Diversity Unlocks Creativity and Innovation

Abstract

Aresearch lab (Optical-Bio Microsystem Laboratory), where international students are working toward their PhD and master s degrees along with senior researchers, is like a unit cell in the body of the university (Concordia University, Montreal, Canada). What better model can be available for analyzing the success of research that comes from providing a supportive and inclusive work environment that welcomes and encourages students from a diversity of countries, languages, and religious and socioeconomic backgrounds? Instead of the rather outdated metaphor of melting pot, the environment of our lab is rather like a mosaic, where the inlaying small colored squares are the individual skills that fit in and enrich our culture with wisdom, intelligence, and new ways of thinking. Our highly multidisciplinary lab is a bonus as our students have a special gift to integrate knowledge from different fields, for example, engineering, physics, biology, chemistry, and fine arts, and to think differently and form new perspectives, outside the box, when making connections. This paper also presents the mechanism that was instrumental in making the women researchers as well as the international students feel comfortable and helped them to explore and contribute to the multidisciplinary aspects of our lab. In this paper, we highlight the important milestones in our lab work environment over the last fifteen years, with a focus on diversity, and we stress the beneficial role of the direction of the lab and the diversifying faculty, providing critically needed role models to our students. We emphasize the strength of diversity that unlocks imagination and intellectual curiosity. The paper includes stories that demonstrate the building of a strong and creative lab culture.