News Category: Elsewhere
SCWIST member Elizabeth Croft profiled in Where are all the women engineers? article 
Gender equality yet to be achieved despite ‘dramatic’ growth in jobs
By Darah Hansen, Vancouver Sun, August 30, 2011, p. C4-5
It’s been nearly 90 years since Rona Hatt did the unthinkable.
In 1922, at the age of 21, Hatt graduated from the University of British Columbia with a degree in chemical engineering, the first woman to do so in the province.
The achievement earned her the nickname “lone flower” by her classmates – “a woman in a field of men,” according to the university’s archives. Times have changed, and women, led by pioneers such as Hatt, are no longer such a rarity in engineering classes across the country. UBC, for instance, expects to welcome 234 female students into first-year engineering courses this September at its campuses in Vancouver and Kelowna.
Yet, despite a number of equity and diversity initiatives over the past decade, the number of women entering the profession remains stubbornly – and many would say troublingly – low.
Statistics cited in a 2009 study, Paying Heed to the Canaries in the Coal Mine, found that women continue to be under-represented in engineering and applied science programs in Canada at both the college (less than 10 per cent) and university (17.5 per cent) levels.
More widely, “women comprised 47 per cent of the Canadian workforce in the 2006 census. The participation rate of women in the engineering field averaged 13 per cent,” authors Janice Calnan and Leo Valiquette observed, noting a similar trend in the United States and other Western economies.
The gender disparity has continued, they wrote, “despite the fact that there has been a dramatic increase in the number of new jobs in engineering and technology.”
Elizabeth Croft, a UBC mechanical engineering professor and, since 2010, regional chair for Women in Science and Engineering with the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC), agreed that engaging women in applied sciences is a serious concern.
“I don’t think we’ve done a particularly good job of communicating that the careers for engineers do not require you to be a man,” she said in a recent interview.
NSERC research indicates the problem starts early on in the schools.
“There is certainly no shortage of 1st graders of either sex who could enter the science and engineering world. But at each step along the supply chain fewer and fewer young people choose to study science or engineering, and the drop-off for women is considerably larger than that for men,” according to a 2010 report, entitled Science and Engineering in Canada.
But leadership and policy development within industry itself – or, rather, a general lack thereof – has also been identified as a major factor in the failure to attract and retain women in greater numbers.
The Association of Professional Engineers and Geoscientists of British Columbia (APEGBC) reported last year that female engineers are paid less than men on average for all responsibility levels, with women accounting for only nine per cent of the country’s total population of registered professional engineers.
Croft said a lack of role models, combined with a “chilly” industry climate towards gender diversity, provides little incentive for all but the most determined women to pursue engineering as a career.
She counts herself among the female engineers on the job who have developed “dragon skin” in order to compete. “We haven’t done enough yet to make them feel invited and comfortable,” she said.
Still, Croft said she is optimistic positive change is taking place – though not at the pace she would like.
“I look at my students and the [boys’ club] attitude has kind of grown up. They don’t even think they have the attitude any more until you call them on it,” she said.
Larger firms are also waking up to the value of encouraging diversity, in its broadest sense, within their ranks.
“That dynamic of diversity – gender diversity, age diversity and ethnic diversity – is actually a great driver of innovation in the way projects are thought about and put together,” said Michael Kennedy, vice-president of the engineering and architectural firm Stantec in Vancouver.
“I would imagine any smart company that is in our sector has to realize there is a problem when you have 80 or 90 per cent of senior leaders who are quite narrowly defined in terms of gender and ethnic diversity,” he said.
Stantec employs about 200 engineers across B.C., of whom an estimated 20 per cent are women.
Kennedy said the company is taking steps to boost those numbers, including launching a “future leaders” program, designed to identify and support promising talent.
The firm is also a lead corporate sponsor of NSERC’s Women in Science and Engineering project, which works to promote awareness and outreach within schools and industry.
