̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge - women in STEM

Celebrating Women in STEM

plc32 — Sun, 11 Feb 2024 11:33:15 +0000

To mark the International Day of Women and Girls in Science , two of our academics speak about their research careers and how they ended up using their STEM interests to tackle climate change.

Two Cambridge researchers awarded Royal Academy of Engineering Chair in Emerging Technologies

sc604 — Thu, 01 Dec 2022 16:02:01 +0000

Funded by the UK Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, the Chair in Emerging Technologies scheme aims to identify global research visionaries and provide them with long-term support. ̽��ֱ��awards will enable the researchers to focus on strategic approaches for taking their technology from the bench to the boardroom.

Professor Rachel Oliver, from the Department of Materials Science and Metallurgy, is a Fellow of Robinson College and Director of the Cambridge Centre for Gallium Nitride. Gallium nitride (GaN) is a rising star of the electronics and optoelectronics industries, with GaN-based solid-state lighting bringing about a revolution in how we illuminate our world. Creating porosity in GaN vastly extends the range of materials properties achievable in this key compound semiconductor material. By controlling the porosity, engineers can select the properties they need to create new device concepts or to improve existing products.

Professor Oliver's aim is to create a set of materials fabrication processes which control the structure and properties of porous gallium nitride. Alongside this, she will develop a modelling toolbox for designing new devices. By developing new devices and embedding porous GaN in the UK’s vibrant and expanding compound semiconductor industry, Oliver hopes to drive this emerging materials platform towards widespread industrial adoption, fuelling the future of the UK compound semiconductor ecosystem.

Potential applications for the new research are both wide-ranging and far-reaching. Developing the use of UV LEDs for disinfection would give healthcare professionals new weapons in the fight against viral epidemics and antibiotic-resistant bacteria. Work on microdisplays using microLEDs could improve augmented and virtual reality headsets. As well as providing immersive experiences for gamers, this technology could be used by organisations for more effective online collaboration. By reducing the need for business travel, the ecological benefits would be significant.

Professor Vignolini and her Bio-inspired Photonics group in the Yusuf Hamied Department of Chemistry have discovered that plants produce bright and vibrant colouration through organising cellulose into sub-micrometer structures that manipulate light. These natural examples have inspired Vignolini to mimic the use of biological building blocks to create sustainable colorants in the lab. She is developing a new generation of manufacturing processes to produce colours using only naturally derived biomaterials, such as cellulose, a biodegradable and abundant plant material.

Vignolini's vision is that bio-based pigments will replace current alternatives made with energy-intensive and problematic materials.

Professor Sir Jim McDonald FREng FRSE, President of the Royal Academy of Engineering, said: “ ̽��ֱ��Academy places huge importance on supporting excellence in engineering and often the key to engineers fulfilling their potential in tackling global challenges is the gift of time and continuity of support to bring the most disruptive and impactful ideas to fruition.”

Professor Rachel Oliver and Professor Silvia Vignolini from the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge have been awarded a Royal Academy of Engineering Chair in Emerging Technologies. Each award is worth £2.5 million over ten years to develop emerging technologies with high potential to deliver economic and social benefits to the UK.

Nathan Pitt (left), Nick Saffell (right)

Silvia Vignolini (left), Rachel Oliver (right)

̽��ֱ��text in this work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. Images, including our videos, are Copyright © ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge and licensors/contributors as identified. All rights reserved. We make our image and video content available in a number of ways – as here, on our main website under its Terms and conditions, and on a range of channels including social media that permit your use and sharing of our content under their respective Terms.

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Professor Suchitra Sebastian to receive the Schmidt Science Polymaths Award

sc604 — Thu, 30 Jun 2022 11:30:16 +0000

Professor Suchitra Sebastian from Cambridge’s Cavendish Laboratory has been awarded the Schmidt Science Polymaths award. Schmidt Futures, a philanthropic initiative founded by Eric and Wendy Schmidt, announced ten new recipients of the award, which provides $500,000 a year, paid through their institution, for up to five years to help support part of a research group.

