'Survivor' Yau-Man Chan on Skepticism- a Cultural Introspective

Although the Asian population in the US and Canada is very well represented in all fields of science and engineering, their presences is conspicuously absent among skeptics and skeptics organization. At the last Amazing Meeting (TAM), as an example, attendance broke all records (1,672), yet there were but a handful (less than 10) Asians in attendance.

The speaker will explore this phenomenon from a cultural perspective, relating very personal observations and experiences of why there are so few of skeptics among Chinese and how we can help break this last barrier to grow the modern skeptical movement.

Speaker: Yau-Man Chan is best known as a popular cast member on the television show "Survivor" (Fiji & Micronesia seasons). Mr. Chan grew up on northern part of the island of Borneo (now a State of Malaysia), and came to the U.S. for higher education in 1970 where he received a Bachelor of Science degree in Physics from Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He went on to receive his Master of Science degree from the University of California, Santa Barbara.

Yau-Man is currently the Chief Technology Officer of the College of Chemistry at the University of California, Berkeley. In this position, he manages and runs the information systems infrastructure for administrative, research and teaching units of the college. As a science geek and a skeptic, he is passionate about science and science education, and has volunteered his time to speak at libraries and service organizations to advocate for and helps promote science education. He writes for skeptic blogs and is a Board Member of the Bay Area Skeptics (BAS).

For more information, see http://reason4reason.org