Join us for a retirement reception in honor of Dr. Penelope Canan

Please join us from 2:30 to 4:30 p.m. on Wednesday, December 12, 2012, in the Department of Sociology, Conference room 409A, as we say farewell to Dr. Penelope Canan.

Dr. Canan joined the Department of Sociology in 2006. Prior to her arrival at UCF, Canan worked in Tsukuba, Japan as the executive director of the Global Carbon Project, one of the Earth Systems Science Partnerships of the International Geosphere-Biosphere Program, the International Program on the Human Dimensions of Global Environmental Change, the World Climate Research Program, and Diversitas. 

At UCF, Dr. Canan was instrumental in the formation of Focus the Nation, a national network of more than 1,000 college and university campuses dedicated to solutions to global warming and climate change.

In 2008, Focus the Nation organized and produced the largest one-day “Teach-In” in U.S. history. She helped establish UCF’s FTN student organization and assisted in its production of UCF’s “Electric Car Events” (2007), the National Wildlife Federation’s podcast titled “The 2% Solution” filmed at BCC/UCF studios (2008), the UCF “Teach-In/Reach Out on Climate Solutions” (2008), the UCF “Teach-In Plus” (2009), and the formation of the student organization named “Climate Connections, ” dedicated to linking UCF student leaders with environmental leaders in Central Florida.

In 2010 Dr. Canan was one of 6 women in the College of Sciences and 15 in the university to receive a “Women Making History” award given to honor women recognized nationally or internationally for their research, creative activities, and leadership from 2008-10. In 2010 the United Nations Environment Program listed her on its “Montreal Protocol Who’s Who,” a web portal launched “to honor the visionaries, innovators, and implementers who are making the Montreal Protocol a global environmental success story.”

In 2007 Dr. Canan received the Frederick Buttel Award for Distinguished Career Contribution to Environmental Sociology from the Section on Environment and Technology of the American Sociological Association as well as the “Best of the Best” Award for Ozone Layer Protection, Individual Category, from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

Please join us in celebrating Dr. Canan’s accomplishments and contributions to the Sociology Department and UCF and to the discipline of environmental sociology.