Money & Career
5 Women Who Are Changing The World Through Science
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Money & Career
5 Women Who Are Changing The World Through Science
The new book Canadians Who Innovate: The Trailblazers and Ideas That Are Changing the World by Dr. Roseann O’Reilly Runte highlights people across the country who have the skills and smarts to transform the status quo. The stories of these five Canadian women dedicated to forging new paths in science, technology, social responsibility and more are so inspiring we just had to share them.
As we look at the global challenges we face, from climate change to crises in health care, housing and adequate food and water supplies, Canadians Who Innovate: The Trailblazers and Ideas That Are Changing the World by Dr. Roseann O’Reilly Runte is a timely source of inspiration. In her book, Dr. Runte shares the stories of 66 of our nation’s finest problem solvers and the game-changing work being done right here at home. From the spheres of medicine, education, science and the arts, from grassroots entrepreneurs to high-flying business leaders, Canadians Who Innovate introduces the extraordinary efforts and dedication of our fellow Canadians to foster a better world. Here, we’re highlighting five of Dr. Runte’s picks—women of all walks of life who are leading the way.
Terry-Lynn Young, St. John's, Nfld.
A Genius Among Genetics
If she hadn’t been born in Penetanguishene, Ontario, Terry-Lynn Young would be100 percent an Islander. She grew up in Newfoundland, and she never pictured herself living anywhere else. There was, however, one thing that could account for the three years she spent in Seattle, Washington—her passion for science and, in particular, the science of genetics.
Influenced by her love of biology and nature, Terry-Lynn attended Memorial University in St. John’s, where she completed her undergraduate degree in biology, followed by a master’s and doctorate in human genetics. While working as a research assistant to professor of human genetics Roger Green, Young and Green located a chromosome for colorectal cancer, and this discovery cemented her passion for genetic research. Following a post-doctoral fellowship at Seattle’s University of Washington, Young returned to Newfoundland to work at Memorial University.
When she was made aware that a high percentage of young men were dying suddenly of cardiac arrest, Young and her team identified a lethal gene mutation and developed screening methods and a preventive treatment: a life-saving implantable cardioverter defibrillator. With her colleagues, Young worked to locate carriers of this mutation and offered to have the device implanted, Influenced by her love of biology and saving hundreds of lives.
As a student, Young noted people in the street seeking spare change with signs indicating that they were deaf and mute. In her professional life, she began to wonder if hearing loss was genetic, prompting her to find the gene that causes otosclerosis, a common form of conductive hearing loss. This led to her setting up a centre to treat hearing loss, where people would often arrive in tears and leave the clinic feeling happier, armed with some answers.
Her next initiative is work on balance issues, especially in the elderly, and she is also partnering with the Miawpukek Mi’kamawey Mawi’omi First Nations near Grand Falls-Windsor in Ontario to help connect the community to research projects on hearing loss and heart dis- ease. In addition, Young is working with a national team to identify the role of hearing-loss genes in participants in the Canadian Longitudinal Study on Aging.
Terry-Lynn loves her work and hopes that one day there will be a major genomics centre in Newfoundland. She sees exciting applications in her field that will become increasingly important in areas such as mental health and diseases where there is likely a genetic connection. The prospects are exciting. Terry-Lynn feels compelled to keep going and knows there are always problems waiting to be solved.
Annette Verschuren, Cape Breton, N.S.
Leading Corporate Social Responsibility
Chair of the MaRS Discovery District board, founder and president of NRStor Inc., former CEO of Home Depot Canada and Asia, former president and co-owner of Michaels Canada, recipient of over a dozen honourary degrees and so much more, Annette Verschuren likes to remind people that she grew up on a farm in Cape Breton, where she learned to be innovative, assertive and to care for the environment.
There were three career paths open to women when Annette was planning to attend university—teaching, nursing and secretarial arts. However, upon entering St. Francis Xavier University in Antigonish, Nova Scotia, she switched her major to business. As one of three women in the class of 1977, Verschuren worked as a development officer at a coal-mining company and, although it was believed that women shouldn’t go down into the mines, she put on a hard hat and paved the way for women to be accepted in the mines to work and hold leadership positions. Over the years, Annette has worked in China and has visited 62 countries. Her observations of best practices and ideas from around the world have served her well, teaching her many things that might be adapted and adopted in Canada.
Annette’s concern for the world and the environment is palpable. She believes we need to reduce carbon consumption, to move away from our consumer habits and to electrify buildings and transportation. She hopes that “it will not take a disaster to bring back the collective will of the people of the world.” She also hopes that citizens around the globe will become more responsible for one another and for the planet.
In every one of her positions, Annette has worked to effect positive change in sustain- ability. For example, when she was the CEO of Home Depot, the company joined the Forest Stewardship Council and stopped clear-cutting trees. NRStor Inc., the clean energy company she founded in 2012, has big projects for energy storage and is working with the Inuit population to provide sustainable energy, and with the Six Nations of Grand River on a major installation that will store clean energy.
Annette believes that greater diversity in the workforce and leadership roles will bring about positive change. Her many contributions, from saving forests to making it possible for communities to adopt clean energy, stand as innovative examples of the change we must adopt.
TANIA WILLARD— NESKONLITH INDIAN RESERVE, B.C.
Liberating Art
Tania Willard, a multimedia artist of Secwepemc and settler heritage, takes art out of the gallery and makes nature an integral part of the work. Interested in the intersections between Indigenous and nonIndigenous cultures, in different art forms and in how to communicate her messages and create spaces that invite interaction between the artist and the viewers, Tania combines traditional stories and beliefs with classical art and hip-hop culture.
Tania was born in 1977 in a small town in British Columbia, now called Armstrong. When she was 16, she accompanied her aunt to a powwow, where in addition to traditional dancing, there was break dancing. This sparked her interest in exploring artistic expression from different periods and viewing art as a way to connect generations and cultures.
