Josephine Tsang, PhD'06
Executive Vice President, Branches

Josephine’s love for Queen’s began during her co-op term in 1998, working under a Queen’s alumnus while pursuing an undergraduate degree at the University of Calgary. Her mentor, Dr. Garfield Purdon, Sc’67, inspired Josephine to be a nothing-but-the-best chemist and without a doubt in her mind, Josephine “wanted to be just like Garfield when she grows up”.

Attending Queen’s for Josephine’s doctoral degree was an obvious choice. After a very fruitful five years of Dr. R. Stan Brown’s guidance in the Department of Chemistry, Josephine graduated with a PhD in physical organic chemistry in 2006. While at Queen’s, she was actively involved in teaching organic chemistry (aka the daunting “orgo”) to numerous 2nd year undergraduate students, be it in the laboratory setting or in the theoretical side. Spending many late nights in her research lab, Josephine and Dr. Brown’s group invented and patented a novel solution mixture that can destroy CW weapons and pesticides rapidly and safely.

After spending a couple of years conducting post-doctoral research, Josephine returned to Calgary in 2008. She began working as an environmental scientist at O’Connor Associates Environmental Inc., a company founded and established by three Queen’s alumni, Dr. Mike O’Connor (Sc’68, PhD’76, DSC’92), Dr. John Agar (Sc’73, MSc’78) and Mr. Doug King (Sc’70, MSc’75). Now, Josephine oversees the cutting edge research in cementing at Sanjel Corporation, a Calgary-based oil field services company, as Assistant Manager of Corporate Technology Services.

Josephine served as the Branch President of the Queen’s Alumni Group in Calgary between 2010 and 2012. She was award the Branch Marsha Lampman Award in 2011 for her dedication as a Queen’s ambassador. Alongside with her enthusiastic branch executive team and volunteers, the Calgary Branch continues to grow, greeting alumni with many exciting networking events in true tricolour style. Not only has the Branch implemented new twists to the more traditional Branch events, the Branch has also raised awareness to give back to the local community by participating in the Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation – CIBC Run for the Cure and the Underwear Affair for the below-the-belt cancers.

It is public knowledge that Josephine struggles with clinical depression. She hopes that “people have to know that it’s okay to have depression and it is also okay to talk about it”.

When Josephine is not busy with Queen’s events or at work, you can find her spending time with her two beautiful nieces, traveling or taking photos.