of prostate cancer research, which suggests overall that this is one of the forms of cancer that, while not defeated, can become in ever more cases "simply" a chronic disease that one has to contend with until some other cause brings about one's life unavoidable end. And, once again, prevention by means of regular checks with our family doctor are about the best we can do in advance to catch this potential issue closer to a resolvable stage.

Nicola Fameli,
President, ARPICO
Join us as a member of ARPICO to support our endeavour to disseminate knowledge and research work, provide accesible and informal forums for discussions and debate, and exchange ideas realted to topics and issues relevant to modern society.
20241008_EventProfile_Steyn.jpgARPICO and PROF. DOUW STEYN PRESENT:

Six Great Ideas That Changed Science and the World (Part 1)
a talk by Prof. Douw Steyn

In the first part of this two-part series, Prof. Steyn will provide an overview of three great ideas and the people who developed the ideas:
  1. Evolution by Natural Selection. The unifying principle that revolutionized biology by providing a comprehensive and integrated view of all organisms, their origins and their roles in ecosystems. Not incidentally, it ignited a firestorm among religious believers that still smoulders today.
  2. DNA, RNA and the Mechanism of Heredity. The discovery…

October 08, 2024 at 7:00 PM

Museum of Vancouver - History Room - 1100 Chestnut Street, Vancouver, BC, V6J 3J9

20240619_EventProfile_Tortell.jpgARPICO and PHILIPPE TORTELL PRESENT:

A Tale of Two Oceans: Climate Change and the Future of the Arctic and Antarctic Marine Ecosystems
a talk by Prof. Philippe Tortell

The polar waters of the Arctic Ocean are experiencing significant impacts of global climate change, including warming, sea ice loss, and altered circulation patterns and biological productivity. At the other end of Earth, Southern Ocean waters surrounding Antarctica, are responding quite differently to on-going climate change. Understanding the similarities and differences between these two polar regions is critical to better understanding the future trajectory of the world’s oceans, and their…

June 19, 2024 at 7:00 PM

Museum of Vancouver - History Room - 1100 Chestnut Street, Vancouver, BC, V6J 3J9

20240410_EventProfile_Tropini.jpgARPICO and The Consulate General of Italy PRESENT:

A Gut Feeling: The Impact of Industrialization on our Inner Ecosystem
This event is a collaboration with the Consulate General of Italy in Vancouver in celebration of Italian Research Day in the World instituted in 2018 to value the quality and competencies of Italian researchers abroad and promote concrete actions and investments to allow Italian researchers to continue pursuing their careers in their homeland as well as make Italy an attractive environment for foreign researchers.
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A Gut Feeling: The Impact of Industrialization on our Inner…

April 10, 2024 at 7:00 PM

Museum of Vancouver - History Room - 1100 Chestnut Street, Vancouver, BC, V6J 3J9

20231026_EventProfile_Cali.jpgARPICO and Andrea Calì PRESENT:

The Broadway Subway Project: Building a better future while respecting an affordable present
Italian engineer Andrea Calì, Deputy Project Director for the Broadway Subway Project in Vancouver, will share with us his experience on this and other international tunnelling projects as representative of Ghella, an Italian company and international leader in the field of underground boring.

After an introduction on the exciting and challenging project currently underway along the Broadway corridor in Vancouver, the event will focus on the relationship between the Project Team and the Local Community, and the policies and strategies…

October 26, 2023 at 7:00 PM

Museum of Vancouver - History Room - 1100 Chestnut Street, Vancouver, BC, V6J 3J9

20230412_EventProfile_Aversa.jpgARPICO and The Consulate General of Italy PRESENT:

The Age of Immunotherapy
This event is a collaboration with the Consulate General of Italy in Vancouver in celebration of Italian Research Day in the World instituted in 2018 to value the quality and competencies of Italian researchers abroad and promote concrete actions and investments to allow Italian researchers to continue pursuing their careers in their homeland as well as make Italy an attractive environment for foreign researchers.
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The Age of Immunotherapy
a talk by Dr. Gregorio Aversa
The Immune system has evolved primarily to…

April 12, 2023 at 7:00 PM

Museum of Vancouver - History Room - 1100 Chestnut Street, Vancouver, BC, V6J 3J9

20221207_EventProfile_McCrudden.jpgARPICO and The Consulate General of Italy PRESENT:

"Beauty in an Act" Project
This event is a collaboration with the Consulate General of Italy in Vancouver to support the "La Bellezza in un Gesto" ("Beauty in an Act") project within the broader context of promoting the image of Italy abroad through the sport of fencing. The Italian national female and male épée fencing team will be in attendance.