“All the challenges of the planet that are happening today need engineers to make this a better world for people,” said Croft. “And the more people, the more diverse the groups that are looking at these problems are, the better solutions.”
ELIZABETH CROFT, P. ENG
PROFESSOR, MECHANICAL ENGINEERING, UBC NSERC CHAIR FOR WOMEN IN SCIENCE AND ENGINEERING FOR B.C. AND YUKON
T he books that line the shelves of Elizabeth Croft’s UBC office give much away in terms of the intelligence and interests of the occupant.
Elementary Differential Equations and Boundary Value Problems reads one of the ominous titles. Herbert Goldstein’s Classical Mechanics is another.
“Now those are some sweet books,” Croft said, laughing at her own selfdescribed “geeky” fascination with all things that whirl, spin, click and motor.
Croft, 45, is not just a mechanical engineer. She’s been teaching on the subject at the university for almost two decades, after completing a master’s and PhD.
Robots are her thing. She positively lights up when talking about her research exploring human-robot interaction and the potential for a lifechanging application by medical and support staff working in long-term care homes and hospitals.
It was exactly this kind of left-brain/ right-brain split between creativity and science that drew her to study engineering in the first place.
And while she was certainly aware she was one of only a handful of women in her class (when she graduated in 1988, fewer than eight per cent of the students were women), she was never intimidated.
“I grew up with brothers,” she said. “I very much considered myself to be one of the guys. That was the kind of woman who went into engineering then.”
Times have changed, with participation rates for women in engineering at UBC now hovering around 20 per cent.
Croft, as regional chair for women in science and engineering with the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada, is pushing to see that number expand much further.
Engineering has plenty to offer women.
“If you are creative. If you love solving problems. If you want to change the future of this planet, then engineering is something that you should seriously consider,” she said.
TYSEER ABOULNASR, P.ENG
PROFESSOR AND DEAN, FACULTY OF APPLIED SCIENCE, UBC
T yseer Aboulnasr never once thought her decision to become an engineer was anything out of the ordinary – until she moved to Canada.
At Cairo University in Egypt, where she received an undergraduate degree in electrical engineering in 1976, gender “was never an issue,” she said.
Indeed, both men and women were well represented among the program’s 400-plus students.
It was only when she moved to Ontario in 1978, where she attended Queen’s University in Kingston for both her master’s and PhD, that it began to dawn on her that her career ambitions might be considered unusual for a woman.
A casual conversation with a campus clinic nurse during a routine health checkup drove that point home early in her transition to Canada.
“She asked me what I was studying at Queen’s and I said, ‘Engineering,’ Aboulnasr recalled of the exchange. “She literally took a step back and her response was, ‘Why on earth would you do anything like that?’” For the past three years, Aboulnasr has held the title of dean of the Faculty of Applied Science at UBC. That accomplishment follows an impressive career in academia that involved leading-edge research into digital signal processing, which, among other applications, has been used to clean up sounds received in modern hearing aids.
Her success has not come without personal sacrifice and plenty of hard work – a very real side of her life she fears is sometimes “air-brushed” when she’s held up as a role model to younger women considering a similar path.
Recently, she was asked to participate on a panel exploring women’s rights and gender equality following the brutal attack on UBC graduate student Rumana Monzur by her husband.
The discussion caused her to question anew the internal cost she’s paid as a woman working in what remains a male-dominated profession.
“There is no question in my mind that I have changed because I work consistently with men. If I didn’t tolerate a lot of stuff, I would not have survived,” she said.
“But you choose your battles. You drop some things and you focus on some things. Did I go too far? I am happy to have people remind me where right and wrong is.”
LAUREN KULOKAS
B.A. SC. MECHANICAL ENGINEERING, UBC COO, ENERGY AWARE TECHNOLOGY INC.
I t was a high school project that – quite literally – catapulted Lauren Kulokas into her current entrepreneurial venture.
Showing academic strength in math and sciences, the Mississauga, Ont., native was often steered as a teenager towards engineering as a potential field of study by school counsellors and career advisers.
