As we continue to celebrate Asian Heritage Month, I’d like to take the opportunity to highlight a few Asian Canadians and their contributions in the STEM. This is especially important to me as someone engaged in STEM outreach in Canada. Each of these individuals have improved STEM spaces by:
- Being the representation that young Canadians need;
- Making it their mission to foster more inclusive STEM spaces;
- Both
- Online Kyne: Kyne is the stage name for Kyne Santos, a world class drag queen, YouTuber, and mathematics communicator. Kyne uses social media to make short-form math videos where she tells riddles, gives lessons on history’s greatest mathematicians, and teaches her followers how to spot misleading statistics in media, all while dressed in high-glamour drag.
- Vanessa Raponi: Vanessa is the Founder of EngiQueers Canada (EQ), a national non-profit that advocates for intersectional queer inclusion in the engineering profession. Today, she is a Product Development Engineer (P.Eng. & PMP) at Spin Master — a Canadian founded, international toy company (aka… Vanessa makes toys for a living)
- Linda Dao: Linda works with the Canadian Space Agency to find solutions to healthcare challenges common to both deep space astronauts and Canadians living in remote and medically isolated communities.
- Dr. Irene Uchida: Dr. Uchida introduced cytogenetics, the study of chromosomes and heredity, to Canada. In the 1960s, she alerted medical science to a possible connection between radiation and chromosomal abnormalities.
- Dr. Joanne Liu: Dr. Joanne is a Canadian pediatric emergency room physician and former International President of Médecins Sans Frontières/Doctors Without Borders (MSF). While president of Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), she and her organization were on the front lines of the world’s first Ebola epidemic.
- Farah Qaiser: Farah is a graduate student at the University of Toronto where she uses DNA sequencing to better understand neurological disorders. When not in the lab, Farah is involved in various science policy, outreach and communication initiatives in an effort to build an engaging and inclusive science culture here in Canada.
- Saadia Muzaffar: Saadia is a tech entrepreneur, author, and passionate advocate of responsible innovation, decent work for everyone, and prosperity of immigrant talent in STEM. She is the founder of TechGirls Canada, the hub for Canadian women in science, technology, engineering, and math.
It is worth noting that it took a great deal of exploring to compile a diverse list of Canadian professionals in different STEM fields. While doing research, the following became evident:
- Some resources focused on certain Asian groups over others (remember, Canada is home to folks with East Asian, Southern Asian, Western, Central and Southeast Asian heritage).
- This could mean that their definition of “Asians” is not comprehensive of all parts of Asia, or that there simply is not enough representation of certain Asian groups in STEM.
- Asian heritage is so rich and diverse that representation of one Asian group does not mean representation of another. This is true for other ethnic groups as well.
My hope is that this list is used in STEM classrooms to help students see themselves in these spaces. My goal is to continue to add to and diversify this list as I meet and learn more about Asian Canadians in STEM.
With gratitude, Abbey
ABBEY RAMDEO 