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Fuelling For Optimal Health and Performance
a talk by Emma McCrudden
Our knowledge about food and nutritional sciences has increased dramatically over recent decades and…

December 07, 2022 at 7:00PM

Museum of Vancouver - Joyce Walley Room - 1100 Chestnut Street, Vancouver, BC, V6J 3J9

20221013_EventProfile_DeAngelis.jpgSince antiquity, people have been trying to answer why Rome succeeded in creating the ancient world’s largest empire. In this talk, Prof. De Angelis argues that current approaches to this question have limitations, and that room for new research exists. His approach considers the crucial eight centuries in Italy and the western Mediterranean before the Roman Empire’s creation. These centuries witnessed migrant Greeks and Phoenicians settling alongside Romans, Etruscans, and other existing populations and led to an immensely competitive environment. Societies were forced either to innovate and out-perform their competitors or to succumb to them.…

October 13, 2022 at 7:00PM

Italian Cultural Centre – Museum & Art Gallery – Room 5 – 3075 Slocan St, Vancouver, BC, V5M 3E4

20220413_EventProfile_Marchetti.jpgThe vascular system is one of the first to develop during embryo development and is essential for the maintenance and function of all organs and tissues in our body.  A complex network of arteries, veins, and capillaries is formed early on and further organized to supply tissues and organs with oxygen, nutrients, and other essential molecules.

The inner lining of all blood vessels is composed of so-called endothelial cells, a single-layered cobblestone-like sheet of cells that play an important function as precise sensors of molecules and shear stress in blood. In response they regulate vessel tone,…

April 13, 2022 at 7:00PM

Online Event - Register to Receive the Stream Link

20220302_EventProfile_Wagstaffe.jpgIt started with a deadly heat dome that settled over the Pacific Northwest back in June 2021. That was followed by a devastating wildfire season, and that was followed by one of the worst flood disasters this province has ever seen. I'll take you through the series of unique conditions that came together for these unprecedented events to occur -- and why we need to prepare now for the next one.

Johanna Wagstaffe is the meteorologist and scientist for CBC Vancouver and CBC News Network. Wagstaffe's academic background in seismology and earth science has led…

March 02, 2022 at 7:00PM

Online Event - Register to Receive the Stream Link

20211118_EventProfile_Halter.jpgA fascinating presentation and discussion of Da Vinci’s Earlier Mona Lisa in the context of the paper of the same title that was published in Leonardo Da Vinci's Mona Lisa: New Perspectives, by Jean-Pierre Isbouts (Ed). 

Art historians have long debated the question why sources about the origin of the Mona Lisa portrait provide conflicting information. This monograph presents a solution for this quandary: those 16th-century sources don't agree because they are not talking about the same painting.
Jason Halter is one of a team of leading scholars and experts who have contributed to the veracity…

November 18, 2021 at 7:00PM

Online Event - Register to Receive the Stream Link

20210414_EventProfile_Musiani.jpgDue primarily to wolf predation on livestock (depredation), some groups oppose wolf (Canis lupus) conservation, which is an objective for large sectors of the public. Prof. Musiani's talk will compare wolf depredation of sheep in Southern Europe to wolf depredation of beef cattle in the US and Canada, taking into account the differences in social and economic contexts. It will detail where and when wolf attacks happen, and what environmental factors promote such attacks.

