Professional Development and Career Exploration for Early Career Researchers
Writing Impactful Cover letters.
In this workshop led by Bob Laxdal and Kurt Dehnel we will examine what makes a good cover letter, including perspectives from both academia and industry. After learning some of the core principles of marketing yourself in this medium, we will critique some example cover letters together.
Career Panel and Speed Mentoring
This networking event is focused on how to make a career out of a grad degree in physics. The event will feature a 1 hour panel discussion with panelists coming from a range of industries in diverse fields around Vancouver and beyond to showcase career opportunities for those with a physics background. Learn all about what paths are available and how to follow them after you graduate!
The panel will be followed by a 1 hour “speed mentoring” session of small group discussions lead by individual panelists and other mentors from Science Week/TRIUMF. This is your chance to build connections with people who have made a career out of the skills they learned doing physics!
Git Crash Course
Git is a version mangagement tool used to track the history of your documents. When you inevitably make a string of changes to your once functional code that now breaks everything, or when you are trying to collaborate with others on the same analysis procedure, git has your back. In this interactive workshop we will learn the fundamentals of not only how to use git, but what best practices to follow to make your life as easy as possible. Please bring your laptop.
Panelists and Speed Mentors
Aminul Islam
Dr. Aminul Islam is a materials engineer and researcher specializing in tribology, materials characterization, and failure analysis. Over his career, he has authored more than 100 research articles and technical reports. Recognized as an expert in tribology, Dr. Islam serves as a committee member for the ASTM G1 and G2 Standard Committees and regularly reviews proposals for CFI, NSERC, and MITACS, as well as for leading journals such as Engineering Failure Analysis,Wear, Tribology International, and the International Journal of Hydrogen Energy. Currently, he co-chairs the Canadian Hydrogen Codes and Standards Working Group (CSWG) and leads the hydrogen materials compatibility research at NRC. Dr. Islam also holds Adjunct Faculty positions at both UBC and Dalhousie University, where he mentors and co-supervises highly qualified personnel (HQPs).
Claire Preston
Claire is a diagnostic engineer and technical project manager at General Fusion. She completed her B.Sc. in Physics at McMaster University, which included a co-op term at TRIUMF working on TRINAT. She then went on to complete a M.A.Sc. at UBC in Electrical and Computer Engineering, where she played a key role in managing several industry and academic collaborations, before joining GF. Her project management role has recently involved the successful coordination of the design, implementation, and commissioning of the plasma and compression diagnostics suite for the first experimental campaign of GF’s LM26 fusion demonstration machine, which is currently compressing large-scale magnetized plasmas with lithium. Her engineering areas of focus are development of laser-based, high-speed imaging, and electrical measurement systems, including computer vision and other data analysis algorithms for 3D reconstruction.
Elizabeth Fisher
Elizabeth Fisher is an electrochemical device technician and Technical Officer at National Research Council Canada’s Clean Energy Innovation research centre. As part of the Electrochemical Testing Team, Elizabeth maintains high quality labs and testing facilities, and performs benchtop-, device- and stack-level testing across many technologies, including water electrolysis, fuel cell and redox flow batteries. As part of her commitment to mentoring and her efforts to provide a sense of community among young researchers, Elizabeth co-founded the Early Career Advisory Committee within her research center.
Emma Murowinski
Emma Murowinski is an ocean physicist, development manager, and product manager, with industry experience ranging from power utilities and tug boats to research instrumentation. After completing her graduate studies at UVic, she worked for several years at an ocean instrumentation company where she developed scientific and technical training courses for universities and companies around the world, as well as provided scientific guidance and software development to customers.
Now, Emma specializes in leading technical teams to implement cutting edge scientific software solutions and unify the technical, business, and human challenges facing companies and our world. She holds a masters in Ocean Physics from UVic and a Bachelors with Honours in Physics and Math from Acadia University.
Emma is currently on sabbatical and spending a lot of her time climbing rocks. You can connect with her at https://www.linkedin.com/in/emurowinski/
Meir Deutsch
Meir Deutsch is a seasoned technology and innovation leader with over 30 years of experience in research, product development, and project management. He holds a BSc and MSc in Electrical Engineering, as well as an MBA.
Until recently, he served as Technology Transfer Manager at UBC, driving the commercialization of cutting-edge research. He previously held a leadership role at TRIUMF Innovations and co-founded IKOMED Technologies, a medical device company focused on reducing radiation exposure during minimally invasive surgeries. He also co-founded Nanotis Technologies, a venture that developed power electronics solutions for solar energy applications.
