July 2006 ISSUE
Women’s Science Group Recognizes
Dr. Wirasinghe
As Top Mentor
BY BARBARA CHABAI
PEGG Contributor
Each one of us can benefit from the wisdom and guidance of someone we trust, says Dr. Chan Wirasinghe, P.Eng., recipient of the Alberta Women’s Science Network 2006 Minerva Mentoring Award.
“Whether we are young or old, I think we all need mentors. The expectations of systems and organizations are very complex, so those who have already gone through it all can use their experience to help guide others,” says Dr. Wirasinghe.
Through more than 12 years as dean of the Schulich School of Engineering at the University of Calgary, Dr. Wirasinghe has devoted much of his time to mentoring students. One of them was the first female PhD student to graduate in transportation engineering in Canada.
“I’ve had mentors my whole life,” says Dr. Wirasinghe, who leaves the dean’s position as the longest-serving in his department’s history. “Without that mentorship, certainly my career path would have been very different.”
Dr. Wirasinghe’s path led him to study transportation engineering. He’s published over 150 research papers and received well over 100 citations for his work. After serving as an assistant professor in civil engineering at the University of Calgary, he became founding associate dean of research in engineering before being appointed dean in 1994.
Since then, engineering enrolment at the school has more than doubled. Some of the growth is due to Dr. Wirasinghe’s founding of the university’s Women in Engineering program.
“Twelve years ago, less than 20 per cent of our students were women. We had only two women in a faculty of 96. I felt that if the universities didn’t make the breakthrough, there was no way it was going to happen in industry,” Dr. Wirasinghe says.
“I’m a strong believer that men and women should work together in teams. For engineering to have a real impact on solving the major problems facing society, we need to have both men and women bringing their unique perspectives into that problem-solving milieu.”
Dr. Wirasinghe has personally mentored several women faculty, among them Dr. Janet Ronsky, P.Eng., a renowned professor and biomechanical engineer who was awarded the YWCA Woman of Distinction Award in June 2000.
“It’s a fact that women are under-represented in this area, and I think it’s great if they can find mentorship from a young age to help navigate the engineering and science sector,” he says.
In his personal world, Dr. Wirasinghe has used his mentoring ability as the proud father of three bright career women.
“My wife, Dhamitha, and I always said we would support whatever goals our daughters set for themselves,” he says. “My eldest ended up doing a double degree in commerce and anthropology. She has young children and works part time for an investment company.
“From a very young age my second daughter decided to pursue medicine. My youngest is at the University of Manitoba doing her master’s degree in architecture.”
While none of the Wirasinghe girls chose engineering, they each made their own way in male-dominated fields.
Perhaps that’s because the family never implied that the daughters’ chromosomes would be a career obstacle. “We never said that you can succeed in spite of being a woman, because that’s almost self-defeating,” Dr. Wirasinghe says.
“Once people realize you’re a woman who is on her way, I think a lot of the barriers disappear.”
Dr. Wirasinghe and the University of Calgary’s Women in Engineering Committee, originally chaired by Dr. David Irvine-Halliday, P.Eng., professor of electrical and computer engineering, boosted enrolment by creating a welcoming environment for female students and female staff. Today, about 24 per cent of students are female. In addition, 25 women are on the engineering faculty.
These are impressive numbers, even when the U of C is compared to some of Canada’s largest institutions.
“I can remember one of our departments that had never had a woman faculty member. They went through all sorts of difficulties to recruit and interview, but many women said they weren’t comfortable being the ‘token’ woman in the department.
“We said, no, no, you’re not the token woman — you just happen to be the first,” Dr. Wirasinghe recalls. “Once we successfully recruited one woman, interest simply exploded. We now have seven women in that department.”
Dr. Wirasinghe says that women undergraduates being taught by a mix of female and male professors are empowered with the notion that they too can succeed.
“Our goal is to have at least one-third of our students be women in the next seven years,” he says, adding that he’d also like to see the number of female staff double to 50 out of 170, or 30 per cent of the faculty.
Work remains to be done. “Across Canada, the enrolment of women in engineering has been dropping. While our percentage of women students at the undergraduate level is much higher than average, it too is starting to level off.”
To combat the trend, Wirasinghe says that the engineering faculty is doing all it can to increase its female student population, from awarding scholarships to co-appointing an advocate for women in science and engineering. At the same time, the faculty remains committed to supporting the students already there with educational seminars and mentoring programs.
“It’s not going to be easy, but I believe over time it can be done.”
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About AWSN
The Alberta Women’s Science Network strives to enable women in science to realize their full potential and to attain a higher profile in society. It does this through visibility, networking and programs. Mentor and role model programs are driven by the firm belief that science promotion by example has a major impact on girls and young women.
AWSN’s Minerva Mentoring Award goes to an outstanding Alberta mentor who has made an impact on the lives of others in the areas of science, mathematics, engineering or technology.
Visit www.awsn.com for more information.