Profile Stories

Kaleigh McLeod

Faculty of Science

Degree: Bachelor of Science Biology and Chemistry (Honours) 

Recent Award: 2021 recipient of the Chemical Institute of Canada's Undergraduate Travel Award for the Analytical Chemistry Division, in honour of Dr. Nick Toltl. This is the top national award to an undergraduate student in analytical chemistry. Kaleigh's honours research was co-supervised by Dr. Christa Brosseau and Dr. Rob Singer. 

Graduation date: May, 2021

Favourite class: Analytical Chemistry  

Future plans: Healthcare 

Favourite spot at SMU: Science 5th floor, I’ve spent many lunches meeting other chemistry students on this floor and have had some great times here over the past four years!

Advice for new students: My No. 1 tip for new students is to get to know your professors. Saint Mary’s University is unique because of the small class sizes that it offers which allow for you to get to know your peers and professors very well! I reached out to my professors during the second semester of my general chemistry course and asked if I could meet with them to talk about their research. I quickly learned about just how many undergraduate research opportunities Saint Mary’s offers. Since that day, I have been fortunate to have received three NSERC-USRA’s, have worked under the supervision of three professors and attended 10 chemistry conferences with more coming up soon. By taking the initiative to get to know my professors early on in my degree I was able to expand my education beyond the classroom and into the world of research!