Our Team

Building 21 is run by a small group of individuals from a variety of disciplines and backgrounds.

Directors

Anita Parmar (PhD, Physics)
Co-Director
After completing her B.Sc. in Physics at McGill University, Anita Parmar continued on to complete her Ph.D. in theoretical condensed matter physics at the University of New Mexico, worked as a statistician and research manager in non-profit for health policy, as a logistician for an import-export company in Mexico City, as a management consultant in Montréal, and started her own company designing supply-chain analytics tools before returning to McGill University.
anita.parmar@mcgill.ca
Ollivier Dyens (PhD, Literature)
Founder & Co-Director
Ollivier Dyens is full professor in the Département des littératures de langue française, de traduction et de création. He is the author of 14 books. He was Deputy Provost, Student Life and Learning at McGill from 2013-2018. His area of research is the impact of technology on humanity.
ollivier.dyens@mcgill.ca

Faculty Fellows

Our affiliated faculty graciously provide expertise, insight, and mentorship to Building 21 scholars.

Nikolas Provatas
Canada Research Chair in Computational Materials Science
McGill Department of Physics
John Mac Master
Associate Professor
Schulich School of Music
Jean-Baptiste Poline
Associate Professor
McGill Department of Neurology and Neurosurgery
Paule Joanne Toussaint
Senior Researcher
Montreal Neurological Institute

Staff

From coordinating partnerships to organizing programs, our staff work to create the conditions for an active scholar culture.

Alex Nicholas Chen
Program Lead
Carole Graveline
Communication Mentor
Nakiya Noorbhai
Program Assistant
Darius Valevicius
Program Assistant

Past Staff

Our past staff played a pivotal role in building programs and shaping culture that continue to benefit B21 today.

David 'Jhave' Johnston
Methodological Advisor
Jill Harrington
Intergenerational Leader
Viola H. Ruzzier
Program Assistant
Claudia Raihert
Program Assistant
Tatiana Becerra
GPS Doctoral Intern
Kendra Oudyk
GPS Doctoral Intern
Aditya Jain
Sustainability Officer
Rebecca Brosseau
Brand & Strategy Manager
Damian Arteca
Researcher, Radical Futures

Past Volunteers

Volunteers have generously contributed their time and skills to B21 through their own initiative.

MingXi Gu
Web Design