̽��ֱ��Polymath programme makes long-term bets on recently-tenured professors with remarkable track records, promising futures, and a desire to explore risky new research ideas across disciplines. ̽��ֱ��awardees are the second group to receive the Polymath award, joining just two other exceptionally talented interdisciplinary researchers named in 2021. ̽��ֱ��awards build upon Schmidt Futures’ commitment to identifying and supporting extraordinary talent, and growing networks empowered to solve hard problems in science and society.

Professor Sebastian’s research seeks to discover exotic quantum phases of matter in complex materials. Her group’s experiments involve tuning the co-operative behaviour of electrons within these materials by subjecting them to extreme conditions including low temperature, high applied pressure, and intense magnetic field.

Under these conditions, her group can take materials that are quite close to behaving like a superconductor – perfect, lossless conductors of electricity – and ‘nudge’ them, transforming their behaviour.

“I like to call it quantum alchemy – like turning soot into gold,” Sebastian said. “You can start with a material that doesn’t even conduct electricity, squeeze it under pressure, and discover that it transforms into a superconductor. Going forward, we may also discover new quantum phases of matter that we haven’t even imagined.”

Other awards she has received for her research include the World Economic Forum Young Scientist award, the L'Oreal-UNESCO Fellowship, the Lee Osheroff Richardson North American Science prize, the International Young Scientist Medal in Magnetism, the Moseley Medal, the Philip Leverhulme Prize, the Brian Pippard Prize. She is an ERC starting and consolidator grant awardee. Most recently, she was awarded the New Horizons in Physics Prize (2022) by the Breakthrough Foundation.

In addition to her physics research, Sebastian is also involved in theatre and the arts. She is Director of the Cavendish Arts-Science Project, which she founded in 2016. ̽��ֱ��programme has been conceived to question and explore material and immaterial universes through a dialogue between the arts and sciences.

“ ̽��ֱ��very idea of the Polymath Award is revolutionary,” said Sebastian. “It's so rare that an award selects people for being polymaths. Imagining new worlds and questioning traditional ways of knowing - whether by doing experimental theatre, or by bringing together art and science, is part of who I am.

“And this is why in our group, we love to research at the edge - to make risky boundary crossings and go on wild adventures into the quantum unknown. We do it because it's incredibly fun, you never know what each day will bring. To be recognised for this by Schmidt Futures is so unexpected and exciting, the possibilities this award opens up are endless. I look forward to embarking on new quantum explorations, it’s going to be a wild ride!”

̽��ֱ��awards build upon Schmidt Futures’ commitment to identifying and supporting extraordinary talent, and growing networks empowered to solve hard problems in science and society. Each Polymath will receive support at the moment in their careers when researchers have the most freedom to explore new ideas, use emerging technologies to test risky theories, and pursue novel scientific research that traverses fields and disciplines; which is otherwise unlikely to receive funding or support.

“ ̽��ֱ��interdisciplinary work that could herald the next great scientific breakthroughs are chronically under-funded,” said Eric Braverman, CEO of Schmidt Futures. “We are betting on the talent of the Schmidt Science Polymaths to explore new ideas across disciplines and accelerate discoveries to address the challenges facing our planet and society.”

Hopeful Polymaths from over 25 universities submitted applications outlining research ideas in STEM fields that represent a substantive shift from their current research portfolio and are unlikely to receive funding elsewhere for consideration to the Schmidt Science Polymaths program. Existing Polymaths’ ideas range from the artificial creation of complex soft matter like human tissue, to the development of synthetic biology platforms for engineering multicellular systems, to the discovery of exotic forms of quantum matter. ̽��ֱ��impact of this type of interdisciplinary research could result in innovations previously thought impossible like a 3D printer for human organs, climate change-resistant crops, or the unknown applications of quantum matter.

“Single-minded -specialisation coupled with rigid research and funding structures often hinder the ambition to unleash fresh perspectives in scientific inquiry,” said Stuart Feldman, Chief Scientist of Schmidt Futures. “From climate change to public health, the Schmidt Science Polymaths utilise the depth of their knowledge across a breadth of fields to find new ways to solve some of our hardest problems for public benefit.”

