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Dr. Cynthia (Cindy) Ross Friedman, FRSA is a full professor in Biological Sciences at Thompson Rivers University in Kamloops, British Columbia, Canada. She is a popular professor and respected researcher, holding national grants, having been inducted into the inaugural cohort of the Royal Society of Canada's College of New Scholars, Artists, and Scientists and being awarded both a Teaching Excellence and Research Excellence Award at her institution. She has recently been inducted as a Fellow of the RSA (Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce). She is known as an environmentalist, an advocate for human rights, LGTBQ+ activism, and supporter of Universal Basic Income.
Her research group showed—in a Nature Communications paper—that the parasitic flowering plant Arceuthobium americanum (Lodegpole pine dwarf mistletoe) undergoes thermogenesis (internal heat generation) to explosively-discharge its seeds.
She has been on national radio and television in many instances not only to discuss her team's research, but also to act as a spokesperson for a coalition of concerned community groups opposed to the proposed KGHM Ajax mine, a copper-gold open-pit mine project proposed to be located within 1 km of the Kamloops' city boundary. She is an outspoken opponent of the proposed mine.
Dr. Ross Friedman is also an accomplished musician who currently plays in a local Latin ensemble, "Caliente", but has also played in rock bands and as a solo singer-songwriter.