Lakehead University hosting International Women’s Day Research Panel

March 7, 2017 – Thunder Bay, ON

Lakehead University is hosting an International Women’s Day panel to celebrate research by female faculty members over their careers.

“It will be very inspiring to hear from this talented group of women, two of whom are Canada Research Chair holders,” said Florence Bailey, one of the event’s organizers and the Manager of Industry Research Partnerships at Lakehead University.

Five researchers from various departments at Lakehead University will share their research accomplishments on International Women’s Day, Wednesday, March 8.

Bailey said the panel will celebrate the accomplishments of the University's female researchers and inspire others to plan out their career with research in mind.

At Canadian universities the percentage of female students attending at the undergraduate level is higher than male students. But at the university level there is still a higher male to female ratio in terms of professors and researchers.

“There is no evidence to suggest that there has been an active attempt to discourage women at a system level from becoming tenured professors or research chairs. However there are still barriers and biases that have been identified that limit the careers of highly trained and highly educated women. This represents a talent loss when it comes to research,” she said.

Bailey states that attending this panel will be especially beneficial for women who want to become researchers, and everyone is welcome.

“You will hear the passion these researchers have for the work they do and better understand their motivation and drive to continue to learn, to develop and to create new and innovative ways to address real life problems,” Bailey said.

Moderated by Dr. Connie Russell from Education, researchers will include Dr. Pam Wakewich from Sociology, Women's Studies, and the Centre for Rural and Northern Health Research; Dr. Alla Reznik, Canada Research Chair in Physics of Molecular Imaging, from the Physics department and the Thunder Bay Regional Health Research Institute; Dr. Pauline Sameshima, Canada Research Chair in Arts Integrated Studies from the Faculty of Education; Prof. Karen Drake, Faculty of Law; and Dr. Michelle-Marie Spadoni, School of Nursing.

Registration is not required for the International Women’s Day Research Panel, taking place on Wednesday, March 8 from 9 to 10:30 am in the Faculty Lounge (UC 1029G).

For more information, please visit lakeheadu.ca/ri.

 

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Media: For more information or to arrange interviews, please contact Brandon Walker, Media Relations Officer, at (807) 343-8177, or mediarelations@lakeheadu.ca.

 

 

 

Lakehead University has about 9,700 full-time equivalent students and 2,000 faculty and staff in 10 faculties at two campuses in Orillia and Thunder Bay, Ontario. Lakehead is a fully comprehensive university: home to Ontario’s newest Faculty of Law in 44 years, the Northern Ontario School of Medicine, and faculties of Engineering, Business Administration, Health & Behavioural Sciences, Social Sciences & Humanities, Science & Environmental Studies, Natural Resources Management, Education, and Graduate Studies. In 2016, for the second consecutive year, Re$earch Infosource ranked Lakehead first among Canada’s undergraduate universities. Visit www.lakeheadu.ca.