International Day of Women and Girls in Science

To celebrate this year’s International Day of Women and Girls in Science on the 11th February, we asked you all who’s been your biggest female inspiration within science.

Dead or alive, fact or fiction, here is what you guys shared.

Françoise Barré-Sinousi

“French virologist who with her team discovered human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) in 1983. Her work resulted in tests and antiretroviral drugs being made to stop the deaths of those with AIDS. She travelled around Africa to educate about AIDS prevention.”

Victoria Thompson – Senior Technician (@Hammiehoo)

Rachel Carson

“Rachel Carson who wrote The Silent Spring”

Nicki – (@ifnickiwas)

Marie Curie

“Marie Curie…. ground breaking for women”

Alcester Academy Science Department

Maggie Aderin-Pocock

“A tough choice as I have several, but it has to be the fantastic Maggie Aderin-Pocock.”

Sharen Cordy – (@SharenCordy)

Miss Tippett

“I’ve thought hard about this and, honestly, I think for me personally I have to say Miss Tippett. My secondary school teacher and first female scientist role model.”

Katrina Lawrence, Science Technician – University Technical College

“So many! Dorothy Hodgkin, Katherine Johnson, Mae Jemison…”

(@STEMYMissBanda)

Sarah Gilbert

“The leader of the team that brought us that record-breaking Oxford-AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine. They were able to develop it so quickly because they’d already thought about the technology required to do this.”

Richard Blunt, Chemistry technician – Haileybury

Rosalind Franklin

Denise Ralph (RSciTech) – Senior Science Technician, RSCiTech – WH Tech (@WhTech)

Professor Squawkencluck 

“Permanently exasperated, incredibly bright and dedicated, totally undervalued…. She’s the hero to all science technicians!”

Richard Blunt, Chemistry technician – Haileybury

My Mother

“My mother inspired me. She was a midwife and a district nurse. She loved science, always used to talk about how science is in our everyday life. Whenever she was cooking she used to talk about how lemon is a weak acid and the car battery is a strong one, how yeasts are a eukaryotic single-celled microorganism. She used to go to the villages in Somalia teaching women about family planning and immunisation and the bad effect if their daughters go through FGM.”

Jihan Hassan, Senior Science & Technology Technician – St Mary’s High Church of England

Dorothy Hodgkin

“The only British woman to win a science Nobel prize. She received the medal in 1964 for her pioneering work on the use of what’s known as X-ray crystallography to determine the structures of biological molecules such as penicillin and vitamin B12. This has helped us understand how these substances work and so improve our use of them.”

Stacey Wheeler, Senior Science Technician – Mounts Bay Academy, Penzance