Brock Prof. Ana Sanchez is organizing a global health research forum to reach out to future researchers.

Undergraduates interested in doing research on global health issues will have a prime opportunity to learn more at a forum taking place Jan. 26 in Pond Inlet.

The event Discovering Global Health in Your Future is co-produced by Brock and McMaster universities, in alliance with the Canadian Coalition for Global Health Research.

Created to raise awareness of graduate work in fields relating to global health, the forum is a full day of workshops and discussions with researchers as well as experts from international health and humanitarian organizations.

It even comes with lunch. And for Brock undergrads it’s free. The Office of the Associate Vice-President, Student Services will reimburse their $20 registration fee on the day of the event.

Brock Prof. Ana Sanchez, a forum organizer and leading scientist in infectious disease research, said the forum will help students better understand global health, which she calls “a field at the intersection of the medical or natural sciences with the humanities.”

“We have to reach out to our future researchers,” Sanchez said. “Otherwise, how will they ever know that they might like research? By attending the forum, students may discover they are actually interested in doing global health.

“Local is global, and the health of one person may have collective repercussions. So we have to make this information available to students.”

The forum will include:
• addresses from Luis Gabriel Cuervo, of the Pan American Health Organization, and Marilyn McHarg, president of the medical humanitarian organization Dignitas International;
• workshops on topics including careers in global health, how to select global health graduate programs, and the ethics of global health placements;
• dramatic arts interpretation and visual arts exhibitions; and
• exhibitors such as graduate programs or NGOs dealing with global health.

Registration deadline is Jan 14, 2013.

Visit the website for more information or contact Ana Sanchez at Brock or Helena Collins at McMaster.