Laurel Schafer

About Laurel

Dr. Laurel Schafer is a professor in the Department of Chemistry at the University of British Columbia and the first woman to be appointed head of that department. She is one of the top chemists in Canada and considered a household name within her field of organometallic chemistry. As a catalysis researcher, she works with master’s and PhD students to transform the way industry makes amines—the key building blocks of pharmaceuticals and agrochemicals—and to eliminate the generation of waste while making these compounds. Her accomplishments in this area were recognized with a Canadian Green Chemistry and Engineering Award. Laurel is a Canada Research Chair in Catalyst Development, a Humboldt Awardee, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada and a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. She is a past recipient of the UBC Killam Award for Excellence in Mentoring, the Clara Benson Award from the Chemical Institute of Canada and the UVic Distinguished Women in Science Award.

Finding confidence

“UVic was a very transformative time for me. The most important thing I learned was to build the confidence to realize my full potential. I didn't have that confidence leaving my bachelor's program and I didn't have that confidence when I got started at UVic, but that's what I found there with the environment, the students and faculty.”

Keys to success

“A key to my personal success is acknowledging that it's people who do science… Being compassionate, empathetic, supportive is super important in the work that I do. And then… attention to detail. Lots of people can get PhDs in chemistry, but my observation for the people who excel, to take it to that next level, to take it up a notch, is to really pay attention to detail.”

Turning tides

“I have been one of the few women in my discipline… I believe that's where this challenge in feeling confident about my path came from. I overcame it at UVic… Myself and another UVic graduate student, Elise Fear, who was in the Department of Electrical Engineering at the time, and is now a professor at the University of Calgary, founded Women in Science and Engineering (WISE)… Creating that community helped me to find the confidence to challenge myself and push myself and embrace this role such that I was the first woman in the department at UBC to ever be promoted from assistant professor to full professor here in chemistry. And that was a challenging path. But the great news is I have eight women colleagues, many of them younger than me. Four of them are assistant professors and one is coming up for tenure right now. So, the tides are turning. Our bachelor's program is dominated by women now. That was absolutely not the case when I went through. And the doctoral level is approaching parity.”

Role model

“It never occurred to me to be a professor at a university. At a certain point I wondered, why is that? I came to the conclusion it’s because I never had a woman professor of chemistry the whole time. It wasn't that somebody ever told me I couldn't do it—it just didn't occur to me. What I'm hoping with me in this role is it will occur to women, and maybe they won't even think twice, they'll just say, oh yeah, I could see myself being department head someday. Why not?”

Can-do attitude

“Just because you don't see it being done doesn't mean it can't be done. All researchers know this or we wouldn't be doing what we do. We create new knowledge all the time. That also relates to career pathways, the way we interact with people, and that relates to my personal leadership style. Lots of times I say just because I don't see it being done doesn't mean it can't be done.”