Winding paths in science lead to fascinating STEM careers

At the age of 15, Bani Sangha has many years ahead to imagine her future career. The possibilities are endless.

The Grade 10 student at Louise Arbour Secondary School in Brampton has a broad range of interests. She has been thinking about going into psychology but is also interested in cultural studies, maybe to change the world by addressing gender and race discrimination in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields. 

But she is also interested in technology innovation. 

“I want to create things, and I want to help people with my inventions. I want to be an innovator,” she said during a mentoring session at the Inspiring Future Women in Science event  hosted by Perimeter Institute on March 3, 2026.  About 100 young people from schools around Ontario attended the event, and the talks were also webcast to a broader audience.

The annual half-day event, open to all genders, is sponsored by Linamar Corporation, an advanced manufacturing technology company in Guelph. The event features speakers, a panel discussion, and speed mentoring with the aim of encouraging and inspiring teenagers, particularly girls, to pursue STEM fields where they are still underrepresented, such as mathematics and physics. 

Linda Hasenfratz, the Chief Executive Officer of Linamar, opened the conference by talking about the numerous opportunities that await young people in STEM, especially in Southwestern Ontario, which has a rich economic ecosystem built around science and technology.

She encouraged the youth to not be afraid of trying out the different roads in the STEM fields because they can learn a lot along the way, even if their path takes many twists and turns. She also encouraged young women by telling them that they will not be alone. There has been an incredible increase in the number of young women going into engineering and technology fields, Hasenfratz said.  

“There are a lot of great career opportunities for women in STEM and you will be doing important things in terms of making our world a better place, a safer place, a cleaner place, a healthier place,” she said.

The theatre and the atrium at Perimeter buzzed with the enthusiasm and energy of young people filled with hope for the future.

The speakers and the panelists encouraged the guests to follow their dreams and be open to opportunities, but also, to not feel boxed in by early decisions. Many successful people took a winding path to their eventual careers, so it is not necessary to have it all mapped out in detail from the start, they were told.

The guests were encouraged to follow their interests, volunteer, network, support one another, and  learn - even from failures. Most of all, they were advised to not internalize what others tell them about what they can’t do.

During the panel discussion, Vanessa Vakharia, founder and director of The Math Guru, a math and science tutoring studio, said that in early high school, she was failing in math because she had internalized all the notions about “right brain, left brain” thinking. She believed what a lot of young women are told --- that she just didn’t have “a math brain.” 

Finally, she went into a special program for students who were failing in math. When she told a teacher at the special school, “you will have trouble with me because I am not a math person,” the teacher let her know this was not a thing. As it turned out, she loved math. She ended up getting 96 percent in Grade 12 math, became a math tutor, and founded her own company. She also wrote a book — Math Therapy. 

When someone says that you simply can’t pursue a certain field because you don’t have the brain capacity for it, “my best advice is to disregard it; take out the trash, kick it to the curb. It says more about them than it will ever say about you,” Vakharia said during the panel discussion.

The audience was told, by multiple speakers, that following their passions in science can lead to unexpected and fascinating careers that they could never have planned out at the age of 15 or 16. 

A good example was the story of panelist Sonhita Chakraborty, who got a PhD in plant biology but went on to become a scientific editor and science illustrator. Through her independent studio, “Art by Sonhita,” she produces high‑quality journal covers, graphical abstracts, detailed figures, and animations that translate complex ideas into accessible visual formats. She also works as scientific editor and writer at Life Science Editors and is grant writer for other scientists.  Her story was an example of how a science career can flow from several interests that are “parallel and simultaneous,” she said.

Others took more direct routes to their careers but also combined their passions with science. One example was the story of panelist Paula Mackie, science development manager at the Toronto Zoo. Her work explores the application of assisted reproductive technologies for endangered species, building a career that combined her childhood dream of saving endangered animals with a love of science. 

Another panelist, Angela Tollis, got a mechanical engineering degree from McMaster University. She talked about the fun she had in pursuing various space-related roles, such as microgravity research, where she had a chance to experience a simulated microgravity environment on a plane. She is currently a quality engineer at Kepler Communications, a company that builds satellite systems.

During the panel discussion, a student who wants to go into engineering asked about the impact of Artificial Intelligence (AI). She is concerned about training in a field that could be taken over by AI. But the panelists said no one can predict the future, and that while AI will take away some jobs, there will be jobs in the future that no one can predict today. 

“There are jobs today, like being an influencer, that none of us could have predicted when I was in high school. Instagram didn’t even exist then. Or think about calculators. How many jobs did calculators take? But that also created jobs. So have a little faith. Stop coming at everything from a place of fear and lean into faith a bit more. Instead of thinking AI will take jobs, reframe that to think, ‘AI will shake things up,’” Vakharia said.

Tollis added that engineering firms are using AI every day, but as a tool. “It is an add-on. Becoming an engineer is about becoming a problem solver. AI can offer some answers, but it can’t directly replace that aspect of being an engineer or a technologist.”

Aggie Branczyk, one of the keynote speakers, talked about her journey in theoretical physics that started in academia (including having been an instructor in the physics graduate program at Perimeter Institute where she is now an affiliate). She then went on to industry, working at IBM, and after that, she took the entrepreneurial route as the founder of Quantum Salon, a strategy and communication studio that works with quantum technology startups and helps to bring together scientists, engineers, investors, business leaders, policymakers in the quantum ecosystem.

Branczyk said many people have “non-linear careers” that don’t follow pre-defined paths. 

A valuable combination of different skills is important, and so is having a good reputation for reliability and a strong network. “What people believe about you — people who know they can trust you, can open doors,” she said.

Having a passion is also key, she added. “You should choose work that gives you energy and carries you along. You’ll get good at work that you like, and you'll be rewarded with more work that you like.” 

Emily Agard, director of SciXchange at Toronto Metropolitan University which is dedicated to making science accessible, engaging, and inclusive of all groups and people of all ages, was another keynote speaker. She talked about her path to her current job, which began with a Ph.D. in immunology and teaching biology. 

She initially thought about going into law, so she was “taking life sciences for fun.” But she became intrigued by a course in immunology and curious about all the unknowns in the mechanisms of how the human body fights diseases. She went from lab work to teaching biology, then became passionate about community outreach and making science more accessible to everyone.

The importance of balancing one’s work with one’s range of other interests was also a key message during the conference. Agard talked about other passions that keep her balanced. She enjoys music, sports, travel, and dancing in various fusion styles. She plays steelpan and dumbek (a goblet-shaped single-head drum widely used in Middle Eastern, North African, and Balkan music). She also enjoys portrait photography and earned a certificate in photography studies.

The event concluded with a speed mentoring session where the young people had an opportunity to directly interact with a wide variety of mentors, ranging from Perimeter’s own scientists to mentors from various industries such as Toyota.