Contributor Profiles

Daphne Lavers is a Toronto-based freelancer whose journalism career has moved from newspaper reporter/photographer to editor of motorcycle trade and rider magazines to editorial positions with communications and technology publications. Her focus has included space sciences research and communications.

Shortly after being born in Montreal, Daphne returned with her prairie-born parents to the West, where she spent her early years in Medicine Hat, Alberta.

Her father was a trained opera singer, classical pianist, conductor, and broadcaster, as well as a businessman in the western grain, oil and gas industries. Her mother was an artist, poet, radio and television broadcaster, and social services worker. All four of her grandparents held postgraduate degrees at the MA and PhD levels.

Daphne completed her B.A. at the University of Waterloo in psychology with a secondary focus on political science; a diploma in journalism at Conestoga College; and a Master of Journalism at Carleton University.

Much of her journalism and communications writing focuses on technology. She has worked with astrophysicists who resolved initial problems with the Hubble Space Telescope; watched a rare nighttime Space Shuttle launch and walked across the face of Canada’s largest satellite tracking antenna, the 150-foot Algonquin Radio Observatory.

An affinity for scientists

One of her favourite memories is sitting around a wilderness campfire with space scientists from around the world, all of whom immediately knew the answer to the question, “What is the meaning of life?” The answer, known to aficionados of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, is, of course, 42.

A youthful interest in motorcycles led her, foolishly, to set out alone from Toronto destined for Alberta. Boarding the Manitoulin Ferry, Daphne's motorcycle was secured beside that of an outlaw biker; with an hours-long ferry ride and only one road across Manitoulin Island, Daphne ended up riding unwillingly and cautiously with the outlaw biker.

Both crashed their bikes in the gravelly wilds of northern Ontario. Bruised and somewhat battered, they parted company in Thunder Bay, where the outlaw biker sought out the local gang for repairs.

Daphne continued alone on to Alberta. But that is another story!