Living Proof: Anita Layton – one of Canada’s most powerful women

In this episode we meet the irrepressible Anita Layton. As well as leading a busy research team, Anita also spends much of her downtime fostering diversity and mentorships throughout her networks, and is professionally engaged across disciplines as distinct as applied mathematics, computer science and the medical sciences. She was also voted one of 2021’s top 100 “Canada’s most powerful women”.

We are very pleased to host this episode of the Living Proof podcast as part of our collaboration with the wonderful  Isaac Newton Institute.  Plus editor, Marianne Freiberger,  joined the INI's Dan Aspel to interview the irrepressible Prof Anita Layton of the University of Waterloo, when she was a guest at INI for a week-long workshop on kinetic theory.  You can find out more about this fascinating area of maths on Plus.

Thank you to Dan and the INI for allowing us to host this episode of Living Proof on our podcast.   You can find all the content from our collaboration with the INI here.

00:00 – Introduction

00:58 – Welcome

01:50 – Attending the “Frontiers in kinetic equations for plasmas and collective behaviour” workshop

06:44 – How do you stay on top of multiple fields? (“I don’t always understand every single slide in a talk!”)

12:50 – Fostering diversity in the sciences, connecting mentorships between different generations of female mathematicians

17:30 – Mathematics for “social good”? (“It excites me to do something that has meaning, that is impactful”)

19:16 – A personal history in the sciences, “I told you I don’t have a math degree. Let me tell you why…”

24:00 – Connecting kinetic theory, kidneys, blood flow and more