SoapboxScience

Dr Danielle Solomon (@df_solomon), Institute for Global Health, University College London is taking part in Soapbox Science London on 25th May with the talk: “Using research to understand sexual health”

What a scientist looks like

By Danielle Solomon

A running joke about me is that I went to medical school because ‘a lot of people told me not to’. It’s not entirely true – I’ve been fascinated by science since I can remember, and deep down I always knew that I would turn it into a career. However, the fact that it was an aspiration that went against almost every piece of advice I was given during my youth certainly helped cement the decision. My school, in particular, spent many fruitless hours trying to convince me that attempting to pursue a career in medicine would lead me down a path of rejection and disappointment. Why? Because my skills very clearly lay in the arts. I played more than one instrument, I loved literature and theatre, I was creative, not analytical. People like me, on the whole, didn’t end up working in the sciences.

Three science degrees later, I can confirm that the above assumption isn’t true. Throughout my career, I have had the privilege to work with a range of incredibly interesting people, all of whom have very different skillsets and interests, and all of whom contribute something different to the pursuit of scientific understanding. Nowhere has this been more apparent than in the field of public health. The World Health Organization defines public health as “the art and science of preventing disease, prolonging life and promoting health through the organized efforts of society” – and I couldn’t agree more with that definition. In order to prevent disease, we have to understand some of the most nuanced aspects of human behaviour, and that requires the bringing together of a number of disciplines; biology, chemistry, maths, sociology, politics, philosophy and history…to name a few. My day-to-day life involves sitting in front of computer analysing rows and rows of numbers (something which I love), but my background in the arts is something that helps me turn those numbers into people, and ultimately makes me better at my job.

My advice to anyone pursuing a career in the sciences is twofold. First – don’t be held back by the stereotypical image of a ‘scientist’. There is an assumption that people who work in the sciences behave in a certain way, and that they have a very specific set of (let’s face it, traditionally male) interests and skills. Science is incredibly diverse, and scientific careers present a lot of room for diversity, when given the chance. Second – don’t be held back by the fallacy of ‘natural talent’. The idea that everyone who works in the sciences showed a natural aptitude from infancy. This often excludes people from non-traditional backgrounds, who may, for both structural and personal reasons, take a bit longer to find their niche within science.

In my opinion, it’s the passion, the creativity and the curiosity that can’t be taught. The rest you can learn later.

Professor Frances A Edwards, University College London, is taking part in Soapbox Science London on 25th May 2019 with the talk: “It takes two to tangle; scientists trying to understand Alzheimer’s disease”

So much for parental expectations

by Frances A Edwards

Unlike most of the women who have written blogs for this site, I was set on a career in medicine or science from a very young age. My father was a respiratory physiologist and my mother’s family of artists were also self-educated naturalists who took me bushwalking and ingrained in me a love and curiosity about nature and “life, the universe and everything!”.

Early experiences with my father included finding a possum under a tree in the local park on Christmas eve. I thought it was still breathing and ran home to my father who, despite the holiday, was working away at his desk. “Daddy, daddy come quickly”. It turned out that the possum was dead but there was a live baby possum in the pouch. Marsupials are born very early and crawl around through their mother’s fur to suckle and develop in the pouch. So we took this tiny pink fetal-like creature home and kept it warm and fed it milk with an eye dropper. Excited for Christmas at the age of about 7, I fell into bed exhausted in the evening and woke in the morning, running into my parents shouting “Where’s my possum?”.

“Well”, my father said, in his characteristically calm way, “I have good news and bad news for you. Sadly your possum died…. but look what I have for you…” and, with that he pulled out a little vanilla essence bottle full of saline and the eye dropper, previously used for feeding the possum, was now attached to the trachea leading to the dissected out lungs so we could simulate breathing by squeezing the nipple making the lungs expand and contract in the bottle.

“Wow!!!! Fantastic!!” Poor little possum forgotten immediately by blossoming young scientist.

Dad: “I’d never seen the respiratory system of a baby possum before”.

“Grrrr….” says Mum “but did you have to dissect it on the kitchen table while I was trying to make the Christmas pudding and wrap the presents?”

In retrospect it is quite funny that I went on throughout my school life assuming that I would go to university and become a scientist and thinking of this as just exactly what was expected of me. My father sadly died very early from cancer, when I was 9 years old, leaving my mother with very little money, feeling the weight of responsibility for their 4 clever little kids. Despite being very clever herself, she had not been allowed to go to university but rather had been expected to look after her father and brothers, after her mother was no longer capable of doing so, due to mental illness. So she had trained as an art teacher but gone to university and not been in the work force since she had married my father at the age of about 22.

