Final Team Introduction: Nicolina Farella

Uh, testing… testing.. is this thing on?

Hello blogland. It’s Claire in Toronto. Nicole is off on some well deserved holidays, so I’ll be manning (womaning?) the SIN Canada blog for the next couple of weeks. Today, we’re finishing up our team introductions with Nicolina Farella, Science Officer Extaordinaire, based in Montreal.

As you will read below, Nicolina brings a wealth of diverse experience and interests to the team. Embodying the ecclecticism of Montreal, she is equally at home discussing scientific funding policies, indie music or South American politics. And she does it with style in both languages!

Nicolina Farella

I joined the Science and Innovation Network in September 2010 and I cover Quebec and the Atlantic provinces (Newfoundland, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island). I’m particularly interested in innovative research in life sciences, green technologies , aerospace, environmental sciences, and how the research conclusions can be used to foster policies for a better world. 

I was born in Montreal and always lived here – it is a great place to live: easy to cycle around the city, there are lots of nice restaurants, and it has a very vibrant cultural scene with lots of theatre, music, and movies. Raising a family – I have a 4 year old daughter and a 20 month old son – in Montreal is great, there are lots of parks and the city has a lot to offer to kids and youth!

As an undergraduate, I studied literature and earth sciences, and during my master’s degree I specialized in geochemistry. In 2005, I obtained a PhD in environmental sciences Universtié du Québec à Montréal. My program was very interdisciplinary – I used to call it “ethno-pedology” – at the frontier of anthropology and soil sciences. My primary research, in the Brazilian Amazon rainforest, aimed to find strategies to reduce the impact of slash-and-burn and family agriculture on forest, soil, and river degradation.

 After my studies, I joined the Ecohealth team at IDRC (International Development Research Centre), a non-governmental institution dedicated at empowering action research in the developing world. From 2006 – 2010, I worked for Ashoka Canada, an international organization supporting innovative social entrepreneurship. I coordinated the Selection of Canadian Ashoka Fellows, meeting with the most innovative social entrepreneurs and contributing to expand their social impacts.

I was happy to join the SIN network. Since I finished my PhD I have been away from the science world and it feels good to come back to it. I love to meet with scientists and stakeholders in diverse sectors. I always loved school and was interested in every topic. Now, I get to learn about diverse research topics like brain sciences, marine energy, green aviation.