Born December 5, 1945, Sault Ste Marie, Ontario. Roberta's first university degree was earned at the University of Guelph in 1968. Her post graduate studies began at the University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario, with a Master of Science in 1971 followed by a Doctorate Degree (PhD) from the University of Toronto in 1974. She earned her medical degree from McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario, in 1977. As Canada’s first woman astronaut she had flair. She took her favourite food, Girl Guide cookies, into space with her in January 1992. She brought from space a real sense of just how delicate our small blue planet really is and is now using her photography to help show and save our earth’s environment. She was inducted into the Order of Canada in 1992 and the Order of Ontario in 1993. She was a specially elected Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada in 1999. She has been awarded the Queen's Golden Jubilee Medal in 2002. In 2003 she began a tenure of service as Chancellor of Trent University, Peterborough, Ontario the same year that Canada Post brought out stamps honouring our individual Canadian astronauts. She also has a Star on Canada's Walk of Fame in Toronto. She has served on numerous boards of directors of organizations and served as well government committees. A respected and busy motivational speaker in 2017 for the 150th anniversary she toured the country to encourage youth to take the Bondar Challenge in photography. She encourages youth to study science and follow their dreams. 

Born October 20, 1963, Montreal, Quebec. Did you know that this Canadian astronaut plays piano and has sung with the Montreal symphonic Orchestra Chamber Choir? In 1982 she earned an International Baccalaureate diploma at the United World College of the Atlantic in South Wales, United Kingdom. She earned a Bachelor of Engineering degree in 1986 from McGill University, Montreal and by 1990 she had completed her Master of Applied Science degree in computer engineering at the University of Toronto. She speaks 4 languages besides English and French.   This young engineer was chosen as an astronaut in 1992 and went into space serving on the space Shuttle from May 27 to June 6, 1999. In 2000 she was inducted into the National Order of Quebec and the following year as a Knight of Ordre de la Pléiade de L'Association des parliamentarians de langue Française.  In 2009 she served on the space station. June 25, 2010 she received the NASA Exceptional Service Medal. Julie married a second time to William Flynn and is the mother of one son. For a year in 2010 she worked at the Woodrow Wilson International Centre for Scholars in Washington D.C., U.S.A. In 2012 she received the Queen Elizabeth ll Diamond Jubilee Medal. In 2013 she became chief operation officer for the Montreal Science Centre. She has served on numerous boards including at Queen's University, Kingston, Ontario, Drug Free Kids Canada, The Montreal Bach Festival and the National Bank of Canada. In October 2, 2017 she was sworn in as  29th Governor General of Canada. She has been invested as  Extraordinary Commander of the Order of Military Merit, the Order of Canada and holds Commander of the Order of Merit of the Police Forces of her Majesty. In 2016 she was named a Commander of the Order of Montreal. She enjoys triathlon, skiing, racquet sports and scuba diving. The City of Whitby, Ontario has named a public school in her honour. (2019)

Born December 15, 1925, Fredericton, New Brunswick. Died December 5,1996, Fredericton, New Brunswick.. Prior to attending university Helen took a special commercial course. In 1947 Helen was the first woman to graduated with a degree in Civil engineering from the University of New Brunswick. As a student she had been a member of the chess club and played badminton. In her third year she worked with the architectural firm of Alward and Gilles in Saint John. In 1950 she became the first woman professional engineer in the province to receive membership in the Association of Professional Engineers of New Brunswick. She married Charles Y. Mersereau (1916-1994). Source: New Brunswick Womens History. online (accessed 2012; Find a Grave Canada online (accessed 2022)

Born  April 22, 1947. Micheline earned a degree in engineering physics in 1969 and went on to earn her Master's in electrical engineering at  L’École Polytechnique de Montréal in 1978.In 1974 Micheline married fellow engineer Jean-Paul Sardin and the couple had two children. In 1978, Micheline Bouchard was the second woman to be elected to lead the Order of Engineers in Québec. She worked at Hydro-Québec for some 18 years moving her way up the admistrative ladder to assistant to the president. In 1981 she was Woman of the Year in business. From 1983 to 1987 she was v-p of the Montreal Chamber of Commerce followed with serving on the Montreal Board of Trade. She was also a founding director of the Public Policy Forum. She became Vice-president of CGI Group, the D M R Group and Hewlett-Packard Canada Ltd. in 1992, the second to be elected president of the Canadian Council of Professional Engineers (now Engineers Canada) In 1994 the YWCA named her the Woman of the Year.  In 1995 she was inducted as a Member of the Order of Canada. In 1998 became President and Chief Operating Executive of Motorola Canada Ltd and then Vice-President. In 2000 she received a Wired Woman of the Year Award from the Wired Women's Society. She served from 2002 to 2006 as President and CEO of ART Advanced Research Technologies Ltd.  She has served on the boards of Telus Corporation, Dominion Diamond Corporation, the Ford Motor Company of Canada, Sears Canada, Corby Distilleries, the Banque Nationale de Paris (Canada), London Life, Gaz Metropolitan, Alliance Forest Products, Monsanto Canada, and the Canada Post Corporation. She sits on the board of P S P (Public Sector Pension Investments) and is the Chair of the Human Resources and Compensation Committee. She also served on the Conference Board of Canada and on the International Women's Forum global board. She is a director of the Canadian Foundation for Innovation. She was not only the 1st woman president of the Canadian Academy of Engineering, but was the first to be elected president of any of the twenty-odd academies represented in the international Council of Academies of Engineering and Technological Sciences. In 2009 she was named a Fellow of Engineers Canada and in 2011 she became a Knight of the National Order of Quebec. In 2015 she was awarded the Gold Medal from Engineers Canada and the Grand Prix d’Excellence of the Order of Engineers of Québec as well as being named to the list of Top 100 Most Powerful Women. (2020)

Born Montreal. Dorothy had originally wanted to study engineering at McGill University in 1936. However women were not allowed to register in engineering at the time so Dorothy settled for a Bachelor of Science Degree graduating in 1940. She joined the Canadian Womens Army Corp to serve in World War ll and served as a Sargeant in the Royal Canadian Electrical and Mechanical Engineers. Discharged in October 1945 she learned that women could now enroll in the Faculty of Engineering at McGill. She was the one woman out of 800 men who took advantage of education programs for former veterans to attend Dawson College, McGill University. She hoped to do research in radio manufacturing. Source: newspaper clippings form McGill University Archives (2019)

Born November 22, 1925. She must have been an independent child. As a teen she was the only youth working as a “Sales girl” at her Woolworth’s 5 and 10 cent store. She could do math and calculate the correct change for customers when there were no cash registers! She told her High School Teacher she wanted to learn engineering but the teacher told her to attend university orientation with all the other girls. She studied engineering anyhow earning a PhD!  In 1950 she was a professor of electrical engineering at Ryerson Institute of Technology in Toronto, the 1st (and only women) of her time to hold such a position. She shocked her family when she married in 1952 by retaining her maiden name. She interested women in the Business and Professional Women’s Club of Toronto when she told them that she had worked all during her pregnancy because her students wanted to learn from her. She marked student exam papers in the maternity word after giving birth to her daughter. In 1982 she was the President of the BPW of Toronto herself. In 1983 she was honoured with the Woman of Distinction Award of the Metropolitan Toronto YWCA. In 1984 she became the 1st woman to receive the Ontario Professional Engineers Citizenship Award. And in 1988 she received the Elsie Gregory McGill award from BPW of Canada. In 1991 she was the first woman to be awarded the University of Toronto Engineering alumni gold medal. In 1992 she became Professor Emeritus of the University of Toronto. In 2002 she was the only Canadian among pioneers honoured by the International Congress of Women Engineers and Scientists. Source The Toronto Business and Processional Women’s Club. Online (accessed February 2013) (2021).

Born March 27, 1905, Vancouver, British Columbia. Died November 4, 1980, Cambridge, Massachusetts, U.S.A. Elsie and her siblings were home schooled and even had drawing lessons from acclaimed artist Emily Carr (1871-1945). At age 16 Elsie began studying at the University of British Columbia but soon began studying at the University of Toronto (U of T) graduating in 1927 as the first Canadian woman to earn a degree in electrical engineering. She contracted polio just before graduation and fount the naysayers to learn to walk again with the help of two canes. After graduation she worked with a firm producing aircraft in Michigan, U.S.A.  She went on to earn a Master’s Degree in aeronautical engineering from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, in the U.S.A. To help finance her doctoral studies at the Massauchetts Institute of Technology (M I T), Cambridge, U.S.A. she wrote articles for magazines about aircraft and flying using the pen name M. Elsa Gardner.  In 1937 she was the first woman to be admitted corporate membership in the Engineering Institute of Canada. At the same time she participated in the C B C Radio series, The Engineer in War Time. In 1942 she became Chief Aeronautical Engineer at Canadian Car and Foundry (CANCAR) becoming the first woman in the world to hold such a position. During World War II (1939-1945) her primary responsibility was the production of the Hawker Hurricane fighter aircraft. Her staff of 4,500 people produced more than 2000 aircraft and Elsie was billed as 'Queen of the Hurricanes'. In 1943 she married E. J. 'Bill' Soulsby and relocated to live in Toronto setting up an aeronautical consulting business. By 1946 she had become the fist woman to serve as Technical Advisor for International Civil Aviation Organization (I C A O). In 1947 she became the first woman ever to chair an committee of the United Nations (U N). In 1953 she was awarded annual Engineer Award from the Society of Women Engineers (S W E ). She is considered the first woman to be a designer of airplanes and was known as the 'Queen of the Hurricanes' referring to a type of aeroplane that she was manufacturing. Elsie was the daughter of Helen Gregory MacGill (1864-1947) who had been the first woman Judge in Canada. Elsie would pen her mother's story in the book, My Mother the Judge published in 1955. For two years from 1962-1964 she served as president of the Canadian Federation of Business and Professional Women's Club. In Canada Centennial Year, 1967, she received the with the Centennial Medal and was named to the Royal Commission on the Status of Women where she co-authored the report of the commission in 1970. She was also a member of the Ontario Status of Women Committee. In 1971 she was inducted into the Order of Canada. In 1975 the Ninety-Nines (women's flying group) presented Elsie with their Amelia Earhart Medal. In 1979 the Ontario Association of Professional Engineers awarded her their gold medal. She became a member of Canada’s Aviation Hall of Fame in 1983 and in 1992 she was one of the first people inducted into the Canadian Science and Engineering Hall of Fame. In 1999 her story was part of the documentary film Rosies of the North. An historical plaque dedicated to Elsie McGill from the Toronto Historical Board was erected in front of the Sanford Fleming Building at the University of Toronto. In 2019 the Lakehead District School Board (Thunder Bay, Ontario) named a public school in her honour and Canada post issued a commemorative postage stamp with her as part of the Canadian In Flight series. Some of her papers are held at the Library and Archives Canada in Ottawa. (2021)

