Stephanne Taylor

Q & A with Stephanne

Where did you go to high school?
Richmond Hill High School, in a suburb north of Toronto.

What made you choose Guelph?
I liked that it was an open, friendly place. When I was applying for university, I visited all the campuses I was applying to, and the people at Guelph were the most welcoming. I figured all the universities I was applying to were reputable places, and I would get a good education at all of them, but I realized that feeling at home and welcome was important to me, and the other places were not so open. I felt that Guelph wanted me, not just my tuition money.

What made you choose to do an undergrad degree in physics?
I ask too many questions to be an engineer! I've been interested in how the world works, physically, since a young age, so there isn't really any specific thing I can point to and say "this is why I took this path." I had really good science and physics teachers (and math teachers, too) in high school, and their enthusiasm and encouragement certainly helped colour physics as an interesting field to study.

What did you like about studying physics?
Physics is very flexible, and I like that with an understanding of fundamentals, I can apply my knowledge to a wide variety of applications. The work I'm doing now is very different than my MSc work, and the work I anticipate doing in my PhD is very different than anything I've done before. While specific fields within physics require some specific knowledge, I can move to a different area of study fairly readily. That flexibility also makes connections between different fields, and I think that's very important. Academia does not occur in a vacuum, and fostering links between different fields of study within physics and beyond physics is important and enriching.

What did you do for fun when you were an undergrad?
I sang in the university choir throughout both my degrees, and I can't recommend it highly enough. It has great community, hilarious people, and fantastic music too.

Favourite place to eat in Guelph?
The Cornerstone, though not so much for the food, but for the fact whenever anything significant happened in our lives, my friends and I would go to Cornerstone and either celebrate or commiserate. The food's not bad, though.

Favourite place to hang out on Campus?
The Grad Lounge, since it has the most comfortable chairs and enough background noise to be easily blocked out, but not so much that I can't hear myself think.

What keeps you grounded?
I try to keep my work in perspective, and I make sure that physics is not my entire range of knowledge. It's easy, as a student, to just get lost in university life, and it's important to me that I keep an eye and ear tuned to the outside world.

One of your dreams for the future?
I'd like to translate my academic work into something tangible and practical that reaches people who otherwise wouldn't have any (or little) interest in physics or science.