Honour the women

Finding women to nominate to the Canadian Science and Engineering Hall of Fame shouldn’t be rocket science. After all, Canada is blessed with a wealth of talented female scientists.

Still, for the second year in a row, there were no women nominated for induction into the hall of fame. That led two top Canadian female scientists — Judy Illes, a professor of neurology and Canada research chair in neuroethics at the University of British Columbia, and Catherine Anderson, a member of UBC’s faculty of medicine — to resign in protest from the selection committee.

They did the right thing. Their actions speak volumes and are bringing much-needed attention to female scientists across the country. They are to be commended.

Both women felt the hall of fame wasn’t doing a proper search for top female scientists to honour. Anderson said she was afraid that “if we just kept making suggestions and kept thinking that we’d do them next year, it would always be next year.”

Their resignations have already sparked change. The hall of fame says it has suspended nominations and is looking for a new way to “celebrate outstanding Canadian scientific innovation.”

Still, if they’re looking for women to nominate (only 11 out of 60 in the hall so far are women), they don’t have to look far. How about:

Roberta Bondar, Canada’s first female astronaut and a neurologist who led an international team of researchers at NASA for more than a decade investigating the body’s ability to recover from exposure to space.

Patricia Baird, a member of the Canadian Academy of Health Sciences, the first woman to head the department of medical genetics at UBC and an adviser to the World Health Organization. She was also chair of the groundbreaking Royal Commission on New Reproductive Technologies in 1993.

Judith Hall, an emerita professor in the departments of pediatrics and medical genetics at UBC who will be inducted into the Canadian Medical Hall of Fame on April 23.

Carol Herbert, president-elect of the Canadian Academy of Health Sciences, and a professor at the Schulich school of medicine and dentistry at Western University. She was formerly dean at Schulich and head of the UBC Department of Family Practice, as well as the founding head of the division of behaviour medicine and a founder of the UBC Institute of Health Promotion Research.

We could go on, but we hope the Canadian Science and Engineering Hall of Fame gets our point. A little scientific research on their part is in order.

Roberta Bondar is just one among several deserving candidates