This event is sponsored and hosted by BC Children’s Hospital, Plum Village, and The RHNHFF BCS Program.
[Registration Page Here]
About this Event
This symposium concludes a 4-day retreat hosted by Plum Village and Deer Park, and invites scientists from around the world to explore the intersection of Buddhism, psychology, and neuroscience through the embodied practice of mindfulness.
The Buddha the Scientist Hybrid Symposium will be offered online and in-person at the Asian Centre at UBC. The symposium combines mindfulness practice with groundbreaking scientific inquiry and discussion, inspired by “The Buddha, the Scientist” series held at Deer Park Monastery (2022, 2023) and Dartmouth College (2025), this retreat and symposium brings Thích Nhất Hạnh’s vision of integrating mindfulness into scientific communities to life.
Virtual and in-person attendees will experience the unique format of practicing mindfulness alongside scholars, who then present their research in a reflective, inspirational symposium. Following the presentations, a panel Q&A will offer opportunities for meaningful dialogue.
A vegetarian lunch will be provided for those who attend in-person.
About the Speakers
Brother Pháp Liệu was born in Vietnam and grew up in France. He ordained as a novice monk with Zen Master Thích Nhất Hạnh in 2003, and became a Dharma teacher in the Plum Village tradition in 2010. Previously trained as a cardiologist, Br. Pháp Liệu is a pioneer of the Plum Village “Health and Mindfulness Meditation retreats.” He has enjoyed leading these retreats in Plum Village France, throughout Europe, Asia, Australia and Canada since 2008. Following the path of his teacher, Br. Pháp Liệu tries to find ways to connect Buddhist psychology teachings with research in neuroscience. He currently resides in Healing Spring Monastery, a Plum Village practice centre in the East-Paris area, recently established in October 2018.
Brother Pháp Lưu was ordained in 2003, and received the Transmission of the Lamp from Zen Master Thích Nhất Hạnh in 2011. He helped start Wake Up, the Plum Village movement for young people, and has been working with Wake Up Schools since its inception in 2012 to bring mindfulness to schools. Br. Pháp Lưu also helped to begin the Happy Farm, Plum Village’s organic farming community. He is the advisor and editor of the Mindfulness Bell, co-chair of the Thích Nhất Hạnh Foundation and Parallax Press board, and has served as the monastic editor for a number of Thầy’s books, including Happy Teachers Change the World, Stepping Into Freedom, The Admonitions and Encouraging Words of Master Guishan, How to Focus, and Cracking the Walnut. He initiated The Buddha the Scientist retreat and symposium series and leads mindful backpacking retreats in nature around Deer Park Monastery in Escondido, California; Joshua Tree National Park; the Sierra Nevada; and on the Appalachian Trail. His new book on mindful walking in nature, Walking Zen, co-written with Brother Pháp Xa, will be released in the spring of 2025.
Sister Hội Nghiêm was born and raised in Vietnam. Before becoming a nun, she was a school teacher and wished to incorporate mindfulness in her teaching in order to help her students transform suffering into happiness. At the age of 25, she came to Plum Village, France and ordained as a novice with Zen Master Thích Nhất Hạnh in 1999. She became a Dharma Teacher in 2007. Sister Hội Nghiêm translated The Buddha Body, the Buddha Mind, encompassing Thích Nhất Hạnh’s teachings offered during the first neuroscience retreat in Plum Village in 2006. She is currently the Abbess of the Lower Hamlet of the Plum Village monastery and continues to teach mindfulness at Plum Village, France as well as around the world. She enjoys meditation, nature, poetry and inspiring people to practice.
Lynne Quarmby and her team are working to illuminate the interspecies relationships that support growth in the harsh conditions of nutrient impoverishment and low temperature. Snow algae live intimately with a community of bacteria, viruses and various microscopic eukaryotes. They hypothesize that photosynthate secreted by the algae in the form of mucus provides the foundation of fixed carbon to sustain the microbial community. They seek to understand the cellular and molecular bases of the mutualistic and commensal relationships that capture micronutrients, resist dessication and possibly provide a form of innate immunity or defense against parasitic microbes. The work will provide a foundation for understanding similar relationships in the related ecosystems of snow & ice in alpine regions and in Antarctica. For over two decades, their group has done cell biology using the lab rat of Green Algae, Chlamydomonas reinhardtii. Through their work on cilia and the cell cycle they made discoveries that help us understand the fundamental machines of cellular life and the etiology of several human diseases. The Quarmby lab is well positioned to undertake this important new interdisciplinary project at the interface of cell biology and ecology.