Born April 2, 1960, Edmonton, Alberta. . Died July 19, 2014. Sheri attended the University of Alberta graduating in 1982 with a degree in Civil Engineering. In 1981 she married Howard Plewes and the couple had  two children. She was a devoted mother and despite a busy career she found time to take Flamenco dancing with her daughters. Sheri worked for five years with Alberta Transportation travelling to all parts of the province.  In 1987 the family moved to Fort McMurray where the couple worked in the Oil sand industry. In 1989 the family relocated to Vancouver, British Columbia and Sheri worked for the City of Vancouver as the first woman Assistant Engineer in charge of the water and sewers division. In 1999 she joined Translink serving as vice president of Capital Management and Engineering. In 2011 she moved to work with S N C Lavalin as senior vice president of the Transportation Division. In less that a year she was with Port Metro Vancouver at the vice president of Infrastructure delivery. She served her community on the board of the Delta Youth Orchestra and other organizations. The Engineers and Geoscientists of British Columbia Foundation presents the Sheri Plewes Award to a woman-identifying full-time undergraduate student in an accredited engineer program at a British Columbia University Source: Obituary online (accessed 2023)

Born April 11, 1952, Colombo, Sri Lanka. A graduate of the Ladies College of Colombo, Sri Lanka in 1968 Indira obtained the Bachelor of Science (B. Sc.), honouring in Mechanical Engineering in 1974. Married in 1975 she studied in the U.S.A and by 1976 she had earned her masters in Mechanical Engineering from the University of California, U.S.A.. Moving to Canada she earned her Doctoral Degree (PhD) at the University of British Columbia, Vancouver. As she began to raise her two children she lectured at the University of British Columbia. Her research was recognized with the Killam Prize in 1986. She earned the Robert W. Hunt Silver Medal in both 1983 and 1993. She was elected President of the Metallurgical Society in 1995.  A Fellow in the Canadian Academy of Engineers in 1997, the same that year her work won her the John Chipman Medal. This was followed the Science Council Gold Medal in 1998. In 2002 she became an officer in the Order of Canada. Sources: Canadian Who’s Who 2004:

Born May 30, 1959, Vancouver, British Columbia. Died July 11, 2015, Arcadia, California, U.S.A. Claudia was raised in California, where her father was a social worker and her mother worked as a librarian. Died July 11, 2015, Arcadia, California, U.S.A. As a youth she attended a high-school summer internship at NASA. After attending and graduation from the Berkley and went on to earn her Master’s degree at the University of California, Los Angeles. She joined the National Aeronautics and Space Administration after earning her doctorate in plasma physics from the University of Michigan. As a Black woman working in a largely man’s work field she was used to surviving in two different cultures. To her loving her work was important.  She was project manager of the 14 year 1.5 billion dollar U.S. Galileo mission which ended in 2003. In 2015 she was the project scientist for NASA on the European Space Agency’s Rosetta Project which marked the 1st time a spacecraft rendezvoused with a comet. As may be expected she authored numerous research papers but it should be noted that she also wrote books for children including publications in the Windows to Adventure series helping children to have fun with science. Source: Sam Roberts Trailblazer let Nasa Mission to Jupiter. Globe and Mail July 21, 2015. Suggestion submitted by June Coxon, Ottawa, Ontario.

Born March 13, 1960, Kelowna, British Columbia. Died December 26, 2017, Ottawa, Ontario. Judie became interest in Jazz music and was a keen jazz musician all her life. Judie began her working career as an massage therapist in Kelowna, British Columbia with her husband Alan Giesbrecht. They met at massage therapy school in Ontario. She was soon a full-time mature student at university earning a Bachelor of Science-Microbiology at the University of British Columbia in 1991. She went on to earn a Doctorate (PHD) in immunology at the University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, Saskatchewan. Her doctoral thesis was the basis for an article published in Nature Biotechnology in 2000. In 2005 Judie began working on contract at the Public Health Agency of Canada where she took on the role of project lead for the Ebola vaccine from 2010 to 2015. She was instrumental in the development of the vaccine and involved in every decision. The World Health Organization (W H O) used the vaccine, called VSV-EBOV, for historic clinical trials near the end of the 2013-2016 West Africa outbreak. The vaccine was used in 2017 during another outbreak of Ebola in the Democratic Republic of Congo. In 2015 she moved to work at the National Research Council in Ottawa where she worked on a vaccine against the Zika Virus. Judie just wanted to do her job, she never sought or needed grand acknowledgement for her work. It was enough for her to know that she had helped people. Source: Obituary: Judi Alimonti was one of Canada's Unsung Heroes. Ottawa Citizen, July 14, 2018. online (accessed 2022);  Obituary Castanet, online (accessed 2022)

Born 1930 September 6, 1939, Glasgow, Scotland, United Kingdom. Died May 25, 2019, Edmonton, Alberta. Margaret-Ann earned her Bachelor and Masters Degrees from the University of Edinburgh in Scotland. She worked for five years as a research chemist in the papermaking industry prior to attending the University of Alberta where she earned her Doctorate in 1970. In 1979 she was hired as an assistant Chair of the Department of Chemistry at the University of Alberta. She was one of only a few women instructors at the Faculty of Science at the university. In 1982 she worked on a committee to increase the number of women in Sciences. She became the co-founder of Women in Scholarship, Engineering, Science and Technology.  and spent decades as an ambassador for women in the sciences. She helped launched STEM which encourages women in roles in science, technology, engineering and mathematics. She endeared herself to hundreds of students during her career. She was inducted into the order of Canada in 2006. She was a #M teaching Fellow, earned the Governor General's Award in Commemoration of the People's Case, and the Chemical Institute of Canada Medal. In 2007 she was named Champion of Public Education by the Learning Partnership and earned the Alberta Science and Technical Leadership Awards Foundation Award. In September 2016 the 600 student Dr. Margaret Ann Armour School opened in Edmonton, Alberta. In 2017 she was an ambassador for Canada 150.

Born June 5, 1875, Port Hope, Ontario. Died March 24, 1964, Port Hope, Ontario. Clara studied chemistry, mathematics, and physics at the University of Toronto (U of T) graduating in 1899 as the first woman to earn a Bachelor of Arts in Chemistry at the university. She went straight into PhD studies and earned a Doctorate Degree (PhD) in 1903 and one of the first women to receive their doctorate from the U of T. Her filed was physical chemistry with attention on reaction rates on inorganic salt solutions. She published an article in 1902 in the Journal of Physical Chemistry as only the second article by a women, after Marie Curie,  in the Journal. Her first job was as a demonstrator in food science with the U of T at the Lillian Massey School of Domestic Science. In 1905 she was promoted to the status of Lecturer in physiological chemistry (biochemistry) as the first woman at U of T to reach this rank. The following year she became an associate professor, one of the first two women professors at U of T. She was the sole woman to be founder of the American Society for Biological Chemistry (now American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology) in 1906. In 1915 she conducted summer studies at St. Andrews Biological Station in New Brunswick, for the Canadian government. During the First World War (1914-1918) she developed an instruction course on ways to adapt food chemistry analysis techniques to explosives. In 1919 she was elected as a fellow of the Canadian Institute of Chemistry but sadly was not allowed to attend their annual dinner since she was a woman. In 1926 she became a full professor and head of the Department of Food Chemistry. While teaching at the U of T she advocated for women's athletics at the university and was the first president of the Women's Athletic Association from 1921 until she retired in 1945. In 1950 the U of T Household Science Alumnae established a fellowship in her honour. In 1959 when the University opened the first women's gymnasium it was named the Benson Building in her honour. Clara also served on the national board of the Young Women's Christian Association (Y W C A). After her retirement she sponsored tow World War ll French orphans. Clara has also enjoyed film-making during her travels and some of these are preserved in the Archives at U of T. In 1992 the annual Clara Benson Award was established by the Canadian Society of Chemistry to honour female chemists working in Canada. In 2003 the U of T celebrated the 100th anniversary of he PhD. (2022)

Born February 11, 1913, Saint John New Brunswick. Died May 20, 1986, Calgary Alberta. Helen earned her Bachelor Degree and her Master's Degree from Dalhousie University in Halifax.  She went on to earn her Doctorate in Geology from Norhwestern University, Evanston, Illinois, U.S.A.  After graduation Helen worked as a teacher in private high schools in Victoria, British Columbia and Toronto, Ontario.  During world War ll (1939-1945 she served in the Women's Royal Canadian Naval Service working  at the headquarters of Naval Service. After the war she worked with the Geological Survey of Canada (G S C) in Ottawa and then in Calgary, Alberta where she was the only woman to do field work.. She would write  and publish some 30 scientific papers during her career. She well known for her work  on the Geological History of Western Canada.  She also  wrote, The  Story of Banff National Park, in 1960. During her 35 years with the GC G S she was the first woman earn the Barlow Memorial Medal in 1958, She was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canadian Geologists in 1962 and was made an honorary member of the Canadian Society of Petroleum Geologists in 1964. In 1976 she became an Officer of the Order of Canada. She enjoyed mountaineering, skiing and horseback riding. She was a member of the Calgary Continuing Arts Association, the Women's League of the Calgary Philharmonic and was an associate director of the Calgary Zoological Society. She never failed to promote her profession to women. She retired from the C G S in 1975. (2024)

