Heather Whittaker

**Heather Whittaker** was a contestant on Season 2.

## Background

*Retrieved from CBC.ca*

Heather is a research assistant from Winnipeg currently working on her masters in Clinical Neuroscience at University College London. Heather’s research aims for a better understanding of Alzheimer’s disease through MRI scans on mouse brains to search for early signs of the illness. Heather volunteers with her local hospital’s dementia ward and has won awards for her work, including the 2015 Sunnybrook Research Prize. When she’s not in the lab, Heather loves to travel the world and stay active through dance, acro-yoga, kickboxing, and scuba diving. She’s hoping to show the nation that scientists are more than simply book-smart!

## Episode 203

Before Heather was summoned to the stage, a clip of her and the other three contestants, Chris Harris, Dan Tweyman, and Denise Yuen, introducing themselves was shown. In this clip, apart from introducing herself, Heather stated that scientists are multitalented people with more than just book smarts. In the first challenge, Cranium Crash, Heather got 7 correct answers. As a result, Heather finished in 2nd place and was awarded 3 overall points.

In the second challenge, Twitterverse, Heather was the second contestant to present her tweet based upon the theme of **Saturday night regrets** and she had composed, "WITH MY BOTTLE OF TEQUILA AND A BAWDY LIBIDO. #NOREGRETS." Guest judge Perez Hilton commented that he was into it. Perez ranked Heather in 3rd place for her tweet and Heather was awarded 2 overall points as a result.

In the third challenge, Model Mayhem, Heather selected 14 out of the 15 correct items for her model. She selected the incorrect jacket. As a result, Heather finished in 1st place and was awarded 5 overall points. In the fourth challenge, Faces, Heather got 2 correct answers. As a result, Heather finished in last place and was awarded 1 overall point.

In the fifth challenge, Twisty Tune, Heather received an initial time of 1 minute and 2 seconds, but due to making 14 errors, received 1 minute and 10 seconds of added time. With a total time of 2 minutes and 12 seconds, Heather finished in 1st place and was awarded 10 overall points. After the first five challenges, Heather had received a total of 21 overall points. As a result, she finished in 1st place and was congratulated by Jessi, along with Dan, for qualifying for the Gauntlet.

In the sixth and final challenge, the Gauntlet, Dan gained the early lead on Heather as the former breezed through the linguistic section. Heather, though, was able to gain momentum after unscrambling her first word at the linguistic section and remained not too far behind Dan for the next few sections. At the physical section, Dan failed on their first attempt at transporting four bricks back across their teeter-totter, which allowed Heather to catch up to them. However, Heather ended up having a couple of mishaps with the four blocks herself, which allowed Dan to complete the last two tasks at the physical section before her and proceed to the logical section, which they completed fairly quickly. Ultimately, Heather stopped at the physical section as Dan hit the buzzer, which signalled their victory and their spot in the season finale. After the challenge ended and Dan was declared the third finalist of the season, Heather and the other three contestants celebrated onstage with Jessi.

### Summary of Results

 3

  WON  This contestant won the final challenge and advanced to the finale.
  LOST  This contestant lost the final challenge and was eliminated from 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.

## Episode 208

After the seven other finalists, Tim Blais, Anthony Craparotta, Marco Iannuzzi, Alex Manea, Dan Tweyman, Jason Vander-Hoek, and Katy Warren, were summoned to the stage, Jessi made them take notice of an empty eighth podium to the left of Jason's. She then announced that it is a wildcard spot that would be taken by the contestant who had earned the highest total overall score without winning their preliminary episode's Gauntlet. This additional finalist was revealed to be Heather, who had earned 21 overall points in the third episode, but had also lost against Dan in the Gauntlet. Before Heather was summoned to the stage, a brief clip of her introducing herself was shown. In this clip, Heather stated that she is thrilled to be back and to keep on competing among the smartest people in Canada. A narration also recapped in this clip that Heather consistently excelled in every category in her preliminary episode and that her top score reaffirms that she still has something to prove. In the first challenge, the Speed Round, Heather received a percentage score of 50% during the **Wing Nuts** mini-challenge and received an unknown overall percentage score, however, it was between 65% and 79%. As a result, she finished somewhere between 3rd and 6th place along with Anthony, Dan, and Jason and the four had to compete in the second challenge in which two of them would be eliminated from the competition.

In the second challenge, Ultimate Face-Off, Heather competed against Jason. Heather lost the **Music Match** mini-challenge, lost the **Unscrambled** mini-challenge, and lost the **Ping Tac Toe** mini-challenge, losing to Jason 0-3. As a result, Heather tied with Dan for 3rd place and both were eliminated. Jessi prompted applause for Dan and Heather in spite of their shared elimination.

After the ninth and final challenge, the Super Gauntlet, ended and Katy was crowned Canada's Smartest Person, Heather and the other finalists, except for Marco, celebrated onstage with Katy's mother and Jessi.

## References

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 https://www.cbc.ca/smartestperson/blog/episode-3-recap-GIF-roundup-perez-hilton-guest-star
2. ↑ https://www.cbc.ca/smartestperson/blog/meet-episode-3s-competitors