In Wikipedia Chronicles Part 1 (January 30, 2018) I posted about my plan to hold a Wikipedia edit-a-thon at Visva Bharati University, West Bengal, India. I held a mini Ada Lovelace Day Wikipedia Editathon for my third Science Communication Workshop on March 20th. During my time (January to March 2018) as a visiting professor, I […]
Women in Science
The Canada-India project, CIPRI, started with a conversation about the arctic
I have been in Delhi, and in one of its many surrounding suburbs (Greater Noida), this past week, with YorkU colleague, Dr. Nivedita Das Kundu, networking and building CIPRI (Canada-India Project for Research and Innovation) connections for the York Centre for Asian Research. Nivedita, a political scientist and International Relations scholar, lived, studied and worked in […]
Crowdfunding Science and Scientists Has Its Benefits
A week or so ago, Glen Wright's very funny book, Academic Obscura, finally arrived in the mail. I learned about Glen from his twitter account, and donated in support of his book quite some time ago. Everyone who has ever done research should read Glen's book! I'm incredibly grateful to the people that reached unexpectedly […]
Researching women botanists in 19th century Ontario brought footnotes back into my life
Investigator-driven research is often highly serendipitous. In high school, I liked history as much as biology, but I'm a fidget, and biology, which is much more action-oriented, allowed me to move more. Also, references were much easier to type for science lab reports and essays, than those fussy footnotes required in history and philosophy. Nearly 40 […]
Growing International Ada Lovelace Day in Canada
In October 2017, professional communicator, and designer of #ThatOtherShirt, Elly Zupko, came to Toronto with her family, to give the 3rd International Ada Lovelace Day Lecture (see her great talk above). International Ada Lovelace Day is one of several initiatives, such as Soapbox Science, founded by women in the last 10 years, with the aim […]
From university professor to University Professor
At last week's York University convocation for the Faculty of Science and Lassonde Engineering School, I was made University Professor. That's me with the Dean of Science, Dr. Ray Jawawardhana. But, I'm already a university professor, so what does this mean? University Professor is an honorific title that exists at many North American universities, including University of Toronto […]
Soapbox Science Comes to North America at Yonge & Dundas in Downtown Toronto
Ada Lovelace Day at York University 2016
Once again, York University's 2nd International Ada Lovelace Day celebrations involved two different events: Canada Research Chair in Radioastronomy, and Director of the University of Toronto's Dunlap Observatory, Professor Bryan Gaensler gave the Ada Lovelace Day Lecture We held a drop-in Wikipedia Editathon in Steacie Science and Engineering Library We thank York University Libraries, the Lassonde School […]
Why I'm involved with Nature Canada's Women for Nature initiative
That really is me (centre), Dave Reid (far left), and Heidi Langille (near left) with a live Great-Horned Owl, and their very calm, young handler, at the Chateau Laurier in Ottawa, on September 30, 2016. Dave, Heidi and I had a reunion, after working together on Adventure Canada's Arctic Explorer expedition cruise in August 2016. Other attendees at Nature […]
The Canadian Expert Women Database: why it's worth plodding through online forms
My secret vice is reading Clive Cussler adventure paperbacks. I enjoy the way that they weave science, travel, and history together with ludicrous James Bond style heroes and villains. I recently came across the statistic in a Cussler novel, which is very probably rooted in research, that only about 10% of the information in the world's libraries has been digitized, and […]
