2022 Women of Science Symposium Oct. 17-21, 2022

Vanier College is thrilled to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the annual Women of Science Symposium that will run October 17 to 21, 2022. Often students who have the potential to pursue a scientific career do not know it and their whole future can be triggered by meeting or listening to an inspiring speaker. The speakers this year will cover a range of topics, all aimed at exciting young minds and piquing their curiosity.

On the programme: Artificial Intelligence, Neuroscience, Bioengineering, new discoveries with the James Webb telescope, climate change and its impacts, a sustainable and green future, and chemistry behind the scenes. Here is the link for details: https://www.vaniercollege.qc.ca/learning-commons/women-of-science-week-2022/

Guest speakers include the following scientists.

Dr. Emma Despland, Professor of Biology at Concordia University, will give a talk entitled: Insects under a changing climate: sweeping outbreaks or drastic declines? She will explore how climate change impacts different insects differently with varying effects for the environment.

Dr. Emma Frejinger, Professor at the Department of Computer Science and Operations Research at Université de Montréal, will describe in layman terms Machine learning and operations research for solving decision-making problems subject to uncertainty, and how this approach can help solve complex problems in domains such as energy, finance, health care, transportation, and supply chain management.

Dr. Julie Talbot, Université de Montreal, will give a talk on Climate change and ecosystems: what do we know, how do we know it, what should we do? She will give an overview on how climate change affects ecosystems, and what needs to be done to preserve both ecosystems and their role in the mitigation of climate change.

Dr. Frederique Baron, Université de Montréal, will describe how scientists are discovering the Universe with the James Webb Space Telescope.

Dr. Codruta Ignea, PhD, Professor, Bioengineering Department, Faculty of Engineering, McGill University, will give a talk entitled Synthetic Biology and Metabolic Engineering approaches for sustainable production of high-value compounds. She will describe research to develop the technology that will enable the biotechnological production of complex natural products through a systematic practice that produces predictable outcomes and industrially relevant yields.

Asia Vighi, M.Sc. student of Dr. Codruta Ignea, will discuss her master's research on “Engineering Biosynthetic Pathways in Yeast Host Systems for the Improved Production of Antioxidant Compounds Through Adaptive Evolution.”

Vanessa Kairouz, Platform Director, Center for Continuous Flow Synthesis, Center for Green Chemistry and Catalysis (FRQNT-CGCC), Université de Montréal, will give a presentation entitled: “Towards a Sustainable and Green Future: The Chemistry Behind the Scenes.” This overview of green chemistry will give examples where chemists have made a difference in our daily lives in the fields of batteries, biomass transformation and on demand continuous flow synthesis of active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs).

Alexandra Volokhova, PhD student at Mila and Université de Montréal working with Prof. Yoshua Bengio, will make a presentation on using AI for scientific discovery, and will show how AI can assist scientists to make discoveries faster and more cheaply.

Dr. Alyson Fournier, Professor in the Faculty of Medicine at McGill University, will discuss “Damage and Repair of the Nervous System”. She will describe research aimed at promoting functional nerve regeneration following damage to the central nervous system, or due to neurodegenerative diseases like Parkinson’s Disease or Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS).

Sienna Drake, PhD student, will discuss her research describing how multimodal sequencing of neurons reveals epigenetic and transcriptomic alterations during inflammation.

As well, on Wednesday, October 19th, Women in Engineering Mentorship from Concordia University, will make presentations on different Engineering programs offered at Concordia University.