A poet and a mathematician sit down at a table. It sounds like the start of a lame joke, but it’s actually the story of a profound partnership. Andria Dawson and Angela Waldie are professors that have worked together to breakdown course barriers and help scientists use art – and artists use science – to solve some of the biggest environmental challenges of our time.

Andria is a highly accomplished mathematician, with a PhD in math ecology and has worked for the likes of the Canadian Forest Service and the Northern Forestry Centre. With a passion for using quantitative methods to understand ecosystem change, she’s studied paleoecological data and mathematical models to reconstruct forest land cover, helping inform decisions on species migration and land management.

Angela, on the other hand, is a writer and poet. She holds a PhD in English and uses language to bridge cultural and natural divides, including working with Indigenous students at the Iniskim Centre. She’s a leading voice on understanding the role of literature in species endangerment, and has published multiple poetry books that investigate everything from the role of tourism in the mountain parks, to how we can revitalize natural grassland habitat.

Together, Angela and Andria demonstrate how passions can become careers, how careers can advance stewardship and how stewardship can benefit from collaborating with those who have wildly different skillsets than our own. We sat down with Angela and Andria in Calgary to hear their unique story.

Listen to their podcast

What do you think?

  • How can working with the unusual suspects allow us to go further in our careers?
  • How might you use math and art to advance your career and your vision for balancing people and nature?
  • How can we foster more career experimentation and more educational experimentation?
  • What could this mean not only for the work force, but also for our ability to find innovative ways to help people and nature?