Livestock depredation by wolves is a cost of wolf conservation borne by livestock producers, which creates conflict between producers, wolves and organizations…

April 14, 2021 at 7:00 PM

Online Event - Register to Receive the Stream Link

20210113_EventProfile_Coombs.jpgSince early 2020, we have found ourselves very focused on “the numbers” of the pandemic: counts of cases, hospitalizations and mortality; estimates of rates of spread and the effects of physical distancing policies. More recently, we have heard about the effectiveness of vaccines and how these might influence strategies for vaccine deployment. In this talk, Prof. Coombs will - in plain language - outline some of the most important quantitative concepts of epidemiology, explain their relevance to understanding the pandemic from last year to the present day, and describe how they can help us project…

January 20, 2021 at 7:00 PM

Online Event - Register to Receive the Stream Link

20200304-EventProfile-Conati.jpgEye-tracking has been extensively used both in psychology for understanding various aspects of human cognition, as well as in human computer interaction (HCI) for evaluation of interface design or as a form of direct input. In recent years, eye-tracking has also been investigated as a source of information for  machine learning models that predict relevant user states and traits (e.g., attention, confusion, learning, perceptual abilities). These predictions can then be leveraged by AI agents to personalize the interaction with their users. In this talk, I will provide an overview of the research my lab has…

March 04, 2020 at 5:45pm

Italian Cultural Centre – Museum & Art Gallery – Room 5 – 3075 Slocan St, Vancouver, BC, V5M 3E4

20191120_EventProfile_Bombardini.jpgWhether we pick up an old-fashioned newspaper, listen to the news on the radio, or get our local or international affairs update through social media, we realize that the state of the economy at pretty much all scales is lurking behind many aspects of our lives and may be responsible for their ups and downs. The intricacies linking trade and economics with politics especially at the international level can be tricky to unravel. We are therefore fortunate to have professor Matilde Bombardini from UBC come and enlighten us on these very timely topics.

After going through…

November 20, 2019 at 7:00pm

Italian Cultural Centre - Museum & Art Gallery - Room 5 - (3075 Slocan St, Vancouver, BC V5M 3E4)

20190930_EventProfile_SabinaMagliocco.jpgARPICO is proud to host UBC anthropologist, Dr. Sabina Magliocco, who will share her presentation of Modern Pagan Religions with us. This presentation examines modern Paganisms, a group of new religions that revive, reimagine, and experiment with elements of pre-Christian worship.  Emerging in the middle of the 20th century, as many established religions began to lose members, they seek to re-enchant a disenchanted world and forge stronger connections to the sacred through nature and community. These new religious movements are countercultural, in that they construct identities in opposition to the dominant religious paradigm; yet at…

September 30, 2019 at 7:00pm

Italian Cultural Centre - Museum & Art Gallery - (3075 Slocan St, Vancouver, BC V5M 3E4)

Silvia ScorzaARPICO is proud to host Dr. Silvia Scorza, who will be presenting on the topic of underground science at SNOLAB, where research is conducted in fields of fundamental science that require shielding from external radiation such as cosmic rays. This presentation will give a unique and interesting perspective into the research that is conducted mostly out of the public view and discussion, but contributes critically to our scientific advances. Applications found in medicine, national security, industry, computing, science, and workforce development, illustrate a long and growing list of beneficial practical applications with contributions…

June 12, 2019 at 6:45pm

Italian Cultural Centre - Museum & Art Gallery - (3075 Slocan St, Vancouver, BC V5M 3E4)

20190416_EventProfile_PaoloRaggi.jpgThe ancient Romans believed that a healthy body and mind go hand in hand: mens sana in corpore sano! During the American Civil War physicians described the Soldier’s Heart as a syndrome that occurred on the battlefield that involved symptoms very similar to modern day posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). They also noted that these soldiers manifested exaggerated cardiovascular reactivity and “abnormalities of the heart”. Interventions were developed to reduce the damage on the cardiovascular system and included surgical interventions to neutralize the sympathetic nervous system hyper-activity. With the advent of modern psychoanalysis, psychiatric symptoms became…

April 16, 2019 at 7:00pm

Italian Cultural Centre - Museum & Art Gallery - (3075 Slocan St, Vancouver, BC V5M 3E4)

20190306_EventProfile_MarkTurin.jpgThe linguistic diversity of our species is under extreme stress, as are the communities who speak increasingly endangered speech forms. Of the world’s living languages, currently numbering around 7,000, around half will cease to be spoken as everyday vernaculars by the end of this century.

