Science Community Continues to Celebrate Westmount Student Samna Aziz

Westmount student Samna Aziz has received a $7,000 Manning Young Canadian Innovation Award to put towards postsecondary education – thanks to her outstanding project on bone repair at the Canada-Wide Science Fair.

Her project was one of just four from across Canada selected for the award, recently given out in Saskatoon. “It’s very inspiring and pushes you to keep working on this, on top of all the school work,” said Samna, who is in Grade 12 at the west Mountain school.

This year’s Canada Wide Science Fair, held in Fredericton, New Brunswick, drew hundreds of finalists in grades 7 to 12 from regional science fairs across the country. The Manning award, which was announced there in May but recently distributed in Saskatoon, is one more for her trophy case.

“She came up with a new type of bone cement that is not acrilyc, but ceramic,” said Dick Wilson, Foundation Trustee. “From there her inquisitive mind went forward and she learned more about bones and all the rest of it and came up with this new approach.”

Her investigation of ceramic calcium phosphate cements as a bone replacing material has potential for the nearly one out of every 10 Canadians over the age of 40 who suffers from osteoporosis and related fractures.

“The basis of my project is on redeveloping standard acrylic bone cements into biodegradable materials as trabecular bone-replacing material,” she said in her CWSF summary. “Future research includes experimenting with the cement properties, adding strengthening agents, antibiotics, and retardants into the solution to suit a range of applications.”

Created in 1992, the Young Canadian Innovators Program recognizes eight projects that a team of judges select at the annual Canada-Wide Science Fair. A further judging process then selects four of these eight projects to receive $7,000 Manning Young Canadian Innovation Awards at the annual Manning awards dinner.

“What she was able to do was first come up with a compound that is much closer to bone in its strength,” said Patrick Whippey, Chief National Judge, CWSF. “The other idea I found very intriguing indeed is that this new material slowly disolves so… the bone gradually grows and reforms, and gradually the glue goes away.”

She sent Westmount an update after receiving the Manning award – and to thank school staff for all of their support along the way.

“Samna has truly embraced the Westmount program’s self-directed learning,” Principal Angela Ferguson said. “She connected with McMaster University to follow her interests and used this as a springboard for her research. Samna was able to apply her passion for chemistry to follow one of her interests. We are very proud of her accomplishments and are sure she will continue to change the world!”