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Spring, 2011 Volume 11, Issue 1 The Canadian Institute for Advanced Research enables Canadian researchers to work on international research teams that are custom built to transform their fields of study. Founded in 1982 with a groundbreaking collaborative research model, CIFAR has been extraordinarily successful at creating knowledge breakthroughs, advancing Canada’s research community and fuelling innovation. Today, the Institute mobilizes 385 researchers from 107 institutions in 16 countries to conduct research of scientific, economic, social and cultural importance. CIFAR is a not-for-profit institution supported by donations from individuals, foundations and corporations, and funding from the Government of Canada and the governments of Ontario, British Columbia and Alberta. PUBLISHER: Chaviva M. Hošek EDITOR-IN-CHIEF: Patchen Barss EDITORIAL ADVISORS: Rebecca Finlay, Elizabeth Gerrits, Jessica Kamphorst, Kara Palleschi, Sue Schenk, Mel Silverman, Pekka Sinervo, Kara M. Spence CONTRIBUTORS: Veronika Bryskiewicz, Sony Dhillon, Raissa Espiritu, John Lorinc, Tatyana Narchayeva, Tracy Ollivierre, Sofia Ramirez DESIGN: ID8 Design Group TRANSLATION: Geneviève Beaulnes PRINTING: Sunville Printco 1 The Big Question of Identity 2 Briefs 5 Who Are You? 7 You Are Your Citizenship 9 You Are What Your Genes Experience 11 You Are The Groups You Belong To 12 You Are Your Guide To Italian Philosophy 13 CIFAR Timeline 14 CIFAR Donors 16 Making Big Things Happen Reach is a magazine for researchers, volunteers, friends and supporters of the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research, and anyone else with curiosity and imagination. Reach celebrates advanced research and explores the issues, opinions and ideas emerging from this work. We invite all comments or inquiries concerning the content of Reach and/or the work of CIFAR. Reach, Canadian Institute for Advanced Research 180 Dundas Street West, Suite 1400, Toronto, Ontario, M5G 1Z8 Phone: 416-971-4251 Fax: 416-971-6169 Email: letterstoreach@cifar.ca Web: cifar.ca
Parsing these complexities and searching for ways to understand how and why an individual feels, thinks, and believes certain things have been consistent areas of inquiry for everyone from marketing executives to philosophers. THE BIG QUESTION OF IDENTITY I am a Canadian. I was not born here. I am the product of about 23,000 genes, passed on to me by my parents, and sculpted by my childhood experiences. I am a result of the many groups of people with whom I have been connected over the years – my family and friends, my students and professorial colleagues, my associates in the women’s movement and in public service, and my fellow members of the CIFAR community. I am the grey matter that nestles in my cranium. There are many more ways I could answer the question, “Who are you?” Still more answers emerge when one poses the same question to those working at the frontiers of human knowledge. Each of CIFAR’s 12 research programs is centred around a big question such as: “What is the nature of the universe?” “Why are some countries rich and others poor?” “How do genes interact to make us healthy or sick?” The Institute’s identity reveals itself in part by the kinds of questions we choose to try to answer. 01 Sometimes, we find ourselves asking a question that is so far-reaching, that the answers span several CIFAR programs at once. We have recently been asking about the fundamental nature of human identity. Parsing these complexities and searching for ways to understand how and why an individual feels, thinks, and believes certain things have been consistent areas of inquiry for everyone from marketing executives to philosophers. Advanced research offers particularly interesting and useful answers to the question “Who are you?” This is a question that has no doubt been asked thousands of times before, but I don’t believe you have ever seen answers like those provided by CIFAR. Genetics, social psychology, artificial intelligence, and even cosmology and astrobiology all have something to say about who we are and how we understand ourselves. I hope that the answers you find in this edition of Reach provide you with new and interesting ways to think about how you define your self. Chaviva M. Hošek President and CEO and Lawson Family Foundation Fellow
Page 1: THE MAGAZINE OF THE CANADIAN INSTIT
Page 5 and 6: Geoffrey Hinton becomes fourth CIFA
Page 7 and 8: WHO ARE YOU? BY JOHN LORINC Of all
Page 9: YOU ARE YOUR CITIZENSHIP IN diverse
Page 13 and 14: YOU ARE THE GROUPS YOU BELONG TO M
Page 15 and 16: CIFAR TIMELINE EXPLORATION PROGRAM
Page 17 and 18: PATRONS’ CIRCLE CONTINUED John an
Page 19 and 20: David Dodge (Chair) Former Governor

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