For communities around the world, local languages function as vehicles for the transmission of unique traditional knowledge and cultural heritage that become threatened when elders die and livelihoods are disrupted. As globalisation and rapid socio-economic change exert complex pressures on smaller communities, cultural and linguistic diversity is being transformed through assimilation…

March 06, 2019 at 7:00pm

Italian Cultural Centre - Museum & Art Gallery - (3075 Slocan St, Vancouver, BC V5M 3E4)

20181113_EventProfile_PietroGiampa.jpgUnderstanding the true nature of our universe is one of the most fundamental quests of our society. The path of knowledge acquisition in that quest has led us to the hypothesis of "dark matter", that is, a large proportion of the mass of the universe which appears invisible. In this lecture, with minimal technical language we will journey through the structure and evolution of the universe, from subatomic particles to the big bang, which gave rise to our universe, in an ultimate research to describe the dark side of the universe called dark matter. We…

November 13, 2018 at 7:00pm

Roundhouse Community Centre - Room B - (181 Roundhouse Mews, Vancouver, B.C.)

In association with the Dante Alighieri Society, ARPICO presents the screening of the documentary "The Sense of Beauty" by Italian director Valerio Jalongo, who will also be in attendance during the screening. Director Jalongo has worked alongside scientists in the world's largest physics laboratory, CERN in Geneva, Switzerland, to explore, narrate and document the fascination behind the most fundamental physics questions, which manages to intrigue artists, philosophers and poets as much as it does scientists.

Please register for the event by visiting this EventBrite link or RSVPing to info@arpico.ca

researchitaly.it writes,

What is hidden behind the visible reality, made of…

September 25, 2018 at 6:30pm

The Cinematheque - 1131 Howe Street, Vancouver, BC

20180604_EventProfile_MarieClaudeFortin.jpgIn this lecture we will explore a part of our food system, which has received much press, but which consumers still misunderstand:  food derived from biotechnology often referred to as genetically modified organisms.  We will be learning about the types of plants and animals which are genetically engineered and part of our everyday food system and the reasons for which they have been transformed genetically. We will be looking at the issue from several different angles. You are encouraged to approach the topic with an open mind, and learn how the technology is being used.…

June 04, 2018 at 6:00pm

Italian Cultural Centre - Museum & Art Gallery - (3075 Slocan St, Vancouver, BC V5M 3E4)

ARPICO presents: The 2018 AGM of ARPICO will take place on June 4th, 2016 at 6:00PM at the Italian Cultural Center in the Museum & Art Gallery.

June 04, 2018 at 6:00pm

Italian Cultural Centre - Museum & Art Gallery - (3075 Slocan St, Vancouver, BC V5M 3E4)

20180411_EventProfile_Sossi.jpgBrain illness, comprising neurological disorders, mental illness and addiction, is considered the major health challenge in the 21st century with a socio-economic cost greater than cancer and cardiovascular disease combined. There are at least three unique challenges hampering brain disease management: relative inaccessibility, disease onset often preceding the onset of clinical symptoms by many years and overlap between clinical and pathological symptoms that makes accurate disease identification often difficult. This talk will give examples of how positron emission tomography (PET) imaging has contributed to better understanding of the brain function and disease with particular focus…

April 11, 2018 at 7:00pm

Roundhouse Community Centre - Room B - (181 Roundhouse Mews, Vancouver, B.C.)

20180226_EventProfile_Slingerland.jpgThe so-called “myth of secularization” held that, with standards of living and education levels rising around the world, traditional religious beliefs and affiliations would eventually fade away. More and more people, it was thought, would join the West in its state of living without supernatural commitments or ancient superstitions, guided solely by rationality, empirical evidence and enlightened self-interest. This myth appears to be mistaken on at least two fronts. To begin with, religiosity has by no means faded away. In some regions of the world levels of religiosity have risen dramatically, and in many places…

February 26, 2018 at 7:00pm

Hillcrest Community Centre - Room 328 - (4575 Clancy Loranger Way, Vancouver, BC)

ARPICO presents:

It is our pleasure to invite you and your significant other to ARPICO's year-end dinner.

The event will take place on Saturday December 2, 2017 starting at 7 pm at the Italian fine-dining 'Bay Moorings Restaurant' in West Vancouver, which we have reserved for the occasion.