But it wasn’t until a Grade 12 physics course, when she took part in a class challenge constructing a full-on catapult that could launch water balloons, that she found herself sold on the idea.
“That [catapult] was just a really, really fun, hands-on project,” she said.
A decade later, Kulokas said she could not have made a better career decision.
The 29-year-old is now chief operating officer of Energy Aware Technology Inc., a company she co-founded with a group of her mechanical engineering classmates following their graduation from UBC in 2006.
The Gastown-based operation develops products that promote sustainability and encourage energy conservation. The company’s main product, the “Power Tab,” allows users to monitor their energy consumption and associated costs.
Kulokas has no doubts her engineering background has helped her to compete in a tough business world, though, she admitted, the signature iron ring on her little finger, symbolic of the profession, still catches many of her clients and contacts by surprise.
“I do get that reaction quite a bit, that ‘Oh, wow, a mechanical engineer. There aren’t a lot of women in engineering.’ That kind of thing,” she said.
But it doesn’t faze her. She views it as acknowledgment of the risks she’s taken and hard work she’s put in to get where she is today.
“Engineering as a profession comes with some credibility and respect,” she said.
AMANDA LI
4TH YEAR B.A.SC, MECHANICAL ENGINEERING, UBC, PRESIDENT – ENGINEERING UNDERGRADUATE SOCIETY
Amanda Li admits she doesn’t know a lot about makeup or the latest fashion trends.
But, as a fourth-year UBC student studying mechanical engineering, what she’s learned about physics and math — and how to apply that knowledge to complex problem-solving — could change the world.
And that’s exactly what she’s planning to do.
“I definitely like clean energy,” she said in a recent interview.
“You see all these issues happening, especially with the environment, and … I want to contribute to this cause.”
Li, 23, can trace her interest in mechanical engineering back to high school at Burnaby North where she excelled in the sciences and wasn’t afraid to challenge herself.
That her career path would land her in a decidedly male-dominated field was not at all off-putting. She is one of 10 women in her year, compared to 120 men.
“I’m a tom-boy,” she said. “I’m pretty used to hanging around with the boys.”
Li said her male peers are supportive of the women students, though she has noted subtle differences in the way she is treated.
Sometimes it comes in the form of an offhand comment or joke that alludes to more traditional gender roles for women or divisions of labour.
More often, it is an unspoken pressure to be better than the men.
“If you screw up, people will think you screwed up because you are a girl,” she said.
“In many ways I don’t think my male colleagues will think that way, and I’m really optimistic, but you definitely feel that way — that I am representing not only myself … but my entire gender.”
JANET CALDER
B.A. SC., METALLURGICAL ENGINEERING, UBC MBA, UNIVERSITY OF WESTERN ONTARIO
“Nice girls don’t take physics.”
That was the advice a young Janet Calder was given by a high school counsellor when she first began exploring a career in engineering.
It was the 1960s — a time when professionally minded women were typically steered into nursing, teaching or home economics. If they went to university at all, “let’s face it, the No. 1 career path was the M.R.S.,” Calder said.
Now 60 and retired, Calder has few regrets about bucking traditions of the day.
Her degree in metallurgical engineering from UBC in 1974 (one of just two women in her class), followed by an MBA, laid the foundation for a dynamic work life that took her from a steel mill in Welland, Ont., to the Greater Vancouver Regional District where, among her achievements, she helped to oversee the installation of the 911 emergency system.
“If nothing else, it helped me think better,” Calder said of her education.
It wasn’t easy. Pornographic images of women lining the office walls of a workplace were not unusual.
Open sexism and gender discrimination were often part of the job, particularly in the early years.
“I had employers say to me that it would be really difficult to hire me because they didn’t have any ladies’ bathrooms on site,” she said.
With many of the gender barriers she faced now largely gone, Calder can’t see why more women don’t give engineering a chance.
