Notables - October 3, 2018

By Craig Bamford

MaRS produces new report on diversity and belonging in workplace

Welcome to Notables for October 3rd, 2018. This week: a set of surprisingly-linked stories about scientific research.

First this week: A new report on bringing more diversity into research in Toronto.

MaRS Discovery District has produced a new report about diversity in science and research; where it's improved, where it may need changing, and what can be done to change it. In particular, they looked at "diversity, inclusion, and belonging"; the often-unseen and underappreciated barriers that can cause women, people with disabilities, people from the LGBTQ+ community, and others from marginalized backgrounds to feel like they don't truly belong in the workplace, and don't feel fully included. This is cited as one of the reasons that women are still underrepresented in tech occupations.

(Often, these exclusions appear in unexpected ways: one story was about how coworkers' family cottages made the respondent feel that their own class background created an impassable barrier.)

What they found in many cases is that employers want to change this, but "don't know how or where to start". They recognize that members of marginalized groups will enrich their organizations, but are confused and often fearful of "doing the wrong thing". They are implementing diversity initiatives, which are having some positive effects, but more needs to be done to ensure that inclusion extends past the hiring stage.

University of Waterloo researchers fixing "cybersickness"

Canada's Professor Donna Strickland wins Nobel Prize in Physics

Finally this week: Waterloo's Prof. Donna Strickland is the third woman to win the Nobel Prize in Physics!

The University of Waterloo's Physic Professor Donna Strickland was announced on Tuesday as one of three recipients of the 2018 Nobel Prize in Physics. Professor Strickland is the first Canadian woman to win the Prize since 1963's Maria Goeppert-Mayer, and the third woman ever to win the Prize - demonstrating how far we still need to go on, as MaRS also revealed this week, on bringing women and other marginalized communities into scientific research.

The Prize was for groundbreaking work on lasers done by Strickland, France's Gerard Mourou, and Bell Laboratory's Arthur Ashkin. Ashkin developed "optical tweezers" that allows lasers to "grab" and move particles, atoms, and even living cells; while Strickland and Mourou were responsible for the "chirped-pulse amplification" that creates the high-intensity laser pulses used in now-commonplace laser-based corrective eye surgeries, as well as a wide variety of other research and industrial applications.

Prof. Strickland said in a statement that "We need to celebrate women physicists because they're out there... I'm honoured to be one of those women".

Notables is a weekly collection of interesting science, technology, investment and innovation reports, press releases and other news bytes from around the web. Notables are curated and written by Craig Bamford.

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The views and opinions expressed in this piece are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of RE$EARCH MONEY.