Twelve female scientists will get a chance to command Windsor audiences this weekend, as they stand atop soapboxes and describe their research in a fun, public, and interactive way during Soapbox Science Windsor.

The event is part of an international project to bring science to the people and challenge gender stereotypes in science careers. It will transform a public area into an arena for public learning and scientific debate as women scientists share their research in medicine, physics, biology, computer science, psychology, and artificial intelligence.

The three-hour event on Saturday, May 12, will see four scientists speaking concurrently for one hour on their individual soapboxes. Each hour, four new researchers take their turn in a rotation.

Windsor’s organizer Rosa-Maria Ferraiuolo, biology research associate, participated in Soapbox Science Toronto 2017, the first-ever Canadian event.

“It was one of the best experiences I had speaking about my research,” says Dr. Ferraiuolo. “With such fantastic research going on in Windsor, it’s important to showcase the talent and the research we have right here at home and now we’ll get to hear from 12 spectacular women from the University of Windsor and Windsor Regional Hospital, who are doing fantastic work and are changing lives daily.”

The speakers and their discussion topics are:

• Kalyani Selvarajah – Artificial intelligence in social network analysis for knowledge extraction
• Ikjot Saini – Smart connected vehicles
• Bre-Anne Fifield – When good cells go bad
• Julia Borsatto – Breaking Barriers: Communication without words
• Megan Mickle – Noise pollution impacts on Laurentian Great Lakes fish species
• Chitra Rangan – Illuminating the Nanoworld: Light in nanotechnology and medicine
• Dan Xiao – Women in hard-core science
• Dorota Lubanska – Brain cancer therapy in the works: The third dimension
• Barbara Zielinski – This vampire needs a nose
• Ingrid Qemo – Reverting cells to stem cells
• Sindu Kanjeekal – Genetic signatures and cancer
• Caroline Hamm – progress in cancer research

UWindsor’s Soapbox Science event will be held from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Saturday, May 12, outdoors between Essex Hall and the CAW Student Centre. It is supported by the University of Windsor Alumni Association. Follow Soapbox Science Windsor on Twitter.

Sara Elliott