SFU celebrates International Day of Women and Girls in Science

February 11, 2025, marks the 10^th anniversary of International Day of Women and Girls in Science. Established by the United Nations General Assembly, this day supports full and equal access to and participation in science and technology for women and girls—essential for driving innovation and building a better future for all.

In honour of International Day of Women and Girls in Science, learn from SFU researchers who are breaking barriers, closing the gender gap and making their mark at SFU and beyond.

Angel Chang – Faculty of Applied Sciences

At a young age, SFU computing science professor Angel Chang was introduced to BASIC, a computer programming language, by her mother to keep her entertained. But for Chang, programming ‘Rosa the Rabbit’, to move across a computer screen sparked an interest in coding and planted the seed of a career in computing science.

By high school, Chang developed software for academic decathlons, created small programs to visualize different sorting algorithms and explored fractals, but a lack of role models in computing science made it difficult for Chang to envision herself as a computing scientist.

“Most of the famous computer scientists I learned about were not people I could directly relate to, which limited my imagination of what I could potentially do,” says Chang. “Perhaps due to that, I never really imagined being a professor and teaching computer science.”

With no role models, Chang persisted and carved her own path. She went on to earn her PhD in computing science from Stanford University. Now an SFU computing science professor and Canada CIFAR AI Chair, Chang’s research focuses on connecting language to 3D representations of shapes and scenes and building intelligent agents capable of understanding language instructions in 3D environments.

Chang hopes to see more women involved in computer science over the next decade.

“There are now many ways to engage with computing that are not limited to the traditional ‘computer scientist’ or ‘computer programmer’ roles,” says Chang. “Computing now plays a part in every vocation—biologists, doctors, journalists—and understanding and appropriately leveraging technological advances is key to bringing social good for all.”

Read the full story.

Katen Kelly – Faculty of Science

SFU Biomedical Physiology and Kinesiology (BPK) PhD student Katen Kelly was inspired to study neuroscience after watching the experiences of family members with Alzheimer’s and dementia going through the healthcare system at home in Saskatchewan.

Kelly and her supervisor, BPK professor Randy McIntosh, are working in the growing field of cultural and social neuroscience, which takes an interdisciplinary and holistic approach toward brain health.

 “We can scan brains and look at the data, but unless we ask people about their lived experiences and what brain health means to them, we don't fully understand,” says Kelly.

Kelly’s thesis work focuses on understanding the aging process and access to culturally appropriate care for Indigenous elders in B.C., using a two-eyed seeing approach, which incorporates both Indigenous and Western ways of knowing.

“In some cultures, dementia is viewed as a natural way of aging,” she says. “You come into the world knowing very little, and you exit knowing very little. Assuming that cognitive decline is automatically a disease or problem is not always appropriate.”

Kelly notes that Indigenous cultures had ways of taking care of elders long before contact with European settlers. “Looking back into history and into Indigenous health-care practices is going to be so important moving forward,” she says, “seeing what practices worked and how we can implement those now into the health-care system.”

Kelly is collaborating with elders and knowledge keepers to ensure that her research benefits the communities she’s working in and is carried out in a respectful and culturally-appropriate way. “You can learn a lot from listening, and that has been something so pivotal in my research,” she says. “We have a lot to learn from each other.”

“It’s so important to have culturally appropriate front-line care, and to have it accessible to everyone,” Kelly says. “Historically healthcare practitioners and Indigenous people were at a power imbalance and often Indigenous people don’t even want to go into health-care centres because they feel that they’re going to be not listened to or discriminated against.”

“I think it's so important that this is something that we talk about, especially in neuroscience, where research has mostly been on the quantitative side, that we show people that these are meaningful things to research and talk about.”

GET CONNECTED

• Sci-Space Movie Screening: Jane (2017) | February 11, Faculty of Science
  Sci-Space will host a movie screening and discussion of the National Geographic documentary film, Jane (2017), which documents zoologist and primatologist Jane Goodall and her revolutionary work on chimpanzees.
• Academic Women at SFU is a network for support that promotes women’s leadership, career development, advancement and recognition.
• SFU’s Women in Engineering group aims to increase the representation and awareness of nonconforming groups in the engineering profession by organizing mentorship opportunities, networking sessions and socials.
• SFU Women in Computing Science organizes professional networking events, technical workshops and outreach programs aimed at supporting and promoting women in computing science, as well as challenging biases and myths faced by women in the field.
  
• The SFU Women in STEM student club hosts events for students to build connections and expand their skills and knowledge in all fields of STEM.