Sciographies is a radio show and podcast about the people who make science happen, presented by the Faculty of Science and campus-community radio station CKDU 88.1 FM. This is the first article in a series featuring excerpts from each new episode released this winter.
In this special grad student episode of Sciographies, we talk to Dina Rogers (BSc’23) who shares how a childhood split between cultures, years as a competitive swimmer, and an unexpected love of biochemistry shaped her journey into research.
Today, Rogers is exploring innovative ways to tackle plastic waste—combining “sticky” mushroom proteins with plastic-eating bacteria to imagine more sustainable recycling solutions.
Host David Barclay explores Rogers’ early curiosity for learning, reflecting on her time traveling between Halifax and Greece. He traces how a pivotal moment with a high-school teacher sparked a new sense of possibility—setting her on a path of learning and self-discovery that ultimately led her to ±«Óătv University.
Below are some excerpts from the episode, edited for clarity and length.
David (host): Well, let’s begin at the beginning. Where did you grow up?
Dina: I spent a lot of time in Halifax and in Greece. I was back and forth. It shaped me into the crazy person that I am today.
David: What part of Greece were you going back and forth to?
Dina: It's a small town the southern tip of Peloponnese. It's pretty much as south on the mainland as you can get.
David: It's a peninsula?
Dina: Yeah, it's known as the money peninsula.
David: Do you have family there?
Dina: The entirety of my mom's family is there and my dad's family is here in Halifax.
David: Do you feel a special connection to science?
Dina: I was a curious kid. I think like the entirety of my family would probably say that. Ironically, I grew up thinking I was going be marine biologist but that didn't quite pan out. I'm the only scientist in my family.
My family is business or working-class. My family in Greece owns like restaurants, a dry cleaner.
I also grew up an athlete. I was a competitive swimmer. And that's kind of where the fascination with biochemistry started in terms of how you your body must adapt to the water. I coached for a long time. I only stopped that towards the end of my undergrad. That's kind of what I landed me into science.
David: Did you have teachers that motivated you to study science?
Dina: The most impactful teacher that I had was my English teacher in high school. I was going through a lot at that time. Between two jobs and being in the IB program. My teacher was someone who went out of his way for anyone in his class. It didn’t matter who you were. Maybe this makes me a bad influence, but I would kind of like skip school.
David: Sure.
Dina: My teacher said we have this smart kid on paper. She's acing everything, but she's not even here. His class was probably the only class I showed up to for. He was like instead of skipping my class why don't you come read a book in my class? So even though I wasn't in class, he still gave me a safe spot to be. I think my communication skills probably came from him. He was a phenomenal teacher. But it was kind of ironic I didn't go into English after that.
David: Was it obvious that you were going go to ±«Óătv or did you consider maybe the University of Athens or something?
Dina: I considered a lot of different spots. Ultimately my parents’ health wasn't great at the time. I kind of considered leaving after my undergrad and honestly, it was my supervisor that came and kept me here. A shout out to the people doing science, right? It takes people doing science to keep people in science.
David: Tell us how you look at the structure of a protein?
Dina: You put the protein in this cell, and you look at how it refracts.
David: Why did you want to go to grad school?
Dina: [I thought] what am I going do after my undergrad? Go work at the biochemistry factory down the road?Ěý I think I decided maybe like 10 days before all the funding deadlines that I wanted to do a masters. It was not going be the same project and it was going be something completely new.
David: You got your application in?
Dina: Yeah, it worked out.
David: Tell us about your transition to graduate school.
Dina: When I graduated, I decided I was going to go backpacking with my best friend across Europe. Like most people do after their undergrad, spend your life savings. Why not? And then my cousin actually got married in Greece. I came back a month late to start my masters.
David: Tell us about the research part. You said there was something you were interested in right from the get-go. Did you end up doing that project?
Dina: The project focuses on small proteins that come from mushrooms. They're good at building biomaterials that kind of assemble into these layers. People have looked at them for medical purposes and to stabilize beer foam. They’re good at just sticking to things.
My supervisor had also seen this paper where this protein is able to eat away a plastic. They found it in this Japanese recycling depot. There was a lot of you know this boom of saying how do we engineer this thing to make it better so we can have more sustainable recycling process. My supervisor and I kind of went well, what if we just take the mushroom protein and kind of fuse it together? So the idea is to take the bacteria that eats plastic, stick it to the sticky protein that will then help it stick to plastic objects.
David: Tell me about your Falling Walls success?
Dina: Well, let me start at the beginning. It started with 3-minute thesis which is where you summarize your thesis in three minutes. It must be accessible to everyone. So you have to be able to explain in a way that everybody understands.
Science communication is something that I've become passionate about and I think the pandemic showed us how important that is.
You know the pac-man analogy that I use, the plastic eating enzymes kind of like a Pac-man and the mushroom protein, all of that that came out of having to explain my research to my family.
Listen to Dina Rogers full episode of Sciographies at 10 a.m. on Thursday, Feb. 26 on in Halifax or find it on , , and other popular podcasting platforms. You can also listen to previous Sciographies episodes on the same platforms and at dal.ca/sciographies.