Dr. Elisabeth Dixon Scholarship in Chemistry
Dr. Elisabeth (Lis) Dixon loved to travel - her favorite trip was to the Galapagos. She loved sport and physical activity: she skied and climbed mountains, was a goalie for the Canadian Women’s Field Hockey Team, an avid squash player (once ranked #5 in Canada) and, in retirement, Captain of her local ladies golf league. She loved her black cat Sarah, a companion for 20 years. But most of all, Lis loved learning and teaching.
In 1969, twenty-five-year-old Lis Dixon moved from Great Britain to Canada to begin graduate studies at the University of Victoria. She graduated five years later with a PhD in science and went on to complete post-graduate work in Calgary. In 1978, Lis joined the University of Calgary as a professor of organic chemistry and spent the next twenty-five years supporting and challenging students to become leaders in their field through real-world study.
Throughout her career, Dr. Dixon’s research interests included the pheromone chemistry of bark beetles, the taste and odor associated with municipal water treatment, and the environmental effects of preservatives leaching from power poles. She was the founding director of the University Of Calgary’s Environmental Science Program and a founding member of WISE (Women in Science and Engineering). Her chemistry and environmental science students voted her teacher of the year for many years.
A person of so many accomplishments, Dr. Dixon left an indelible mark through her own work, but also through the work of her students and her colleagues. She was a strong advocate of the importance of post-secondary education, particularly for women, and left instructions in her will to establish a scholarship at the University Of Victoria. Through the Dr. Elisabeth Dixon Scholarship in Chemistry, generations of women will be supported in their pursuit of science.