This student-led initiative, supported by the Faculties of Applied Science, Science, Forestry and Land and Food Systems, aims to celebrate and highlight the outstanding contributions of Black leaders in STEM-related industries. The series will take place over four hybrid sessions, allowing in-person and online participation.
| Date | Time | Location | Panelist | Presentation Title |
| Thursday January 30, 2025 | 3:30 pm - 5 pm | CEME 1203 | Dr. Abdul-Fatawu Abdulai | Trauma-informed approaches in the design and evaluation of digital health solutions |
| Monday February 3, 2025 | 4 pm - 5:30 pm | CEME 1203 | Dr. Daniel Pauly | Breathing Water in a Warming World: an Overview of the Gill-Oxygen Limitation Theory (GOLT) |
| Thursday February 13, 2025 | 5 pm - 6:30 pm | CEME 1203 | Dr. Love-Ese Chile | Bold Strides Forward - Non-traditional career pathways |
| Wednesday February 26, 2025 | 4 pm - 5:30 pm | CEME 1203 | Dr. Anotida Madzvamuse | Unravelling the mathematics for single cell dynamics |
Meet the Speakers
Dr. Abdul-Fatawu Abdulai
Presentation Title: Trauma-informed approaches in the design and evaluation of digital health solutions
Dr Abdulai conducts research on health informatics, human-computer interaction and health technology design. His program of research seeks to explore how principles of human-computer interaction and trauma-informed care approaches can be leveraged to address inequities in sexual and reproductive health access for marginalized populations. He primarily conducts informatics-related research on endometriosis-associated sexual pains, sexually transmitted infections, and sexual health-related stigma.
Dr. Daniel Pauly
Presentation Title: Breathing Water in a Warming World: an Overview of the Gill-Oxygen Limitation Theory (GOLT)
Dr. Daniel Pauly is a world-renowned fisheries scientist. He is currently the Principal Investigator of the Sea Around Us initiative, a large research project devoted to identifying and quantifying global fisheries trends. He is also a Killam professor at the University of British Columbia’s Institute for the Oceans and Fisheries.
The concepts, methods and software which Daniel Pauly led and co-developed are documented in over 1000 scientific and general-interest publications, and are used throughout the world. This applies to the Ecopath modeling approach and software and FishBase, the online encyclopedia of more than 30,000 fish species, which was recently complemented by SeaLifeBase.
He is a recipient of numerous awards, including the Tyler Prize for Environmental Achievement, the International Cosmos Prize, the Volvo Environment Prize, the Nierenberg Prize, the Frontiers of Knowledge Award in Ecology and Conservation Biology and the Tyler Prize for Environmental Achievement. He was also named France’s Chevalier de la Legion D’Honneur in 2017.
Photo credit: Valentina Ruiz Leotaud
Dr. Love-Ese Chile
Bold Strides Forward - Non-traditional career pathways
Love-Ese is known for mobilizing research to drive meaningful change. Her approach is rooted in values of innovation, accessibility, and impact, incorporating storytelling to facilitate stakeholder dialogues.
She founded Regenerative Waste Labs, a research consultancy to support innovators in upcycling organic waste into circular products, where she led projects spanning biomaterials, climate adaptation policy, and the circular bioeconomy.
Now, Love-Ese is the manager of the BC Agricultural Climate Action Research Network (BCACARN). In her role, she leads a multi-institution network working to increase the climate resiliency of BC's agricultural sector. Her team delivers knowledge mobilization events, develops plain-language research communications, and oversees the planning and execution of projects that build partnerships across research institutions, government, and industry.
Love-Ese holds a BSc (Honours) from the University of Auckland and a PhD in Chemistry from UBC. She recently received a 2024 Clean50 Emerging Leader Award, the 2023 UBC Chemistry Young Alumnus Awad and the 2024 Gloria Baylis Award for Entrepreneurship and Advocacy from the Canadian Black Scientist Network.
Source: About Me — Love-Ese Chile, Ph.D
Dr. Anotida Madzvamuse
Presentation Title: Unravelling the mathematics for single cell dynamics
I recently joined the University of British Columbia as a Full Professor in the Department of Mathematics since October 2022. Before that, I was Professor of Mathematical and Computational Biology at the University of Sussex (2006 - 2022: rising from Assistant, Associate to Professor).
My research lies at the interface between fundamental disciplines (mathematics, numerical analysis, physics, scientific computing) and experimental sciences (developmental, cellular and plant biology, biomedicine) and seeks to propose, develop, analyse and simulate new mathematical and computational approaches applied to experimental sciences. My research areas are in mathematical modelling and analysis, numerical analysis, and parameter inference and estimation. More specifically, I develop bulk-surface-extracellular PDEs in biology, bulk-surface finite elements, bulk-surface virtual elements, bulk-surface geometric PDEs and their applications to pattern formation (bulk-surface reaction-diffusion models), and cell motility (coupling geometric PDEs with multi-physics to study how single and collective cells migrate through complex non-isotropic environments).
I am passionate about teaching both at undergraduate and graduate levels as well as supervising research projects in the areas of theoretical and computational biology.