On January 19th, 2016, Michelle Annett was presented with the L’Oreal-UNESCO for Women in Science-NSERC Postdoctoral Fellowship Supplement Award. UNESCO and L’Oreal invited the top 3% of female post-docs that have received an NSERC PDF Award to apply for this award, and from those applicants Michelle was selected as the single winner.

The award was presented to her personally by Mario Pinto, president of NSERC. The Canadian minister of science, Kirsty Duncan, also read over Michelle’s biography and offered her congratulations. The event took place at the French embassy in Ottawa. Both before and after the award ceremony, Michelle had the opportunity to talk with many members of the embassy, NSERC, and other high-level academics across Canada (e.g., the presidents of the University of Ottawa, the University of Calgary). There were nearly 200 attendees, whom she had a chance to speak with about her research, Autodesk Research, U of T, U of A, and the importance of computer science in general.

This was not only a great experience for Michelle, but it let her shed a positive light on Autodesk, U of T, U of A, and HCI research at a national and international level.