Jeremy McNeilWestern Science

Activities Associated with the Public Awareness of Science

For more than 35 years I have been giving presentations about insects to children at English and French primary and secondary schools around Quebec City, as well as at other locations in North America, China, Europe and Australia. I also give presentations at public institutions such as the Ontario Science Center and the Musée de la Civilization, to amateur science and gardening clubs, the scouts, in shopping centers, as well as at nature centers. I speak to well over 500 people each year.

In addition, I give talks to exterminators, providing information on the seasonal biology of insects they most frequently encounter and present alternatives to insecticides as means of control.

I was a judge of the Annual International Young Europeans' Environmental Research Competition (YEER), sponsored by the Deutsche Bank, where the national winners from European countries participate from 1995 to 1999. I was a judge in 2000 at their world-wide competition (WYRE) at the EXPO site in Hanover. I also represented YEER at the Intel Science Fairs in Forth Worth (1998) and Philadelphia (1999), as well as ExpoScience in Puebla Mexico (1999). I frequently serve as judge at regional and provincial Expo-science fairs and was on the advisory board of The Sanofi-Aventis Biotech Challenge (SABC) for the London region.

I appear regularly on radio and television, both locally and nationally, and give an average of ten interviews in English and French annually. In addition, I serve as a resource person in the preparation of science programs for TV and radio (Radio Canada). For example, I appeared as the scientific expert in the French version of “The Secret Lives of Butterflies” a one hour TV documentary produced by Kublacon Pictures Butterflies INC for various broadcasters, such as Discovery Channel Canada and TV Cinq in 2003-2004. This show is aired several times a year since it was released.

In 2011 I participated in a 6 segment series “Survie”, produced by Espace Franco Images, Ottawa, taking about the production of food crops within in the context of climate change. This has been shown in 2012 - 2013 on Discovery science Canada and TFO.

I was involved in a piece about armyworm species for an international four part TV series called "Infestations" that examining outbreak species in agriculture and forestry, as well as in aquatic and urban environment. I helped the crew in the lab and field to get the necessary footage and also appeared in the segment as an "expert". The series was first broadcast in fall/winter 2013/4 on iChannel & Oasis Channel in Canada, in UK on UKTV and in Germany on ZDF. ZDF Enterprises also has the rights to distribute the show worldwide. The series will be produced through TFPB Productions Inc., owned by Stornoway Productions.

I worked with Let’s Talk Science to produce both a printed and electronic version of an entomological book (using my photographs) for preschool-grade 3 children, which is being used across Canada in both English and French. There are also versions in Spanish and Portuguese that are available for students in Central and South America. I am currently working with LTS on a climate change book for the same age group.

In 2020 I participated in two different documentaries made by Go Button Media. In the first “Phantom Signals” I spoke about mass migrations of insects being picked up on radar, which has already been aired on the Science Channel. The second “The Animal Within” by Go Button Media in collaboration with Spiegel TV Wissen channel, looks at how animals can outperform “our wildest engineering dreams,” and will be distributed internationally (excluding in Canada) by Autentic Distribution.