Cambridge physicist Professor Suchitra Sebastian to join group of ten recently tenured professors named to Polymath Program, awarded up to $2.5 million each for interdisciplinary research support.

To be recognised for this by Schmidt Futures is so unexpected and exciting, the possibilities this award opens up are endless. I look forward to embarking on new quantum explorations, it’s going to be a wild ride!

Suchitra Sebastian

Nick Saffell

Suchitra Sebastian

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Female scientists lead Cambridge success in Royal Society awards 2021

ta385 — Tue, 24 Aug 2021 12:00:00 +0000

Bell Burnell is one of twelve former and current Cambridge researchers, including six women, to be recognised in 2021 for their exceptional research and outstanding contributions to science.

Dame Jocelyn has been honoured for her work on the discovery of pulsars in the 1960s while she was a postgraduate student at New Hall (now Murray Edwards College) carrying out research at Cambridge's Cavendish Laboratory.

Past winners of the Copley Medal have included Charles Darwin, Albert Einstein and Dorothy Crowfoot Hodgkin. Dame Jocelyn said: “I am delighted to be the recipient of this year’s Copley Medal, a prize which has been awarded to so many incredible scientists.

“With many more women having successful careers in science, and gaining recognition for their transformational work, I hope there will be many more female Copley winners in the near future.

“My career has not fitted a conventional – male – pattern. Being the first person to identify pulsars would be the highlight of any career; but I have also swung sledgehammers and built radio telescopes; set up a successful group of my own studying binary stars; and was the first female president of the Institute of Physics and of the Royal Society of Edinburgh.

“I hope that my work and presence as a senior woman in science continues to encourage more women to pursue scientific careers”.

̽��ֱ��Copley Medal award includes a £25,000 gift which Dame Jocelyn will add to the Institute of Physics' Bell Burnell Graduate Scholarship Fund, which provides grants to graduate students from under-represented groups in physics.

Three female scientists currently working at Cambridge have been recognised in 2021. Professor Sadaf Farooqi from the MRC Metabolic Diseases Unit receives the Croonian Medal and Lecture, together with Sir Stephen O'Rahilly, for their seminal discoveries regarding the control of human body weight, resulting in novel diagnostics and therapies, which improve human health.

Dr Serena Nik-Zainal from the MRC Cancer Unit has been awarded the Francis Crick Medal and Lecture, for her contributions to understanding the aetiology of cancers by her analyses of mutation signatures in cancer genomes, which is now being applied to cancer therapy.

Professor Anne Ferguson-Smith from the Department of Genetics and currently the ̽��ֱ��’s Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Research receives the Buchanan Medal, for her pioneering work in epigenetics, her interdisciplinary work on genomic imprinting, the interplay between the genome and epigenome, and how genetic and environmental influences affect development and human diseases.

Former Cavendish Laboratory Research Fellow, Professor Michelle Simmons, has won the Bakerian Medal and Lecture, for her seminal contributions to our understanding of nature at the atomic-scale by creating a sequence of world-first quantum electronic devices in which individual atoms control device behaviour.

Professor Frances Kirwan, alumna and Honorary Fellow of Clare College, received the Sylvester Medal, for her research on quotients in algebraic geometry, including links with symplectic geometry and topology, which has had many applications.

Other current Cambridge researchers honoured include Dr Sjors Scheres from the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology. Scheres has been awarded the Leeuwenhoek Medal and Lecture for his ground-breaking contributions and innovations in image analysis and reconstruction methods in electron cryo-microscopy, enabling the structure determination of complex macromolecules of fundamental biological and medical importance to atomic resolution.

Emeritus Professor Michael Green from the Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics has been awarded Royal Medal A for crucial and influential contributions to the development of string theory over a long period, including the discovery of anomaly cancellation.

̽��ֱ��Royal Society’s President, Sir Adrian Smith, said: “Through its medals and awards the Royal Society recognises those researchers and science communicators who have played a critical part in expanding our understanding of the world around us.”

“From advancing vaccine development to catching the first glimpses of distant pulsars, these discoveries shape our societies, answer fundamental questions and open new avenues for exploration.”

Find the full list of 2021 Royal Society medal, award and prize winners here.

