Materials Engineering Ph.D. Candidate Liza-Anastasia DiCecco has been honoured with the 2023 Senior Women Academic Administrators of Canada Graduate Award of Merit in recognition of her outstanding academic performance and leadership in STEM.
The award is given out annually to women graduate students who are impactful leaders in the community with exceptional academic standings.
DiCecco is currently conducting her doctoral research in Kathryn Grandfield’s lab at McMaster. Through her research in electron microscopy (EM), DiCecco is working diligently to better understand and supplement the healing of hard tissues like bones to combat against the effects of illnesses like osteoporosis. She is among some of the first researchers in Canada to pioneer liquid EM tools to advance her research focus area.
“It is hard to define in words what it means to me to be recognized by the 2023 SWAAC Graduate Award of Merit,” says DiCecco. “To me, it is a form of recognition for my leadership and academic aptitudes and all the work I have given back to my academic and local community. It’s a reflection of my efforts to be a role model and champion for underrepresented people, and to empower, motivate and encourage others.”
Her academic accomplishments have also earned her the NSERC Vanier Scholarship and the role of Student Representative of the Microscopical Society of Canada.
DiCecco’s excellence doesn’t end in the lab. She also serves as a mentor and volunteers within several groups that advocate for women and girls in STEM, including McMaster’s Women in Science and Engineering team. She leads these initiatives with a passion to promote a more inclusive and equitable landscape in STEM that she has always dreamed of and continues to strive to create every single day.
I, like many women in engineering, can admit that I suffer from imposter syndrome. Many of the honours I’ve received I never thought in a billion years that I would be considered. But, through the constant encouragement of my mentors, I was pushed toward some amazing opportunities. Now to my mentees, I try to aim to be that same cheerleader and push them to apply themselves to similar opportunities.
Looking towards the future, DiCecco aims to someday join Canada’s next generation of academic women leaders and to elevate unrepresented people within her field, promoting equity, diversity and inclusion within engineering.
“For women in engineering currently studying at Mac, one piece of advice that I would pass along is to not second guess yourself, have courage and apply for seemingly out-of-reach opportunities!”