'Rocket Scientist'

née Claeys. Born December 30, 1924, Winnipeg, Manitoba. Died March 27, 2013, Princeton, New Jersey, U.S.A. Although not really encouraged by her father or her high school teachers, Yvonne graduated the top of her class in 1945 from the University of Manitoba having studied chemistry and mathematics. She had wanted to study engineering but women were not allowed to enter these courses. In 1945 she was recruited by Douglas Aircraft in California, U.S.A., to help develop the first American Satellites. She may have been the only woman in the U.S. A. researching rocket sciences in the 1940's. Taking night classes  in 1951 she earned a Master's degree in chemistry from the University of Southern California, Los Angeles, U.S.A. She took some time off to stay home to be with her husband Bill Brill (died 2010) to raise her three children in the 1950's but by 1966, when the family moved to Princeton for Bill's job, she was working once again in the field with Radio Corporation of America (R C A) Astro Electronics. In 1967 she invented the hydrazine propulsion system which became a standard in the industry. She contributed to propulsion systems and a series of rocket designs that were part of the American moon missions working with N A S A from 1981-1983. In 1985 she became a fellow of the Society of Women Engineers (S W E) and the following year received the Achievement Award from the Society. In 1987 she was elected to the National Academy of Engineers. In 2001 she was awarded the NASA Distinguished Public Service Medal followed in 2002 by the Wyld Propulsion Award from the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics A I A A)  which also named the Yvonne C. Brill Lectureship in her honour. In 2011 the President of the United States presented her the National Medal of Technology and Innovation and that same year she was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame. (2022)

née Brooks. Born July 2, 1876, Exeter, Ontario. Died April 17, 1933, Montreal, Quebec. Harriet attended McGill University, Montreal in starting in 1894. She won a scholarship for the final two years of her studies. She had been disqualified from scholarships for her early years since she was a women. She graduated from McGill University in 1888 with a degree in mathematics and natural philosophy. In fact she earned the Anne Molson Memorial Prize for outstanding performance in mathematics. She began researching with the renowned Dr. Ernest Rutherford (1871-1937) as Canada’s first woman nuclear physicist. She is better known for her research on nuclear transmutations and radioactivity. In 1901 she was the first woman to study at the Cavendish Laboratory at Cambridge University in England. After she earned her Masters degree in 1901, as the first woman at McGill to do so, she had a fellowship to study for her doctorate in physics at Bryn Mawr College, Pennsylvania, U.S.A. She would go on to take a fellowship at the University of Cambridge in the United Kingdom as the first woman to study at the Cavendish Laboratory. Harriet was one of the first persons to discover radon and try to determine its atomic mass. Harriet returned to Canada to resume her work with Dr. Rutherford. In 1905 she was appointed as a faculty member at Barnard College in New York City, U.S.A.  In 1906 she  worked for a short period of time in the Laboratory of Dr. Marie Curie. In 1907 when she married Frank Pitcher, a physics instructor and the couple settled in Montreal. Since protocol of the day was for women not to work once they were married, Harriet was forced to give up her work as a physicist. She turned her energies to raising her three children and remained active in the Federation of University women. She died of a blood disorder, possibly leukaemia caused by radiation exposure. The Harriet Brooks Building, a nuclear ressearch laboratory at Canadian Nuclear Laboratories, Chalk River, Ontario is named in her honour. Harriet Brooks is a member of the Canadian Science and Engineering Hall of Fame. (2022)

Astronomer

Born 1902, Montreal, Quebec. Died April 1, 1996, Ottawa, Ontario. Miriam graduated from McGill University, Montreal with a degree in Physics. While a student at McGill she enjoyed playing ice hockey. In 1927, after graduation, she joined the Astrophysics Division and became the first woman astronomer to work at the Dominion Observatory. During the Second World War (1939-1945) she was transferred to the Seisinology Division. but she eventually returened to astronomy and was a member of the Notional Committee fro Canada of the International  Astronomical Union. For four decades she educated Canadians in astronomy. Beginning in the mid 1950's she was still the only woman astrophysicist on staff and she served as the education and information liaison.  For many years she produced regular reports from the Dominion Observatory for the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada (R A S C). She was on three teams of scientists observing major solar eclipses in Canada in 1932, 1954, and 1962. In 1963 the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada presented Miriam a Service Award.  She retired in 1967 and for the next ten years contributed writings about the authors of articles for the Journal of the R A S C. She also served at the technical Correspondent for several years. She was and active member of the Zonta Club of Ottawa where she served a term as president. (2022)

Born March 9, 1941. After her studies in science at university she entered the field of research. She also has an interest in recognizing women's work and has contributed to Women In Science. She has herself become a teacher at the Department of Immunology at the University of Manitoba and has been recognized at the Y W C A Woman of Distinction in 1992.  She is also a recipient of the the Canada 125 medal.

née Brown.  Born 1860 Pickering, Canada West (now Ontario). Died 1923. She attended Whitby Ladies College and settled down with her husband. However after his untimely death she found the need to support herself. She opened a private school in Toronto. Turning her energies to the administration of education she became a member of the Toronto Board of Education. In 1914 she founded the Home and School Movement in Toronto and by 1916 she laid the foundation for the Ontario Foundation of Home ad School. She served President of the Toronto Council of Home and School Clubs which under her leadership grew from 6 to 24 members.

Born November 30, 1979. Vancouver, British Columbia. At nine she founded the environmental Children’s Organization  (ECO) to learn and teach other  children about the environment. At 12 she and some of her friends from ECO raised funds and attended the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro where she presented a speech. In 1993 she was on the United Nations Environment Program Global 500 Honour Role. And she published her first book: Tell the World, (Doubleday Press). She earned her Bachelor of Science from Yale University in the U.S. In 2000, as a millennium project she and some friends cycled across Canada. By 2002 she was an accomplished world environment speaker and completed a speaking tour of Japan. When she spoke before the United Nations, some delegates had tears in their eyes. She also worked with the Discovery Channel to bring environments issues to children by hosting a regular program on the subject. She is the founder of Skyfish, a grassroots organization that works for sustainable living with the aim of solving problems that won’t be solved by diplomats and documents. In 2007 she do-compiled the book: Notes from Canada’s Young Activists; a generation stands up for change. (Greystone Press). Sources: Stephanie Kim Gibson, Influential and Intriguing Canadians (Rubicon, 2003); Eric Volumes, ‘Susuki looks south to define our identity’. Guelph Mercury, November 3, 2008.

née Vibert.  Born December 5, 1894, Montreal, Quebec. Died July 2, 1988, Kingston, Ontario. Orphaned in 1904 she and her brother were raised by relatives. At the outbreak of World War l she went to London, England, to work in the War Office as a statistician. In 1918 at the age of 23, she was awarded the Silver Cross of the Order of the British Empire for her work. After the war she began her university studies receiving her undergraduate degree from McGill in 1920 and her Masters in physics in 1921. By 1926 she was the first woman in Canada to earn her Doctorate (PhD) in astrophysics. In 1939 she became Dean of Women and a professor of Astronomy at Queen's University at Kingston, Ontario. She helped many women in the sciences and published both scholarly and popular articles. As an extraordinary speaker, Douglas was a popular invitee to speak at many organizations which took her to almost every country in the world. She was a fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society in Britain and served as president of the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada. She was named a "Woman of the Century" by the National Council of Jewish Women in 1967 and that same year, she was inducted into the Order of Canada during its inaugural year. In 1988 astronomers named a new planet, Vibert Douglas in her honour.

Born February 3, 1918, Edinburgh, Scotland. Died November 22, 1999, Ottawa, Ontario. A graduate of Oxford University, England, Isobel immigrated to Canada in 1947. She worked in the far north joining the Arctic Section of the Defence Research Board,  An ice research scientist, she was  the first women to be taken for cruises on Canadian Government icebreakers. She visited the USSR and Finland in 1964 to look into icebreaking practices. The author of many scientific studies, including Arctic Canada From the Air.  She received the Massey Medal, which was established to honor those who have contributed to to the exploration, development, or description of Canada Geography, from the Canadian Geographical Society, in 1972. She was a Member of the Order of Canada and a fellow of the Royal Society of Canada. (2017)

Born January 19, 1859, Toronto, Canada West (now Ontario). Died October 30, 1953, San Francisco, California, U.S.A. Alice's mother died when she was just six years old. Her father felt he could not care for his family so the children went to live with various relatives. At one point Alice and her sister boarded at the Oshawa Convent, Toronto. In 1873, the father now in Denver, Colorado, U.S.A. was able to gather his family to live with him. Alice would graduate from a local high school as validictorian of her class. Becoming teacher she remained in the profession for ten years. She took an interest in botany and became a self taught botanist. In 1891 she was hired  to work at the herbarium at the California Academy of Sciences. In 1894 Alice became procurator and Head of the Department of Botany, where she worked until 1949. In 1903 she was one of only two women listed in American Men of Science to be denoted by a star indicating that she was among the top 25% of professionals. During the 1906 earthquake in San Francisco she is credited with  saving many of the books and specimens in the Academy. In 1912 she returned to curator position  and reconstructed the lost part of the collection. By 1942 she had build a collection of about one third of a million specimens well beyond the 1906 original collection. During her career she published hundreds of articles, founded a journal, Leaflets of Western Botany running from 1932 through 1966.  She was a member of the San Francisco Botanical Club and in 1929 helped to found the American Fuchsia Society. Eastwood Hall of Botany at the California Academy of Sciences in named in her honour.  Alice Eastwood Memorial Grove is located in Humbolt County, California. .  She retired in 1949 at the age of 90. Source: Cabbagetown People , online (accessed 2024); Alice Eastwood , Arches National Park, National Park Service online (accessed 2024).

née Halperin. Born May 22, 1944, Ottawa, Ontario. Connie earned her Bachelor of Arts and Masters' degree in genetics from Queen’s University, Kingston, Ontario and her Doctorate (PhD) at the University of Manchester, United Kingdom in 1969. She began work at the Ontario Cancer Institute in Toronto, but was soon recruited to the British Columbia Cancer Institute. She also teaches at the University of British Columbia Department of Medical Genetics. In 1980 she co-founded the Terry Fox Laboratory in British Columbia where she was Deputy director in 1986 until 200 when she became Director. Her work has been recognized internationally in hematopoietic-stem cell biology. She has published hundreds of articles, papers, conference proceedings and book chapters. Connie is an active member of numerous national, international scientific societies including being President of the International Society of Experimental Hematology. She is proud to be the mother of four children. Source: Herstory. The Canadian Woman’s Calendar 2000 (Silver anniversary edition) Coteau Book, 1999 page 50.