David R. Vago is the President of the International Society for Contemplative Research, a neuroscientist, and a widely recognized leader in contemplative science, digital health, and well-being. Dr. Vago has dedicated his research and scholarly work to clarifying the neurobiological and psychosocial mechanisms underlying mind body practices, including meditation, yoga, breathwork, and psychedelics. Dr. Vago was formerly Associate Professor at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation and Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences. He served as Research Director at the Osher Center for Integrative Health, core faculty at the Vanderbilt Brain Institute, and Vanderbilt Institute for Infection, Immunology, and Inflammation. Dr. Vago also previously held faculty positions at Harvard University and the Contemplative Sciences Center, University of Virginia. Dr. Vago maintains a Research Associate position at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School. He has served as Senior Scientist and Research Director at the Mind & Life Institute, where he currently serves as a research fellow advising on strategy and programs. As an advisor and fractional chief science officer for the academic community and digital health industry, he provides scalable research, strategy, and science-backed solutions for driving innovation and developing products that empower individuals to live with purpose and well-being.
Medicine, University of Toronto
Elli Weisbaum BFA, MES, PhD, works internationally facilitating mindfulness workshops and retreats in education, healthcare and business. At the University of Toronto, she is Assistant Professor (teaching stream) in the Buddhism, Psychology and Mental Health Program (BPMH), with a joint appointment to the Department of Psychiatry, in the Temerty Faculty of Medicine, with a cross-appointment to the Dalla Lana School of Public Health in their Institute of Health Policy, Management and Evaluation. At the heart of her teaching and research is an interest in cultivating learning and occupational environments where all members thrive. Her work draws on research from in neuroscience, education, healthcare and the workplace to explore how the scientific evidence base for mindfulness is integrated and operationalized across society. Past and ongoing collaborations include working with UofT’s Faculty of Law, Dalla Lana School of Public Health, Faculty of Engineering, Rotman School of Management, Physical Therapy Department, the Ontario Hospital Association, The Hospital for Sick Children, and Massachusetts Institute of Technology to integrate mindfulness into programming for faculty, staff, clinicians, patients and students.
Michelle A Williams, SM ’88, ScD ’91, is a renowned epidemiologist, an award-winning educator, and a widely recognized academic leader. She served for seven years as Dean of the Faculty at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, stepping down in June 2023. Prior to becoming Dean, she was Professor and Chair of the Department of Epidemiology at the Harvard Chan School and Program Leader of the Population Health and Health Disparities Research Programs at Harvard’s Clinical and Translational Sciences Center. Dr. Williams took a position as Professor of Epidemiology and Population Health at Stanford University in January 2025. She remains an adjunct professor at Harvard Chan School. Dr. Williams previously had a distinguished career at the University of Washington School of Public Health. Her research places special emphasis in the areas of reproductive, perinatal, pediatric, and molecular epidemiology. Dr. Williams has published more than 520 scientific articles and was elected to the National Academy of Medicine in 2016. In 2020, she was awarded the Ellis Island Medal of Honor and recognized by PR Week as one of the top 50 health influencers of the year. Dr. Williams has an undergraduate degree in biology and genetics from Princeton University, a master’s in civil engineering from Tufts University, and master’s and doctoral degrees in epidemiology from the Harvard Chan School.
About the Moderators
Jessica Main began work at UBC in 2009 as the Tung Lin Kok Yuen Canada Foundation Chair and Director of UBC’s Buddhism and Contemporary Society Program. In 2014, the program was renamed The Robert H.N. Ho Family Foundation Program in Buddhism and Contemporary Society and forms part of a network of academic institutions and scholars around the world. She wrote her PhD dissertation (McGill 2012) on the topic of descent-based discrimination, human rights, and Jōdo Shinshū Buddhism in Japan, looking especially at the problem of caste-based discrimination in Pure Land Buddhism against the burakumin. She is currently working on a manuscript on this topic entitled, No Hatred in the Pure Land: Burakumin Activism and the Shin Buddhist Response in Interwar Japan. Her research interests include modern Buddhist ethics, social action, and institutional life in Japan, East Asia, and Southeast Asia.
Dzung X. Vo primary area of research is on mindfulness-based interventions for adolescents with depression, anxiety, and/or pain. I also do research on health equity and social determinants of health, vulnerable child and adolescent populations (“Social Pediatrics”), and somatization and mind-body medicine. I have written a book for teens called “The Mindful Teen: Powerful Skills to Help You Handle Stress One Moment at a Time,” and a website, www.mindfulnessforteens.com, to help translate research and innovation into practice and public knowledge.
