John Baker to inspire next generation of science entrepreneurs at Mercier Lecture

This year’s Ernest C. Mercier Lecture in Entrepreneurial Science will examine how technology is disrupting education, and what that means for the future.

Hosted by York U’s Lassonde School of Engineering, the event will take place Feb. 28 with a reception at 5:30 pm and lecture to follow at 6:30pm in the Bergeron Centre, Main Floor.

Lassonde will host this year’s Ernest C. Mercier Lecture in Entrepreneurial Science at the Bergeron Centre for Engineering Excellence.

President and CEO of Desire2Learn (D2L), John Baker, will present the lecture.

Baker founded Desire2Learn in 1999 at the age of 22 while attending the University of Waterloo as a Systems Design Engineering student.

The company offers a cloud-based digital learning platform that delivers personalized online and mobile learning experiences. Employing over 800 people and having raised more than $160 million in venture capital, D2L is viewed as one of Canada’s most promising tech companies, alongside names like Hootsuite and Shopify.

For more information and to reserve your tickets, click here.

In an effort to inspire and empower future generations of chemistry students at York with a sense of the possible, Ernest C. Mercier’s wife, Dr. Eileen Mercier, a York graduate (MBA ’77), established the lecture series in her late husband’s name. Bridging the worlds of business and commerce with the intensive research world of chemistry, the series presents an entrepreneur and renowned scientist who has used his/her own science education as a springboard to other enterprises.