Interview with Dr. Ghanem from the Chemical Engineering Department, by Kaitlyn Dalton
Dr. Ghanem has been a professor with the Chemical Engineering department at Dalhousie since 2001. In every class she teaches, it is obvious that she cares deeply about her students and is passionate about her work. It was great getting to know Dr. Ghanem, I hope you all enjoy reading about her.
On her educational background:
I did a chemical engineering bachelor’s degree at UNB…I didn’t know anything about it, I liked chemistry and had a strong family influence to do engineering. My family is all scientists, but I had no idea what engineering was about. After I did my degree at UNB I worked in industry for a couple of years, in the oil and gas industry, then I went back to grad school to get a PhD.
On why she chose to pursue a PhD:
This would have been a long time ago; things were very different. In the ‘90’s, I was working at Imperial Oil…I worked in the process design group. There were activities for all the new hires that year to see various aspects of how the company worked. For example, we all went and pumped gas one day. They wanted us to get an idea what the company was all about and like, and for us to see how we would fit in. One of the activities we had was we all went to the Sarnia research facility. It had a pilot plant in it, I became very interested in the scale of the plant. It just seemed really accessible to me, whereas the work I did in the oil refinery was just so big. I just really liked the idea of having a scaled down version that I could understand from start to finish what was going on…so I became interested in research at that point and that encouraged me to do my PhD. I went to Cornell University in New York.
On why she wanted to pursue teaching:
That was just purely random, I think. I wasn’t sure that’s what I wanted to do when I was in grad school. It was just really kind of a fluke, I ran into an old professor at a conference…I went up to him, I still can’t believe I did this, I introduced myself and told him I was doing my PhD at Cornell. He was very intrigued and happy to hear that. He had moved from UNB to be the department head at the University of Maine, so he wanted to know when I was graduating and whatnot. It was all short of lined up that he had a position open and recruited me to go to Maine. It was just a matter of being in the right place at the right time and staying in touch with an old professor.
On her interests and hobbies outside of work:
I’m a parent, so most of my life is taken up by that. I’ve been renovating my house, I’ve learned an enormous amount from doing that, I love DIY stuff and making stuff. I’ve always been into sewing and creative artistic pursuits. I like to go skiing as well, causal easy outdoor stuff.
On her advice to students:
Don’t take everything so seriously, see the value in what you’re doing no matter what it is. If it’s relaxing, then there’s value in relaxing, if there’s extracurricular activities then there’s value in that. If there’s a test, take it, then leave it behind you. In all aspects of life, when there’s difficulty, my advice is to experience it and then let go. That’s the best advice I can give for mental health. If you’re upset about a test, allow yourself some time to be upset about it and then get over it and just go on with your life.