DR. KIRSTY DUNCAN
Medical Geographer

November 26 - 2009
DR. KIRSTY DUNCAN awarded Knowledge Millennium Award

OTTAWA – Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff made the following statement today regarding the Knowledge Millennium Award:

"Congratulations to my colleague, Dr. Kirsty Duncan, on winning the prestigious Knowledge Millennium Award. This award is presented annually to an individual who has made a significant mark on theme of the Global Knowledge Millennium summit.

This year’s theme is emerging health threats – and Dr. Duncan has been recognized for her contribution to research on flu pandemics. A Nobel laureate herself, she will stand amongst six other Nobel laureates who previously won the award.

As Liberal Public Health Critic and Member of Parliament for Etobicoke North, Kirsty’s knowledge of influenza pandemics has helped educate the Canadian public on the risks associated with this year’s H1N1 flu virus. As we have all seen in her tireless work, she is more than deserving of this award.

Dr. Duncan has made Canada proud as she travels to India to receive the award, where she will also address conference attendees at the 7th Global Knowledge Millennium Conference. On behalf of the Liberal Party of Canada and our Parliamentary caucus, I congratulate Dr. Kirsty Duncan on her distinguished work to protect the health of Canadians and people around the world."
 

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When Canadian medical geographer Dr. Kirsty Duncan read about the 1918 Influenza pandemic that swept the world to become the worst plague in human history, she was horrified that we still knew so little about the flu and why it had spread so quickly. In an effort to prepare for what is thought by experts to be inevitable – another such pandemic, she lead an international, multi-discipline scientific expedition to exhume the bodies of a group of Norwegian miners, all victims of the epidemic.

Her expedition culminated in her writing a book, Hunting The 1918 Flu: One Scientist's Search For A Killer Virus. The book was short-listed for the 2004 Canadian Science Writers’ Association awards. Dr. Duncan’s second academic book, Environment and Health: Protecting Our Common Future was published in the United Kingdom in March, 2008. She completed work, regarding climate change and human health for North America, for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), a joint venture of the United Nations Environmental Program and the World Meteorological Organization. She was recognized on Parliament Hill in 2008 for her contribution to the Nobel-Prize winning Canadian team on the IPCC.

Dr. Duncan is currently the Liberal Member of Parliament in the Etobicoke North riding, as well as an Associate Professor at the University of Toronto where she teaches health studies. Additionally, she is an Adjunct Professor at Royal Roads University. She formerly taught corporate social responsibility at the Rotman School of Management, and has held appointments with the University of Windsor. Prior to being elected, she sat on the Advisory Board for Pandemic Flu for the Conference Board of Canada, the University of Toronto, and was also helping organizations prepare throughout the United States. She currently sits on the Boards of the St. Andrew's Society of Toronto and the Toronto Foundation for School Success. In 2006, she co-developed and ran the Millennium Goals Bus Tour, which visited tier-one business schools in Canada and the United States, and inspired students to take action locally and globally.

Dr. Duncan completed her bachelor degree, a double specialist in geography and anthropology and a minor in psychology, at the University of Toronto in 1989 and graduated with distinction. She completed her doctoral degree in geography at the University of Edinburgh in 1992. Following the completion of her doctoral degree, she worked for the University of Windsor where she taught meteorology, climatology and climate change, and the University of Toronto where she taught infectious disease, medical geography, and women's health.

In 200 and 2001, Dr. Duncan was nominated for the Order of Ontario. She was awarded the Arnold G. Wedum Memorial Lectureship for 1999 at the 42nd Biological Safety Conference for 'outstanding contributions to biological safety'. Dr. Duncan was nominated for Canada's Top 40 Under 40 in 1997, 1998, 1999 and 2001.

Dr. Duncan has consulted with various health organizations based on her extensive knowledge and research concerning influenza pandemics, most recently in the spring of 2009 pertaining to the H1N1 flu.
 

