Ele Willoughby

Ele Willoughby would rather be on a boat. She’s the sort of person who owns her own hard helmet and steel-toed boots and has a tendency to look at things and think, “I could make that.” Ele’s friends never suspected that she was on to something with her “study physics, see the world” adage, but now her job brings her to some of the most remote parts of the planet.

She received her PhD in physics from the University of Toronto and then spent three years with the Geological Survey of Canada, outside Victoria, BC. On the left coast, she got the opportunity to lead research cruises and play alto saxophone in the Pacific Geoscience Centre band. Ele is now a research associate in marine geophysics at the University of Toronto, where she applies physics to learn what is below the 70% of our planet covered by water. She’s amazed that she gets paid to build machines and lower them to the seafloor to do experiments. Secretly, she’s astonished that such a thing could work.

As a grad student, she used to teach physics for art students, who often ask the best questions. She’s also spent a lot of time trying to make physics more welcoming to women. She believes firmly that anyone can understand the fundamentals of physics and how the world works. Though she does maintain that soldering electronics in a floating lab in high seas is an acquired skill. She likes to spend her time making things like electronics, sculptures, maps, woodblock prints, and oddly-shaped books. She is an avid reader and crafter. Once, in the South Pacific, she was attacked by a spiky sea creature hiding in an electrode, but she doesn’t think it was anything personal. She hopes one day to find a good excuse to visit the seafloor in a manned submersible.