Born April 13, 1904, Monkland, Ontario. Died September 24, 1986. As a child Leone and her family relocated to live in Toronto. While in high school she earned prizes in English, History and also earned a science scholarship.  By 1929 she ahd earned her Master's degree in Chemistry from the University of Toronto (U of T). In 1933 she had earned her Doctorate (PhD) from U of t. She studied yeasts found in honey with the National Research Council and worked at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine in England. In 1934 she worked with the Connaught Research Laboratories where she developed toxoid vaccines for staphylococcus. She would develop a method of rocking bacterial cultures to stimulate growth of bacteria and increase yield. During World War ll (1939-1945) she studied dysentery toxin and researched improving penicillin production. In 1953 she worked on the task of producing live virus for the polio vaccine in bulk quantities, called the Toronto Method, which would be used by Dr. Jonas Salk's field trials. Dr. Salk would meet most of the research team in Toronto but Leone was not allowed as the meeting was in a 'men only' room. She continued doing research and writing  papers until retirement in 1969. Her grave was origianally unmarked but in 2005 relatives provided a headstone. Source: Canadian Encyclopedia online; Find a grave online (accessed 2024)

Born September 30, 1875, Cowansville, Quebec. Died 1961, Ottawa, Ontario. Faith often accompanied her father, a clergyman and amateur botanist on field trips as a girl. Her father also encouraged her to practice her art. In 1896 she graduated from Compton Ladies College in Compton, Quebec. She earned a scholarship to attend McGill University, Montreal and graduated in 1900. After graduation she spent a year taking art and studying Quebec wild flowers with her father. She worked for a short time as a teacher with the Dunham Ladies' College in Quebec. and then at Bishop Strachan School, Toronto. In 1909 she joined her family traveling in Europe prior to accepting a position with the Canadian Department of Agriculture in Ottawa as an assistant and seed analyst. In August 1911 Faith became the first woman assistant botanist at the Central Experimental Farm (C E F). Naturally her salary was much lower than a man in her position. She was in charge of the Botanical Garden, and the Herbarium where she identified plants. She became an active member of the Ottawa Field-Naturalist Club. In 1914 she toured western Canada collecting and preparing poisonous weeds.  She was the author and illustrator of Principal Poisonous Plants of Canada in 1920 which would sell for 25 cents. In 1919 she worked with the Dicision of Horticulture at the C E F as their first botanical artist. Faith retired in 1931 sue to poor health. She painted landscapes and flowers after her retirement. Her paintings were exhibited in several exhibitions in central Canada. Lady Byng, wife of the Governor General at that time hired faith in 1926 to paint the gardens at Rideau Hall. Source: Canadian Encyclopedia.

Born December 28, 1901, Liverpool, Nova Scotia.   Died July 10, 1982, Victoria, British Columbia. At the age of 15 Rona entered studies in chemical engineering  at the University of British Columbia. Her tuition was $18.00 for the year! In her last years she helped returning veterans who were students after World War l (1914-1918). After graduation in 1922 she worked in the chemical engineering stores for two year with the U B C Chemical Engineering Department. She is Canada's first known woman chemical engineer. October 3, 1924 Rona married Hubert Douglas Wallis (1899-1996).  The couple had one son. In later years she she would teach at the Victoria High School and even rewrote the chemistry Grade 12 correspondence course  for the province. In 2014 the Canadian Engineering Memorial Foundation named its first Master's Scholarship in Chemical Engineering in her honour. She is a member of the UBC Chemical and Biological Engineering Hall of Fame. Source: Rona Hatt, the first known Canadian Female Chemical Engineer online (accessed 2023); Find a grave Canada online (accessed 2023)

Radiobiologist

née Howard. Born October 23, 1913, Montreal, Quebec. Died April 1, 1984, London, England. After graduating from Trafalgar School for Girls Alma earned an Honours Bachelor of Science in botany and zoology from McGill University, Montreal, in 1934. She went on to earn her Doctorate (PhD) winning the Governor General's Academic Medal for graduate work in science. In 1939 she married Patrick William Rolleston (died 1947) As a window she had to find work to rais her children. She worked at the United Kingdom Research Council as a Radiotherapist Researcher out of Hammersmith Hospital. and took up a Finney - Howell Research Fellowship at McGill. The couple had two sons. After World War ll (1939-1945) the family relocated to England. In 1956 she joined the new radiobiology research team at Mount Vernon Hospital, London. In 1958 she married a fellow researcher, Michel Ebert (died 1982). In 1960 she was appointed Secretary - General of the second International Radiation Research Congress held in 1962. In 1963 the couple worked at Paterson Laboratories where Alma became Head of the Radiology Group. By 1966 she was Deputy Director and also Joint Editor of the International Journal of Radiation Biology. In 1969 she was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis. She and her husband both retired in 1976. She had writen some 94 papers in the fields of genetics and radiobiology. The Alma Howard Memorial Lecture was established at McGill University after her death. Her work has led to the understanding of the growth and turnover of tissues in health and discease and in the production and use of the cell-cycle based chemotherapeutic agents in the treatment of cancer. (2023)

Born 1949 Oklahoma, U.S.A. Linda studied at the University of Texas in Austin, Texas, U.S.A. for her undergraduate bachelor degree, Master’s degree and her doctorate earned in 1974. Beginning in 1954 she worked on the Arshiyama West-east Primate Project which researched a trop of Japanese macaques monkeys. She followed this project through 1996. In 1983, with the cooperation of the Costa Rican government, Dr. Fedigan established the Santa Rosa Primate Field Project with the objective of describing the behavioural ecology, conservation parameters and life histories of three primate species inhabiting the park - white-faced capuchins , mantled howler monkeys and black-handed spider moneys .In 1998 a film was made based on Dr. Fedigan’s work. In 2002 while teaching and working at the University of Calgary in Alberta she was granted  a Canada Research Chair which was renewed in 2009.  June 30, 2016, Fedigan was named a Member of the Order of Canada by Governor General David Johnston for "her contributions to advancing our understanding of the behaviour and society of several primate species and for her dedication as a mentor to the next generation of primatologist."[1] In 2016, she was elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada .

Born November 3, 1896, Saint John, New Brunswick. Died August 20, 1990, Toronto, Ontario. Madeleine studied arts and English at McGill University, Montreal in 1910. She went on to teach at Elmwood Private Girls School in Ottawa. While in Ottawa she met paleontologist Alice Wilson (1881-1964). When Alice was going on a geological expedition to Lake Winnipeg she asked Madeleine to come as a woman could not travel alone with male colleagues. A year after her trip with Alice Wilson she became the only woman in the geology program at the University of Toronto. She earned her Masters Degree in 1925 and in 1926 she held her doctoral degree.  From 1936 through 1955 she was Associate Director of the Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto. 1956 to 1967 she taught paleontology at the University of Toronto.  She was a pioneering researcher of Paleozoic Bryozoa and was known as the Great Grandmother of Paleozoic Bryozoa.

née Froese. Born September 21, 1929, Stara Mykolaivka, Ukraine. The family fled the Soviet controls in 1929 and settled in a refugee camp in Germany prior to leaving for Canada and settling in Chilliwack, British Columbia. Charlotte graduated with her Bachelor of Arts in Mathematics and Chemistry and went on to earn her Master's in applied Mathematics from the University of British Columbia in 1954. By 1957 she had earned her Doctorate (PhD) in Applied Mathematics and Computing at Cambridge University, England. She worked at the University of British Columbia from 1957 through 1968 introducing numerical analysis and computer courses. She was staunch supporter in the formation of the university Computer Science Department. In 1962 for a year she had worked at the Harvard College Observatory in Massauchetts, U.S.A. working on atomic-structure calculations she became the first woman to earn the Alfred P. Sloan Fellowship. In the mid 1960's she met her husband Patrick Carl Fischer (1935-2011) and American Computer Scientist. In 1991 she became a Fellow of the American Physical Society and in 1995 she was elected to membership in the Royal Physiographic Society in Lund, Sweden. In 2004 she became a foreign member of the Lithuanian Academy of Sciences. She would be the author of over 300 research articles on computational atomic theory. She has served as Emerita research professor of computer science at Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tennessee, U.S.A. and as a Guest Scientist in the Atomic Spectroscopy Group at the National Institute of Standards and Technology  (N I S T), Gaithersburg, Maryland, U.S.A. (2023)

Born May 10, 1946, Germany. Growing up in Toronto she headed west to begin her studies at the University of British Columbia and then off to the University of California in LA to study for her masters and Doctorate (PhD). She has earned the distinct title as the world's foremost authority on orangutans, the great apes that live in the rain-forests of Borneo. For 23 years she spent time in the jungle doing observations and attempting sightings of the extremely private orangutans who like to be left alone! She has received many awards for her research including the Petra Award in 1990, the Eddie Bauer Hero of the Earth Award in 1991, the Sierra Club Checo Mendes Award in 1992 and the United Nations Global 500 Award in 1993.