She’d like to see better support for girls in those impressionable high school years, where encouragement is essential to stick it out through math, science and, yes, even physics.
She recalled a headline-grabbing Barbie doll produced in the early 1990s that uttered a series of controversial phrases at the push of a button, including the memorable, “Math class is tough!”
“Yes, math is hard,” Calder said. “But so what?”
IWIS featured in Radio Canada Podcast
Masala Canada
As a skilled immigrant to Canada, landing a job that takes advantage of those skills can be a daunting challenge. For immigrant women educated in the sciences, the challenge can be insurmountable. Freelance journalist and migration consultant Sacha DeVoretz recounts the frustrations, as told to her by some of those highly-skilled women.
Listen here
SCWIST aims to improve the experience of immigrant women in science and technology
Highly educated female immigrants say Canada isn’t on their side
If you’re an aspiring immigrant with a science degree, don’t expect to find good work in Canada, say various immigrant women in Vancouver
Sacha DeVoretz, Vancouver Observer June 18, 2011
Jayashree Shrivastava, a 38-year-old environmental scientist from India, says if she could start over, she’d go south of the border.
“I’m telliing people from India who want to immigrate to try the U.S. first, and not Canada. The U.S. will recognize your education and experience and Canada will not,” Shrivastava said.
“My sister is finishing her Ph.D. in the U.S. and she is much farther ahead in her career than I am.”
After seven stressful years of looking for work in her own field here in Canada, Shrivastava is only now coming to terms with the realization that her dream of contributing to the sciences in Canada has diminished.
Feelings of frustration, isolation and depression have been a part of daily life for Shrivastava, who tried to communicate her experience with the Ministry of Environment in India to Canadian employers.
Shortly after her arrival to Canada, Shrivastava spent over a year meeting with employers in order to understand the credentials and requirements for her occupation. Her ordeal took a toll emotionally and had a considerable cost. As part of her journey to find a job in Canada, Shrivastava returned to India for a month to gather documentation of her education and work experience to demonstrate to Canadian employers.
After several unsuccessful years of trying to gain meaningful employment in her field, Shrivastava found a part-time job with Canada Post.
“I felt very stressed and sick. I had to start working part-time,” Shrivastava said of her transitional years in Canada.
She was working for Canada Post and has been out of work due to the strike. While she is luckier than some, who have faced long-term unemployment, she was hoping she could make a contribution to Canada that matches her years of education and experience.
In June, The Society for Canadian Women in Science and Technology (SCWIST) hosted an event at a local Vancouver pub to provide an opportunity for women in the sciences to exchange industry news and meet familiar faces. It helped women like Shrivastava learn about opportunities and offered a supportive place for the women to express their apprehensions.
Gordana Pejic, an engineer who first arrived to Canada in 1999, understands Shrivastava’s response and feelings of despair.
“The biggest problem for immigrant women in the sciences is their understanding of how to present their experience to employers and the technical English language in the industry,” Pejic said.
With Pejic’s insights as an immigrant who is trying to get a break in the field, she has taken on the role of director of Immigrating Women in Science Project (IWIS). A not-for-profit organization with no formal funding, IWIS is a program of the Society for Canadian Women in Science and Technology and hosts three events per year, providing much needed support to female newcomers.
Mojgan Kavoosi, who works as a chemical engineer for a pharmaceutical company, got her education from UBC and said that being a woman in the sciences can come with distinct disadvantages.
“Some fields of engineering are more male dominated, for example, civil engineering,” she said. In her field of chemical engineering, she said, it is a pretty even ratio of male and female.
Kavoosi said that these types of networking events have helped women in the sciences where there continues to exist an “old boys’ club” which continues to be hard to crack into.
Pejic feels it is important to break down misperceptions that immigrant women may have about how to approach their job search in Canada.
“Women from other countries are treated differently than in Canada. In other countries, women are not encouraged to be proud and speak out about their accomplishments; here in Canada, you must do this to succeed,” said Pejic.
