My decision about where to attend university was not difficult. With access to a world-class university in Montreal, why would I go anywhere else? At Westmount Senior High School I was enrolled in the Latin stream. The only science course I took was chemistry. Since my amazing chemistry teacher had ignited my curiosity about the world of atoms, I enrolled in the Science Program.
I will never forget the excitement of my first year at McGill. Class and campus activities soon introduced me to people with different backgrounds. Unlike my struggles with Latin, my brain lapped up mathematics, chemistry, and physics and I discovered that helping my fellow students to understand a concept was the best way to learn.
In second year I entered Honours Chemistry to concentrate mainly on chemistry with some courses in mathematics and physics. Making friends in the Arts faculty, it was exhilarating to hear their discussions on literature, psychology and political science. I found time to “read” English and Italian courses, joining in class discussions without the burden of exams.
After my second year, I worked in the Physical Chemistry Lab during summer break which introduced me to scientific glass blowing. Recently this memory was recalled watching “Blown Away” on Netflix, a reality contest on artistic glass blowing.
After my third year, my summer job was in the Nuclear Chemistry Lab where I collaborated on a journal article with my mathematics professor.
Since exploring the smallest constituents of matter was what first captured my imagination, I chose to continue my education with a PhD in Nuclear Chemistry. My research director Leo Yaffe was one of the professors who did not think it a waste of time and resources to give women a higher degree. Ultimately graduate school taught me how to be open to new ideas and led to a career that involved science education through classroom teaching, creating science cartoons for children, writing computer programs as aids to learning, and researching methods of physics teaching.
My undergraduate experience at McGill was during the pre-calculator era. Our lab had a huge mechanical calculator to do the calculations and tables were used to look up trigonometric functions. These operations are done today with a small handheld device.
It was the time of mainframe computers. Having written computer code, one had to create a punch card for each line of code, then submit a huge stack of cards to the computer which filled several floors in the Engineering Building. The result was returned a few weeks later, inevitable corrections meant another round or two until the desired result was attained.
My years in graduate school coincided with the development of transistors for space flight. When an electronic instrument did not work, its vacuum tubes had to be tested. By the time I graduated, the instruments were compact and complex.
My research involved bombarding targets at the McGill Cyclotron, then working with radioactivity in a dry box (where I used to get an itchy nose, unable to scratch it with both gloved hands immersed in the dry box). My fellow grad students showed me how to repair the motors of the vacuum machine used to keep dangerous fumes from escaping.
After several years I married. An unexpected pregnancy meant that it was dangerous to work with radioactivity. Dr. Yaffe gave me that year off. I wrote my thesis while expecting my second child. When I practiced the speech for my oral defense in my kitchen, my three-year-old son asked why I was talking so much! I picked up my degree on graduation day between nursing sessions with my new baby girl.
For three years, I took a rest from science to concentrate on looking after my family. I then was asked to join the physics program for the interim CEGEP that was being organized on the McGill downtown campus. It was the education I had received in graduate school that gave me the confidence to change fields from chemistry to physics, increasing my knowledge of physics as needed. It was stimulating to work with professors, who aside from their research projects, were enthusiastic to develop methods to improve the teaching of physics. I enjoyed teaching in both classroom and laboratory settings. I also ran a resource centre where students could receive individual tutoring as well as encouragement with special projects.
After several years I left McGill to become a professor of physics at Vanier College. My connection to McGill continued through my second marriage to a McGill physics professor. I joined him as a collaborator in an international high energy physics experiment. The ability to write computer code that I had learned as a graduate student served me well.
I value the McGill experiences and opportunities that helped enrich my life. My advice to students is to select areas of study that capture your imagination.