Flying to Lisbon for a week and speaking at Web Summit, the biggest technology conference in the world, was one of the most incredible experiences I've had in my life. I lived with ten other students from The Knowledge Society and three directors, met inspiring people every single day, had interviews with Forbes, gal-dem, and Showrunner Magazine, and learned how to network at my first in person conference. One night I even got to eat at the Royal Palace which was unreal! The entire trip was pretty mind blowing and I made life-long friends and connections, and on top of this got to run a roundtable on women in STEM as well as MC the DeepTech event for a whole afternoon. I am still waiting for the recording of this but will be sure to post it in my next newsletter.

Last month I was named one of Canada's top 100 most powerful women in the Manulife Science & Technology category, and this month I got to attend an awards ceremony, VIP wellness event, and virtual two-day Leadership Summit and Gala. I also got to go to a "champagne brunch" where I baked a giant pancake with Mary Berg, one of my favourite chefs! This was such an incredible experience; not only did I get to meet so many excelling women but I also attended panels and talks which were beyond inspirational. Was honoured to featured in the National Post which you can see below!

Every year the Pollution Probe organization gives away the Pollution Probe award to someone who has made contributions toward advancing environmental protection and sustainability, where past winners include Chris Hadfield and the organization Ocean Wise. This year their theme is 'Code Red' and their conference is spotlighting youth. I was very honoured to be named the recipient of the 2021 Pollution Probe Award where I got to attend their gala, listen to a speech by the environment minister, and give a keynote on my vision for the path to net zero. 

This month I continued my pursuit to get starch out of my duckweed, and once again failed! I am now pivoting to enzymatic saccharification and have been doing tons of research as I didn't know very much about it. One big skillset I've taken away from this has been writing scientific protocols. I've realized that the amount of detail (eg measurements) is highly influential, and also learned how to look through 10 procedures and make one that fits my project. I also learned how an HPLC works, and how to do molar calculations. With failure comes learning!

This month I had an interview with The Feed on SiriusXM that aired 9 times on the radio across North America. Their show has 500,000+ listeners and I was so grateful to get this opportunity (thank you to TKS for making this happen)! I talked with Amber Mac and Michael B about technology's role in climate change, what's next for me, and how I got introduced to STEM.

Kristina and I released two more episodes of The Curiosity Podcast this month. The first was with Fuad Ali, a software engineer at Twitter, and the second was with Kasha Sequoia Slavner, the award-winning documentary filmmaker of The Sunrise Storyteller which she began when she was 16 years old. Give the episodes a listen and let us know what you think!