One possible remedy to eliminate the barriers that immigrant women may experience is a mentor program. Pejic feels that “mentors with other women in the same field would help these newcomers understand the step by step process here in Canada and discover hidden opportunities in the industry.”
Johanne Nadeau, communications advisor for the B.C. and Yukon Region, Citizenship and Immigration Canada, responds to the concerns that highly skilled immigrant women are unable to supply the Canadian job market with their years of education and knowledge.
“Finding a job in Canada may be different from finding a job in another country. Canada attracts skilled and talented professionals from around the world and the Government of Canada is committed to providing them with the information and referral services they need in Canada, beginning overseas, so they can succeed in our labour market,” Nadeau explained.
As part of the government’s ongoing efforts to increase the likelyhood that immigrants will find a job in their trained occupation, Citizenship and Immigration Canada, through the Canadian Immigrant Integration Program (CIIP), run by the Association of Canadian Community Colleges (ACCC), offer services abroad to skilled immigrants before they arrive to Canada.
Through CIIP, the government of Canada offers overseas orientation sessions to prospective skilled immigrants in India, China, the Philippines and now, the United Kingdom. Over 9,000 professionals have taken part in training sessions on how to have their credentials recognized in Canada.
Citizenship and Immigration Canada has in recent years welcomed between 240,000 and 265,000 new permanent residents, annually. In 2010, Canada welcomed the highest number of legal immigrants in more than 50 years, at 280,636 permanent residents. This was done to support Canada’s post-recession economy.
Are skilled immigrant workers in Canada an important aspect of Canada’s future economy?
CIC responds with a yes. Over the medium-term, due to Canada’s aging population, immigrants will account for all labour force growth sometime this decade.
Before then, though, we continue to need economic immigrants to meet persistent sectoral and regional labour market demands. Economic immigrants with transferable skills, education and experience are particularly important because they are able to adapt to our changing economy. Economic immigrants also help Canada stay globally competitive and drive improvements in innovation and productivity.
While the Canadian government continues to make significant advancements for newcomers and immigration, the reality for Shrivastava is a faded dream of working in her profession in Canada.
“I am disappointed I can’t contribute my skills, but I no longer feel the need to prove myself in Canada,” said Shrivastava.
SCWIST Member Dr. Judith Hall to receive 2011 LifeSciences BC Lifetime Achievement Award
Dr. Judith Hall, Children’s & Women’s Health Centre of BC & The University of British Columbia will receive the Dr. Don Rix Award for Lifetime Achievement at the 2011 LifeSciences British Columbia Awards.
These awards are presented annually by LifeSciences British Columbia to recognize individuals and organizations that have made outstanding contributions to the development of British Columbia’s life sciences industry across all sub-sectors, from biopharmaceuticals and medical devices to bioproducts and bioenergy – sectors which are critical to the economic future of the province and country.
This year’s theme, From Curiosity to Discovery, reflects the fact that the smallest ideas can blossom into major innovations that have an enormous impact on our lives. “As we celebrate the Year of Science here in BC, and work to instill an appreciation of the contribution science makes in our society, it is particularly timely that we acknowledge our top innovators and their achievements,” commented Don Enns, President of LifeSciences British Columbia. “We need to celebrate the fact that British Columbia is continually on the global forefront of science and technology development, as exemplified through the work of this year’s Award recipients.”
The LifeSciences British Columbia Awards will be presented at a gala ceremony on Thursday, April 14th, 2011 in front of an audience of approximately 600 biopharmaceutical, medical device, bioproducts, bioenergy and greater life sciences community and public policy leaders at the Vancouver Convention Centre.
The 2011 LSBC Awards are presented by Farris, Vaughan, Wills & Murphy, LLP; Genome British Columbia; and Rx&D (Canada’s Research-Based Pharmaceutical Companies), media sponsor Business in Vancouver Magazines, and is an official event of the British Columbia Year of Science.
