New Initiatives to Increase the Role of Women in Science and Engineering
St. John’s, Newfoundland and Labrador, July 15, 2004 – Dr. Tom Brzustowski, President of NSERC, and Kim Keating, Petro-Canada’s Manager of Environmental Health and Safety for Terra Nova, today announced a new $500,000 NSERC/Petro-Canada Chair for Women in Science and Engineering for the Atlantic region. The program will be headed by Dr. Cecilia Moloney, a professor of electrical and computer engineering at Memorial University of Newfoundland.
The new chair plans to introduce programs aimed at girls at the elementary school level to help stimulate their interest in science and mathematics. Dr. Moloney believes that giving young girls the opportunity to explore these subjects through a hands-on approach will encourage them to choose science and engineering as careers.
“The people of Atlantic Canada and science and engineering have a lot to offer one another,” said Dr. Brzustowski. “We want the whole population to take part in that exchange.”
Dr. Brzustowski said that he is delighted that Memorial is hosting the regional chair for the second time and that Petro-Canada has again joined NSERC as the sponsor for the Atlantic program. The previous chair program at Memorial ran from 1996 to 2001 and was headed by Dr. Mary Williams, now Director General of the National Research Council of Canada’s Institute for Ocean Technology.
“Today, not enough women are making their careers in science, engineering and mathematics,” said Dr. Brzustowski. “Our Chairs are intended to make these subjects attractive to more of them.”
Kim Keating welcomed Dr. Moloney’s appointment and underlined Petro-Canada’s deep commitment to diversity in the workplace. “In our business, we recognize the importance of increasing the participation of women in science and engineering. Through this initiative, and others, Petro-Canada hopes to further advance awareness and understanding of the issues associated with attracting and retaining women in these fields.”
Dr. Moloney said the involvement of NSERC and Petro-Canada has raised the profile of these issues and will help to take her initiatives to the next level. “We must ask about the factors in our culture generally, and in the specific subcultures of science, engineering, and academia, which discourage increased participation by women in science and engineering. Then we must ask what we can do to change these factors.”
In addition to elementary school programs, Dr. Moloney says she hopes to increase communication to young women in high school, particularly in rural Atlantic Canada, through newsletters and career profiles. She hopes to reach even further into the community with articles about science and engineering in such publications as parenting and educational magazines. With these efforts, Dr. Moloney hopes to break down barriers and significantly increase the number of women in her profession.
Dr. Moloney has been with the Faculty of Engineering and Applied Science at Memorial since 1990. She has also worked with Bell-Northern Research in Ottawa, and with the Institut national de la recherche scientifique – Telecommunications at the Université du Québec in Verdun. She teaches mainly in the areas of systems and signals, and signal processing. Dr. Moloney’s research is motivated by an interest in using nonlinear computational methods effectively for applications in digital image processing. She has made substantial professional contributions, including serving as a member of various NSERC committees.
Science and Engineering Research Canada (also known by its acronym NSERC) is a key federal agency investing in people, discovery and innovation. It supports both basic university research through research grants, and project research through partnerships among postsecondary institutions, government and the private sector, as well as the advanced training of highly qualified people.
For more information, please visit the Faculty of Engineering and Applied Science at the Memorial University of Newfoundland at http://www.engr.mun.ca/people/cwse/.
Contacts:
Suzanne Godbout
Communications
NSERC
Tel.: (613) 943-0310
Fax: (613) 943-0742
E-mail: suzanne.godbout@nserc.ca
John Downton
Director of Communications
Petro-Canada East Coast
Tel.: (709) 778-3692
Fax: (709) 724-2901
E-mail: jdownton@petro-canada.ca
Michelle Osmond
Communications Coordinator
Faculty of Engineering and Applied Science
Memorial University of Newfoundland
Tel.: (709) 737-8287
Fax: (709) 737-4042
E-mail: mosmond@engr.mun.ca
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