Salma Ahmida is in fourth-year integrative biology, and she is struggling to decide what she will do after graduation.

After attending the Faculty of Science’s International Day of Women and Girls in Science research panel, featuring talks by four successful scientists, Ahmida says she has more hope that it will work out for her.

“It was refreshing to see that even if you don’t know what you are doing in life, which is what I’m currently going through, at the end, you’ll accomplish something,” says Ahmida.

“To see all these successful women in different positions as they face failures in the past, or feel imposter syndrome, who are now in a career and field that they like — they are inspirational.  It makes me feel better about the future.”

The event was hosted by the Women in Science (WinS) group. Co-organizer and co-leader Hadia Malik, a fourth-year medical physics major, says the event was partly about getting insight into the logistics behind research.

“It was also about giving women the opportunity to network with other people at the university and showing the different career paths you can explore,” says Malik.

“Sometimes in science we only hear about professional schools, so it was a nice opportunity to hear other people’s experiences.”

The four scientists who spoke at the research panel are:

• Tricia Carmichael, associate dean of science for research and graduate studies and a professor in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry;
• Melissa Valdez (BSc 2015), lead consultant at Zafin Labs Inc.;
• Olivia Galloway, master’s student in the Department of Integrative Biology; and
• Dorota Lubanska (PhD 2013), research associate in the Department of Biomedical Sciences.