SCWIST member Dr. Judy Illes discusses popular Body Worlds exhibit
Body of evidence demonstrates human frailty
Immensely explicit, fantastically popular corpse exhibit returns to Science World
By Pamela Fayerman – Vancouver Sun – September 16, 2010, p. A1, A12
A pregnant women with a five-month-old fetus exposed through her opened uterus is among the preserved human bodies in an exhibition that opens today at Science World in Vancouver.
The display may be controversial, but that’s not the point of the Body Worlds exhibition, which set attendance records when it was last in Vancouver in 2006, says the show’s creative designer.
Dr. Angelina Whalley said cadavers like the pregnant specimen or those posed in intercourse positions—which aren’t included in the Vancouver show—are meant to be educational, not sensational, and to show “how life starts.”
Whalley is married to Dr. Gunther von Hagens, a German pathologist who invented the plastination technique in which human body fluids are replaced with a liquid plastic. A process then “cures” the corpses into human mannequins.
Dr. Judy Illes, a University of B.C. neurology professor who is also the Canada Research Chair in neuroethics, said although the exhibit is unquestionably explicit, “every art and science initiative has its strengths and its limitations.”
“The strengths of this exhibit are, unequivocally, in the educational potential,” said Illes, a member of a community advisory group set up by Science World a few months ago to get feedback on ways to present the material in a respectful manner.
Julie Robillard, a UBC post-doctoral fellow in neuroethics who helped Illes develop educational materials for Science World, said she thinks people will be compelled to “think about human fragility [and] contemplate death so that we can learn about our finite existence.”
“Contemplating life is a big goal of the exhibit. Learning about anatomy and comparing health and sickness is a worthy educational goal. There’s a lot of evidence to show that public understanding of science can significantly improve health outcomes. Comparing a healthy lung and sick lung is very educational.”
The only clues about the death of the pregnant woman who donated her body for exhibit purposes are her black lungs, which suggests she may have died from lung cancer.
An introductory video, along with other materials that viewers can see before entering the exhibit, will help prepare them for what they’ll see.
To help engage those who attend the exhibit, Science World is for the first time hosting an interactive online open forum involving Illes, Robillard and other experts in various medical fields.
The web link, accessed from the Science World website ( http://www.science-world.ca),will enable members of the public to ask questions of medical experts or make comments to stimulate discussion.
“They can pose questions and we will be available at the helm to answer, in a very dynamic, rapid way,” said Illes. “It’s not a live web chat, since it’s not in real time, but it will be monitored regularly.
“We think it’s a fantastic opportunity to further educate public and to give them a voice.”
She said she expects people will want to discuss their experience, but noted the exhibit “is not a source of medical information, nor are we. I don’t think this exhibition is geared to provide medical advice or counselling. It’s there to show what the body and brain looks like in health and disease.”
Whalley said 11,000 living humans, including nearly 100 Canadians, have indicated they would like to donate their bodies upon death to the Body Worlds enterprise, which now has exhibitions on tour in six cities around the world.
Although some Catholic leaders have criticized the display of fetuses and humans in athletic poses as offensive and even “ghoulish,” more than 30 million people have bought tickets to see the show since it first started touring in 1995. Critics have called the exhibit “pornography of the dead” or a kind of “human taxidermy.”
But Bryan Tisdall, president of Science World, said it would be next to impossible to imagine “a more fitting, engrossing topic” for a Science World exhibition.
“I can’t fathom another show ever bringing in more people. There is nothing with as much appeal as the body we all live in.”
The Science World exhibition, which runs to January 2011, features 200 plastinated specimens—including 25 human cadavers and several brains, including one affected by stroke and another by Alzheimer’s disease.
The previous Body Worlds exhibition at Science World drew nearly 350,000 people.
Science World (Telus World of Science) managers are hoping for the same attendance levels, but expect construction on the building’s exterior may deter some visitors. The interior exhibition space is largely unaffected, except for lots of noise.
