Help Us Select a Professor for the New Institute of Cellular Agriculture

It will be the first institute in Canada, and one of the first few in the world dedicated to growing food from cells.

This is a big deal!!

Now, we’re interviewing candidates to be the first Assistant or Associate Professor of Cellular Agriculture at the Institute.

And we’d love your input.

From November 30 to December 12, four candidates will be doing teaching and research seminars open to the general public as part of their interview process.

We’d love for you to join in.

A detailed list of seminars is below; but if you’re interested in attending some/all of them, you can easily add the New Harvest Public Calendar to your Google Calendar to see all eight seminars.

Here are the seminar dates and times for each candidate (and yes all teaching seminar topics are the same):

Candidate 1: Dr. Ning Xiang, Cofounder and Advisor, CellX Co., Ltd.

• Teaching Seminar: “Cellular Agriculture Food Systems and their Sustainability and Life Cycle Assessments”
  • Nov 30, 11am-noon MT
  • Join Zoom Meeting Here
  • Meeting ID: 987 4570 8576 Passcode: 340284
• Research Seminar: “Biomaterials and Bioprocess for Cultured Meat Production”
  • Dec 1, 8:30am-9:30am MT
  • Join Zoom Meeting Here
  • Meeting ID: 934 4238 7468 Passcode: 033896

Candidate 2: Conrad Fischer, Assistant Professor, Department of Chemistry and Physics, Barry University

• Teaching Seminar: “Cellular Agriculture Food Systems and their Sustainability and Life Cycle Assessments”
  • Dec 5, 11am-noon MT
  • Join Zoom Meeting Here Meeting ID: 985 0032 6374 Passcode: 656302
• Research Seminar: “Nature-driven Bioengineering – Understanding Biology at the Molecular Level”
  • Dec 6, 1:30-2:30pm MT
  • Join Zoom Meeting Here
  • Meeting ID: 995 7712 0597 Passcode: 682830

Candidate 3: Cameron Semper, Postdoctoral Fellow, Department of Microbiology, Immunology & Infectious Disease, University of Calgary

• Teaching Seminar: “Cellular Agriculture Food Systems and their Sustainability and Life Cycle Assessments” 
  • Dec 7, 11am-noon MT
  • Join Zoom Meeting Here
  • Meeting ID: 956 0071 1783 Passcode: 628545
• Research Seminar: “Linking One Health with Cellular Agriculture”
  • Dec 8, 9am-10am MT
  • Join Zoom Meeting Here
  • Meeting ID: 983 7660 0503 Passcode: 909323

Candidate 4: Ke Wang, Process Development Senior Scientist, Amgen Inc., University of California Davis

• Teaching Seminar: “Cellular Agriculture Food Systems and their Sustainability and Life Cycle Assessments”
  • Dec 11, 1:00pm-2:00pm MT
  • Join Zoom Meeting Here
  • Meeting ID: 971 9077 6569 Passcode: 869867
• Research Seminar: “Innovative and Translational Research in Sustainable Precision Fermentation Systems” 
  • Dec 12, 11:00am-noon MT
  • Join Zoom Meeting Here
  • Meeting ID: 996 2534 5442 Passcode: 292874

A bit more background:

The U of A Institute of Cellular Agriculture is an innovative strategic partnership intended to provide infrastructure, support, and funding opportunities for innovators and researchers creating the future of food through cellular agriculture. The institute will be located at Agri-Food Discovery Place, one of the few facilities in the world that is equipped for cell culture, large scale fermentation, animal science, crop science, and food science all under one roof.

After seeing their announcement “go viral” with students, U of A decided to bring on a tenure-track professor to get the institute off the ground.

I am one of several selection committee members tasked with selecting the best candidate for this institute. However, I am the only individual representing the cellular agriculture field; the majority of members are faculty and departmental leaders from other fields.

I’d love for you, as a member of the cellular agriculture community, to tune into these seminars and let me know your thoughts!

I thoroughly appreciate your interest and support on this! This is a major milestone in the field and a decision we want to get right.

For your reference, here’s our announcement of the institute on our blog, here’s the University of Alberta’s press release, and here’s the U of A’s job posting from June 2023.

Please don’t hesitate to share your feedback with me over email at isha@new-harvest.org

Hope to see you Zoom!