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Ben Davis-Purcell received his PhD from Carleton University in 2022, working on the ATLAS Experiment. Instead of continuing in academia right away, he pursued an opportunity to work for the Government of Canada through the Mitacs Canadian Science Policy Fellowship. With this Fellowship, he was hired as a Policy Analyst at NSERC where he worked for a year. Then in 2026, after returning to academia for a postdoc at TRIUMF, he was selected as a delegate for Science Meets Parliament BC, an opportunity that allowed him to further his science policy knowledge and meet with government officials to discuss science and policy. In this talk, Ben will provide an overview of science policy and policy for science and share how these topics affect all of us. He will also describe his experiences on life as a policy analyst in the federal government, including important transferable skills that science and engineering graduate students acquire, and “a week in the life” of a policy analyst at NSERC.

The MI HQP Seminar Series is a forum for graduate students and postdocs to deliver a higher-profile talk. This is an ideal venue for speakers to practice a long-form talk, such as a thesis defence or as part of a job application, and to add an invited talk to their CV. Supervisors, please consider discussing this opportunity with your HQP and encourage them to sign up! Interested parties, please contact Ryan Curtis at hqpac@mcdonaldinstitute.ca