The approximate program for the evening is as follows:
  • 7-7:45 - arrival and while-u-mingle-style appetizers with cold cuts, cheeses, focaccia and prosecco
  • 7:45-8:00 - short address by ARPICO's president on behalf of the board
  • 8:00 onward - sit-down 3-course dinner including salumi and cheese platter appetizers, wild mushroom gnocchi, chicken stuffed with…

December 02, 2017 at 7:00pm

Bay Moorings Restaurant - 6330 Bay Street West Vancouver, BC

20170606_EventProfile_Bostock.jpgWe have the good fortune of living in a beautful corner of the planet where spectacular coast mountain scenery borders the temperate Pacific Ocean. But this priviledge comes at a price. The same forces that lift the coast mountains from the sea are responsible for one of the most powerful of natural disasters: earthquakes. In this talk, I will discuss several distinct classes of earthquake that occur in the Pacific Northwest and the seismic hazard they pose. This list includes the highly anticipated magnitude 9 "megathrust" event that will rupture the entire Cascadia plate…

June 06, 2017 at 6:00pm

Roundhouse Community Centre - Room B - (181 Roundhouse Mews, Vancouver, B.C.)

20170412_EventProfile_Alimenti.jpgIt is now 35 years since the discovery of AIDS but its origins continue to be puzzling. Looking back to the early 20th-century events in Africa, scientists traced the emergence of the HIV/AIDS epidemic from its transmission from chimpanzees to man, and uncovered how colonial medical campaigns to eradicate tropical diseases started the spread of the virus, and how urbanization and prostitution had a disastrous effect later on to amplify the epidemic from West Africa to Kinshasa, then to the rest of Africa, to Haiti and ultimately worldwide.

In 2017, where are we with the…

April 12, 2017 at 7:00pm

Kitsilano Community Centre - Snowey's Lounge - (2690 Larch St, Vancouver, BC)

ARPICO presents:

It is our pleasure to invite you and your significant other to ARPICO's year-end dinner.

The event will take place on Saturday December 3, 2016 starting at 7 pm at recently renovated Italian fine-dining 'Bay Moorings Restaurant' in West Vancouver, which we have reserved for the occasion. (Yes, it is a little out of the way, but the word is on the street that is serves excellent food at reasonable prices---some of our board members have recently tried it with great satisfaction; check it out here baymooringsrestaurant.com)

The approximate program for the evening is as follows:
  • 7-7:30 -…

December 03, 2016 at 7:00pm

Bay Moorings Restaurant - 6330 Bay Street West Vancouver, BC

ARPICO presents:

The 2016 AGM of ARPICO will take place on May 31st, 2016 at 5:30PM at the Roundhouse Community Centre, Room B.

May 31, 2016 at 5:30pm

Roundhouse Community Centre - Room B - (181 Roundhouse Mews, Vancouver, BC, V6Z2W3)

Patrick Walden graduated with a B.Sc. in Physics from UBC and a Ph.D in Particle Physics from Caltech. His Post Doctoral research was done at the Stanford University Linear Accelerator (SLAC), and since 1974 he has been at TRIUMF here in Vancouver. Patrick has been active in the fields of pion photo-production, meson spectroscopy, the dynamics of pion production from nuclei, and nuclear astrophysics. Nuclear power is the second largest source of greenhouse gas emissions-free energy in the world. It supplies approximately 5% of the world's total energy demand. Presently, human activity is on the brink of initiating…

May 31, 2016 at 7:00pm

Roundhouse Community Centre - Room B - (181 Roundhouse Mews, Vancouver BC V6Z2W3)

Christopher McPherson, senior prosecutor with the Ministry of Justice, Province of British Columbia, is responsible for challenging high-profile homicide cases. He has prosecuted over 30 homicide cases. Elected a Bencher for 2016, Christopher is a member of the Discipline Committee and Equity and Diversity Advisory Committee. Christopher has served as a director of the BC Crown Counsel Association, and is a member of the International Association of Prosecutors and International Society for the Reform of Criminal Law. His teaching and lecturing experience includes coach of the Western Canadian Criminal Moot Competition and UBC Burns Moot Competition, instructor…

February 24, 2016 at 7:00pm

Vancouver Public Library - Alma VanDusen Room - (350 W. Georgia St., Vancouver, B.C.)

Dr. Arianna Dagnino is a researcher, writer, and socio-cultural analyst. She holds a M.A. in Modern Foreign Languages and Literatures from l'Università degli Studi di Genova and a Ph.D. in Sociology and Comparative Literature from the University of South Australia. She currently teaches at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver.

Global cities such as Vancouver, London, Berlin or Sydney currently face two major problems: house affordability and the risk of highly fragmented societies across cultural lines.

