Women in Physics Canada
We invite applications to "Women in Physics Canada", a three day conference which will take place from Tuesday, July 19 to Thursday, July 21, 2011 jointly at Perimeter Institute and the Institute for Quantum Computing, Waterloo, Ontario. This conference, aimed at undergraduates and early graduates, is intended to provide support to young women in physics and astrophysics, and to encourage them to continue in a career in science. The main component of the conference will be student presentations and we invite participants from all areas of physics, astrophysics and astronomy to present their research. There will also be several keynote lectures, opportunities for discussions with more senior physicists, and interactions with our invited speakers and local researchers.
We welcome participants at all stages of their career, however as the event is intended to benefit students, all contributed talks will be given by student participants. Students who have not yet had the opportunity to complete a research project are also welcome. The conference will provide a forum for young female physicists to develop both presentation and informal discussion skills, and will also facilitate the creation of informal support networks between peers. In so doing, this event will help women physicists at an early stage of their career develop the skills and confidence essential to their continuing success.
The under-representation of Women in Science has seen much research in recent years, the results of which are still inconclusive. Physics fares even worse than other sciences: in Canada, around 20% of physics degrees, at undergraduate and postgraduate level, are awarded to women. By focusing on skills important for any young physicist, as well as encouraging students to make connections with peers, we hope that this conference can make a difference to young female physicists, now and as their careers progress. The schedule will also include a panel discussion, so that participants can hear directly from more senior women about what a career in physics entails.
INVITED GUESTS:
Neta Bahcall, Princeton University
Melanie Campbell, University of Waterloo
Vicki Kaspi, McGill University
Fotini Markopoulou, Perimeter Institute
Michele Mosca, Perimeter Institute, Institute for Quantum Computing
Adriana Predoi-Cross, University of Lethbridge
PANEL PARTICIPANTS:
Melanie Campbell
Melanie is a Professor of Physics and Astronomy and the School of Optometry at the University of Waterloo. Melanie Campbell earned a BSc in Chemical Physics, an MSc in Physics and, from the Australian National University, a PhD in Applied Mathematics and Physiology. Following a CSIRO Fellowship at the Institute of Mathematics and Statistics in Canberra, Campbell returned to Canada with an NSERC University Research Fellowship.
Melanie Campbell undertakes experimental and theoretical research in the optical quality of the eye and imaging of its structures. She studies eye development, eye disease and linear and nonlinear optics of the eye. Campbell is well known for her work on the gradient index optics of the crystalline lens, its changes with ageing and effects of visual experience on its refractive index distribution. She has developed and patented improved scanning laser and polarization methods for imaging the eye and biological tissues. She has collaborated in the first real-time images of cones at the rear of the eye, using adaptive optics. Recently she has discovered putative optical signals to eye growth which appear to follow a circadian rhythm. She uses ultrafast lasers to study highly localized light activated therapies for eye disease. Campbell is a Fellow of the Optical Society of America, a Fellow of the Institute of Physics (UK), holds an honorary Professional Physicist designation and is a former President of the Canadian Association of Physicists. Campbell was also a co-founder of Biomedical Photometrics Inc, now Huron Technologies. Campbell shared the 2004 Rank Prize in optoelectronics for her work cited as "an initial idea (that) has been carried through to practical applications that have, or will, demonstrably benefit mankind."
Marianne Fedunkiw, York University (panel moderator)
Marianne’s first degrees were in Biology, English Drama, and Journalism. Before returning to graduate school, she wrote for The London Free Press, The Globe and Mail, and Maclean Hunter publications and was also part of the team that started the Discovery Channel Canada in 1995. She earned a PhD in history of medicine from the University of Toronto in 2000, and then went on to complete a two-year Postdoctoral Fellowship at the Wellcome Unit for the History of Medicine at the University of Oxford. In addition to her academic work, Marianne also serves as a communications consultant, specializing in education and science. Most recently she has been working with QuantumWorks, Canada’s quantum information network, which has its' headquarters here in Waterloo.
