— who we are
The scientists in the Cytoskeletal Morphology Lab come from backgrounds in biology, biochemistry, engineering, and physics. We are from Canada, USA, France, Germany, Lebanon, Taiwan, and Mexico. Click on the Out and About page to see some of the things we do and the Stuff We Like page for some fun links.
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Dr. Gary J. Brouhard
Associate Professor ⁄ Principal Investigator
Gary Brouhard grew up in the suburbs of Detroit, Michigan. Gary loves all things bicycling, especially long-distance touring and track stands, and believes that some bicycles have souls. He likes Indian food, fountain pens, and coffee.
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Dr. Hadrien Mary
Postdoctoral Fellow
Hadrien grew up in the part of France called "Basque Country". He received his Master's in Bioinformatics from the University of Bordeaux after a 6 month internship in Australia. He moved to Toulouse for his PhD, where he deciphered how chromosomes move when a cell is dividing. Hadrien likes to cook all kinds food. He loves every sport that involves being in the water. (He came to Canada to try ice diving.)
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Dr. Muriel Sebastien
Postdoctoral Fellow
Muriel is from Grenoble in France, where she did her PhD in cell biology. During her PhD she spent most of her time looking at cells through a microscope-eyepiece and really enjoyed it. Otherwise, she likes doing medieval fencing - a very good way to play with real swords and fire. She is also fond of skiing, board games, and all kinds of food - especially those with melted cheese!
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Conrad Hall
Graduate Student
Conrad Hall grew up in New England before moving to Montreal in high school. His undergraduate degree was in Chemical Engineering at McGill University. Conrad enjoys a variety of sports including baseball, hockey and squash (having competed on the McGill Varsity baseball and squash teams). His secret passions are eSports and life drawing.
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Sami Chaaban
Graduate Student
Sami Chaaban was born in Montréal to Lebanese parents. He did his undergrad at McGill in Biology. Now he obsesses over high resolution electron density maps. In his free time, he enjoys captaining soccer teams and playing guitar. His neighbours seem to tolerate it.
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Jimmy Hsu
Graduate Student
Jimmy Hsu was born in Taiwan and grew up in Taipei then moved to Nova Scotia since high school. He did his undergrad at Dalhousie University in the Honours Physics Co-op program. Jimmy competes on the McGill Varsity badminton team and coaches on weekends. He also volunteers tutoring physics/math courses and likes to minimize any walking by taking the bus.
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Claire Edrington
Graduate Student
Claire was born to musician parents and so, naturally, got an undergraduate degree in biochemistry at the University of Ottawa. She likes proteins, microscopes and anything colorful. When she is not in the lab she is usually on stage doing improv or playing her ukulele. She also likes dancing, running, and sculpting and is pretty confident in her lemon meringue pie recipe.
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Melissa Wong
Graduate Student
Melissa was born in Ottawa but grew up in Boston (go Bruins - don't shoot me!). She did her undergrad at McGill in Chemistry, and where she fell in love with machining and the all-powerful God that is the Datron. Her ultimate goal in life is to become a micro-mill, but she'd settle for a human life of science and puppies.
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Malina Iwanski
Graduate Student
Malina (or raspberry in Polish) was born in Germany and grew up in Hamburg and Calgary. She did her undergrad at McGill in Quantitative Biology and, having been raised by architects, she naturally became interested in the architecture of the cell. Malina enjoys hiking, yoga, and sitting in front of a microscope. Though afraid of elevators, she is quite fond of coffee, cooking, and (secretly) country music.
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Sofía Cruz Tetlalmatzi
Graduate Student
Sofía was born and raised in different parts of Mexico, but calls Mexico City home. She did her undergrad in Physics at UNAM to use physics as a tool to solve biological problems. Sofia enjoys microscopes and staring at data while listening to music. She also likes experimenting in the kitchen, drawing, hiking, and will never say no to watching a good movie.