Fortunately with us being on scholarships at private schools and university education being free in Australia at the time, this seemed a clear and natural path. As far as I was concerned Mum absolutely expected me to go to university and have an academic career. She would always say “having a career is really important; make sure you have something to fall back on”. Of course she felt this as a huge hole in her situation as, by the time Dad died, she had been out of the work-force for 15 years or so and advances in technology had moved art teaching to a very different stage. I assumed she meant that I should go to university and become a scientist. After all, in my head, that was what I was always going to do. I was fortunately not disabused of my mother’s intentions until many years after she had died, when I already had a permanent position at University College London. I had a visit, out of the blue, from my mother’s friend Marl who had 3 daughters with highly successful careers, one a professor at Kings College London.

Marl: “Isn’t it funny that you, of all your siblings, are the one with the international career in science?”

Me: “But I have only done exactly what Mum and everyone else expected me to do. Besides my siblings are very successful” (All with successful careers in Australia at that stage: my two older brothers, a doctor and a scientist and my younger sister, multi-talented in the arts.)

Marl: “What do you mean? That’s not what your mother meant you to do. She wanted you to be a nurse or a physiotherapist or something practical that you could fall back on when you had had kids; in case something happened to their father.”

She went on to explain that she and Mum used to have screaming arguments about what girls should be encouraged to do. My mother never drove and Marl told me about one time when driving across the Sydney Harbour Bridge with Mum in the passenger seat, Marl was trying to convince her that girls’ careers were just as important as boys. Mum got so cross that she told Marl to stop right there in the middle of the bridge and got out and walked off along the median strip.

So it seems that rather than doing exactly what was expected of me, I simply made up my mind from the start and it didn’t really matter what my mother said. My track was already set and, that was that. A career in science and….. in case you were wondering…. no babies…..

Eugenia Pyurbeeva (part of @lab_mol), Queen Mary University of London, is taking part in Soapbox Science London on 25th May 2019 with the talk:“Heat engines: from steam trains to using quantumness as a resource”

Soapbox Science: How did you get to your current position?

Eugenia Pyurbeeva: In a surprisingly straightforward way, but being a first-year PhD student is not much of a position. I’ve always loved science, got into a Maths-specialised school in secondary school, spent hours after school in the Physics lab there, partly doing experiments and solving problems and partly hanging out with a group of others who stayed there and then got through combined six years of Bachelors and Masters still having the idea that I love science and want to do research.

SS: What, or who, inspired you to get a career in science?

EP: A lot of things and people.

I read a lot of books, watched some films and wanted to be the hero. Being a type of hero who fights ten enemies at a time with brute force was never very appealing and also out of the question with me being small, completely unathletic and  quite socially awkward. So the most plausible and appealing heroic type was scientific: Sherlock Holmes, Doctor Who, Captain Nemo, Ghostbusters, and particularly Cyrus Smith from the Mysterious Island, obviously a very tempting career prospect.

As for real people, whoever told me that it’s not that water boils at 100C, it’s that 100C is the temperature at which water boils (I honestly don’t remember who it was, but it was a very important sentence in my life), my mum, who allowed me to play with any dangerous object and drop ballet for electronics, my grandad, who I used to believe was an astronaut and flew off to space every morning at nine, only to return home in time for dinner (he was an aerospace engineer, really) and had a very appealing storage room (see below), my Maths teacher at school, who taught me how to read properly, everything, including poetry. And most importantly a Physics teacher, who never had me in his class, but was always happy to stay after lessons to show me a problem or one of his “toys” — the collection now  includes all the good items from the gift shops of most science museums in the world, with whom I’ve worked for six years in after-school clubs and who is still happy to listen to my ramblings about being stuck on something and ask very good questions. He is the best question-asker I’ve ever met.

SS: What is the most fascinating aspect of your research/work?

EP: The process of the work itself.

When I was about ten, I got an electronic kit where you could make different circuits using a springboard and ordinary electronic parts. I had one before that had plastic bits that snapped together, but this one fascinated me, because unlike Lego or the first kit, you didn’t have to buy a new set to have more parts and build new circuits, the parts could be found in old TVs or cassette players that neighbours put next to the rubbish bins (I quickly learnt do desolder), pinched from my grandads storage room and even bought separately in a shop! Also, to find new circuits to build, you had to ask grandad for his old Electronics magazines, buy books or later search online. It still felt like playing with a kit, but an ever expanding kit with parts and instructions you had to search for around you, which only added to the fun.