In her talk, Dr. Dagnino argues that one of the possible solutions to address the negative aspects of economic globalization…

January 27, 2016 at 7:00pm

Vancouver Public Library - Alma VanDusen Room - (350 W. Georgia St., Vancouver, B.C.)

ARPICO presents:

Please join us in celebrating the holidays and another wonderful year at our annual Christmas Dinner at Marcello's Pizzeria.

December 07, 2015 at 6:30pm

Marcello Pizzeria & Ristorante (1404 Commercial Dr, Vancouver, BC)

Prof. Douw Steyn, PhD, ACM, FCMOS, is Professor Emeritus of Atmospheric Science at The University of British Columbia, in the Department of Earth Ocean and Atmospheric Sciences. He is a member of the Institute for Applied Mathematics, the Institute for Resources, Environment and Sustainability, and the Liu Institute for Global Issues. He has served as Associate Dean (Research and Faculty Development) in the Faculty of Graduate Studies and Principal of the College for Interdisciplinary Studies.

Prof. Steyn's professional, teaching and research activities are in the field of air pollution meteorology, boundary layer meteorology, mesoscale meteorology, environmental science…

December 01, 2015 at 7:30pm

Roundhouse Community Centre - Room B - (181 Roundhouse Mews, Vancouver, B.C.)

ARPICO is pleased to invite you to the informal dinner on August 22 in honor of Anadi Canepa, our president of four years, who will be leaving Vancouver the end of August to accept a position as a research scientist with a most prestigious research facility, Fermi Lab-Chicago, USA.

We will try to give her a farewell befitting her role as a founder of ARPICO and her tenure as president. We can assure you it will be an evening of great refreshments, conversation and other activities! Please join us for Anadi's send off, noting spouses/partners are most welcome.…

August 22, 2015 at 6:00pm

Ravenwoods Clubhouse, 3608 Deercrest Dr., North Vancouver

Prof. Samoil Bilenky will introduce a movie on the life of Bruno Pontecorvo

The movie will trace the main points of Bruno Pontecorvo's life, a nuclear physicist, who was born in 1913 in Pisa, Italy, and died in 1993 in Dubna, Russia.
Samoil Bilenky worked with Pontecorvo from 1975 until 1989 in Dubna where they developed the theory of neutrino masses and oscillations, and proposed experiments on the search for neutrino oscillations.
The impact of Bruno Pontecorvo on neutrino physics is well recognized in the Scientific World.

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May 27, 2015 at 7:00pm

Rented Community Facility - Activity Room, Main Level - 480 Broughton St, Vancouver, BC

Dr. John J. Spinelli is a Distinguished Scientist and Head of Cancer Control Research at the BC Cancer Agency, Professor at the School of Population and Public Health at the University of British Columbia, and Adjunct Professor in the Department of Statistics and Actuarial Science at Simon Fraser University. He is the principal investigator for the BC Generations Project, part of the Canadian Partnership for Tomorrow Project, the largest health study ever undertaken in Canada.

Dr. Spinelli's primary research focus is on the identification of environmental and genetic risk factors for cancer and in the interaction between…

February 06, 2015 at 7:00pm

Roundhouse Community Centre - Room B - (181 Roundhouse Mews, Vancouver, B.C.)

Dr. Francesco Berna is Assistant Professor at Simon Fraser University's Department of Archaeology, where he teaches introductory and advanced courses in archaeology. Born in Rome, he graduated from the University of Florence, where he also obtained his PhD. The main focus of his research is on the origin of modern behaviour and the onset of the controlled use of fire during the Lower and Middle Paleolithic in Africa, Europe, and the Middle East.

The biology, diet, habitat, and behavior of our species are deeply entangled with the use of fire to the point that our survival is,…

September 12, 2014 at 6:30pm

Istituto Italiano di Cultura

ARPICO presents:

We are pleased to announce that the 2014 Annual General Meeting of ARPICO will be held on May 28th at the Istituto Italiano di Cultura (500 - 510 West Hastings St Vancouver BC V6B 1L8). Doors will open at 6:15PM. The meeting will start at 6:30PM and end at 7:15PM.

A dinner with the board of directors will follow.

RSVP to info@arpico.org by May 24th if you wish to attend and if you would like to join the board of directors for dinner.

