“I don’t know?” is the response you’ll get if you asked David Ng for three words that best describe him—but what he knows for sure is that he has a passion for scientific literacy.

The London-born professor moved to Canada in 1981, and has since become a Canadian citizen. Ng is an alumnus of UBC with a Bachelor’s and Doctorate in Microbiology and Immunology. He met his wife of ten years at Totem Park residence, and is a father of two “awesome” kids.  Although he is not technically affiliated with any UBC faculty, he is a member of the Michael Smith Laboratories, where his academic mandate is to simply  “talk science to whoever will listen.”

Ng is a key player in UBC’s Terry project, an interdisciplinary initiative out of the Arts and Sciences designed to educate students on global issues. This self-proclaimed “science geek,” along with Political Science professor Allen Sens, teaches the popular Arts Science Integrated Course (ASIC) 200, a course that focuses on global issues. They also organize the TEDx Terry Talks, an annual student conference where the UBC community gathers together to listen to diverse student speakers.

With the popularity of the TEDx Terry Talks, Ng is currently excited about Terry’s upcoming launch of a new program called “Terry Tales.” This is envisioned as an “informal version of Terry talks, much like a story telling open mike modeled after the popular Moth Podcast.”  He hopes that this more casual series of gatherings will allow students to have more opportunities to dialogue and network.

Ng currently blogs at a number of places, including the Terry blog and scienceblogs.com. He is also editor of a popular science webzine, Science Creative Quarterly.

Ng is a guitarist who writes the odd silly science song. Ng reads a lot of academic material, but for a break he likes to read creative non-fiction, humour and graphic novels. He is also currently a member of a book club, although admits that this book club is known for talking about the book for five minutes and then focusing on the book-inspired meal for the rest of the meeting.

When asked about his future plans, Ng said “I am having such a great time right now, it would be nice to keep carrying on. I am optimistic that some of the amazing students I’ve had the privilege to work with will go on to great things—you know, win Nobel Prizes or Pulitzer Prizes, that kind of thing.”
“Wouldn’t it be lovely if they came back to UBC and gave a talk to inspire future UBC students?”