Engineering - It Runs in the Family.

Hello Steemians!

Here it is - my final introduce yourself post! So you already know that I love to pole dance and that I'm an avid fiddler/music maker. The final aspect of myself that I'd like to introduce you to is the Engineer.

Both of my parents are engineers (Mom is electrical and computer, and Dad is mechanical), and I was actually very disappointed the day I finally discovered that they didn't drive trains! Haha. Needless to say, the influence was always there and when it came time to choose my career path in high school, it seemed like the logical path to take. I'd always been fascinated with the human body and McMaster University was offering a chemical engineering and biosciences double major program that included courses like anatomy, microbiology and nutrition in addition to the standard chem eng courses. It was an amazing 5 years of my life that really taught me how to think and problem solve above anything else. From pulling all-nighters in the engineering library before exams to being one of the founding members of the McMaster Ladies' Concrete Toboggan Team, I made so many memories and friends that I cherish to this day.

Here's a picture of our concrete toboggan team (with me on the far right), right after racing down the hill and winning the "fastest time" award! We created this team because the regular McMaster team wasn't great at giving females lead roles in design and building, so that win was pretty empowering! In our second year competing, we won the "best brake design" award. :)

My liver will never be the same after those concrete meet-ups, but those were some of my favourite times at Mac. Worth it.

Once you complete an engineering degree in Canada, you are given an iron ring during the Kipling ceremony. The ring is a reminder of the ethical obligation associated with the degree. You can read more about why here. It's great to be able to easily identify and connect with other Canadian engineers while travelling!

For the past 6 years, I've been working towards a PhD in chemical and biomedical engineering as a member of the Shoichet Lab at the University of Toronto. It's been simultaneously the hardest and most rewarding experience of my life. My thesis project focused on drug delivery to the brain to treat stroke using biomaterials that allow for sustained delivery of protein therapeutics. A few years ago, the development of this biomaterials delivery strategy with two of my colleagues yielded a pretty high impact paper in the Journal "Science Advances", which is under the "Science" umbrella of publications. We discovered that we could control protein release via electrostatic interactions between the proteins and the nanoparticles we were using - a discovery that could revolutionize the way we deliver proteins in the body. Check out our journal article here!

Here's a photo of me (far right) with my two colleagues, Irja Elliott Donaghue (left) and Malgosia Pakulska (middle), taken during a photoshoot for a press release!

Yesterday was my last day in the lab, and I think I'm still in shock. I've submitted all of the publications required and my thesis is in the hands of the school of graduate studies. The only thing left for me to do is my final PhD defence, set for the first week of September. It's been a very emotional, chaotic and exciting time for me as I leave this amazing environment and people, and move on to my next adventure. There are so many opportunities that have been presenting themselves and I've had to be really honest with myself about what I want to be doing and what I don't want to be doing. That's probably the hardest part about all this - turning down opportunities that you know deep down aren't right for you. But if you keep doing that, you create space for the right opportunities to enter your life. I'm proving that to myself daily.

I'm not sure exactly where this aspect of myself will lead me yet, but I am very much interested in the cannabis industry and the delivery of CBD and THC therapeutics. I think these compounds have great potential for treating a wide range of ailments and with the way things are progressing in Canada right now, it might be a good time for me to get involved!

Are you a woman in STEM? Have you gone through the PhD journey? What was your experience like? Do you regret it? Haha. Hope to connect with some fellow engineers and hear about you're using your degree for!

Thanks again to @jaybird and @dan-atstarlite for introducing me to Steemit! Also, big thanks to @curie and @randomwanderings for the author feature this week! I really appreciate all you're doing for content creators on here!

Stay tuned ;)

Jackie O