Tisdall is particularly proud of the statistics from the 2006 show, when 74 per cent of those who attended were adults ( “very different from our usual demographic”) and 68 per cent of ticket buyers had never before been to Science World.
Ticket prices range from $8 to $25 and advance purchase—by phone (604-443-7530) or online—is recommended.
SCWIST Member Elizabeth Croft new chair for Women in Science and Technology
SCWIST member and University of British Columbia Mechanical Engineering professor Elizabeth Croft has been appointed the NSERC Chair for Women in Science and Engineering for the BC and Yukon region.
Watch Volunteers Director Linda Lanyon on YouTube
Linda is featured on Volunteer Vancouver’s new YouTube channel.
SCWIST Member Dr. Maria Issa profiled in Metro News
Carving her niche in science
KRISTEN THOMPSON
METRO VANCOUVER
Published: March 08, 2011 2:43 a.m.
When Dr. Maria Issa first began her studies at the University of B.C. in the late 1960s, she was one of only a handful of other women studying science.
“When I started, women weren’t as well represented in science education and still had to be convinced that hey needed to take math and science,” said Issa.
Today she is a clinical associate professor in the department of pathology and laboratory medicine at UBC and, by carving a niche in an industry once dominated by men, helped pave the way for the next generation of female scientists.
“Now as far as 53 per cent of undergrad science classes are made up of women. There are amazing young women … graduating with degrees in science and they don’t realize this was not (common) when I was in school,” said Issa.
But breaking into a science career wasn’t easy, and a lot of women — herself included — have had to put their work on hold to have babies.
“It really slows down a woman’s career path,” Issa said. “The commitment and the flexibility is not there for women in science and … they need support. Economically it makes way more sense to use brains you’ve trained, (but) we perceive women as moms and we forget that they have an economic power.”
A big help to all working moms, Issa said, would be access to universal and affordable childcare so women could enjoy motherhood and the challenge of their work.
“Women work because it’s fulfilling and satisfying. Without that we feel like we’re not contributing.”
“Science is everywhere and when you start looking at it that way, the wonder and joy of it, it’s brilliant. I don’t know how I would have lived without science.” – Maria Issa
SCWIST member Dr. Adele Diamond delivers annual Pickering Lecture at Carleton University
Carleton Hosts Lecture on Training Your Brain
Dr. Adele Diamond, one of the founders of the field of Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience, will deliver the annual Pickering Lecture at Carleton University. She will be speaking on Training the Brain: Improving Attention and Self-regulation.
Dr. Diamond is the Canada Research Chair in Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience at the University of British Columbia and a fellow of the Royal Society of Canada. She is one of the world’s leading researchers on the development of the cognitive functions of the brain and, since 1980, has studied these functions from their earliest beginnings in infancy throughout peoples’ lifespans.
Dr. Diamond takes a “Yes You Can” approach to learning. By teaching a concept in new ways or posing questions differently, she believes a child who may have had previous difficulties can succeed.
Her research has shown that cognitive control abilities, such as selective attention and self-regulation, can be improved through training and practice. But they are particularly susceptible to stress, lack of sleep, loneliness or lack of exercise.
The lecture is free and open to the public. It takes place at 7 p.m. on Thursday, March 3 in Room 360 of the Tory Building at Carleton.
SCWIST & IWIS Committee member Mayu Ishida - Assoc of Research Libraries’ 2010-12 Diversity Scholar
The Association of Research Libraries (ARL) Committee on Diversity and Leadership has selected 15 master of library and information science (MLIS) students to participate in the 2010–2012 Initiative to Recruit a Diverse Workforce as ARL Diversity Scholars.