Professor Dame Jocelyn Bell Burnell has become only the second woman to be awarded the Royal Society’s prestigious Copley Medal, the world’s oldest scientific prize.

I hope there will be many more female Copley winners in the near future

Jocelyn Bell Burnell

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z_3zNw91MSY

Professor Dame Jocelyn Bell Burnell

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Cambridge researcher named one of Top 50 Women in Engineering

sc604 — Wed, 23 Jun 2021 11:18:28 +0000

Now in its sixth year, the 2021 WE50 celebrates the wealth of female talent within engineering and related disciplines. ̽��ֱ��annual celebration is aligned with International Women in Engineering Day (INWED) which takes place on 23 June.

Some of Kar-Narayan’s happiest childhood memories involved taking apart cassette players and VCR recorders, and that curiosity is what drew her to her current role. Her research involves developing new polymeric materials for harvesting energy to power health monitoring devices and integrating materials into versatile sensors. She has also been working on developing self-powered devices for patients.

“I am absolutely thrilled by this award, and to be recognised as an ‘Engineering Hero’ will go down well with my kids,” said Kar-Narayan, who is a Fellow of Clare Hall. “My late father was diabetic and suffered from heart disease, and this played a role in my desire to use science and engineering to improve patient care by developing self-powered devices that can offer personalised healthcare and remote health monitoring, and new technologies to study and manage the progression of disease at a cellular level. I am so grateful to WES for this award, and of course, to all the people who have supported me over the years, including my brilliant research group without whom this would not have been possible.”

One of the aims of Kar-Narayan’s research is the development of early-stage prototypes and eventual commercialisation of energy harvesting and self-powered sensing technologies. An example is the spin-out company ArtioSense Ltd that she has recently co-founded, which seeks to deliver low-cost conformable sensors that can aid orthopaedic surgery through real-time force monitoring in joints.

Even in the current climate, the number and standard of nominations were high, emphasising the exceptional achievements made by women in this field. ̽��ֱ��WE50 awards were judged by a panel of industry experts.

“It was wonderful to read about the achievements of these extraordinary women and the impact that they are making on society with their talent, hard work and dedication,” said Head Judge Professor Catherine Noakes OBE CEng FIMechE FIHEEM. “ ̽��ֱ��COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted how truly important science, technology and engineering are to the health of our planet. ̽��ֱ��2021 WE50 personify the inventive and inclusive thinking needed to build a sustainable future. If there was ever a time that we needed these heroes in engineering, it is now.”

INWED celebrates the achievements of women in engineering and related roles and highlights the opportunities available to engineers of the future. ̽��ֱ��WE50 was created to raise awareness of the skills shortage facing the industry, highlighting the huge discrepancy between the number of men vs. women currently in engineering professions. ̽��ֱ��theme of WE50 changes each year to recognise women working in different fields and from varying routes into engineering. This year’s theme is ‘Engineering Heroes.’

Dr Sohini Kar-Narayan from Cambridge’s Department of Materials Science and Metallurgy has been named one of the top 50 Women in Engineering 2021 by the Women’s Engineering Society.

Sohini Kar-Narayan

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Professor Ruth Cameron receives Suffrage Science award on the scheme’s tenth anniversary

sc604 — Mon, 08 Mar 2021 14:28:19 +0000

Ten years ago, Professor Dame Amanda Fisher, Director of the MRC London Institute of Medical Sciences (then Clinical Sciences Centre), and Vivienne Parry OBE, science writer and broadcaster, concocted an idea to celebrate the contributions that women scientists have made to their field, sometimes overlooked in favour of their male counterparts. With an endorsement from Dr Helen Pankhurst CBE, women’s rights activist and great-granddaughter of Emmeline Pankhurst, they called the awards scheme Suffrage Science.

Their awards were hand-crafted items of jewellery created by art students from Central Saint Martins-UAL, who worked with scientists to design pieces inspired by research and by the Suffragette movement. But rather than produce a new set of pieces for the next awards, each holder chose who they would like to pass their award onto, thus generating an extensive ‘family tree’ of incredible scientists and communicators.