Born February 28, 1907, Rimouski, Quebec. Died December 16, 1968, Quebec.  When Marcellas was a toddler the family moved to Montreal. After her early education at Saint-Urbain Academy, Boulevart Academy and the convent of Mont-Sainte-Marie. At ten she contracted polio and missed some schooling. At 17 she had tuberculosis. She enrolled in the arts and philosophy studies at McGill University in 1929. She entered a botany contest and while her entry was excellent she was excluded because she was in the arts program. Marcellas switched to the Botanical Institute to continue her studies earning her botany degree in 1932 and a degree in natural sciences the next year. By 1935 she had earned a post graduate degree at McGill in Library Science. In 1939 she earned a Masters Degree in Science. While doing her post graduate studied she completed an exhaustive bibliography on the writings on the botanist Marie-Victorin Kirouac. She became interested in the Circles of Young Naturalists (C Y N) that encouraged young scientists. In 1932 she was editor to the C Y N weekly chronicle in L'Oiseau bleu. She also penned a weekly column about the C Y N in the newspaper Le Devoir from 1938 through 1954. She served on the C Y N executive. In 1943, using the nom de plume 'La Fee des fleurs'  she had a children's radio program telling stories of the natural world. In the early 1960's she worked with the television series Wonders of Nature.  She also wrote two children's' books on Canadian flora and fauns. The Marcelle-Gauvreau Ecological Reserve in Quebec is named in her honour. Source: The Canadian Women's Calendar Herstory 2004  (2022)

Born December 7, 1938, Madras, India. Died February 11, 2009, Oakland California, U.S.A. When she was still an teen she won a national singing competition. She went on to earn a Bachelor of Science from Lady Irwin College in Delhi. In 1958 she applied to a Master degree program at the University of California in Berkeley While a student  she attended meetings of the Afro -American Association meeting and marrying the next year Donald J. Harris, a Jamaica born economist.  The couple would have two daughters who grew up in Montreal.  By 1964 she had graduated with a Doctorate Degree in nutrition and endocrinologh. She worked  in the universities Cancer Research Laboratory and went on to research in breast cancer with the University of Illinois as Urbana - Campaign and the University of Wisconsin before working for 16 years at the Lady Davis Institute for Medical Research, Montreal and McGill University Faculty of Medicine. She would also serve on the President's Special Commission on Breast Cancer. The last ten years of her working career were spen at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. (2023)

Interested in the evolution of species, she uses fish as a model system. She has studies and expounded her theories at Concordia University, Simon Fraser University and the University of British Columbia. She has produced several scientific papers and is involved in promoting science among young women through the Society for Canadian Women in Science and Technology. She has earned the Alice Wilson Award from the Royal Society of Canada for her research and efforts with youth.

née Scribner. Born 1927 Chipman, New Brunswick. Died June 27, 1996, Ottawa, Ontario. Mary earned a Bachelor of Science Degree in Civil Engineering from the University of New Brunswick. She worked for the Geodetic Survey of Canada and learned to love practical astronomy and joined the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada (R A S C) where she went on to serve a term as president in 1975-76. from 1964 she joined the Dominion Observatory, Ottawa as public education officer. In 1974 she began working at the National Museum of Science and Technology becoming head of the Astronomy Division and then Senior Curator of Physical Sciences. She promoted public interest about astronomy through teaching, broadcasting and journalism with Sky News the Museum's quarterly publication which she helped to establish. In 1989 she was the recipient of the Civil Service Association of Canada's Merit Award.  In 1990 she received the Service Award from the R A S C. In 1992 she was named Curator Emeritus by the Museum as she retired. Some of her papers hare preserved in the archival holding of the Museum of Science and Technology, Ottawa. (2023)

Maria studied at the University of British Columbia and went on to earn her PhD in London England.  She moved to Saskatchewan to work on the biological warfare agent, T2 toxin. It was in Vancouver, British Columbia that she raised a family while working on platelets with C B S, then University of British Columbia Centre for Blood Research. In between, she taught biochemistry for C I D A in Indonesia, mounted courses for Douglas College in Vancouver, British Columbia, created Science World’s “Opening the Doors” science networking program, and taught Summer Science to northern kids. She is also a Black Belt instructor, teaching TaeKwonDo for UBC. She enjoys visiting school groups with the Scientists and Innovators in the Schools program. She has served as president of the Society for Canadian Women In Science and Technology. S C W I S T. (2017)

née Nejman. Born June 29, 1938, Paris France. Died September 6, 2008, Montreal, Quebec. Annette, as the child of polish immigrants of Jewish descent. she was one of the 'hidden children' who survived Nazi occupied Vichy, France. Returning to Paris after the was the search for her father turned up little or no information. After her mother remarried in 1951 the family immigrated to Canada and settled in Montreal, Quebec. While at school she learned to love playing the violin, a love that would provide her joy all her life. In 1959 she graduated from McGill University, Montreal, with  Bachelor of Science degree in biochemistry. In 1960 she earned a fellowship from Union Carbide Canada Ltd., allowing her to continue fundamental research of cancer cell metabolism. By 1963 she had earned her Doctorate (PhD) from McGill-Montreal General Hospital Research Institute. By 1967 for two years she worked as a lecturer and then became in 1969 and assistant professor in the McGill Department of Anatomy. That year she published her discovery showing where in the cell the major protein of the thyroid gland gains its sugar modifications. This showed that glycosylation was a function of the Golgi as well as that of the endoplasmic reticulum. In 1971 she relocated to Boston, Massauchetts, U.S.A., to work in the Department of Biological Chemistry and Medicine at Harvard Medical School. While at Harvard she found sugar addition to newly synthesized proteins in the endoplasmic reticulum unraveling how sugars were first linked to an enormous fatty molecule known as a dolicholipid.  Returning to McGill in 1971 she became an associate professor at the McGill Cancer Centre. Here at McGill she continued with her cellular discoveries as she co-discovered a novel enzyme called EDEM which can recognize newly synthesized sugar modified proteins that are aberrant and could cause disease. In 1982 to 1988 she held a Fraser Monat Associateship at McGill University. From 1984 for five years she served on the Editorial Board of the Journal of Biological Chemistry.  By 1987 she was a full professor at the Centre and at the Department of Biochemistry. In 1989 she was a Board Member of the Directors of the Canadian Biochemical Society. In 1992 she was also serving at the Department of Oncology. In 1993 for tow years she was a Member of the Council for the Society for Complex Carbohydrates. As a trailblazer for women in science and academia she attended A Women's Action Conference at McGill University in 1990. Annette  contributed to various and numerous research committees including the U. S. Public Health Science and the National Cancer Institute of Canada. She served as Chair of the Graduate Advisory Committee at McGill University and the Fellowship Awards Committee. In 1998 she became a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada and the following year she served as Chair of the Gordon Research Conference - Glycobiology. . Her student enjoyment of playing the violin allowed her to be a member of the I Medici di McGill Orchestre at McGill University. In 2008 the Orchestra held an memorial concert in her honour. Dr. Herscovics was married and had one son. Source: The Canadian Encyclopedia

née Sawyer. Born August 1, 1905  Lowel, Massachusetts, U.S.A.  Died January 28. 1993 Richmond Hill, Ontario. She earned an undergraduate degree in Astronomy in 1926 at Mount Holyoke and took a position at the Harvard Observatory earning her master degree in 1928. Since Harvard University did not grant PhD's to women at this time she attended Radcliff University, Cambridge, Massachusetts, U.S.A. to earn her doctorate degree in 1931.  In 1930 she married Dr. Frank Scott Hogg (d1951) and the couple had 3 children. In 1935 the family relocated to Toronto, Ontario where she worked at the beginning as a volunteer and then as a research assistant at the University of Toronto. A world expert who would receive numerous honours including being a Companion in the Order of Canada, she took her profession to radio and TV in a clear and understandable manner for all listeners. She wrote a book, The Stars Belong to Everyone and a weekly column in the Toronto Star newspaper from 1951-1981 called 'With the Stars'. She served as the 1st woman president of several astronomic organizations.  In 1976 she became a professor emeritus at the University of Toronto. She worked outside of the U of T in 1940-41 when she was acting Chairman of the Astronomy Department at Mount Holyoke College and again from 1955-1956 when she spent an academic year as Program Director for Astronomy at the National Science Foundation in Washington, DC, U.S.A.  In 1983 she became the first Canadian to be awarded the Klumpke-Roberts Award and the first Canadian women to have a Minor Planet (N0. 2917) named Sawyer-Hogg in her honour. In 1985 she married fellow Toronto Professor F. E. L. Priestley (d 1988). 

Baptized September 22, 1664, Champlain, New France (now Quebec). Buried July 1, 1744, Montreal, New France (now Quebec). January 28, 1681 Catherine married Jacques Aubuchon in Champlain. The couple had one daughter. November 3, 1688 Catherine married a second time to Michel LePailleur in Batiscan, Quebec. The couple had at least ten children. The family lived at first in Quebec City and then by 1702 were living in Montreal. Catherine was a well know midwife and  one of the earliest botanists in Canada. She provided her detailed plant reports and specimens to naturalist scientists in France. Her knowledge of herbs increased her reputation as a midwife. She was widowed in 1733. Source: Canadian encyclopedia (accessed 2024)

née Mamelak Born May 14, 1938. Died July 3, 2009, Montreal, Quebec. Rose attended high school on a scholarship. Her summer job was working as a nurses' aid at the Montreal Neurological Institute. Rose was a pioneer for women in science and an advocate for gender equality. She completed her Bachelor of Science degree in biochemistry with first class honours in 1950 and went on to earn her Doctorate Degree (PhD) in 1953. She completed her post doctoral training in the United Kingdom at the National Institute of Medical Research, the Chester Beatty Research Institute and the Strangeways Research Laboratory. In 1954 to 1958 she was a Fellow at the National Cancer Institute of Canada. In 1954 she earned the Moyse Travelling Scholarship with the Faculty of Science, McGill University.  She became a professor at McGill University, Montreal, in 1961. In 1978-9 she served as president of the Montreal physiological Society. In 1978 she received the Queen Elizabeth ll Silver Jubilee Medal.  Rose was the first woman to hold the Gilman Cheney Chair in Biochemistry in 1985 and from 1980 through 1990 she was the first woman chair of the McGill University Faculty of Medicine's Department of Biochemistry. She served as president of the Canadian Biochemical Society in 1985-86 and was secretary treasurer of the International Association for Women Bioscientists from 1985 to 1988. In 1987 she became a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada. She served on the McGill University's Committee on the Status of Women to end sexual discrimination and improve working conciliations for women in science and academia in general. In 1995 she retired from her position at McGill. She is best known for her discovery of Exosomes, a type of extracellular vesicle responsible for the secretion of cell constituents (protein, D N A, and R N A) that can be taken up by other cells. Exosomes are involved in the development of various disorders, including cancer and inflammatory diseases. Rose married Douglas Johnstone and the couple had two sons. The Rose Mamelak Johnstone Bursary supports women researchers at the Department of Biochemistry at McGill University. (2023)

