The Last Man to Know Everything
Jacqueline Whyte Appleby, Faculty of Information

Alexander Pope advises us: “a little learning is a dangerous thing; drink deep, or taste not the Pierian spring.” Just how deeply do we need to drink to be an expert? And how have our expectations of these depths changed through the ages? How has the value of knowing changed from BD (Before Documents) to the 21st Century? This talk will attempt to address some of the major conflicts in Library and Information Studies while looking at the role of the library in shaping experts and expertise.

Examining Controlled and Automatic Executive Processes Involved in the Development of Expertise
Shaaista Bhasin, Psychology

My research examines the development of automaticity – where a novel task develops through extensive practice from being controlled (requiring a lot of attention and focus, is slow and inefficient but flexible) to automatic (where the task is rote, quick and efficient but inflexible). This is the basis of the development of expertise in any given field. I examine this development through a behavioural task (a modified Stroop paradigm) and a relatively new brain imaging technique called functional Near Infrared Spectroscopy.

Risk and Trust in Retail Banking: The Know Your Customer Principle
Vanessa Iafolla, Criminology

This research examines the use of Know Your Customer (KYC) principles by bank employees to prevent risks posed by clients to bank security. These principles, part of the bank’s best practices, provide a knowledge base of the client and his or her activities that retail bank employees must use when performing client transactions. KYC principles fill in the gaps of employee knowledge of clients, constructing client identity based on official bank knowledge of the client and acting as a proxy for ‘personal’ knowledge of clients. This paper examines the use of KYC principles by employees, inquiring into the nature of trust and risk within the retail bank.

Cellular Expertise
Geoff Fucile, Cell and Systems Biology, Genome Biology and Bioinformatics

Our planet demonstrates the existence of cellular life in an astonishing diversity of environments – from deep-sea hydrothermal vents to polar ice, and concrete jungles. I will discuss aspects of the molecular evolutionary processes that lead to cellular expertise in managing the demands of life in these complex and challenging environments. Specific topics will include the flow of information in biological networks, symbiosis, gene/genome duplication, and protein structure.