Tamara A. Franz-Odendaal

Tamara A. Franz-Odendaal is an Associate Professor of Biology at Mount Saint Vincent University (MSVU) in Halifax, Nova Scotia.

Dr. Franz-Odendaal is a developmental biologist specializing in skeletal biology. She has a PhD from the University of Cape Town, South Africa. She currently serves on the review panel for the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC) Discovery Grants Program and is an Associate Editor of the Canadian Journal of Zoology. She is also the Chair for the Comparative Morphology and Development Division of the Canadian Society of Zoologists and is the 2013 recipient of the Morphological Sciences Award from the American Association of Anatomists. She holds a number of external research grants, and has mentored over 30 undergraduate and graduate students.

In 2011, Dr. Franz-Odendaal was awarded the NSERC Chair for Women in Science and Engineering for Atlantic Canada. Her program, WISE Atlantic, encourages young women to consider careers in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) and to consider themselves as valuable potential contributors to these fields. In this position, she organizes multimedia initiatives, community seminars and workshops, and science outreach events/camps for junior and high school participants (WISEatlantic.ca). Her goal is to change the current stereotypes of the STEM professions and to expose the public to successful women in these fields.

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