Math & Science Centre

Science Week

Jerome Lapointe
Jerome Lapointe began as an undergraduate in molecular and cellular biology at Laval University. He then received a Genetic Engineering Certificate and later a Masters degree in molecular and cellular biology and a P.H.D. in Physiology-Endocrinology from the same university. Since 2005, he has been undergoing his postdoctoral formation exploring themes including aging, mitochondria, toxicology, drugs, and reactive oxygen species at the biology department of McGill University and Chronogen Inc. The work of the laboratory at which he works is mostly concerned with the elucidation of the cellular and molecular mechanisms that determine the physiological features of animals, including their lifespan. In addition to aging, they are interested in the genetics and pharmacology of lipid and lipoprotein metabolism.

Prakash Panangaden
Prakash Panangaden is notorious for changing his mind about what he wants to do when he grows up. He is still not sure. He began as an undergraduate at the Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur, in electrical engineering and changed to physics after 3 years. He went to the University of Chicago to work in relativity theory but changed to Wisconsin to work on quantum field theory instead after two years. He was a post-doctoral fellow at the University of Utah in Physics for two years but then changed to Computer Science. After getting a Master's in CS he went to Cornell as an unemployed person. After a year spent hanging around in the library and learning about logic and computer science he unexpectedly got offered a position as an Assistant Professor of Computer Science at Cornell. He married a Canadian while there who decided that there was not enough hockey on US television and moved to Canada in order for his wife to enjoy Hockey Night in Canada. After six months in Queen's University they moved to McGill University and have been there ever since. In that time he has worked on programming languages, logic, probability theory, pure mathematics and quantum computation.

Don Hetherington
Don Hetherington earned his B.A.Sc. in engineering science from the University of Toronto in 1967. After receiving his M.Sc. in experimental nuclear physics in 1968, he went on to teach physics at Ahmadu Bello University in Nigeria. After his return to Montreal in 1970, he worked as an engineer at Canatom Ltd editing design manuals for nuclear reactors. He earned his PhD in experimental nuclear physics from McGill University in 1985. Don Hetherington is a former Vanier College physics teacher and currently is the Dean of Science and General Studies at Vanier.

Scott Redmond
After growing up on a small farm in southwestern Ontario, Scott completed a Bachelor and a Master's degree in applied science at the University of Waterloo. Scott then spent more than 5 years working for MDA Space Missions (the company that built the Canadarm for NASA's space shuttle) as a Mission Operations Analyst at the Canadian Space Agency. In that time, Scott has worked on numerous space shuttle missions, helped train NASA astronauts, and recently taught physics here at Vanier College.

Ariel Fenster
Dr. Ariel Fenster is a former Vanier College teacher. He is a science promoter and lecturer in chemistry at McGill University and a founding member of the Office for Science and Society (OSS). He holds a Master's degree from the University of Paris and a Ph.D from McGill University. Ariel Fenster lectures extensively (more than 600 presentations over the last three decades) in both French and English on topics of health, the environment and technology. He is a frequent presenter on television and radio on science-related subjects. Recently he was seen in French on Radio-Canada's popular daily health show "37,5" and in English on the "Discovery" science show "What's that all about?" Fenster has won numerous awards for his contribution to the teaching and the promotion of science. Among them are the 1989 "Catalyst Award for Excellence in Chemistry Teaching" by the United States Chemical Manufacturers Association, the 1992 inaugural "McNeil Medal for the Public Awareness of Science" from the Royal Society of Canada, the 1999 Raymond Gervais Award for Exceptional Contribution to Science Education given by the Quebec Association of Science Teachers, and the 2005 Michael Smith Award for the Promotion of Science by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Council of Canada. He currently resides in Montreal, with his wife of 36 years Ann-Marie and his two children Erik and Michaël, both of whom have pursued Ph.D.'s in chemistry like their father.

Dean MacNeil
Dean completed his B.Sc. (Honours) in Chemistry at the University of New Brunswick in 1997. Dean then joined the research group of Professor Jeff Dahn at Dalhousie University where he pursued graduate work in material science. His research concentrated on the understanding of the thermal stability of lithium-ion batteries. After he received his Ph.D. in 2001, Dean joined the Gillette Advanced Technology Center in Needham, MA as a research scientist where he worked on various research projects for Duracell. He played a pivotal role in a research project that led to the release of the Duracell PowerPix battery in 2006. In 2005, Dean decided to change research directions and joined the group of Professor Edward (Ted) Sargent at the University of Toronto as an NSERC Postdoctoral Fellow. Here, in the department of Electrical and Computer Engineering of the University of Toronto, he worked on improving the efficiency of infrared photovoltaic cells using colloidal nanocrystals. In 2007, he accepted a position at the Université de Montréal as an Assistant Professor and the Phostech Lithium Industrial Chair. In 2008, the NSERC/Phostech Lithium Industrial Research Chair in Energy Storage and Conversion was created. Dean's outside interests include kayaking (member of Canada's world marathon canoe team in 2000), swimming, biking, hiking and travelling.

Dr. Robert Smith?
Robert Smith? started his academic life studying sewage treatment and toxic waste cleanup for his PhD. which gave him good training in Applied Mathematics. After his PhD, he did a postdoc at the University of Western Ontario, where he discovered infectious diseases. He studied HIV, malaria, human papillomavirus, and other neglected tropical diseases. His second postdoc was at UCLA. He was part of the Disease Modelling Group in the School of Medicine, working on epidemiological models of HIV under Sally Blower. He then moved to the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, where he worked on zoonotic diseases. After a whirlwind interviewing tour of the continent, he ended up at the University of Ottawa. Now he teaches, writes grants and organizes conferences. He's still working on HIV, but has recently become interested in Human Papillomavirus, malaria, various tropical diseases - and, of course, that terrifying infection known to humanity only as... zombies! About the "?" at the end of his name, Robert Smith? says: "Yes, the question mark is actually part of my name, at least according to Australian law. People sometimes ask me why I have a question mark in my name. If you haven't lived with an incredibly common name, then you have no idea what it's like to be entirely invisible on Google."

Sara Lourie
Sara Lourie spent a formative part of her childhood in Papua New Guinea. It was here that she saw her first seahorse, and it was here, snorkeling on coral reefs, that she became inspired with her love and fascination for the sea. She has travelled extensively, and written an identification guide to the seahorses of the world. Her PhD research focused on the genetic connections among seahorses in SE Asia, and the application of biogeography (the study of the spatial distributions of organisms) to marine conservation. Post-PhD she has worked on developing a set of Marine Ecoregions of the World, in collaboration with scientists from the The Nature Conservany, World Wildlife Fund and others, and has recently finished co-authoring a textbook on conservation biogeography. She is currently a research associate and lecturer at the Redpath Museum at McGill University, and with her husband, runs a conservation organisation called Chimp-n-Sea, which seeks to combine music and story-telling with science to help conserve primate and marine habitats.