Born 1971? In 1994 she earned her Bachelor of Arts from Seton Hall University in New Jersey, U.S.A. By 1999 she had her PhD from the California Institute of Technology in the U.S.A. Her 1st year after graduation she taught at Boston College in Massachusetts, U.S.A. in 2007 she worked at the University of Toronto in Ontario and has earned the title of Distinguished Professor. She has authored over 125 scientific articles for professional publications. In 2000 she received the Research Innovation Award and the 3 years later she received the National Science Foundation Career Award. In 2008 she was listed by the Globe and Mail newspaper as one of the Top 40 under 40. In 2011 she was the University of Toronto Inventor of the Year. She is the founder of Xagenic that has developed a fast, cost effective way for molecular testing in the field instead of returning to the lab. In 2016 she was one of 12 women Chatelaine magazine chose as Canadians who rocked the world.

née Kenney. Born March 29, 1943, London, England. Died  October 17, 2023, Monaco. Geraldine studied and did research at Oxford and London, England. In 1970 she earned her Doctorate degree (PhD) at the University of British Columbia. In 1974 she organized the first ultrafast laser laboratory at the University of Toronto (U of T). She married Stephen Wallace. In 1979 she earned a Killam Senior Research Fellowship. In 1983 she earned a Guggenheim Fellowship and in 1984 the E. W. R. Steacie Fellowship. She has taught at Ecole Polytechnique, Paris, France, Yale University, U.S.A. and Stratford University, U.S.A., the U of T and done research in Japan. She has served as the chair of the Science Counsel of Canada, and is a Fellow in the Royal Society of Canada. From 1990 to 1995 she was appointed president of McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario. Source: Obituary Online (accessed 2024)

Born December 6, 1874, Owen Sound, Ontario. Died March 3, 1969, London Ontario. After completing high school in London, Ontario, Elizabeth attended and graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in mathematics and physics from University College, University of Toronto (UofT) earning the University's Gold Medal, in 1896. For a year after graduation she taught at the Ontario Ladies College, (now Trafalgar Castle School), Whitby, Ontario. She held a postgraduate fellowship in physics from Bryn Mawr College in Pennsylvania, U.S.A. and went on to study at Humboldt University of Berlin, Germany for another year. While in Berlin she became the first person to use a Nernst lamp for a physics project.  By 1901 she had earned her Doctorate Degree (PhD) in physics and mathematics from Bryn Mawr. Elizabeth was hired by Mount Holyoke College, in South Hadley, Massachusetts, U.S.A. as an assistant in physics. She was promoted to Instructor and the in 1903 she became Head of the Physics Department a position she held for almost four decades. In the summer of 1905 and again in 1909 she studied at Cavendish Laboratory, Cambridge University, England, where she was the first woman accepted to conduct research. in 1913-14 she earned the Sara Berliner Research Fellowship in Wurzburg, Germany. In 1919 she studied at the University of Chicago, Illinois, U.S.A. In 1925-26 she  held an Honourary Research Fellowship at Yale University, U.S.A.  She retired from Mount Holyoke in 1940. Coming out of retirement during the Second World War (1939-1945) she researched radar at the University of Western Ontario, London, without pay, for the Canadian National Research Council. She would present several top secret reports on her findings. In 1945 she was named an honourary professor of physics at the University of Western Ontario and continued with her research. She retied for a second time in 1953. In 1970 the annual Laird Lecture was created at the University of Western Ontario. It was the first lecture series in the Faculty of Science to carry the name of an individual.  Elizabeth established a bequest for the Elizabeth R. Laird Lecture at Memorial University, Newfoundland. (2022)

Born February 7, 1986. Died August 6, 2019, Yukon. Julia graduated in geology from the University of British Columbia.  In 2015 she was appointed vice president of exploration for A T AC Resources Ltd. She was also a partner with Archer, Cathro, and Associates since 2012. Julia was an up and coming well respected star in her field. She died, along with the pilot when their plane crashed. The Julia Lane Foundation was created to continue her passion to encourage young professionals and encourage future generations to pursue advance education in the sciences. Source: Obituary online (accessed 2024); Julia Lane Foundation online (accessed 2024)

Born 1920, Edmonton, Alberta. Died 2004. In 1927 the family relocated to Hudson, Ontario, where Diane learned to love the outdoors and gain an interest in the natural sciences in the Red Lake mining area. She joined the Junior Birdmen of America and had a passion for flying and later she earned her commercial pilot's license. Diane earned her Bachelor of Science degree in Geology from the University of Manitoba in 1943.  She began working with Imperial Oil in Calgary with long postings in remote camps where she was often the only woman. She hiked with full gear at sites in the intense summers of Alberta. In 1947 she was promoted to a senior supervisory position where she uncovered the loss of ornamentation on fossil ostracods in deeper burial sites. She gained international recognition for her works and she formed her own paleontological consulting service. By 1961 she had earned her Doctorate (PhD) from the University of London in England. A year later she earned her D.I.C. from the Imperial College of Science and Technology from the Royal School of Mines, London, England. Her work would lead to new technologies to efficiently and effectively transport petroleum products, and further aid in the locating of additional hydrocarbon deposits across Alberta. She would published numerous articles, for journals as well as academic papers.  After retirement she became a tireless. After her retirement she became a devoted volunteer in her community helping disadvantaged mothers and standing up for rights of seniors at city hall. A lifelong learner she learned to write code in 1971 so she could computerize her paleoecology work. The University of Manitoba offers the Diana Loranger Memorial Scholarship to majors in the field of geological sciences. Source: Breaking new Ground; Alberta's First Women Geoscientists online (accessed 2024)

Born January 20, 1904, Glasgow Scotland. Died April 26, 1959, Pugwash, Nova Scotia. Mary and her family immigrated to settle in Pugwash, Nova Scotia, when she was a child. She earned her Bachelor of Science degree from Acadia University, Wolfville, Nova Scotia in 1933. After graduation she went on to earn her Master's Degree from Radcliffe (part of Harvard University), Cambridge, Massauchetts, U.S.A. working after graduation as an assistant professor of Botany at a women's college in Elmira, New York, U.S.A. In 1938 she returned to Canada to work as an agricultural scientist in the Horticulture Division of the Central Experimental Farm in Ottawa. She gained notice with her work into dehydration in 1942 conducting more than 2,000 experiments. She identified the fact that vegetable need blanching  to inactivate enzymes before dehydration. This helped with fruits and vegetables being shipped dehydrated to Europe for the World War ll (1939-1945) effort. The first booklet on home freezing of fruits and vegetable was published by Agriculture Canada in 1945. In 1952 she became the first women to be a member of the Agricultural Institute of Canada. Source: Canadian Encyclopedia.

Born January 25, 1952, Calgary, Alberta. Died January 10, 2015, Kleefeld, Manitoba. Patricia studied chemistry at the University of Manitoba where she met her future husband. In 1974 she married Gary Martens and the couple had two children. In 1978 she taught chemistry as a high school in Winnipeg, Manitoba. Once her children were grown, Patricia returned to University and in 1999 she earned her Doctorate (PhD) in Health Services from the University of Manitoba. She became a researcher but, she also had a gift relating to people and presented at some 400 conferences where she made even the driest subjects come to life for her audiences. As well as making live appearances she wrote some 300 articles/reports and became a fellow in the Royal Society of Canada and the Canadian Academy of Health Sciences. From 2000 through 2014 she was Director of the Manitoba Center for Health Policy. In 2013 she was inducted into the Order of Canada and was presented with the R.D. Defries Award from the Canadian Public Health Association. Diagnosed with Mesothelioma, an aggressive form of Cancer, usually caused by exposure to asbestos, she was aggressive in her support of the banning of asbestos. In 2014 she was the Justice Emmett Hall Laureate for contribution to health research. Source: Anne Silversides, ‘Researcher Turned Dry Data into Stories’ The Globe and Mail, February 13, 2015.  Suggestion submitted by June Coxon, Ottawa Ontario.

