Faces of WISEST: Dr. Marika Warren

I participated in WISEST as a summer student in 1994 and the experience was invaluable in shaping my career – although perhaps not as intended! I appreciated gaining an understanding of research in organic chemistry and really enjoyed the people I worked with in the lab, but it did not fascinate or excite me the way that the sociological research being conducted on my WISEST cohort did.  

The insight that I was more interested in big-picture questions than bench science prompted me to study philosophy, focusing on complex interconnections between values, science, technology, and policy. The exposure to academia I had through WISEST was certainly helpful in navigating my way through graduate school, where I specialized in bioethics. Eventually, I wound up in the Department of Bioethics at Dalhousie University, which is located within the Faculty of Medicine. Part of my role involves me providing ethics support through the Nova Scotia Health Ethics Network to the Nova Scotia Health Authority, the IWK Health Centre, and the Nova Scotia Department of Health and Wellness, and in recent months there has been no shortage of interesting and challenging ethical questions arising out of the need to respond to COVID-19! 

I am thankful for the insight into scientific research that WISEST gave me, and I find that I draw on it both when teaching medical students and when interacting with colleagues who have a science background. I am also very grateful to WISEST for being the catalyst that set me on the path toward work that I love and a career that is fulfilling and meaningful.