Laura Suen

**Laura Suen** was a contestant on the 2012 Special.

## Background

At 18 years of age, Laura Suen began a journalism degree at Ryerson University, where her talent for journalism was quickly recognized as she became the youngest student to win an award that would allow her to pursue investigative journalism in Africa. Her experience in Africa inspired her philanthropic side and she set out to establish a charity called Over Bounds that would benefit people in refugee camps. While in Africa, Laura covered a number of different topics, but the ones that interested her most were related to human rights and science. In fact, she considers her science background as something of a happy accident that happened while attempting to become a science journalist. She enrolled at the University of Toronto where she double-majored in Cellular and Molecular Biology and Physics.

Before pursuing her degree in journalism, Laura had earned tens of thousands of dollars using the virtual economies of Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Games (MMORPGs), all before the age of fourteen.

Laura works at TRIUMF and is part of a group that hopes to add a laser system to the ALPHA project at CERN in order to work on two photon spectroscopy in the study of anti-hydrogen.

*Retrieved from CBC.ca*

Laura Suen is a nuclear physicist, an entrepreneur, a traveller, a keynote speaker, and she was recently named one of the Top 25 Youth Leaders of Ontario. She’s studied dark matter, anti-matter, lasers, gamma radiation and she published her first academic paper on laser resonance ionisation when she was 21.

Currently, she works at the Canadian Radiation Protection Services and in her spare time, she does performance kung fu and runs a part-time business selling replica items from movies, comics and video games.

## 2012 Special

Before Laura was summoned to the stage, a clip of her and the other contestants introducing themselves was shown. In this clip, apart from introducing herself, Laura stated that she believes that she is Canada's Smartest Person because she is a 23-year-old atomic physics graduate student who has already worked as a nuclear physicist, designed lasers, worked as a journalist in Africa, and worked in a hospital in Vietnam. She also stated that her parents were strict, but that her drive for success came from wanting to one-up her siblings. Laura was the second contestant to be personally introduced by Gerry Dee as she entered the stage, after Greg Frankson and before Peter Dyakowski and Marshall Carroll. In the first challenge, Word Mix, Laura got 7 acceptable words in the first round, 8 in the second round, and 3 in the final round. With a total of 18 acceptable words, Laura tied with Marshall for 2nd place and both were awarded 3 overall points.

In the second challenge, Spin a Speech, Laura was the second contestant to give a speech and had to break up with someone in her speech. She said, "**Tom**, I’m really, really sorry, but uh–I–I have to end this–th–this with you right now. Um–I feel more **alone** when I’m with you than when I’m actually by myself. I remember our first date; I felt like I was **flying**. It was–like–in the **evergreen** something park and we had–we had **whisky** for some reason and that was–that was really messed up and terrible, but I kinda stuck with you. Um–You know, i–it all just went so fast; it was like a **shotgun**–um–it was almost like a shotgun wedding sort of thing. I was fearing a shotgun wedding that was gonna show up any second. Um–I felt so **special** when I was with you but–you know–um–it just how the **politics** sort of play out, I guess. I–" Laura received a score of 8 words. Guest judge Seán Cullen commented that he doesn’t think that Tom (the receiver) got a clear idea as for why Laura was breaking up with him. Seán gave Laura an additional 5 points for the quality of her speech. With a total of 13 points, Laura finished in last place and was not awarded any overall points. Backstage, in a confessional, Laura and her sisters, Flora and Victoria, discussed Laura's performance so far and hugged.

In the third challenge, Spaced Out, Laura and Peter both finished their '7' shapes 15 seconds into the challenge (though Laura finished hers a number of milliseconds before Peter finished his), but failed to finish their 'T' shapes within the time limit of 2 minutes and 30 seconds. As a result, Laura tied with Peter for 2nd place and both were awarded 3 overall points.

In the fourth challenge, Double Take, Laura selected 11 out of the 15 correct items for her model. She selected the correct hat, purse, skirt, blouse, blazer, shoes, sunglasses, necklace, bracelet, ring, and scarf. As a result, Laura finished in 1st place and was awarded 5 overall points.

