Interview With Dr. Amina Stoddart, by Ashley MacDonald
Dr. Amina Stoddart is an assistant professor in The Center for Water Resources Studies and is also part of the Civil and Resource Engineering Department here at Dalhousie. Dr. Stoddart gives both undergraduate and graduate students the opportunity to learn from her vast knowledge of local water systems and water problems. Dr. Stoddart’s positive outlook and enthusiasm for helping students not only to learn the required content but also to gain skills that set them up for future success shines in this interview. I hope you enjoy.
On her life before teaching at Dalhousie
I’ve actually been at Dal a really long time. I did my undergrad through the AU program, so I went to Acadia and finished at Dal. I did a co-op term in The Center for Water Resource Studies, loved it … then I started grad school right after I finished my [degree]. At the time it was biological engineering, but it was kind of a mix of environmental and mechanical. I started a master’s program within The Center for Water Resource Studies focused on drinking water treatment, and I really loved that. I didn’t finish my masters, I transferred to a PhD … Near the end of my PhD, I worked as a research engineer in The Center. I loved that and then had the opportunity to work as a limited term assistant professor where you’re not tenure track; it’s a term contract. During that term contract there was the opportunity for a tenure track contract position … I got that and here I am!
On saying yes to opportunities
Oftentimes students, especially grad students, are like ‘how did you get here’ … ‘how do I do that’ or ‘I want to be like you’, whatever it is, and I think a lot of it is being at the right place at the right time. But I think having the right skills at the right time and just saying yes to opportunities [plays a role] too. And sometimes I know throughout, while that seems like a very direct path, there were questions along the way. I thought I wanted to do biomedical engineering, but I did a co-op term in biomedical engineering and showed myself that that’s not for me. But by saying yes to those opportunities, you kind of narrow your path … Sometimes you might think ‘this is almost coming too easy’, or ‘should I just take this path that’s opening in front of me or should I try something different’. Those paths open in front of you because of hard work and because saying yes [to opportunities] gets your further along.
On what drew her to engineering
I know it’s not a good answer, but I want to say competition with my brother … My brother went into engineering at Acadia and really loved it and I had the stereotypical math and science so it was a sort of natural path. I had parents that were in more technical types of professions; my dad was in the trades, so he worked with a lot of engineers. It was something that my family knew about and talked about a little bit.
On what drew her to teaching
I think what really drew me into a professor role was more on the research side. I worked as a research engineer with a large research program we have here out of The Centre of Water Resource Studies. We have a lot of industrial research partners and so a lot of my research as a PhD student here was really focused on solving problems that we saw working with Halifax Water and different industries … I'd say my favourite part about teaching is, yes you need to teach the things you need to be an engineer- you have to be able to do this calculation and that calculation and understand why it’s important and all of those things. But I really enjoy sharing some of that research thing, bringing in those anecdotes and what I understand about how our water systems work here locally. It makes it tangible.
On her advice for students
This is coming kind of full circle but saying yes to different opportunities. If you think it’s something that you might want to do or if you see a co-op job or something where you’re like ‘I don’t know if I have the skills for that’ but you want to gain them or go that way, just saying yes to those opportunities that come up. You know, being involved and engaged. The more you put yourself out there the more opportunities come your way and the more skills you gain.
Closing Remarks from Ashley
Students could learn a lot from Dr. Stoddart’s words about saying yes to opportunities, even when they feel daunting. Many thanks to Dr. Stoddart for sitting down for this interview and for the insightful responses.