A McMaster student has been recognized as one of five young women in Canada with a promising future in technology.

Fiona Whelan of Flamborough, a second-year master's student in medical science, has received the Google Anita Borg Memorial Scholarship. She is one of 70 women worldwide to receive the award.

Borg's vision was to have the computing world be 50 per cent women by 2020. But people rarely envision a woman sitting in front of a computer writing programs, Whelan said.

Whelan studied computer science at the University of Waterloo. After her master's, she plans to pursue a PhD at McMaster in biochemistry and biomedical sciences.

In addition to a $5,000 scholarship, Whelan will head to Mountain View, Calif. for a three-day Google Scholars Retreat in June.