Sciographies Podcast

In this episode, we interview Dr. Sophia Stone. She’s a molecular biologist and professor in the
Department of Biology at Dalhousie University.

Thanks to mentorship from strong female influences and unwavering commitment throughout
her life, Dr. Sophia Stone built a career in science that can help society answer critical questions
about the future of food security. Her research explores the fundamental principles that explain
how plants respond to their environments and cope with changes. It’s an area of research
that’s especially important today because producing enough food to feed the growing global
population in the face of climate change is an urgent problem in need of solutions.

Host David Barclay sits down with Dr. Sophia Stone to talk about her experience immigrating
from Jamaica to Canada, her career path and research, and her passion for increasing diversity
in STEM fields.

Sciographies is brought to you by Dalhousie University’s Faculty of Science and campus-
community radio station CKDU 88.1 FM in Halifax, Nova Scotia.

For more information on the Imhotep Legacy Academy, visit
https://www.dal.ca/faculty/science/imhotep.html

For more information about Women in Science and Engineering – Atlantic Chapter
(WISEatlantic), visit http://wiseatlantic.ca/

The post Sciographies – Episode 20 – Sophia Stone, Molecular Biologist appeared first on CKDU Podcasts.

In this episode, we interview Dr. Tess Cyrus. She’s an economist and associate professor with
Dalhousie’s Department of Economics.

Dr. Cyrus grew up in sunny California, just a stone’s throw away from Disneyland. As a self-
proclaimed bookworm, she spent hours on end reading anything she could get her hands on.
That natural curiosity sparked her desire to escape the American dream and experience life
outside of the United States. She got her chance in university, when she studied abroad for a
year in Scotland. While there, she had the opportunity to travel throughout Europe to witness
other cultures and ways of life — and that’s when she discovered a passion for international
economics.

Today, Dr. Cyrus is an associate professor in the Department of Economics and her research
focuses on understanding the forces that bring people together. She studies international trade
and bilateral trade flows with an emphasis on how culture plays a role in these processes.
As an educator, she’s also interested in designing and improving the economics curriculum. Her
commitment to putting her best foot forward for students has been recognized with
Dalhousie’s Faculty of Science Award for Excellence in Teaching.

In this episode of Sciographies, Dr. Cyrus talks to host David Barclay about what it was like to
grow up in a storied place like Southern California, why economics was the subject that
captured her interest (after a short stint in chemistry), and some of her most recent studies on
international trade and economics education.

Sciographies is brought to you by Dalhousie University’s Faculty of Science and campus-
community radio station CKDU 88.1 FM in Halifax, Nova Scotia.

The post Sciographies – Episode 19 – Tess Cyrus, Economist appeared first on CKDU Podcasts.

In this episode, we interview Dr. Mark Stradiotto. He’s a chemist and professor with Dalhousie’s
Department of Chemistry. He has also won teaching awards and is the most recent recipient of
Dal’s Arthur B. McDonald Chair of research Excellence.

Dr. Stradiotto wasn’t planning on becoming a chemist until his third year of university, when a
course in inorganic chemistry (and its professor) sparked his interest in the field. From that
point on, he pursued chemistry as a career path and has become a leader in his field.

Today the Stradiotto Research Group at Dalhousie specializes in the study and design of ligands
— these are ions or molecules that bind to metals, and through that action allow the metals to
react in ways that otherwise wouldn’t be possible. Ligands are incredibly useful in
pharmaceutical chemistry, so some of Dr. Stradiotto’s innovations have even been patented
and commercialized for industry use.

Dr. Stradiotto tells us about his high-school years as a drummer in southern Ontario, his
participation in commercializing research, and his approach to teaching chemistry to
undergrads.

Sciographies is brought to you by Dalhousie University’s Faculty of Science and campus-
community radio station CKDU 88.1 FM in Halifax, Nova Scotia.

The post Sciographies – Episode 18 – Mark Stradiotto, Chemist appeared first on CKDU Podcasts.

In this episode, we interview Dr. Tim Bardouille. He’s a medical physicist and assistant professor
with Dalhousie’s Department of Physics and Atmospheric Sciences.

An early fascination with technology and philosophy sparked his desire to study physics. When
he learned about medical physics — a field focused on the role physics can play when applied in
health and medicine to diagnose and treat patients — he pursued it as a career path.

After working in industry for a few years, Dr. Bardouille went back to school to get his PhD and
worked towards shifting to a research career.

Today his research in Dal’s Biosignal Lab explores how to capture and analyze imaging data on
the brain signals associated with disorders of the motor system, with a goal of creating
technology that helps improve patient outcomes.

Dr. Bardouille tells us about his career path, his research, and his experience organizing a Black
Lives Matter protest in Halifax that led to forming Dal’s new Anti-Racism Action Team.

Sciographies is brought to you by Dalhousie University’s Faculty of Science and campus-
community radio station CKDU 88.1 FM in Halifax, Nova Scotia.

To learn more about Dal’s Anti-Racism Action Team, follow @AntiRacismTeam on Twitter or
visit the website here: https://www.dal.ca/dept/hres/equity—inclusion/community-hub/anti-racism-action-team.html

The post Sciographies – Episode 17 – Tim Bardouille, Medical Physicist appeared first on CKDU Podcasts.