Kinesiology grad follows her passion for art and science and finds her calling as a scientific illustrator

Dissecting a knee at a medical centre in the Netherlands led Olivia Symons back to Mac.

Olivia performed the dissection as a scientist, artist and student in the Master Scientific Illustration program offered by the Faculty of Health, Medicine and Life Sciences at Maastricht University and Zuyd University of Applied Science.

“Knee deep in my dissection, I discovered a new perspective that forever changed my understanding of anatomy,” says Olivia. “Knowledge that used to be confined to flat textbooks was now at my fingertips.”

She used that new perspective to draw an exploded view of a posterior left knee. Olivia aced the assignment and found the inspiration for her graduation thesis project. She’d visualize innovative treatments for knee osteoarthritis – a chronic condition that exacts both a physical and emotional toll on one in seven Canadian adults.

Olivia knew exactly where to find new and novel treatments to illustrate – as a kinesiology undergrad at McMaster, she’d spent four years surrounded by groundbreaking research in the department and across the university. It’s also where she found her calling as a scientific illustrator.

Olivia had always been a creative kid. Give her a pencil and a sheet of paper and Olivia would happily spend hours drawing. But she quit being that kid in high school. Art was relegated to a hobby while Olivia went all-in on STEM courses.

Like pretty much every science student at university, she briefly thought about medical school. Her dad was thrilled but Olivia was less than enthused. She took that as a sign to stray from what felt like the prescribed path for science grads. She instead followed her curiosity and discovered her dream career as a scientific illustrator. For Olivia, combining art and science to communicate research was the ideal way to earn a living and make a difference.

“It’s hard to build a brighter world if no one understands or knows about your research,” says Olivia, who recognized early on that scientists could use some help from artists. “Communication is especially important when it comes to breakthroughs and novel treatments – people don’t just need to understand the research, they need to trust the science and the scientists.”

Knowing who and what to trust is getting harder to do in our age of generative A.I., says Olivia. “There’s a flood of A.I. images being used to peddle misinformation. Scientists, medical professionals and scientific illustrators have a responsibility to cut through the noise. We need to be the trusted sources that people turn to when they’re making important decisions about their health.”

After graduating from McMaster in 2022 where it was all science and no art, Olivia spent a year studying art fundamentals at Sheridan College where it was all art and no science. She got to bring those two worlds together at Maastricht and Zuyd Universities. Many apply to their scientific illustration grad program but few are chosen – just eight students are accepted each year. Along with its stellar reputation, the program had the added bonus of letting Olivia spend two years living and learning in Europe.

To find collaborators and novel knee osteoarthritis treatments to illustrate, Olivia religiously read every McMaster Daily News and Brighter World story. She found three potential external supervisors – Dr. Kim Madden, Dylan Kobsar and Matthew Rosato.

Kim is an associate professor of surgery and a research affiliate at the Research Institute of St. Joe’s Hamilton. St. Joe’s is revolutionizing surgical treatment for knee osteoarthritis by performing robot-assisted partial knee replacements.

Dylan is an associate professor of kinesiology who leads the Kobsar Biomechanics Lab. His lab is using cutting-edge motion capture to create more personalized and effective treatments for people with knee osteoarthritis.

Matthew is a two-time Mac grad who’s the president and founder of PROVA Innovations. His medical technology start-up at the McMaster Innovation Park is developing smart insoles to reinvent gait rehabilitation.

All three welcomed Olivia to put her science illustration skills to work for patients and clients in industry, medicine and academia.

She began working on her thesis by sitting in on orthopedic surgeries in the Netherlands and at St. Joe’s. You can’t communicate what you don’t understand, says Olivia. It helps that she has a strong stomach. “Surgery can get quite gory.”

While observing her second surgery at St. Joe’s, Olivia scrubbed in and was unexpectedly conscripted into playing the role of OR disc jockey. The surgical team asked Olivia to connect her phone to the OR’s sound system. What the team didn’t know – and her roommates and classmates back in the Netherlands knew all too well – is that Olivia’s a huge fan of Wicked and her playlist is loaded with songs from the musical.

“It turns out Wicked doesn’t quite set the right tone when a surgeon takes a bone saw to someone’s knee. I spent the surgery observing what was going on while at the same time frantically changing up my playlist so I wouldn’t get kicked out of the OR for my musical tastes.”

Eight months worth of thesis work culminated not only in a stand-out presentation to faculty and classmates – Olivia’s science illustrations were framed and featured in a public exhibition at the Natuurmuseum in Tilburg, Netherlands.

Most important of all, her illustrations are being used by Kim, Dylan and Matthew to help educate patients and clients.

“Olivia demonstrated an impressive ability to engage with our work,” says Dylan, who admits he didn’t initially know what to expect from working with a scientific illustrator. He says the team in his lab invests a lot of time and effort creating materials to help patients understand both their treatments and the research behind it. “While written explanations are essential, visual communication can be even more impactful. Whether it’s clarifying procedures before a study or conveying findings afterwards, visuals like the ones Olivia created for us are increasingly vital to scientific communication.”

Dylan says he’s not surprised that a senior professor at Olivia’s defense said her illustrations were the best he’d ever seen in his career. “Olivia’s final illustrations for our research group are outstanding.”

Working with Olivia was a “wonderful experience”, says Kim, who’d never previously thought about teaming up with a scientific illustrator. “After brainstorming some ideas with Olivia, I now see how useful it is to have someone who’s so skilled at science communication using visual storytelling. Olivia created illustrations for patients to help them visualize complex surgical concepts – that’s something patients love and it helps them better understand the surgeries they’ll be receiving. Olivia’s work is both beautiful and informative, combining great creativity and scientific knowledge.“

Olivia graduated in June and just returned from a European vacation with her parents – for the record, her mom and dad are incredibly proud of their daughter and the career path she’s chosen. Olivia’s visa expires at the end of the year so a return to Canada is likely.

Having found, and then trained, for her dream career as a scientific illustrator, Olivia’s now looking to land her dream job. At the top of her wish list is creating illustrations in service to science at a leading research-intensive university. Like the novel treatments she illustrated in her graduation thesis, Olivia knows exactly where she’d like to do that work.

To connect with Olivia, or to get explicit permission to use the scientific illustrations in this story, please send an email to oliviafsymons@gmail.com.