A scientific renaissance  

Raywat Deonandan, PhD’01, has held some very surprising and interesting positions for an epidemiologist. From bioterrorism, to arthritis, to mental health, Raywat has stretched what a ‘disease detective’ can do and quickly discovered that epidemiology can be anything.

 Called upon during the pandemic for his data and experience-driven predictions of COVID-19, Raywat became a go-to contact for media outlets needing commentary and expertise.

Crediting his joy of writing as a child, Raywat didn’t expect it to be such a huge influence on his career. “My hobby of writing became the foundation of my current lifepath,” smiles Raywat. “I was hired as a scientist, but the skillset that propelled me into greater opportunities came from an internal passion.

As his early career evolved, it sent him to different areas of the world, helping to address epidemiological needs around the globe, and he was recognized as a renowned scientific communicator and devoted educator.

Passion turned to real-world impact

In 2020, Raywat thought his career as an epidemiologist was slowing to a simmer. “My partner and I were expecting a child, and I felt confident that I had accomplished everything I had hoped for in my career – but life had different plans,” he laughs. 

A lover of travel and literature, Raywat (who penned his own award-winning fiction books in 1999 and 2003) had vast and varied interests, but admittedly teaching was not one of them. However, he was given the opportunity and fell in love with the profession.  

“Epidemiology is still the essence of my career. Data analysis of scientific concepts matters, but it’s meaningless if you can’t share it with the world in a meaningful way – that’s where storytelling and teaching come in.”  

An associate professor and the 2023-2026 Research Chair in University Teaching at the University of Ottawa, Raywat has found profound reward in teaching youth. His passion for students runs so deep he even co-founded a textbook company that supplies books to low-income communities. 

The natural-born writer fuses science and storytelling and makes learning compelling for his students through narrative and connection. “I recognize the financial investment students have made to learn from me. I take that very seriously.”  

Raywat has published over 100 newspaper articles and in 2009 helped to create the first French-English bilingual health sciences journal managed entirely by students, the Interdisciplinary Journal of Health Sciences, where he serves as executive editor. 

Five years later

During the height of the pandemic, Raywat used his expertise to educate the public about the science underpinning the disease, employing his personal blog, podcast, newspaper articles, and more than 2,000 interviews on national and international radio and television outlets. 

Now, five years after the worldwide lockdown was announced, he reflects on the lasting impact of his COVID-19 public engagements.  

“Overall, I learned that we can never stop investing in public education to fill the knowledge gap. As scientists, we assumed most of the world knew the basics, but the pandemic revealed the public thirst for scientific fundamentals.  

The pandemic exposed how much political ideology impacts scientific communication, which has only grown. I now teach my grad students how to build “philosophical armour” against beliefs rooted in ideology rather than science.”

A devoted educator

As an educator, Raywat is committed to not just teaching his students the subject matter, which he says is the “least important thing” – it’s teaching them the deep value of lifelong learning and how to engage with the world in an inquisitive way.  

“There’s a quote by Vaclav Havel: ‘Keep the company of those who seek the truth – run from those who have found it’ – this is the sort of life path I want my students to be on.”

In 2022 Western recognized his significant contributions in the fields of epidemiology and education and bestowed him the Alumni Professional Achievement Award.  

From the lecture hall to TV screen, Raywat finds himself redefining the role of public educator and a defender of science, making the Western community very proud along the way.