As the relay continued, new branches of the Suffrage Science scheme were developed – the Engineering and Physical Sciences strand was founded in 2013, and the ‘Maths and Computing’ strand followed in 2016. ̽��ֱ��Suffrage Science family is now 148 strong, with a further 12 joining on Monday 8 March 2021, the tenth anniversary of the scheme.

Each previous holder chose to whom they wanted to pass their ‘heirloom’ piece of jewellery.

Professor Serena Best from Cambridge’s Department of Materials Science and Metallurgy, who was honoured in 2020, chose to pass her award to her colleague Professor Ruth Cameron. She said: “Professor Ruth Cameron is a highly successful and respected scientist in the field of biomaterials whose organisational abilities and communication skills are outstanding. Most recently, she has become the first female appointee to lead the Department of Materials Science and Metallurgy, ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge in the Office of Head of Department. Ruth’s work ethic will provide inspiration to the next generation of young female scientists - demonstrating that the key to success is collegial support and collaboration.”

Professor Róisín Owens from Cambridge’s Department of Chemical Engineering and Biotechnology, and Professor Melinda Duer from the Yusuf Hamied Department of Chemistry, were also named winners in 2020. Owens has chosen to pass her award to Professor Natalie Stingelin from Georgia Institute of Technology, and Duer has chosen to pass her award to Dr Mary Anti Chama from the ̽��ֱ�� of Ghana.

“Natalie is a tremendous advocate for diversity in science and engineering,” said Owens. “She was incredibly supportive of me when I started out, mentoring me and suggesting my name for conferences and editorial work. She has worked tirelessly to support women and is very active on social media. She has brought countless young researchers, especially women under her wing, helping them to develop their careers. She is also very proactive in getting the old guard to be inclusive and diverse – including calling out conference organisers for not including women in their speaker lists. In her role as editor at RSC she has been very involved in trying to improve diversity and equality in publishing also.”

“I have known Mary since she was a Cambridge-Africa Research Fellow in Cambridge,” said Duer. “She impressed me then with how she approached interdisciplinary science, and brought in whatever techniques she needed in her quest to find new pharmaceutical compounds in plants. She has continued to impress me as she has developed her science and brought in new collaborators. She has been a champion for women in science throughout her career and very supportive of students and younger colleagues alike. I hope she won't mind my saying that she also ensured that all her siblings had access to higher education - and now continues that with ensuring that her graduate students have what they need to be successful. I always enjoy any discussion with Mary - she has shown me how one can be kind, compassionate and still be ambitious in one's science.”

Suffrage Science pioneer Professor Fisher said: “We dreamed up the awards scheme to celebrate the contribution that women have made to science, which often gets overlooked. This is as important now as it was ten years ago. This year’s awardees join a community of over 148 women scientists. I’m thrilled that since 2011, the awards have travelled from the UK, across Europe to the USA, Hong Kong, Iran and to Ghana, illustrating the international nature of science and engineering, and the global effort to improve the representation of women in STEM.”

Professor Ruth Cameron from Cambridge’s Department of Materials Science & Metallurgy is one of twelve winners of this year’s Suffrage Science awards. She and the other winners will be honoured at an online celebration today, the tenth anniversary of the scheme. This will be the fifth Suffrage Science awards for engineering and physical sciences.

Ruth’s work ethic will provide inspiration to the next generation of young female scientists

Serena Best

Ruth Cameron

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Magdalene College discovers a treasure trove of women’s intellectual history

ta385 — Mon, 08 Mar 2021 09:20:00 +0000

̽��ֱ��collection comprises 47 books and pamphlets owned and annotated by the philosopher Mary Astell (1666–1731), viewed by many as “the first English feminist”. Her hand-written notes reveal, for the first time, that Astell engaged with complex natural philosophy including the ideas of René Descartes.

̽��ֱ��scientist watching light at a millionth of a millionth of a second

cg605 — Wed, 10 Feb 2021 15:15:54 +0000

When she’s not making atomic-scale changes to create super-efficient light bulbs and cut carbon emissions, Professor Rachel Oliver has her sights set on helping to level-up equality and diversity in science. We speak to her on International Day of Women and Girls in Science (11 February).