Catherine Kallin, McMaster University
Catherine Kallin did her undergraduate studies in Physics and Mathematics at UBC and obtained a PhD in Physics from Harvard in 1984. She was a postdoctoral fellow at the Kavli Institute for Theoretical Physics in Santa Barbara before joining the faculty at McMaster University in 1986. She has spent sabbaticals at Bell Labs, Cornell, UBC, Stanford and KITP, has held Sloan, Steacie and Guggenheim Fellowships, and is a Fellow of the American Physical Society and of the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research. Catherine studies novel electron behaviour in materials, including superconductors, frustrated magnets and quantum Hall systems and currently holds a Canada Research Chair in Quantum Materials Theory at McMaster.
Vicky Kaspi, McGill University
Victoria Kaspi is a Professor of Physics at McGill University, where she holds the Lorne Trottier Chair in Astrophysics and Cosmology, and a Canada Research Chair in Observational Astrophysics.
She received a B.Sc. (Honours) in Physics from McGill University in 1989, and an M.A. and Ph.D. in Physics from Princeton University in 1991 and 1993 respectively. From 1994-96, she was both a Hubble Postdoctoral Fellow in the Jet Propulsion Laboratory and a Visiting Associate at the California Institute of Technology. Prior to joining the McGill faculty in 1999, Prof. Kaspi was an Assistant Professor of Physics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology where she also held a Hubble Postdoctoral Fellowship at the Center for Space Research.
Prof. Kaspi's research centres on neutron stars: ultradense, rapidly rotating stars that are close cousins of black holes. Her research goals are to constrain fundamental physics by observing neutron stars, as their extreme physical properties are very interesting, yet cannot be simulated in a laboratory. To this end, Prof. Kaspi observes neutron stars using the largest and most powerful radio and X-ray telescopes in the world. Among the specific questions she is hoping to answer are how neutron stars are formed, how fast they can rotate, what are they made of, and what sort of magnetic fields can they harbour. These questions ultimately constrain fundamental issues such as the equation of state of dense matter, and the physics of supernova explosions, the source of the matter out of which we are made.
Prof. Kaspi has been the recipient of numerous awards and honours, including the John C. Polanyi Award in 2011, a Killam Research Fellowship in 2010, the Prix du Quebec in 2009, the Harvard University Sackler Lectureship in 2009, election as Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada in 2008, and the Royal Society of Canada Rutherford Medal for Physics in 2007. This past year she was elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society of London, and elected to the U.S. National Academy of Sciences.
Adriana Predoi-Cross, University of Lethbridge
Dr. Adriana Predoi-Cross received her combined Bachelor and Masters degree in Engineering Physics in 1990 from the University of Bucharest, Bucharest, Romania. Following a two year stage at the Institute of Optoelectronics, Bucharest, she joined the Physics Department of the University of New Brunswick, Fredericton as a Ph.D. student. In 1997 she obtained a Ph.D. in molecular spectroscopy and became a pdf in the Atmospheric Physics group at the University of Toronto, Toronto. She spent nearly three years working on spectroscopic projects with applications to remote sensing and developed long standing research collaborations with colleagues from Canada and abroad. New techniques of spectroscopic analysis have been developed from the experiences of these projects and were documented in peer-refereed publications. In 2000 Dr. Adriana Predoi-Cross joined the Product Line Management at JDS Uniphase, Ottawa where she acquired an unique blend of industrial experience and interfaced with both JDS customers and scientists from other fiber-optic companies, thus enhancing her project management and communication skills. Adriana returned to the academic world in 2003 as a sessional lecturer at University of Ottawa and Carleton University, Ottawa. In July 2003 she joined the Department of Physics and Astronomy at University of Lethbridge, Lethbridge. The analysis of atmospheric trace gases, industrial process monitoring and controlling, and basic investigations of molecular structures are the main areas of research. Dr. Adriana Predoi-Cross is a recipient of a NSERC University Faculty Award.