May 28, 2014 at 6:30pm

Istituto Italiano di Cultura

Arianna Dagnino holds a PhD in comparative literature from the University of South Australia and a Masters Degree in foreign languages from the University of Genoa. In the last 25 years she has lived across four continents, writing more than 700 articles for the italian press. She has published a transcultural novel, Fossili (Rome: Fazi, 2010), inspired by her four years in South Africa, and several books on the impact of socio-techno globalization. Dagnino is also an ethnographic researcher working with the international research centre Future Concept Lab (www.futureconceptlab.com

Dagnino's analysis and presentation of the…

April 23, 2014 at 6:15pm

Istituto Italiano di Cultura

Federico Rosei has held the Canada Research Chair in Nanostructured Organic and Inorganic Materials since 2003. He is Professor and Director of Institut National de la Recherche Scientifique, Énergie, Matériaux et Télécommunications, Université du Québec, Varennes (QC) Canada. Since January 2014 he holds the UNESCO Chair in Materials and Technologies for Energy Conversion, Saving and Storage. He received MSc and PhD degrees from the University of Rome "La Sapienza" in 1996 and 2001, respectively.

Dr. Rosei's research interests focus on the properties of nanostructured materials, and on how to control their size, shape, composition, stability and positioning when…

March 25, 2014 at 6:30pm

Roundhouse Community Centre Room C

Steno Ferluga, who will give a talk about Hack's career and life, was a pupil of Margherita Hack and then became a coworker of hers as well as a personal friend. He now teaches Environmental Physics at the University of Udine.

On June 29, 2013, Margherita Hack passed away at the age of 91. Hack was an eminent astrophysicist, as well as a popular science writer, very well known in Italy and abroad for her professional achievements but also for her personal choices and opinions. A staunch vegetarian and a convinced atheist, Hack directed the Trieste Astronomical…

December 05, 2013 at 6:30pm

Istituto Italiano di Cultura

Dr Schaffer is responsible for maintaining the medical isotope and radiotracer production programs at TRIUMF, in support of neurology and oncology research. For his leadership in the field, Dr Schaffer was recently recognized as one of BC's Top Forty under 40 by Business in Vancouver magazine. He continues to re-define the TRIUMF nuclear medicine program as a leader, an entrepreneur and one of British Columbia's most promising scientific talents. A modest man with a sense of humour and a strong commitment to his family and playing hard outdoors, Paul came to TRIUMF in 2009 from the private…

November 27, 2013 at 6:30pm

Telus World of Science, 1455 Quebec St, Vancouver, B.C.

Dr. Matthews is Mission Scientist leading the Canadian Space Agency's MOST project, and a Professor of Astrophysics in the Department of Physics & Astronomy at the University of British Columbia. Prof. Matthews is a world-leading expert in the fields of stellar seismology, exoplanetary science, and astronomical instrumentation and time series analysis. Prof. Matthews' media adventures include frequent appearances on CBC TV and Radio, CTV, Global, CNN, CityTV, The Knowledge Network, Shaw TV, and Space: The Imagination Station, as well as playing himself ("Jaymie" Rocket Scientist) in a national Fountain Tire television ad campaign. Dr. Matthews posed in…

May 21, 2013 at 6:30pm

Round House Community Center - 181 Roundhouse Mews

Marco Ciufolini (b. Rome; B.S., Spring Hill College; Ph.D., Michigan; Postdoc 1982-84, Yale) has held academic positions at Rice University (1984-98), the University of Lyon (1998-2004), and UBC (2004-present), where he is the Canada Research Chair in Synthetic Organic Chemistry.
The Istituto teams up once again with ARPICO, the Society on of Italian Researchers and Professionals of Western Canada, to present a fascinating talk celebrating the 50th anniversary of the awarding of the Nobel Prize to Italian scientist Giulio Natta. Organic chemistry, the branch of chemical science that focuses on carbon-based materials, permits the conversion of basic…

March 27, 2013 at 6:30pm

Istituto Italiano di Cultura

ARPICO presents:

The 2013 AGM of ARPICO will take place on March 13th 6:00PM at the Istituto Italiano di Cultura (500 - 510 West Hastings St., Vancouver BC).  We invite all members to join us for a no-host dinner afterwards.

