I'm Lieutenant Navy Joanna Kriese from Victoria, B.C.,
a Bioscience Officer currently posted to the National Defence Headquarters in Ottawa.
Bioscience Officers are military specialists with a focus
on occupational and environmental health and on safe and effective human interactions
with military systems and equipment.
They take a science-based approach to the prevention, identification and reduction
of health hazards to Canadian Armed Forces personnel
and to improving their operational performance while ensuring their safety.
So a Bioscience Officer defends members of the Canadian Armed Forces against health threats,
and they do that in a variety of ways.
One is looking at ergonomic issues, in terms of equipment and vehicles;
another is looking at contamination in air, soil and water;
and lastly, the effects of a low-oxygen, high-gravity environment on pilots.
Their role is unique and varied.
For example, they apply scientifically validated research and development principles
to study human response to environmental stress;
develop, test and evaluate protective clothing and equipment;
analyze human-machine interfaces and systems design;
perform human factors analysis of aircraft accidents;
exploit technology to improve health, safety and human capabilities;
and provide occupational hygiene support to our troops by conducting health risk assessments
of Canadian Armed Forces workplaces in garrison and on deployed locations.
I'm a team leader for the deployable health hazards assessment team -
I'm part of a high-readiness unit that's ready to deploy at a moment's notice to go overseas,
or in Canada, or on a ship or on a flight line, to take samples
and analyze those for health threats.
Bioscience Officers operate in environments and situations that most people never get to see.
They're also involved in training Forces members to function safely
under the most extreme circumstances and in the most hostile environments.
It's a great way to use science in an applied manner.
In some ways, this job can be an adventure.
You could be running around behind infantry under simulated fire,
you could be working in a state-of-the-art motion-capture mock-up of a helicopter -
or you could be on a helicopter itself,
collecting your data and doing your research in a very hands-on, active way.
The benefits of being a bioscientist in the military
rather than working a similar civilian occupation
is the ability to do things that you would never get to do as a civilian.
For example, we go to ships, flight lines, deploy overseas -
it's all about the experiences that we get as we run our own experiments.
On completion of their military training, Bioscience Officers are posted
to the Canadian Forces Health Services Headquarters
or a Canadian Armed Forces research establishment or training unit,
where they will participate in an on-the-job preceptorship
under the supervision of a senior Bioscience Officer.
That can last for up to 15 months, after which they are considered operational
and able to function independently.
At the beginning of our careers, when we join the Bioscience Officer trade,
we're given training and education and a chance to practise all three of those specializations.
Later on in our careers, we're given the opportunity to specialize,
and that usually involves getting a paid graduate degree
at an institution either in Canada or abroad.
There's no other occupation quite like this.
If you like to have hands-on, applied science experiences,
you're adventurous, you'd like to be out there working with the troops to improve their health,
make their lives safer and better, if you'd like to work in service to your country,
and you would like to design your own experiments independently
or work with top defence researchers in their field,
I would highly recommend joining the Bioscience trade.