About

Hi there! I’m Vivienne and it’s nice to meet you.

The PR intro I give at networking events is as follows: I’m completing my PhD in Materials Engineering at McGill, working on light-controlled nanomedicine for personalized and targeted therapy. Interested in biomedical clinical translation (how we connect lab and clinic), reforming academic culture (how we value mental health, community building) and science policy/communication (how we engage with the public and translate knowledge). 

But since you took the time to visit me at my personal website, here’s the intro beyond my LinkedIn profile:

I am a beauty-hunter, one who looks for it in the most unexpected places. I’ve been called a romantic, an idealist – and I see the truth in it: I always believe there is more good to people than they let on, and fight to believe that we weren’t supposed to drag through life with weary hearts. 

I like to write from liminal space, the grey area, the ill-defined margin.

Growing up in Singapore and immigrating to Canada as a teenager, but being Chinese and then actually going to China for two years after graduating from college in the States, I sometimes find myself in this cultural no-mans-land, and so I like to write about the intersection of cultures.

I think often about the blurry boundary between art and science, being both an engineering PhD student and a creative at heart, and then also science and faith. I think about how to be intellectual and faith-filled at the same time, how they really aren’t mutually exclusive as many think they are.

But mostly, I write about my attempt to live boldly and authentically in the ordinary moments of  daily life, not that I have it down but I write about the journey – one that I hope encourages you.

I also hope to write on behalf of those in the margins – those who are pushed aside, left out – perhaps because they are introverted, or nerdy, or just don’t fit conventional measures of “success”.

I want to share my experiences of not feeling like I belonged, but how that gave me the invaluable gift of compassion – for the lonely, for the fatherless and for those who feel lost on this journey.

Apart from writing and heart-to-hearts, I find much joy in getting lost in a library surrounded by books, learning new forms of making music, capturing those liminal moments of beauty with my camera, kneading sourdough, a good game of tennis and Lectio Divina in the quietness of the early morning.

So, welcome in here, fellow hunter of beauty in the margins, I hope you find what you are looking for 🙂