Ornothologist

Born January 11, 1922. A married woman with family, Mabel took an interest in the Quebec Society for the Protection of Birds. She even lectured at local schools and became interested in the scientific study of birds. After the breakdown of her marriage her passion became an obsession. She would grow and develop into a noted North American ornithologist. She has travelled to South America and Africa. She has contributed data to scientific studies and published articles on hawk migration.

née Pearson. Born March 15, 1929, Toronto, Ontario. Died April 27, 2020, Montreal, Quebec. Beverley earned her Bachelor degree in science from the University of Toronto (UofT) in 1952.  By 1956 she had graduated with a Medical degree and continued earning a Masters' Degree in Experimental Medicine at McGill University, Montreal in 1960. While she had been a student she discovered new methods for measuring steroid hormones such as cortisol. She served her residency at the Royal Victoria Hospital, Montreal and by 1964 had graduated from McGill with a Doctorate (PhD) in Investigative Medicine.  She married Dr. Ray Murphy. While she taught at McGill after graduation she later became senior obstetrician and gynecologist at the Montreal General Hospital where she also served as Director of the Reproductive Physiology Unit 1972-1994. She became one of the few women scientists routinely being cited from her articles at the time. In 1969 she was elected to the American Society of Clinical Investigation and in 1989 she she became a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada.  The Canadian Society of Endocrinology and Metabolism presented her with a Distinguished Service Award and was recognized as a Distinguished Investigator by the National Alliance for Research on Schizophrenia and Depression. She was an officer of the National Order of Quebec. (2023)

Born 1932. Died September 2017, Nanaimo, British Columbia. Mary earned  her Bachelor of Science degree from the University of New Brunswick in 1952,. She went n to earn her Master's degree in Zoology from the University of Toronto in 1956 whiled she was working partly in England at the University College London and the Plymouth Marine Laboratory. her doctorate in zoology from the University of California, Los Angeles, U.S.A.  in 1960 and became a third generation female marine biologist. Mary married Hisao Philip Arai (died 2004) and the couple had three sons. The family settled in Calgary in 1963 where Mary was a sessional instructor in Biological Sciences at the University of Calgary. She became an Assistant Professor in 1969. Mary was an international renowned zoologist who was a lifetime member of the Canadian Society of Zoologists. She was the author of the book, A Functional Biology of Scyphozoa, published in 1997 just after she had retired and relocated to British Columbia. She also published numerous papers on jellyfish over the decades. She received a lifetime Achievement award from the International Jellyfish Bloom Symposium in 2013.  Source: In Memoriam Mary Needler Arai by Jennifer Purcell, William Hamner and David Welsh online (accessed 2023)

Born April 20, 1887 Montreal, Quebec . Died April 6, 1971. During her early days of university study Margaret took an interest in diseases that related to Canada stable agricultural product, wheat. She was one of the first women in Canada to earn a degree in agriculture and she was the first Canadian woman to earn a Doctorate (PHD) in agricultural sciences. Her lifetime work in wheat rust was well respected. In 1922 she was invited to Russia to discuss her work. She was the second woman to become a “Fellow” in the Royal Society of Canada. In 1942 she became the first woman recipient of the Flavelle Medal for meritorious achievement in biological science. The list of winners of this award that is recorded online contains no other winners who are women! The University of Victoria named one of its residences “Margaret Newton” Hall. After more than 25 years exposure from her research she was forced to retire because of ill health.

Born March 6, 1913, Solina, Ontario. Died July 29, 1969, Toronto, Ontario. Ruth graduated from the University of Toronto (U of T) with a Bachelor of Science in 1934. The following year she earned her Masters' Degree. She was a member of the initial staff of the David Dunlop Observatory in 1935. she moved up the ranks as a research assistant, Lecturer and then Associate Professor of Astronomy. In 1952 she was elected as a member of the International Astronomical Union where she served on the history of astronomy committee. She was an active member of the American Association of Variable Star Observers and helped to found the Richmond Hill [Ontario] Naturalists. She would serve as president of the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada (R A S C) in 1962-63. She also served as assistant editor of the Journal of the R A S C and became editor in 1956. In 1967 she received the R A S C Service Award. Asteroid 3670, discovered in 1983, was named in her honour. Some of her papers and photographs are maintained in the Archives of the University of Toronto. (2023)

Born September 4, 1881 Lancaster, England.  Died January 31, 1965. She was the first professional hybridist in Canada. (She worked with plants developing new varieties) She joined the staff of the Central Experimental Farm in Ottawa where during her career she originated nearly 200 hybrid plants! Her specialty was lilies and she wrote the first book on lily cultivation in Canada.

née Davis. Born May14, 1955, Kingston, Jamaica. Died February 3, 2016, Hershey, Pennsylvania. Mercedes attended an all-girls high school, St. Hugh's High School , where having all women teachers were an inspiration to her. In 1977 she graduated with a Special Honours Bachelor of Science from the University of the West Indies. Two years later she had earned a Master's Degree in space Science from York University, Toronto, Ontario. In 1980 she married Donald Richards and the couple had two daughters. Her Doctorate Degree in Astronomy and Astrophysics was granted by the University of Toronto in 1986. Dr. Richards worked as a visiting scholar at the University of North Carolina for a year before joining the staff at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville, Virginia, U.S.A. By 1999 she was a professor of astronomy. In 1999 she worked for a year at the Vatican Observatory, Castel Gandolfo, Italy. In 2002 she began working as a professor of astronomy and astrophysics  at Pennsylvania State University. She was a member of the International Astronomical Union. She h led multiple research studies at different international institutions.  her main research interests were computational astrophysics, stellar astrophysics and exoplanets and brown dwarfs. In 2005 she was elected honorary Member of the National Honor Society of Phi Eta Sigma at Pennsylvania State University. That same year she co-founded the Summer Experience in the Eberly College of Science to encourage youth in science research. In 2009 she received the Award for Outstanding Achievement in Astronomy from St. Hugh's High School. In 2001 she received a Fullbright Distinguished Chair Research Award from the Council for International Exchange of Scholars and the Slovak Fulbright Commission. In 2013 she was awarded th Woman Physicist of the Month by the American Physical Society. When she had some spare time she read detective novels, wrote poetry, and played the violin. She was also a linguist  speaking French and with a working knowledge of Spanish, Slovak, Czech and German. (2023)

née Hartl. Born July 21, 1941, Prague, Poland. She earned her Master’s in Chemical engineering from the Technical University in Prague in 1963 and by 1968 she had earned her PhD. Immigrating to Toronto she attended the University of Toronto working as a Post-Doctoral Fellow. In Toronto she married Herbert E. Rosinger on November 27 1969.  She would work in West Germany including served as Vice President of Radioactive Management with the O E C D in Paris, France, 1982-1985 before returning to Canada and settling in Ottawa. She is the author of over 40 scientific reports and papers on environmental issues, waste management, environmental assessment, polymer science and chemical management. She was a member of the Board of Directors of the Canadian Nuclear Association and has been advisor to the Committee on Nuclear Safety and the Atomic Energy Control Board. In 1992-1994 she was the elected Council member of the Association of Professional Engineers of Manitoba. She has also served on the Board of Directors for Employment Projects for Women Incorporated. She enjoys skiing and has served the Canadian Association of Nordic Ski Instructors where she was a qualified cross-country coach, instructor, and examiner. Source: The Canadian Who’s Who, (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1997)

Born 1965. In 1986 she earned her Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Western Ontario (now Western University), London, Ontario. By 1993 she had earned her Doctorate (PhD) from Western. While studying for her advanced degree she had worked with children at local schools helping them learn science and in 1991 she founded ‘Let’s Talk Science” to encourage people to learn of science. She designed programs and gave talks at elementary schools across Canada and the program has had international acceptance. In 1997 she was named by the Financial Post newspaper as one of the “Top 40 Under 40”. She has served and continues to serve on the Board of Directors of various organizations such as the Ontario Genomics Institute, the Board of Governors of the University Of Ontario Institute Of Technology. She is the founding co-chair of the Science and Technology Awareness Network (STAN). In 2006 she was a participant on an expert panel that developed the Ontario Early Learning Framework. She has received the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Medal and the Queen’s Golden Jubilee Medal. She has also earned the Young Alumni Award from the University of Western Ontario and the Y W C A’s Woman of Distinction Award. In 2015 she was appointed a Member of the Order of Canada.

née Walker. Born 1930, Hull, England. Died May 7, 2018, Yorkshire, England. Jennifer had enjoyed life in the great outdoors as a youth. She graduated in 1952  an undergraduate degree in Biology from the University of London in England. for the next six years she was the only woman on staff in the department of biology  teaching at Flatford Mill Field Studies Centre, Suffolk, England. In 1957 she immigrated to Canada and in Winnipeg joined the biology department at the University of Manitoba. She was interested in recovery of plants after severe flooding and  and used this interest to obtain her Master's degree and her doctorate degree (PhD) at the University. She would spend 35 years at the University of Manitoba again as one of the only women in the field. When the University was gifted an estate on the shores of Lake Manitoba, Jennifer became the founding Director of the University Field Station in 1966. After 20 years of working at the field station and introducing and encouraging students in her fiels she retired becoming Professor Emerita of Botany in 1995. In 1988 she became a Member of the Order of Canada and was promoted to Officer in 2000. In 2005 she and her husband, C. Thomas Shay retired to Yorkshire, England. Source: Jennifer Shay, Nellie McClung foundation Amazing women. online (accessed 2024: Order of Canada citation online (accessed 2024)

née Joynt. Born June 11, 1947, Smith Falls, Ontario. In 1971 she earned her Bachelor of Arts from Carleton University, Ottawa, followed by her Masters' degree and then her Doctorate (PhD) at the University of Guelph in 1977. She married Stephen Sheppard November 8, 1975 and the couple have two children. From 1980 through to 1998 she was Senior Scientist and Head of the Ecological Research Station. In 1994 she received the Award of Excellence from the Ontario Ministry of the Environment and Energy. In 1998 she took the position of President of Ecomatters Inc. She is an active member of the American Women in Soil Science and in 1996 she received the President’s Intellectual Property Award. Source: Canadian Who’s Who 2003 (University of Toronto Press, 2002)

Born August 4, 1893, Minnedosa, Manitoba. Died October 15, 1970, Tucson, Arizona, U.S.A. In 1918 Grace became the first Canadian Woman to earn a degree in geology when she graduated from the University of Alberta. Her undergraduate life was filled with membership in the Alberta College Literary Society and with being captain of the girls hockey team. After graduation she worked at the University as an Assistant in the Department of Geology for two years while earning her Masters Degree. In 1922 she was the first Canadian woman to receive a Doctorate (PhD) in Geology graduating, with distinction, from the University of Chicago in Illinois, U.S.A. As a doctoral student she worked summers at the Geological Survey in Ottawa enduring hostility in the male dominated field. In 1923 she was teaching at Ohio State University where she would work for 32 years, having become a full professor in 1946. In Ohio she was a member of the Women's Faculty Group and  was dedicated to the Geological Museum. In 1937 she served as Chair of the Geology Section of the Ohio Academy of Science. She was a Fellow of the Geological Society of America. During World War ll (1939-1945)  she worked at the Office of Strategic Services in Washington for a year. After retirement she moved to Tucson, Arizona, U.S.A.  and then she became an oilfield consultant in Calgary. The University of Alberta offered the Grace Anne Stewart Speaker Series to encourage more diversity in geosciences.  Source: Breaking new Ground; Alberta's First Women Geoscientists online (accessed 2024)