Sarah Shandera, Perimeter Institute
Sarah Shandera received undergraduate degrees in Mathematics and Physics from the University of Arizona. She earned her PhD in Physics from Cornell University in 2006. Sarah was a postdoctoral fellow at the Institute for Strings, Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics at Columbia University before joining the Perimeter Institute as a postdoc in the cosmology group. She will be starting as an Assistant Professor of Physics at Pennsylvania State University in the fall of 2011. Sarah works on ideas for describing the very early universe, when high energy particle physics and gravity both played important roles. She also explores ways to test those ideas using observations of the universe as we see it today.
Ilse Treurnicht, CEO, MaRS Discovery District
Ilse Treurnicht is the CEO of MaRS Discovery District, a leading innovation centre located in Toronto. She oversees both the development and operations of the MaRS Centre and its broad suite of entrepreneurship and innovation programs. Ilse has worked closely with the leadership of Toronto’s academic institutions and teaching hospitals to create MaRS Innovation, an integrated commercialization platform for 14 Toronto Institutions and served as the interim Managing Director for a year following its formal launch in early 2008.
Ilse joined MaRS in early 2005 from her role as President & CEO of Primaxis Technology Ventures, a start-up stage venture capital fund focused on the advanced technologies sector. Prior to Primaxis, Ilse was an entrepreneur with senior management roles in a number of emerging technology companies. She is an active member of Canada’s innovation community and has served on the boards of private companies, industry associations and research organizations. She has also been a member of several government advisory panels.
Ilse holds a DPhil in chemistry from Oxford University, which she attended as a Rhodes scholar. In 2009, Dr. Treurnicht was inducted into Women’s Executive Network’s Canada’s Most Powerful Women Top 100 Hall of Fame.
Participants:
Aida Ahmadi, University of Calgary
Khulud Almutairi, IQIS University of Calgary
Razieh Annabestani, Institute for Quantum Computing
Amanda Bishop, University of New Brunswick Saint John
Golnoosh Bizhani, University of Calgary
Chloe Bureau-Oxton, Sherbrooke University
Fang Chen, McGill University
Hillary Dawkins, University of Guelph
Monika Deivat, University of Calgary
Lidia del Rio, ETH Zurich
Miriam Diamond, Carleton University
Sara Ejtemaee, Simon Fraser University
Xiaoxia Fan, University of Waterloo
Marjorie Gonzalez, University of British Columbia
Chen He, McGill University
Catherine Holloway, Institute for Quantum Computing
Natasha Holmes, University of British Columbia
Fayruz Huq, York University
Biljana Indovski, Brock University
Nikta Javanfar, Queen's University
Stacey Jeffery, Institute for Quantum Computing
Ann Kallin, University of Waterloo
Johanna Karouby, McGill University
Jiae Kim, University of British Columbia
Shelby Kimmel, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Madeline MacGillivray, Acadia University
Chloe Malbrunot, UBC/TRIUMF
Andrea Marshall, University of British Columbia
Mercedes Martinson, University of Saskatchewan
Anna McCoy, Perimeter Institute
Emma McKay, University of Waterloo
Corey Rae McRae, University of Western Ontario
Corina Nantais, Queen's University
Yomna Nasser, University of Waterloo
Brittini Ogden, Wilfrid Laurier University
Jane Panangaden, McGill University
Miok Park, University of Waterloo
Cathryn Parsons, Acadia University
Aleksandra Petrova, Kasan (Volga Region) Federal University
Deanna Pineau, University of Victoria
Sepiedeh Pirasteh, Brock University
Vanessa Punal, Oakland University
Shohreh Rahmati, University of Lethbridge
Sophie Rochette, Sherbrooke University
Hoimonti Rozario, University of Lethbridge
Tamara Rozina, University of Waterloo
Maitagorri Schade, Perimeter Institute
Shivani Sharma, Ryerson University
Marisa Smith, Mount Allison University
Erin Stephenson, University of Guelph
Maryam Taheri, Brock University
Francesca Vidotto, Centre de Physique Thorique Marseille
Di Wan, University of Calgary
Judy Wang, McGill University
Lucy Liuxuan Zhang, University of Toronto