The ARL Initiative to Recruit a Diverse Workforce offers stipend funding in support of MLIS education of up to $10,000 over two years to students from traditionally underrepresented racial and ethnic minority groups who are interested in careers in research libraries. The program is funded by the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) and by voluntary contributions from 52 ARL member libraries. This program reflects the commitment of ARL members to create a diverse academic and research library community that will better meet the challenges of changing demographics in higher education and the emphasis on global perspectives in the academy. University of Hawaii director Paula Mochida, who served on the selection committee, offered these reflections on the awardees:
“It was not an easy task to determine the finalists from among so many strong applications. This group of scholarship recipients reflects a diversity of ethnicities, but more than that, an outstanding pool of potential role models and leaders in academic research libraries.”
For more information about the ARL Initiative to Recruit a Diverse Workforce, visit the program website http://www.arl.org/diversity/init/
Mayu’s appointment also supports the ARL’s initiative to promote library science students from science backgrounds. Congratulations Mayu!!
SCWIST Honorary member Julia Levy named one of BC’s 100 Women of Influence
JULIA LEVY
Scientist and entrepreneur
The co-founder of QLT Inc., Julia Levy has been called the mother of B.C. biotech. Under her guidance, QLT developed Visudyne, a treatment for age-related macular degeneration, a leading cause of blindness in the elderly. She launched QLT in 1981 and left in 2008 to join the Toronto-based Cannasat Therapeutics, which is developing pain treatments from cannabinoids. The recipient of numerous awards and scientific honours, including the Order of Canada, she teaches microbiology and immunology at UBC.
Vancouver Sun – October 30, 2010, p. C2
SCWIST member Dr. Maria Issa among those presenting at Science World Exhibit
FREE events with the purchase of a BODY WORLDS & The Brain ticket
For more information and tickets see http://www.scienceworld.ca/bodyworldsevents
To attend these events, please purchase a BODY WORLDS & The Brain ticket with a time that allows you to view the exhibit and attend the event. All events take place at Science World, 1455 Quebec St. Vancouver.
(It is recommend you plan your visit to the exhibition to allow time to enjoy the event. For example, to partake in a 7pm evening event, purchase a BODY WORLDS entry time ticket between 4pm and 6pm. This will give you at least an hour to explore in the Body Worlds exhibition before attending the event. If you’re interested in partaking in a daytime event starting at 11am, purchase your BODY WORLDS ticket for an entry time following the event, such as 3pm, to allow ample time to participate and enjoy TELUS World of Science.)
Friday, October 29
True Blood vs. New Blood
Join Dr. Maria Issa for some fascinating insights into the amazing liquid of life that is human blood. Dr. Issa will present a short history of the origins of vampires and will also explain how human blood is so much superior to the artificial stuff.
6:30pm – 7:30pm
Thursday, November 4
Beyond Anatomy: Seeing into the Living Body
Dr. Cara Ferreira (MDS Nordion) and Dr. Donald Yapp (BC Cancer Agency) will explain how imaging techniques can be used to monitor biological processes in the body, and how the information obtained can be used to help tailor medical treatments to the individual.
6:30pm – 7:30pm
Saturday, November 6
How the Arts and Play May Aid Human Brain Development
Despite our tendency to view the arts and play as non-essential, Dr. Adele Diamond, the Canada Research Chair in Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience at UBC, has been researching just how important play and participation in the arts may be for the development of our brains, especially the prefrontal cortex, and for many of our cognitive abilities. Dr. Adele Diamond is a member of the Brain Research Centre.
6:30pm – 7:30pm
Thursday, November 11
Boy Brains vs. Girl Brains
Can girls do anything boys can do better? Explore the differences between the male brain and the female brain with Dr. Liisa Galea from the Laboratory of Behavioural Neuroendocrinology, Department of Psychology at UBC. The impact of hormones on our brains and mind are important- as anyone who has gone through puberty, menopause or pregnancy can attest! Dr. Galea is interested in how hormones (such as testosterone, estrogens and stress hormones) affect brain and behaviour and how/why gender increases vulnerability to getting particular brain diseases. Dr. Liisa Galea is a member of the Brain Research Centre.
6:30–7:30pm
Wed Feb 01