Later, my school had a system for teaching Maths where you got a problem sheet and got through it at your own pace discussing the solved problems with a teacher. I loved it and it also felt like a game, with set time frames, rules and a bit of competition (you knew what problem or sheet your friends were on, so putting in a few extra hours got you ahead, unless they did the same).

It became an infinitely more interesting game when I realised I can set my own problem sheets for myself. Problems, sub-problems, do this in case of that, I still nearly always write myself a problem sheet when I do science. Only now it includes checking something with an experiment, doing an online search to find something out, going to the library to look for an obscure undigitised article, even talking to a someone about a problem and writing down ideas — instead of a kit it’s an ever-expanding never-ending quest-like game that can be played anywhere and includes most of your environment.

What’s not to like? It is a bit like the beginning of an Indiana Jones film (The Last Crusade) where reading a notebook leads to a trip to a library in Venice, finding a cross on the floor and a journey through rat-infested catacombs (apart from the rats, but I’m fine with that).

SS: What attracted you to Soapbox Science in the first place?

EP: I always enjoy events that bring music or art to the streets. Even if I don’t like this particular art or music, it makes walking around the city much more enjoyable and reminds you that people around are not just some grey mass you have to squeeze through on the tube, but separate interesting individuals who spend a lot of time and effort to create this beautiful music or for some weird reason cover trees with colourful knitting. I believe science to be an art form in the sense that it is a skilled work to create something intrinsically beautiful, so I love the idea of “busking” science and it is a good challenge to try and show the beauty in it to people passing by.

Also, I just like to talk rather loudly about things that interest me.

SS: Sum up in one word your expectations for the day

EP: Handwaving. Both as a means of explanation and in a happy sort of way.

SS: If you could change one thing about the scientific culture right now, what would it be?

EP: Education. I can talk at great lengths about it, but would try to keep it short.

I’d love to see more real scientists teaching at secondary school level — not one-off outreach activities that are done and then quickly forgotten, but proper teaching at school in the way they would have liked to be taught themselves. Without drilling for tests, because it doesn’t teach anything (or enough for the time it takes), without making it less demanding in fear it would be boring — it would be, but learning to work hard in anything is probably even more important than science, and definitely without shunning from experiments and hands-on work in fear of Health and Safety (it is important, but I’ve seen too many instances when children do the “sink of swim” experiment time after time because it’s the safest thing you can do and ticks the “hands on” box). We are, after all, apes with intricately evolved hands specifically for manipulating objects and learning from that — and I feel that fitting this bit to that one with bits of wire and some string in such a way that it wouldn’t get tangled with the third bit should definitely be part of the curriculum. It would mean a few cuts and burns, but it is worth it.

On the other hand, it is great for the teacher as well. I’ve taught in various after-school clubs since I was fifteen (one involved making a Gauss gun that could shoot a sharpened nail through a tin can, but I won’t do it again) and keeping the school curriculum and quite a bit (in order to be able to answer most questions you might encounter) helps a lot with not shutting up in your narrow specialty and the mental exercise of finding a mistake in somebody’s solution one second and thinking of a good example for something else the next is honestly very good for you.

SS: What would be your top recommendation to a woman studying for a PhD and considering pursuing a career in academia?

EP: I’m definitely not in a position to give any recommendations about it. I’d like some advice myself, though.

Janneke Keemink is a researcher at the Department of Pharmacy, Uppsala University. She obtained her PhD at KU Leuven in Belgium and moved to Sweden afterwards to do a postdoc. Her research focuses on the performance of oral drug formulations in the stomach and intestine. At Soapbox Science Uppsala on 25 May Jenneke Keemink will talk about what happens to your tablet after you swallow it.

SS: How did you get to your current position?

JK: I applied for a postdoc position directly after finishing my PhD and I got it. After two years, I got the opportunity to stay on and continue my project.

SS: What, or who, inspired you to get a career in science?

JK: It actually just happened. As a pharmacy student I quickly realized I that didn’t want to work as a traditional pharmacist, and as I liked doing research during my master thesis, I decided that I wanted to continue with a PhD. I was looking for applicable research to keep my options open in my future career, I wanted to study something that would be useful in academia as well as industry. That’s how I ended up in the field of drug delivery.

SS: What is the most fascinating aspect of your research/work?

