600 language specialists in Québec City
Pascale Tremblay, Ph.D., is very passionate about the science of language. Ms. Tremblay is an Associate Professor at the Faculté de médecine – Département de réadaptation at Université Laval, where she teaches in the speech pathology program. She is also a part of the CERVO Research Centre, one of Canada’s leading neuroscience and mental health centres based in Québec City, and a lab member at the Speech and Hearing Neuroscience Laboratory at the IUSMQ, a mental health institute.
In addition to her career in science, Ms. Tremblay also organizes events. Thanks to this highly dynamic ambassador, Québec City will play host to the 10th Annual Meeting of the Society for the Neurobiology of Language, which was founded in Chicago in 2010. The event, which will take place in August 2018, is set to welcome over 600 specialists and researchers from around the globe.
The Society have always been close to Ms. Tremblay’s heart. She has focused her research on developing strategies to prevent, slow down or even reverse the effects of aging that nega-tively affect communication and social functioning. “I’ve been fascinated by human language for years,” she said. “Language is so important, complex and fascinating to study. Did you know that humans, on average, speak four to nine syllables per second? In order to speak, we need to activate hundreds of muscles in the face, neck and abdomen. And that requires hundreds of thousands of neurological events to pull it off. We’re only beginning to understand how the brain works with the human body to produce such a fast and complex action.”
As an integral member of the Society, Ms. Tremblay has organized the Society’s first three events. Nevertheless, she has made it her personal challenge to make the 10th Annual Meeting bigger and better than ever before. And while the Society was co-founded by a Canadian, the event is the first time it will be held in Canada. “The Society’s conferences have greatly evolved over the years. Last year, it was in London at the British Museum. What was so great about it was that we were able to create a conference experience that was scientific and fun. Now, we need to up the ante for the conference in Québec.”
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Centre des congrès de Québec. Photo: Emmanuel Coveney
Apart from relentlessly working to develop a program with thought-provoking speakers and raise sponsor-ship dollars, Ms. Tremblay has also partnered with representatives at the Québec City Convention Centre to put together a conference that will speak volumes (pun intended) to researchers and specialists in the neurobiology of language. “Québec City has a great reputation and many attendees visited the area for another related event in 2011. However, for delegates who have never been, I can be very very convincing,” she said with a smile. “Québec City has everything going for it: beautiful landscapes and attractions, unbelievable fine dining and a cultural vibe that is truly unique. We’ll definitely raise the bar with our experiential conference in Québec,” she said.