When: Thursday, January 29th, 2026 (Doors open at 6:00pm, talks start at 7:00pm)
Where: Dickens (1000 9th Ave SW MAP)
Tickets: $15 plus fees – tickets
Join us at Dickens. Order yourself a drink or two (and you can order yourself dinner) while you sit back and listen to us talk nerdy to you. Dickens allows our patrons to order food from their full menu, and of course, the full bar. Street parking is available in the area (free after 6pm) as well as pay lots nearby. Dickens is also located two blocks from the downtown West-Kerby C-train station.
Presentations (not in order)
Talk #1
Title: Introductory to Alberta Wildfire: General Public Edition
Presenter: Aaron Chalupa, Forest Officer, Government of Alberta
Talk teaser: Presenting stats, facts and busting myths to help you better understand on where we are and what the “new normal” for wildfire season might look like.
About: Aaron Chalupa is a Forest Officer for the Government of Alberta. Working over the span of 17 fire seasons with Forestry & Parks, he has helped protect Alberta’s landscapes and communities on 300+ wildfires.
Talk #2
Title: The repeatability of evolution: are there constraints on the tape of life?
Presenter: Jon Mee (he/him), Associate Professor of Biology, Mount Royal University
Talk teaser: Stephen J. Gould proposed the thought experiment of replaying life’s tape and finding out if our world would re-evolve. What constraints might make it play out in a familiar way, and what contingencies might make it play out differently?
About: Jon Mee is interested in how evolution creates variability among individuals and between populations. Most of his research projects involve the study of freshwater fishes, such as brook stickleback or finescale dace, but he also studies computer simulations to understand how evolution works.
Talk #3
Title: How I helped catch the biggest scientific fraudster in Canadian history, and what I learned along the way
Presenter: Jeremy Fox, Professor of Biology, University of Calgary
Talk teaser: Ever heard the motto ‘fake it ’til you make it’? Animal behaviorist Jonathan Pruitt sure did. In 2018, Pruitt was at the top of his field, granted a prestigious Canada 150 Chair at McMaster University. Two years later, Pruitt had been exposed as the biggest scientific fraud in Canadian history. I’ll tell you how I and others discovered the fraud, and ask if the case holds any lessons for ensuring that scientific research remains trustworthy.
About: Jeremy Fox is an ecologist. He is a professor in the Department of Biological Sciences at the University of Calgary. When he’s not chasing down scientific fraudsters he plays god with microbes, building tiny artificial ecosystems in the lab to work out the rules that natural ecosystems obey. He also writes the Dynamic Ecology blog.
Dickens is a wheelchair accessible venue. If you require to use the elevator please notify us by email before the event so we can arrange for it to be used. Or you can call Dickens directly upon arrival at 403-233-7550.
This is an 18+ event.
REFUND NOTICE: We have always tried to accommodate refunds as requested but it’s not always possible to accommodate last minute requests. To that end going forward, refunds will only be issued by us 48 hours before the event and the Eventbrite fees have to be paid still. After that if tickets are not needed, the purchaser is responsible for finding a buyer.