International Women’s Day – March 8 – is an opportunity to recognize women’s achievements in our community and around the world, as well as to reflect upon the ongoing efforts to achieve equity for women.

Today, the Gazette takes a look at some of the key accomplishments, events, and women – mentors and role models, visionaries and trailblazers, leaders and supporters, faculty, students and staff – who are making a difference over the past year here at Queen’s University and beyond.

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Pioneering Queen’s chemistry research gets $24M boost
Canada’s New Frontiers in Research Fund supports novel research, led by Principal Investigator Cathleen Crudden, that could extend the lifespan of metals and potentially save billions across the infrastructure, microchip, and health care industries.

Narrowing gender gaps in engineering
Heidi Ploeg, Queen’s Chair for Women in Engineering, discusses strategies to engage and retain female students and researchers in traditionally male-dominated fields.
 

Queen's announces next Dean of Smith School of Business
Wanda Costen, an experienced senior administrator, researcher, and professor, was appointed to leadership role for a five-year term.
 

New Vice-Principal (Research) appointed
Nancy Ross, accomplished research administrator and renowned expert in population health, is leading the research portfolio for Queen’s.
 

Recent Queen's graduate earns Rhodes Scholarship
Jane Hutchings was selected for a prestigious scholarship to pursue postgraduate education at the University of Oxford.
 

Canada Research Chairs announced for Queen’s
Katherine McKittrick. Caroline Pukall, Kimberly Dunham-Snary, and Ying Zou are among six faculty members appointed to program advancingthe country’s position as a leader in discovery and innovation.

Early career chemist earns Ontario’s Polanyi Prize
Farnaz Heidar-Zadeh is advancing innovative computational molecular design techniques to support new drug development and other applications.
 

Queen’s students awarded national scholarships
Eight female doctoral students earn prestigious Vanier Canada Graduate Scholarships for exceptional scholarly achievement and leadership skills.
 

International leadership in cancer recognized with 2021 Gairdner Award
Queen’s researcher Elizabeth Eisenhauer  received the 2021 Canada Gairdner Wightman award for outstanding leadership in medicine and medical science.
 

Queen’s professor recognized with provincial award
Maha Othman receives the Minister of Colleges and Universities’ Award of Excellence, which recognizes faculty, staff, and graduate students who have stepped up and made a difference during the pandemic.

Queen’s student earns UNDP fellowship for social enterprise
Stephanie Forster Limage selected to help drive technological innovations which have a social impact and advance the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals.
 

Queen’s researchers elected to the Royal Society of Canada
Karen Lawford and Sari van Anders are amongst four rinducted into Canada’s national academy.

 

Training Canada’s future health data workforce
With $1.6 million in funding, NSERC’s CREATE program is supporting the implementation of an experiential graduate training and research program in medical informatics at Queen’s led by Parvin Mousavi.

Neurosurgeon named one of Canada’s Top 40 under 40
Teresa Purzner is making a difference as an assistant professor in the Queen’s Department of Surgery, researcher at Kingston General Hospital Research Institute (KGHRI), and clinical neurosurgeon at the Kingston Health Sciences Centre.

Queen’s PhD candidate finishes second at international 3MT competition
Samantha Twietmeyer earns runner-up honours at the 2021 Matariki 3 Minute Thesis with her presentation ‘Scared of what’s behind you – Negotiating a double minority dilemma’.