Born June 12, 1920, Vancouver, British Columbia. Died July 3, 2003, Victoria, British Columbia.  In 1942 she earned her Bachelor's Degree and two years later at the University of British Columbia she earned her Masters' Degree. By 1948 she had received her Doctoral Degree from the University of Chicago, Illinois, U.S.A. Her thesis made her a leading authority in the filed of Black Holes. She worked at the Copenhagen Observatory, Denmark and then joined the Dominion Astrophysical Observatory, Victoria, British Columbia. She specialized in the study of very hot blue stars. She took it upon herself to develop and perfect the mathematical equations required to model the atmospheres of hot blue stars. In 1962 she was appointed as professor of stellar astrophics at Utrecht University, The Netherlands. In 1966 she was the author of The Early Type Stars which became a standard. In 1970 she became the director of the new optical astronomy laboratory at the N A S A Goddart Space Flight Centre, Greenbelt, Maryland, U.S.A.  In 1983 she received the Nobel Prize in Physics. She retired in 1985 and returned to become Professor Emeritus at the University of British Columbia, Victoria, British Columbia. She was elected as a member of the Royal Society of Canada. Source Anne Barbara Underhill (1920-2003) Canada under the Stars online (accessed 2023)

Pioneer in Entomology

Born June 23, 1918 Died Pickering, Ontario March 13, 2009. Norah married Dr. Fred Urquhart in 1945 and the couple moved to Highland Creek in Scarborough, Ontario where Son Doug was born. A zoologist with the Royal Ontario Museum and the University of Toronto, Fred had an avocation for the Monarch Butterfly. With very little support the couple began a tagging program from their home to learn where the Monarch butterfly’s of Ontario went each winter. Eventually joined volunteers, it was Norah who answered all enquiries and posted a newsletter to all involved. She attended to public relations including writing an article for a Mexican newspaper in 1972. The article was read by a future volunteer and by 1975 the first Mexican valley of the Monarch’s was located. The couple’s work is considered the entomological discovery of the 20th Century. These pioneers had their work recognized with investiture into the Order of Canada in 1998. Sources: The Star “couples home was butterfly ground zero” (accessed June 2009); Inside Toronto “Norah Urquhart, a pioneer in Monarch Butterfly research”. (accessed June 2009) ; Information was also supplied by Donald Davis, Toronto, Ontario; also personal knowledge.

Born 1960. In 1981 she earned her Bachelor of Science from the University of Western Ontario, London. She earned her PhD from the University of Cambridge, England. 1990-1991 she was a visiting fellow in Sweden and Germany. From 1991-1996 she was a Senior Research Fellow at the University of Oxford, England. Returning to Canada she was a professor at McGill University until 2002. In 1996 she formed Project Seahorse which is an international organization to save seahorses. She was the 1st person to study the seahorse under water and the 1st to document trade of these delicate creatures. She is the author of numerous scientific reports and articles and in 1999 she co-authored a book on seahorses. She has spearheaded documentary films and five full length TV programmes. In 2002 she held Canada’s Research Chair in Marine Conservation at the Fisheries Center at the University of British Columbia, a position that was renewed in 2007. Among her many accolades she has been presented with the Whitney Award for Conservation in 1994, The Rolex Award for Enterprise in 1998, the Time Magazine Leader for the 21st Century in 2000 and the Chevron Conservation Award in 2005. In 2007 she was Woman of the Earth Award winner from the Yves Rocher Foundation. She has created a ‘park’ in the Philippines where seahorses can live. The film: The Secret Life of Seahorses is about this project.

Born May 28, 1927, Hamilton, Ontario. Died November 8, 2016, Falmouth, Nova Scotia. . As a youth Frances enjoyed spending summers exploring nature in Muskoka area of Ontario. She was an accomplished canoeist, long distance swimmer, and a horsewoman. In 1948 she earned her Bachelor of Arts from the University of Toronto (U of T). In 1950 she earned her Masters' Degree in invertebrate paleontology. While a graduate student she worked with the Geological Survey of Canada (G S C) cataloguing samples at the Victoria Museum in Ottawa. In 1950 she took a full time position with the G S C where she was one of only three women research scientists working in field work. In 1951 she was working on her Doctorate (PhD) at Stanford University in California, U.S.A. She earned her PhD in 1954 in Pleistocene paleontology. She would pioneer the use of micropaleontology, the study of microscopic fossils, to make Canada's terrestrial and marine geology. In 1973 she was elected a Fellow of the Royal Canadian Geographical Society. Source: Five Canadian Women Trailblazers in Science online (accessed 2024)

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Born 1907. Died 2000. In 1942 she became interested in the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada at the Montreal Centre. In 1947 she built her own 15 cm reflector for observation of space. Her amateur work was noted by international professionals who declared that her observations could produce scientific results of note. In the 1940's she began a Messier Club, the first of its kind in North America to foster good observing skills. From 1948 through to 1971 she was editor of the R A C S Montreal Centre newsletter, Skyward.  In 1948 Isabel received the Chant Medal. In 1981 she received the R C A S Service Award. For junior members she instituted The Asteroid Club form 1946-1951. She served as the Montreal Centre president in 1951-52. The Montreal Centre observatory was named in her honour in 1987. In 1988 the International Astronomical Union (I A U) named an asteroid 10058 Ikwilliamson - 1988 DD5. The Current Montreal Centre Library is also named in her honour and the R A C S offers a certificate program, the Isabel Williamson Lunar Observing Program, named in her honour. (2023)

Born August 26, 1881 Coburg, Ontario. Died April 15, 1964. During family canoeing and camping trips Alice became interested in fossils.  She began studies at the University of Toronto but ill health caused her to withdraw from these studies.  She began to work in the Mineralogy Division of the University of Toronto Museum, thus beginning her career as a geologist. By 1909 she was able to complete her university studies and  obtained a permanent position as a museum technician at the Geological Survey of Canada in Ottawa as the 1st woman hired by the Geological Survey of Canada. As a paleontologist she described fossils in papers and books. By 1929 she had received a scholarship from the Canadian Federation of University Women and graduated with her doctorate in geology from the University of Chicago. Alice could not participate in field work that would have required her to live in remote regions camps with men. Instead,  Alice lectured and traveled to bring geology to the public, especially children.  In 1930 she was one of the first two women elected as Fellows of the Royal Canadian Geographical Society  In 1935 she became a Member of the Order of the British Empire. In 1936 she was the 1st Canadian woman to be admitted to the Geological Society of American and in 1937 she was one of the first woman to be elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada. Alice did complete some fieldwork at local sites in Ottawa and environs. In 1946 her Geology of the St Lawrence Lowland, Ontario and Quebec was published as the first major geological work in the area. From 1948 for a decade she lectured in paleontology at Carleton College (now Carleton University). In 1991 the Royal Society of Canada established the Alice Wilson Awards for emerging women scholars. In 2005 Alice Wilson was inducted into the Canadian Science and Engineering Hall of Fame. (2019)

Born Montreal, Quebec. Sandra earned her Bachelor of Science, Masters of Science and her Doctorate (PhD) from McGill University in Montreal. She worked for three years in New York, U.S.A. before accepting a position with McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario, in 1969. In 1973 she found that anatomical and functional asymmetry of the brain is present at birth. As a university neuroscientist has been perhaps best known her 1996-1999 research and her study of Albert Einstein’s brain which was donated to her Brain bank.  She has established one of the world’s top brain banks and is cited as a leading researcher in her field. Sandra is married and the couple have one child. She is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada and has been an active community volunteer. She was inducted into the Hamilton Gallery of Distinction in 2007.

Born October 18, 1921, Queretaro City, Mexico. Died May 8, 1972, Waterloo, Ontario. In 1929 the family relocated and settled in Toronto in order to provide the children with a good education. Beatrice enrolled in the university prep courses at Bishop Strachan School in 1935. In 1939 she earned graduation awards in math, sciences, and for having highest overall grades she received the Governor General's Award. She continued her education at the the University of Toronto (U of T) with the first Alexander T. Fulton Scholarship in Science. In her her third year, studying Mathematics and physics, she  the James Scott Scholarship. In 1944 she graduated with her Bachelor of Arts having earned highest marks in all her classes. Right after graduation she joined the W R E N S , the Women's Royal Canadian Naval Service and was assigned to the Naval Research Establishment (N R E) in Halifax, Nova Scotia, to study harbour defences. At the end of World War ll (1939-1945) she was promoted to lieutenant  and served on the N R E's Bangor-Class minesweeper, H M C S Quinte. Leaving the Canadian Armed services she began to study at the Massauchetts Institute of Technology for her Masters degree.  Her thesis would become one of the most detailed analysis of early computing. After graduation she returned to Canada and began working with the National Research Council. In 1948 she was beginning to work  running IBM punch card calculators. She was later went to the United Kingdom to work at the Cambridge Mathematical Department at the famous university. She would design on of the first programs for a new machine and produced a new report that produced tables of prime numbers. The report was published in 1973 as The Origins of Digital Computers. She began to work on her Doctoral Degree (PhD) at Newham College, University of Cambridge but soon returned to Toronto to continue her dissertation at the U of T. By July 1951 she was working at the university Computation Centre and in 1952 completed her doctoral work producing the first PhD dissertation about modern computers. In 1953 she and a colleague began to develop a new computer language with the conversion from decimal to binary and back, allowing programmers to enter numbers in decimal form. It was not until 1960 that Beatrice became an assistant professor and  in 1964 she became an assistant professor of physics and computer science at U of T. In 1965 she relocated to Kingston, Ontario and took up duties at Queen's University to she up their new Computer Centre. In September 1971 she took her first sabbatical at the Department of Applied Analysis and Computer Science at the University of Waterloo in Ontario. In 2014 she was posthumously awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award in Computer Science from the Canadian Association of Computer Science. (2023)

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