Opening the World

Voices of Impact
A Pivotal Travel Fellowship

When Dr. Monica Seger was 25, she received a grant to do a postdoctoral fellowship in the Netherlands. It was an experience that changed the trajectory of her life and research. As a young neuroendocrinologist, Monica benefited immensely from collaborating with scientists in a different culture. She also met her husband, neuroscientist Dr. Hubert van Tol, during the fellowship. When Dr. van Tol died tragically in a bike accident in 2006, Monica and her family decided to honour his legacy by establishing the Dr. Hubert Van Tol Travel Fellowship with Brain Canada, which supports master’s students, doctoral students and postdoctoral fellows researching the brain by providing them with funds to attend a prominent international conference/symposium or training course.

When I see the letters and reports from recipients of what this award meant for them, they’ve all benefited in the way I had hoped.

Since its inception, scientists have benefited from the award, which gives trainees the same transformative opportunity Monica received as a young researcher. Monica’s mother, Dr. Marianne Seger, also regularly supported the award as a way to honour her son-in-law—truly making this a family legacy. The elder Dr. Seger believed strongly in the need to decode our understanding of brain function so that neurologists, like herself, could provide better care. “The grant has broadened the scope of their research and allowed them to collaborate with people from all over the world,” Monica says.