(GUELPH CHAPTER) Women in Science: Inspiring the Future

Join us as the Science to Business Network Guelph Chapter hosts their first-ever Women in Science Panel Event in honour of celebrating the upcoming International Women and Girls in STEM Day on February 26th at The Fifth. We will be showcasing the importance and value of women in science and hope to inspire young scientists to pursue successful careers related to science and business. Discuss your successes, obstacles and barriers, and learn about industry opportunities from our all-women panel! All are welcome!  

Dr. Mary Wells, PhD - Dean of College of Engineering and Physical Sciences

Dr. Mary Wells will be our featured Keynote Speaker. She completed her PhD at The University of British Columbia and has a tremendous amount of experience of working in the higher education industry. Dr. Wells has spent the past decade addressing the continued under-representation of women in the engineering profession. In 2013, she was appointed the chair of the Ontario Network for Women in Engineering. To improve the gender diversity of the engineering profession, she has led initiatives to both understand the root causes of the lack of participation of women in engineering as well as programs to address these barriers. 

Active in professional societies, Professor Wells in the past president of the Metallurgical and Materials Society of Canada which is part of the Canadian Institute of Mining, Metallurgy, and Petroleum. 

Dr. Megan Racey, PhD - Consultant

Dr. Megan Racey has a diverse and interdisciplinary research background that focuses on knowledge mobilization and bridging the gap between academia and the public in the field of human health and nutrition. Specifically, she is interested in how to best share complicated nutrition research into digestible, easy-to-understand formats to improve and optimize human health. Megan completed her PhD at the University of Guelph in the Department of Human Health and Nutritional Sciences where she used a mixed-methods approach to develop, implement, and evaluate knowledge communication strategies regarding dairy products as foods for health to adolescents. From there, she was part of at a start-up consulting company where she worked directly with stakeholders across the agri-food sector from farm to fork to create impact from research and help inform evidence-based decision making. Currently, she is completing a post-doctoral fellowship at McMaster University creating evidence-based nutrition and physical activity guidelines for older adults. Through her continued consulting work she shares scientific research and promotes scientific literacy on intersecting sciences and the overlapping threads from agriculture to human health. 

Dr. Kathleen Schroeter, PhD - Production and Process Development Manager at NuBiyota LLC

Kathleen completed her Ph.D. thesis work with Dr. Emma Allen-Vercoe in Molecular and Cellular Biology at the University of Guelph in 2014. In that same year, she began a research postdoc with NuBiyota LLC, a start-up biotech pharmaceutical company aiming to develop and use novel microbial ecosystem therapeutics (METs) to treat a variety of human gastrointestinal-related diseases. Since 2017, She has worked as the Production and Process Development Manager for NuBiyota LLC, where she oversees the manufacturing and development of our novel MET products, as well as their scale-up towards an industrial pharmaceutical process. 

Carley Miki, MSc - Research Scientist at UoGuelph & Co-Founder at Veriphy Skincare

Carley completed her B.Sc in Nanoscience at the University of Guelph in 2012 and M.Sc in Physics at McMaster University in 2014.  Shortly after, she joined Mirexus Biotechnologies Inc., a start-up aiming to commercialize a new, safe and natural nanotechnology discovered at the University of Guelph.  As a Research Scientist at Mirexus, Carley’s work focused on developing new applications for the company’s proprietary nanomaterial for use in cosmetics and pharmaceuticals.  In 2017, she co-founded Veriphy Skincare, a science-backed skincare brand based on research conducted at Mirexus. Carley is currently working at the University of Guelph, investigating the fundamental properties of novel nanomaterials. 

 Session Objectives:

• Learn about the importance and value of women in science through a variety of careers
• Discuss your successes, obstacles, and barriers in science- and business-related fields
• Discover career opportunities for graduate students in industry
• Keynote speech from the Dean of Engineering at Guelph - Dr. Mary Wells! 

Registration: 5:45 PM | Panel: 6:00 PM - 7:30 PM | Networking: 7:30-8:00 PM

All are welcome! We can't wait to see you there!