Panelists

RHN '09, SingularityU Canada Executive Program 2018, PN 2010-Present

Entrepreneur, former elite athlete, founder of Branch Out Neurological Foundation and Health Lead at Thin Air Labs Inc. Crystal has a range of experience that provides unique insight into investing in the health care space for significant human impact and outsized returns on investment.

She has a nationwide network of public, private, governmental, and charitable leaders. Her experience, network and competitive spirit allow her to bring solutions to ventures that accelerate their growth. As the founder and Director of Branch Out Neurological Foundation she has raised over $3 million for neurological research in universities across Canada. ​

Crystal's varied career path gives her a special perspective into the many - perhaps unexpected - journeys that can be part of a career in science. She is looking forward to helping our panelists tell their unique stories.

MSc '15

Bethany is a research scientist and co-founder of Carbin Minerals Inc—a University of British Columbia (UBC) spinoff that just received the 1M XPrize from the Musk Foundation. She earned an MSc in hydrogeology at the University of Calgary, where her thesis work focused on dissolved gases in groundwater. For the past several years, she has worked in the Department of Earth, Ocean, and Atmospheric Sciences at UBC as a Research Scientist and Research Projects Manager for large interdisciplinary research programs. 

PhD '93

Gijs is the Chief Scientific Officer for Genome Alberta and serves on the UCalgary senate. He is also an inventor on 24 issued patents and a co-founder on two technology companies. He completed a PhD degree at the University of Calgary in Plant Molecular Biology in 1993. Post graduation, he worked at Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, SemBioSys Genetics, Genome Prairie and Genome Alberta where he serves as its Chief Scientific Officer. Gijs is an inventor on 24 issued patents and a co-founder on two technology companies. Outside of research and business, he is serving as a mentor and judge for UCalgary's Master of Biomedical Technology programme and has been a Calgary Youth Science Fair judge for 20 years

PhD '19

Teddy is a senior researcher in the RiSE Group at Microsoft Research in Washington, DC. He was the first person to receive an entrepreneurial PhD – the first in Canada – from UCalgary in 2019. Teddy's work encompasses a number of areas, including using Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) to design and explore wearables and fashion-technology, physical computing, modular devices and creative tools/prototyping experiences. Some of his research work has been featured in Forbes Magazine, Gizmodo, and other major publications. He has co-founded several startups, completed crowdfunding campaigns, shipped products, and participated in competitive business accelerators. He is also passionate about STEAM Education and encouraging young people from diverse backgrounds to consider careers in science.

BSc ’02, MSc ’04, PhD ’09

Emma is an assistant professor in the Department of Physics and Astronomy, Canada Research Chair in Geospace Dynamics and Space Plasma Physics at UCalgary, an associate director for the Auroral Research Group (which works with NASA and the Canadian Space Agency). As Canada Research Chair in Geospace Dynamics and Space Plasma Physics, Emma is developing observational techniques that broaden the scope of the information available to us about the near-Earth space environment. She and her research team are using these techniques to study a range of space science problems and to advance applications for monitoring and predicting space weather. She volunteers with ExploreSTEM and other community initiatives. In 2020, she was named among Avenue Magazine's Top 40 Under 40. 

BSc '18, MBT '19, Med '25

Daria is co-founder at Purley A&D Consulting. She is also an author, Arch Award Recipient (2020), and a current medical student (UCalgary Med '25) after earning her Master of Biomedical Technology in 2019. She is a strong supporter of Alberta's startup community, with a passion for bridging the gap between innovation and commercialization. She has not only excelled at the highly competitive Creative Destruction Lab-Rockies, but has also impressed many potential investors, strategic partners, industry experts and customers. Daria's talents are not limited to science; when she’s not working on accelerating her startup, she enjoys writing and performing songs.