Nancy Soontiens

Nancy Soontiens’s research covers a variety of scales in the dynamics of the oceans, atmosphere and lakes. One of her focuses is to understand how small-scale processes like internal waves and mixing should be represented in numerical models and large-scale simulations. Currently, she is a postdoctoral researcher at Environment and Climate Change Canada working on an algal bloom model in the Great Lakes. She has also done research at the University of British Columbia and received her PhD in Applied Mathematics from the University of Waterloo in Canada. Her goal to pursue a career in science came about after finishing an undergraduate degree in Applied Math at the University of Waterloo. Nancy loves solving puzzles, so continuing with a graduate degree seemed like the perfect way to merge one of her passions with a fulfilling career.

Even though Nancy pursued an advance degree in a technical field with very few women, she was fortunate to be supported and encouraged by many mentors, both male and female. Had it not been for the Women in Mathematics committee in her department, she would have missed out on opportunities to connect with other very talented women in her field. One of the reasons Nancy is a member of ESWN is so that she can continue to be connected to a diverse network of talented researchers and scientists and so that she can support other women in their own career goals and dreams.