In the fifth challenge, Human Calculator, Laura got 6 correct answers in the first round, 3 in the second round, and 3 in the final round. With a total of 12 correct answers, Laura finished in 3rd place and was awarded 2 overall points. In the sixth challenge, Logic Towers, Laura successfully relocated her block tower 1 minute and 30 seconds into the challenge. As a result, Laura finished in 2nd place and was awarded 3 overall points.

In the seventh challenge, Power of Persuasion, Laura and the other contestants had to individually explain why they believed that they were Canada's Smartest Person in 30 seconds, debate with each other about what they believed was the greatest invention of all time, and individually make closing statements in 15 seconds. In the first portion of the challenge, Laura was the third contestant to give her explanation and argued that she was Canada's Smartest Person because she has natural visual intelligence and trained herself to be more logically intelligent too, with the fact that she's an atomic physicist who builds lasers for CERN being a testament to the latter claim. In the second portion of the challenge, Laura argued that the Internet is the greatest invention of all time and that the Internet has revolutionized society. In the final portion of the challenge, Laura was the second contestant to make her closing statement and said, "Okay, so I might not be able to tackle you very well or might not be able to rhyme you to death with every last breath, but um–I–I am Canada's Smartest Person because I am very, very strong in multiple intelligences a–and I deal very, very well with people and I'm able to have a good time while I do so." Guest judge Arlene Dickinson ranked Laura in last place for her overall performance and Laura was not awarded any overall points as a result. Backstage, in a confessional, Laura stated that all she could and had to do at that point is win in the upcoming challenges.

In the eighth challenge, Lost Instrument, Laura earned 5 points. As a result, Laura finished in 2nd place and was awarded 6 overall points.

In the ninth challenge, Sport Stacking, Laura received a time of 9.38 seconds on her first attempt, a time of 9.53 seconds on her second attempt, and a time of 8.18 seconds on her third attempt. With a personal record time of 8.18 seconds, Laura finished in 1st place and was awarded 10 overall points. After the first nine challenges, Laura had received a total of 32 overall points. As a result, she finished in 2nd place and was congratulated by Gerry for qualifying for the Multiple Intelligence Obstacle Course alongside Peter, who had finished in 1st place.

In the tenth and final challenge, the Multiple Intelligence Obstacle Course, Laura took the lead early on because Peter was having difficulty getting past the physical section. However, Peter was slowly catching up and Laura struggled at the logical section. Ultimately, Laura remained stuck at the logical section as Peter surpassed her, finishing the remaining sections and squeezing the horn, which signalled his victory. After the challenge ended and Peter was crowned Canada's Smartest Person, Laura and the other finalists celebrated onstage with their loved ones and Gerry.

### Summary of Results

  WINNER  This contestant won the final challenge and the competition.
  RUNNER-UP  This contestant was the runner-up of the final challenge and the competition.
  ELIMINATED  This contestant was already eliminated from the competition.
     This contestant qualified for the final challenge due to a sufficient total score.
     This contestant was eliminated from the competition due to an insufficient total score.
     Denotes a challenge that is based on linguistic intelligence.
     Denotes a challenge that is based on physical intelligence.
     Denotes a challenge that is based on musical intelligence.
     Denotes a challenge that is based on visual intelligence.
     Denotes a challenge that is based on social intelligence.
     Denotes a challenge that is based on logical intelligence.
## References

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 https://www.cbc.ca/mediacentre/press-release/how-smart-are-you-canada-play-along-with-canadas-smartest-person-sunday-mar
2. ↑ https://www.thestar.com/life/2012/03/14/cbcs\_canadas\_smartest\_person\_a\_learning\_experience\_for\_contestants.html
3. ↑ https://www.triumf.ca/headlines/current-events/meet-one-canadas-smartest-people
4. ↑ https://www.cbc.ca/smartestperson/blog/meet-2012-finalist-laura-suen