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PRESENTATION TOPICS >>>

GLOBAL WARMING:
Canada in a Warmer World:

Over the next century, global mean temperature is predicted to rise 1.4-5.8 o C relative to 1990. Such a change may not seem significant, but a temperature decrease of 2.0-4.0 o C is enough to bring on a near hemispheric ice age.

The projected warming, which is likely to be without precedent during the last 10,000 years, will profoundly affect the Earth and humanity. Sea levels will rise, glaciers and permafrost will melt, and small island states might be abolished through flooding.

This talk explores what warmer temperatures in Canada will mean in terms of ecosystems, human health threats, such as emerging and re-emerging diseases, human settlements, and water resources, and what we must do to be prepared.
 

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Corporate Contributions to Our Common Future

Corporate corruption has struck investor confidence hard in the new millenium, and in the wake of disgrace, calls to improve corporate citizenship echo in boardrooms across nations -from Australia to Canada to the United States -and from global organizations, such as the United Nations and the World Economic Forum. But what is corporate citizenship, and what does it include?

This talk describes common responsibilities of corporate social responsibility, and then focuses on crucial global environmental issues and health concerns, and where business can make positive changes to society. Specifically, this talk questions what contributions business can make to shareholders, as well as to the preservation of our planet and humanity.
 

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Emerging Human Health Threats - Forewarned is Forearmed

This talk explores emerging threats-such as bird flu (H5N1), Ebola hemorrhagic fever in Africa, Variant Creutzfeldt-Jacob disease in the United Kingdom, and West Nile virus in the United States-the possible reasons for their emergence, and what can be done in the fight against these diseases.

Benefits to Business & Industries:

to understand the current pandemic threat, and what it means to specific businesses and industries;

to reduce economic impacts;

to reduce cases, hospitalizations, and deaths;

to help develop pandemic preparedness plans and business continuity.

 

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Hunting for 1918 Flu :

In 1918-19, the Spanish flu pandemic swept the world in three great waves and killed an estimated 20-40 million people in just one year, more than the number that died during the four years of the First World War.

Today, while the Spanish flu has faded in the public's memory, most virologists are convinced that sooner or later a similar deadly flu virus will return; and thus anything we can learn from the 1918 flu would be invaluable.

This talk details Dr. Duncan's ten-year hunt for the Spanish flu virus in frozen Spitsbergen - from the initial search for victims to putting together a multinational, multidisciplinary team of experts, to spending twenty-two months seeking permission from Norwegian authorities, to developing detailed bio-safety protocols, to undertaking the expedition and exhumations, to transporting and analyzing the tissues.
 

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Client Comments >>>

"The feedback on her presentation was overwhelmingly positive!!  The delegates appreciated her engaging storytelling presentation style, her compassion, and, her knowledge of pandemic flu. One delegate wrote 'very interesting without scare mongering, it inspired me to look at practical planning, realistically assessing our sites.' Dr. Duncan was a GREAT keynote and really got the conference off to a great start!"
- Calgary Health Region
 

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"You were clearly the star of our conference. The praise also included that of senior local government managers who approached me to describe their admiration of your presentation and the presenter. We are indebted to you for the excellence of your presentation."
- New York County Managers Association
 

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"Thank you so much for this morning's talk - I've had at least 15 people come up to me and proclaim their enthusiastic approval. No really, it's not just in glowing terms, the praise is ebullient!"
- Ontario Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care
 

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"Based on comments heard throughout the week, your presentation on Hunting the 1918 Flu as well as your follow-up discussion, were well received and contributed to making PCIH and educational success."
- Academy of Industrial Hygiene
 

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"The feedback we received from your speech on March 11th was astounding...you were able to affect every person within that lecture room and inspire them to go out and make a difference."
- Student Leadership Conference, University of Guelph
 

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K&M Productions represent DR. KIRSTY DUNCAN
for Speaking Engagements.

For more information and to book Dr. Kirsty Duncan
simply contact us.
 

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