Almost everyone (including me, and CKCO) who wrote or broadcast about the new zoonoses and public health centre that opened yesterday at the University of Guelph led their story or column with "what timing" or "talk about timing," and you can't blame them. How often does a global zoonotic disease outbreak happen, let alone conveniently coincide with with the ribbon-cutting for a new centre dedicated to zoonotic disease? University of Guelph scientists have been appearing everywhere in the media; investing in science gives them a place to work and study, and enables them to be in a position to respond to potential crises, such as the H1N1 outbreak.
OWEN ROBERTS
Owen Roberts is a faculty member in the Agricultural Leadership, Education and Communications program at the University of Illinois. As an agricultural journalist, he is the past president of the International Federation of Agricultural Journalists and a lifetime achievement award recipient from the Canadian Farm Writers' Federation. His programs and research papers have been recognized nationally and internationally through awards from the Journal of Applied Communications, the National Agri-Marketing Association, the Association for Communications Excellence, and others.