Gwen Eadie and Heather McFarlane awarded Dorothy Shoichet Women Faculty in Science Award of Excellence

Faculty of Arts & Science researchers Gwen Eadie and Heather McFarlane are being recognized with the Dorothy Shoichet Women Faculty Science Award of Excellence.

The award is given to early-career female researchers to help them allocate more time towards research.

Eadie is an assistant professor in the David A. Dunlap department of astronomy and astrophysics and the department of statistical sciences, making her the first tenure-track astrostatistics faculty appointment in Canada. Her research aims to answer fundamental questions about the universe with the help of modern statistical techniques. She is also developing methods to learn more about the internal structure of stars.

“Some of my excellent mentors and colleagues in the astronomy and statistics departments have received this award in the past and I’m honoured to be included among this group” says Eadie.

McFarlane, an assistant professor in the department of cell and systems biology, is receiving the award for her research on how plants sense and respond to cell wall changes. This line of research is opening new avenues for growing plant-based renewable bioproducts including paper, cotton, wood, compostable bioplastics and next-generation renewable biofuels.

“I'm deeply honoured to receive the Dorothy Shoichet Award,” says McFarlane. “The award will accelerate my lab's research as we pursue several exciting directions in our efforts to understand plant cell-wall signaling.”

Read the Faculty of Arts & Science story