The Okanagan Cardiovascular and Respiratory Symposium is a biennial international research meeting run by the Centre for Heart, Lung and Vascular Health in the School of Health and Exercise Sciences at UBC Okanagan. Since inception in 2014, the symposium has been held at the Silver Star Mountain Resort in British Columbia with the specific agenda to promote excellence in integrative human cardiovascular, respiratory and vascular physiology but with dedicated time for skiing, socializing and networking.
The Okanagan Cardiovascular and Respiratory Symposium invites internationally and nationally leading scientist to give keynote lectures and as symposium speakers at the start of each scientific session. Sessions have a focus on either heart, lung and/or vascular physiology with additional foci on environmental, comparative and exercise physiology. The symposium was designed with a key focus on student research, training and development through supplying opportunity for students to disseminate and discuss their research but also to listen, learn and interact with established researchers in an intimate and supportive environment.
The invited speakers for 2026 are leaders within the disciplines of cardiac, respiratory, environmental, autonomic and vascular physiology with research expertise in the physiological resilience to heat exposure, evolution of the pulmonary circulation at high altitude, muscle oxygen transport, cardiac performance in health and disease, integration of the O2 cascade, muscle bioenergetics and fatigue, autonomic circulatory control in women and the brain’s physiology during dying. The depth and sophistication of some of the techniques used and the questions being answered by these scientists makes this small conference a unique and very high-quality symposium that hopes to attract scientists and their trainees from around the world.
