Hi, I’m Stephanne1 Taylor! I’m currently finishing my PhD in oceanography side of the Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Science at McGill University in Montreal, Quebec. I also hold an MSc and a BSc in physics from the University of Guelph, in Guelph, Ontario.
Science-minded kids can roughly be split into the dinosaur kids and the space kids, and I was definitely a space kid. When I was little, I read every space book I could get my hands on. I tried in vain to teach the boy across the street about the structure of the solar system with rocks and chalk. I grew up within driving distance of the David Dunlap Observatory, and when my parents took me to an open house, all I could do was stare in awe at the telescope in the bright blue rigging, impossibly huge to my small eyes. I loved learning about all the strange things in the deep corners of the universe.
As I grew up, I thought I'd be everything from a journalist to a pilot to a landscape architect, but I kept circling back to science and physics. Physics was a way of making sense of the world that felt profound, and I was drawn to the clarity and concreteness of it. It's not enormously surprising that I eventually got a degree in gravitational physics. But as I was working on my MSc, I realized that while I enjoyed doing abstract work, I wanted to work on something more tangible. I took a year between finishing my MSc and starting my PhD to step away from writing exams and earning grades, and then started a PhD in physical oceanography. I've been studying and researching geophysical fluid dynamics for several years now, and I am nearly finished my thesis. I will still talk about space at the drop of a hat, but my curiosity goes far beyond just physics: the world is vast and fascinating.
I write here primarily about physics, environmental science, Canadian politics, and (occasionally) weird invertebrates.
1. Pronounced just like Stephanie, but spelled with enough added confusion for telemarketers to expect a francophone man to answer the phone.↩