Isla Myers-Smith

Isla Myers-Smith spends her summers roughing it in the far north and her winters transitioning between various Canadian cities: Vancouver, Edmonton and Whitehorse. Wherever she is, she loves jamming with folk musicians, scrambling to the tops of hills, and being ecological (not counting the dozen long -haul flights she takes per annum). She is training to become a ‘real’ scientist and is currently a year away from defending her PhD thesis at the University of Alberta – or, at least, she hopes she is. If her PhD had to be summed up in five words, they would be: SHRUBS CLIMB MOUNTAINS; MIGRATE NORTH. Known from an early age as a rabble rouser in biology classes, she has always enjoyed challenging her profs and peers in defense of the scientific method and all things logical. She works to bring the life of a scientist into classrooms, communicating her own research to young and old alike. Isla has learned that a presentation aimed at a Grade 2 class works just as well for a room full of grown-up arctic academics.