Environmental engineering: the inspiring profile of Professor Annie Levasseur

As part of Earth Day, Les Ingénieuses presents to you an inspiring profile of ÉTS professor and researcher Annie Levasseur, holder of the Canada Research Chair in Measuring the Impact of Human Activities. In this interview, we looked at her beginnings in engineering to her current research activities and, what exactly does it mean to be an engineer in her field?

Annie Levasseur has been a professor at the École de technologie supérieure since 2017, where she conducts research activities in the field of life cycle analysis to evaluate the environmental impacts of human activities, but her career began in a completely different field. In fact, after obtaining her bachelor's degree in chemical engineering, environmental orientation, at Polytechnique, she worked in a Montreal refinery as a process engineer. It is at the end of this 8-year period that she decided to start a doctorate degree to focus on the environmental field.

In addition to her role as a professor, she also has the following responsibilities :

• Holder of the Canada Research Chair in Measuring the Impact of Human Activities since September 2020. The 2 main axes of this research chair are the combination of models and the improvement of inventories of GHG emissions in cities.

• Scientific Director of the new Center for Cross-Sectoral Studies and Research in Circular Economy.

• Member of the Climate Change Advisory Committee of the Ministère de l'Environnement et de la Lutte contre les changements climatiques (MELCC) since 2021.

To begin with, why did you choose to quit your job as an engineer and head towards a doctorate degree?

After 8 years as a process engineer, I decided to pursue a doctorate degree. It was something I already knew I wanted to do eventually. […] In refining, for example, I was dealing with wastewater treatment operations, but I wanted to do something a little bit more proactive, and teaching was also something that interested me. The urge for research came to me while I was doing my Ph.D.

What are your research interests?

During my Ph.D., life cycle analysis was the focus of my research, but over time, I started to work on the "climate change" aspect and develop models. For example, in the forestry sector, we know that the forest can contribute to the fight against climate change, but there are several ways to do so: we can either leave the forest in its natural state to allow carbon storage or we can exploit it to manufacture wood products that will replace other materials that emit more GHGs, such as concrete or steel. To choose the best option, you can combine different models to compare different strategies.

Another of the projects I am doing is to work on better representing the GHG emissions in the territory of a city in relation to transportation and buildings to help develop better strategies. In terms of transportation, this could be, for example, using data from GPS applications to better understand traveling and where GHG emissions come from.

What exactly is the concept of life cycle analysis?

The tool helps ensure that the impacts are not displaced. Often, when you feel like one thing is better than another, you have 1 specific thing in mind. For example, a fir tree, it grows in nature and is renewable, which gives us the impression that it is a better option than one made of plastic and steel. The great strength of LCA is precisely that it compares them in a holistic way, therefore considering all stages and all types of impact. This is where we realize the flaw of natural fir: you need one every year which must also be transported and which consumes pesticides and fertilizers, unlike artificial fir which can be kept for several years. When you put all this into the balance, you realize that it's not necessarily a win-win situation. By looking at several impact categories and the entire life cycle, it allows us to ensure that we are not creating a "false solution" by shifting impacts.

What does a research professor do on a daily basis?

One of the major roles of professors in research is to develop grant applications and to find funding to be able to fund the research. Typically, a professor member's role is to develop the grant applications and supervise the graduate students doing their work. It is the students who do the manipulations, experiments and develop the results and the professor is there to guide/supervise them. In my case, it’s modeling, so I make sure that the students develop the right models and interpret the results well. Research involves writing articles a lot, so the professor's role is really to supervise the students.

Then, it is also the professor who will take steps to develop partnerships with companies and in connection with her/his specific expertise, the professor may also be called upon to be part of a committee of experts and to act during public conferences, for example.

Did you always know you wanted to go into engineering and environment?

It’s really since I was very young that I knew I wanted to do science. I didn't know what engineering specifically was, and I didn't have any engineers around me. When I was 13 years old, my aunt married an engineer and that's where I really clicked: I saw that an engineer applies science and that's when I understood that it was what I wanted to do!

For the environment, it happened very quickly in high school. I quickly developed a sensitivity to it, and I told myself that I wanted to do science that helps the environment. I was at the Polytechnique open house and saw that when it comes to the environment, I had the choice between chemical engineering or civil engineering.

Is there a mentor or anyone who has influenced you and in what way?

My uncle, the one who introduced me to the profession. In everyday life, you meet doctors and teachers, but not engineers! The people you meet in their profession, you can see what they do, but there are plenty of jobs that young people don't have an example of if they don't know a close one.

What challenge have you encountered during your career?

Leaving my stable job to start my PhD when I already had a family and children. I wanted to be a teacher and I had a spouse who had a job, but I was still headed for something uncertain.

What are your career or research goals for the coming years?

With the arrival of the new research chair, it will be to build a small permanent team (research associate, post-doctorate) to work with me at all times, so that I will be able to delegate some of the work to ensure that the chair grows.

In order to work in engineering and research, what skills are needed in your opinion?

I would say that the common thing for any engineer is the very rational process of solving a problem. Enjoying exploring a problem, understanding how it works, and developing a solution is something that is quite essential. There is a lot of teamwork in engineering so good communication skills. Engineers who always work in their own corner are quite rare.

Finally, do you have any advice for someone, especially a young woman, who is reluctant to pursue an engineering degree or research?

Explore the potential of what you can do. Often, girls will be interested in the social impact they can have such as in the environment or biomedical field. In almost all areas of engineering, you can find yourself in a job that has impact so explore the impact you could have. There are so many possibilities that if you're even the slightest bit interested in science, there are many ways you can apply it to make an impact in the field you're interested in.