When: Thursday, June 25, 2026 (Doors open at 6:00 pm, talks start at 7:00 pm)
Where: Dickens (1000 9th Ave SW)
Tickets: $15 – 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: TBD
Presenter: Megan Emmett, CEO of Youth Singers Calgary
Talk teaser: TDB
About: Megan has had a lifelong love of music, singing, and teaching. She completed a BA in Music, a BEd, and did graduate studies in musicology. Megan worked as a classroom teacher and music specialist for over 10 years before embarking on a career in Leadership with the Youth Singers of Calgary. She is a strong believer in the value performing arts bring to young people.
Talk #2
Title: The glow of life – what is it and what can it tell us
Presenter: Daniel Oblak, Associate professor in the Department of Physics and Astronomy in the Faculty of Science
Talk teaser: A lifeglow sounds like metaphysics or the topic of a science fiction novel, but lately such ultra-weak bio-photon emission has become the subject of systematic scientific research, focusing on finding its exact biochemical origins and potential applications in medicine, agriculture, and beyond. One application is already being pursued in a Calgary-based spin-off while an even more fascinating future outcome is a potential link to quantum effects in biology.
About: Dr. Daniel Oblak is an associate professor at the University of Calgary’s Institute for Quantum Science and Technology. Besides building quantum gadgets for the future quantum Internet in his basement lab, he has led an effort to image biological systems with single-photon sensitive cameras.
Talk #3
Title: On Olfaction: A Love Letter to the Nose
Presenter: Ana Stepanchuk, PhD
Talk teaser: Our sense of smell does far more than we realize. It shapes our emotions, memories, social bonds, and even our sense of reality – mostly without us noticing. In this talk we will dive into how smell works in the brain, why it’s tied to emotion and what happens when it stops working.
About: Ana is a neuroscientist who works at the intersection of science, scent, and human experience. With a background spanning biophysics, protein misfolding, sensory education, and phenomenology, she runs ol.facto – a studio that translates brain science into scent-based experiences for everyone from dementia care programs to curious humans. She’s currently a postdoctoral fellow at the Hotchkiss Brain Institute and teaches at Mount Royal University, but is most happy when she gets to talk about how your nose is doing way more than you think.
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.