Abby Chapman had to calm herself before she could send an email to her supervisor. Her hands were shaking too much to type.

The fourth-year sustainable design engineering student at UPEI had just learned she won an Optica Women Scholar 2026 award. 

“It was so exciting,” she told Mainstreet P.E.I. host Steve Bruce. 

“The opportunity comes with a chance to network with people in the broader community, and so I just was super excited by what comes next for me after this.”

The international student honour is given to 20 women with an aim to empower the next generation of leaders in the field of optics and photonics. It also comes with $10,000 US, which Chapman — the lone Canadian to receive the award this year — plans to put toward her tuition, school supplies and her research. 

Chapman said the award also affords her the chance to network with other scholars in the field, which could be an eye-opener to what’s possible in her chosen field.

In a news release from UPEI, her professors say Chapman is “one of the brightest minds” in the undergraduate engineering program.

“I am immensely proud to see her recognized with this prestigious international honour. It is a testament to her academic excellence, research rigour, and emerging leadership in optics and photonics,” Sundeep Singh said in the release.

“I am confident that she will use this opportunity to further advance her research, spark innovation, and make a lasting impact in the field.”

Chapman grew up in Stratford and graduated from Pearson College UWC on Vancouver Island before attending UPEI, where she is co-president of the school’s ultimate frisbee team. 

Her journey started with a science fair project in the school’s engineering building that sparked her interest in biomedical engineering. 

Her father is a scientist, she added, “so lots of experiments in the house.”

“The opportunity to then come to UPEI and do several summers of undergraduate research really kind of narrowed down my focus to biomedical engineering,” she said. 

“It’s a really meaningful line of work. I mean, I show up every day and I feel a sense of purpose.… It makes me know that I chose the right path and I’m just excited to keep going with it.”

Applying her research to cancer treatment

Biomedical engineering applies engineering principles to medicine and biology for health care. That could be medical equipment or improvements on a procedure — “the engineering behind the scenes of different medical tools,” Chapman said.

She works in thermal therapy, which looks into how energy from sources like lasers and microwaves can be used in treating tumours.

Her project last summer involved reconstructing a breast and a tumour directly from an MRI and doing computer simulations to determine the best treatment for the patient.

Chapman said she thinks in a decade or two, these treatment models could be the norm for cancer patients.

“With all these advancements in technology, there is a future where we hope that cancer treatment can be more specific and tailored to the patient,” she said. 

“That’s kind of work that I’m doing, where we can take a patient’s anatomy and decide what the best treatment plan is for them for these thermal therapies.”

Her interest in cancer treatment came about through coursework with Singh and joining his research group

“We’re all affected by cancer,” she said. “So that was meaningful for me, and the opportunity to play a very small role in advancing treatments kind of hit home.”