Beginning her studies at UBC Okanagan in Kelowna, Tania transferred to the University of Victoria, where she completed an honours degree in fine arts
in 1998. Reflecting on her edu cation, she says her experience with the Canadian curriculum was largely negative, as there was no content or connection that would speak to Indigenous people. On graduating, she knew she wanted to be an artist.
Noticing that her people did not feel comfortable visiting galleries, she decided to place the gallery outdoors in nature itself on the Neskonlith Indian Reserve, Secwepemc Territory, where she has lived for the last decade. She invited spectators to share their thoughts and emotions, replacing a passive viewing of art with active and thoughtful participation, and allowing the spectators themselves to become part of the artwork.
The line between art and nature is often erased in Tania’s poetry, music, paintings, sculpture and beadwork. In 2018, she completed an MFA at UBC Okanagan and is working on a second master’s in interdisciplinary studies. She is an assistant professor at the University of British Columbia and, as a curator, she also studies and presents the work of others, receiving the Hnatyshyn Foundation Award for Curatorial Excellence in 2016.
Each work Tania creates is fresh and innovative, crossing boundaries and engaging the viewer in thought. Tania’s grand- father said that he lived in “two worlds,” referring to the Indigenous and Western cultures. Tania brings them together in a brilliant and innovative fashion, preserving the past and offering us all the idea of a future that will enable us to see, hear, appreciate and value the meaning of language and art.
MAYDIANNE ANDRADE—TORONTO, ONT.
A Model Scientist Opening Doors for Black Scientists
How do you turn fear into fascination? It is hard to believe that one of the world’s experts in spiders started off just like many of us, not particularly fond of those web-spinning arachnids. Maydianne Andrade arrived in Burnaby, B.C., at the age of three with her parents, who came to Canada from Jamaica. Her zest for science lead her to receive a scholarship to Simon Fraser University, where her co-op placement was at Agriculture Canada, and where she learned about the efficacy of organic farming methods. Subsequently, she received several scholarships from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council.
While working on her master’s degree, Maydianne wrote a piece about sexual cannibalism among insects, which she then researched for her thesis. In particular, she concentrated on the redback spider, which is common in Australia and quite invasive. Her master’s thesis led to an article published in Science. She went to Cornell University to con- tinue her graduate work, where she learned about science communications, which has become an important aspect of Maydianne’s work and one that she has strongly promoted throughout her career. She is a sought-after speaker with local student groups as well as scholars on the international stage. She has appeared on Nova ScienceNow and Quirks & Quarks and been recognized as “One of the Brilliant Ten” by Popular Science magazine.
After completing her PhD, which combined biology, neurobiology, and behavioural sciences, she returned to the University of Toronto, where, in addition to being a Canada Research Excellence Chair and professor, she has also served as vice dean of equity, special advisor to the dean and acting dean of science. Maydianne has introduced to her cam- pus many new programs, and is considered a pioneer for the bias training she brought to Toronto, receiving the Ludwik & Estelle Jus Memorial Human Rights Prize in recognition of her efforts. Maydianne is also the cofounder and inaugural president of Black Scientists Network. “Discrimination is still a fact. Black students are, even today, pushed out of academic courses,” she says. “If we look at social constructs like scientific problems to be solved, we might develop recipes for improving the environment. We could create mechanisms to change the future and mitigate change in our human climate, as well as climate change for our planet.”
PRITI WANJARA— MONTREAL, QUE.
A Super Innovator
An innovator who knows how to solve problems, take brilliant ideas and get them adopted, Priti Wanjara helps technology cross the infamous valley of death, that space that lies between the design of an idea and its adoption for production and actual use. She says, “I somewhat haphazardly found my own path and now I particularly enjoy bringing solutions to others.”
Originally from Mumbai, at the age of five Priti immigrated to Montreal with her family. Unable to speak either English or French, she struggled to catch up to her classmates—but that all changed in high school when she was introduced to a science and math curriculum. The language of science spoke to Priti. She went on to study at McGill University and completed both undergraduate and graduate degrees in mate- rials engineering, and has since spent decades researching and innovating in that field.
Today, her work at National Research Council of Canada involves studying the material- process-structure-performance relationships of 3D-printed metals to support their development for a wide range of applications in the aerospace, defence, auto- motive and power generation sectors. She has also deliberated on the possibility of metal 3D printing in space using in situ resources from the moon, for instance, to print lunar-derived alloys and create physical infrastructure on the moon that may be built and serviced robotically with minor human involvement.
Currently, she is collaborating with researchers at Carleton University to demonstrate a complete processing chain that will start with raw, lunar mineral analogues and end with usable products that could actually be manufactured one day with 3D printers by people living on the moon.
Priti is also currently working on two joint international projects between Canada and Germany involving the implementation of artificial intelligence to streamline process monitoring and quality-control measures for smart/digital manufacturing of products.
She is an adjunct professor at McGill University as well, offer- ing unpaid lectures and inviting students to visit her lab. She wants to “pay it forward,” by offering some inspiration to the next generation of researchers. “Pursuing a STEM career is challenging and requires dedication and sacrifices,” says Priti. “If you are passionate about science, you will embrace the lifelong learning that comes with it with eagerness, and continue exploring after each failed experiment until you succeed.”
EXCERPTED FROM CANADIANS WHO INNOVATE: THE TRAILBLAZERS AND IDEAS THAT ARE CHANGING THE WORLD BY ROSEANN O’REILLY RUNTE. COPYRIGHT © 2024 BY ROSEANN O’REILLY RUNTE. REPRINTED BY PERMISSION OF SIMON & SCHUSTER CANADA, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
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