March 13, 2013 at 6:30pm

Istituto Italiano di Cultura

Prof. Fabio Rossi & Video Interview with Rita Levi-Montalcini

On December 30, 2012, Italy lost one of its most prestigious minds in the scientific domain: neuro-biologist Rita Levi-Montalcini, who passed away at the age of 103. Together with colleague Stanley Cohen, Levi-Montalcini was awarded the 1986 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for their discovery of nerve growth factor. The Istituto Italiano di Cultura, in collaboration with ARPICO - the Association of Italian Researchers and Professionals of Western Canada -, presents an evening commemorating the life and achievements of this outstanding scientist, who famously had to conduct…

February 26, 2013 at 7:30pm

Istituto Italiano di Cultura

Particle Physicist "Nephew of Emilio Segre, winner of the 1959 Nobel Prize for the discovery of the antiproton". Born in Florence, Italy in 1938, Gino Segre grew up in New York and Italy. He graduated from Harvard University (A.B., 1959) and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (Ph.D., 1963). He is now a professor emeritus in the Department of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Pennsylvania. He has been a visiting professor at M.I.T and at Oxford University as well as a visiting Fellow at CERN (the European Organization for Nuclear Research) and the University of California,…

November 20, 2012 at 6:30pm

Science World Museum

Alberto Angela is a paleontologist, science writer, author, and italian journalist.

This fascinating documentary illustrates Italy's major recent achievements in the field of science and technology, achievements that will have significant consequences at a global level in the years to come - like the iCub robot, who is capable of learning from experience. Filmed in the beautiful setting of Rome's Centrale Montemartini - the new exhibition space for the Musei Capitolini, in the former "Giovanni Montemartini Thermoelectric Centre", an extraordinary example of industrial archaeology converted into a museum -, the documentary is presented by Alberto Angela and…

October 24, 2012 at 6:15pm

Italian Cultural Institute

Prof. Luciana Duranti, Chair and Professor School of Library, Archivial and Information Studies, University of British Columbia Trust has been defined in many ways, but, at its core, it involves acting without the knowledge needed to act. It consists of substituting the information that one does not have with other information. For example, a person who does not have the knowledge necessary to assess the authenticity of a record relies on the credentials of the expert who authenticates it. Individuals and organizations are increasingly saving and accessing records in the highly networked, easily hacked environment of the Internet.…

May 17, 2012 at 6:15pm

Italian Cultural Institute

A former Pisa scholar, Sergio Bertolucci has worked at DESY, Fermilab and Frascati. He was appointed head of the Frascati National Laboratories accelerator division becoming Director in 2002. Before taking over the Directorate for Research at CERN, Bertolucci was already chairing the LHC committee and was a member of DESY's physics research committee. He was also vice-president and a member of the Board of the Italian National Institute of Nuclear Physics.

Bertolucci will talk about the investigation of the deepest-held mysteries of our universe at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) of CERN. "The LHC is probably the…

February 15, 2012 at 8:30pm

Italian Cultural Institute

Dr. John Robinson, executive Director of the UBC Sustainability Initiative Professor with the Institute for Resources, Environment, and Sustainability, and the Department of Geography, at the University of British Columbia.

The Greenest City Conservations (GCC) project is aimed at testing multiple channels for public engagement on sustainability policies. Its two main goals are (1) to facilitate discussion, solicit and analyze public attitudes and opinions on, and support for, a variety of sustainability policies; and (2) to provide a comprehensive understanding of the content and impacts (both qualitative and quantitative) of six different modes of public engagement ("channels"):…

October 27, 2011 at 8:30pm

Roundhouse Community Centre

Dr. Fabio Rossi, tenured associate professor in Medical Genetics at the University of British Columbia, member of the board of directors of the National Centres of Excellency - Stem Cell Network, and scientific advisor of Muscular Dystrophy Canada. More information about Dr. Rossi are available here: http://www.cbr.ubc.ca/research_frossi.htm

Stem cells hold tremendous promise for both therapeutic and commercial applications. However, theoretical, practical, ethical and regulatory obstacles hinder the path to these achievements. How long before we see these promises realized? Which applications will come first? Dr Rossi will review recent advances in this fast moving field,…

June 23, 2011 at 7:00pm

Italian Cultural Centre, 3075 Slocan Street, Vancouver