JK: Every day I learn something new! My field is very interdisciplinary, and in research you’re always looking for answers and solutions from different angles.

SS: What attracted you to Soapbox Science in the first place?

JK: As an experimental researcher, I’m spending a lot of time in the lab. However, my goal is that our work ultimately reaches patients and people. Since I’m in pharmaceutical sciences this will take a long time. By joining Soapbox Science I can share my research with the general public already.

SS: Sum up in one word your expectations for the day

JK: Fun

SS: If you could change one thing about the scientific culture right now, what would it be?

JK: It would be great if scientists in academia had a bit more job security. Since funding research can be a bit tricky, this is quite challenging.

SS: What would be your top recommendation to a woman studying for a PhD and considering pursuing a career in academia?

JK: Go for it and make sure you’re having fun doing research!

Efthymia Kyriakopoulou is an Assistant Professor at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU). Before joining SLU  she has had positions at the University of Luxembourg, University of Gothenburg and at the Beijer Institute. Her research concerns e.g. environmental policy, sustainable development and social interactions. At Soapbox Science Uppsala on 25 May, Efthymia Kyriakopoulou will talk about “Social Norms and Recycling”.

By Efthymia Kyriakopoulou

I am an environmental economist with an interest at spatial and social interactions. Soon after I completed my PhD I realised that I wanted to follow an academic career. Even though I often complain about the tight deadlines and the fact that I am constantly thinking what I have to do even when not at work, I enjoy being a teacher and a researcher. In fact, I cannot think of any other job that would have been more exciting and interesting. There are always new challenges to face, there is always the feeling that I have to learn a lot of new things and boredom is definitely not an issue when you work in academia.

Being a teacher is definitely very challenging. There is a lot of interaction with young people who see the world from a different angle. I enjoy having very active students who ask questions all the time. Very often, they ask questions about things that I have never thought of. This is both challenging and inspiring. Doing research is the other interesting aspect of our job. The feeling that I can provide new answers to various questions as well as the freedom of determining my own research agenda are some of the appealing aspects of a job in academia.

I am pleased to be selected as a speaker at the Soapbox Science event. Such events are important for everyone but mainly for young women who need female role models to inspire success. Even though I live in Sweden where gender equality is vital to society, there is still a long way to go when it comes to the representation of women in high-power or academic positions. Our role, both as parents and as teachers, should be to ensure that girls will grow up to be strong, independent and confident and will never feel inferior. This should start at an early age and it seems that Swedish school does a good job. However, (female) university students often notice that women are underrepresented in senior academic positions. The exposure to female role models has a large role in encouraging young women to pursue and advance in academia.

At the Soapbox Science event, I will talk about the influence of social norms on recycling behaviour. Feeling expected to recycle by those around us and observing others to do the same are factors that affect our recycling rates. A good example is the university students who come to Sweden from other countries with lower recycling rates. Those students say that living in Sweden has changed their way of seeing things and has transformed their daily habits towards a more sustainable lifestyle. Those subconscious “rules” are known as social norms that shape the behaviours of a group or of a society. Apart from the recycling behaviours, social norms have been shown to affect other environmentally friendly behaviours like energy saving and eating less meat. If you want to know more, join us at Uppsala’s first Soapbox Science event, on May 25^th.

Dr Stella Manoli (@StellaManoli1), University of Southampton, is taking part in Soapbox Science Brighton on 1st June with the talk: “Light my way”

Soapbox Science: What attracted you to Soapbox Science in the first place – and what are you most looking forward to/excited about in taking part? 

Stella Manoli : The idea of making science available to the public! Scientists from different universities and scientific fields taking their projects to the streets, sharing their knowledge and engaging with the public. The idea of interacting with the audience and especially young children is fascinating for me. Additionally, increasing the visibility of women in science and breaking the stereotypes; especially about the kind of professions that are suitable for women make the Soapbox science event very appealing to me. Personally, I’m looking forward to share my enthusiasm for science, to show the audience that there are many female researchers out there and of course have some ‘scientific’ fun.

SS: Tell us about your career pathway

SM: “A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step” …

My journey started the moment I decided to choose physics, maths, chemistry and biology as the four main GCSE’s during high school. Physics stood out for me, leading me to university studying and obtaining an undergraduate degree in Physics. During the last year of my undergraduate studies as part of my final year project, I had my first hands-on experience with femtosecond lasers for nanosurgery applications. At that moment, I immediately knew about my next step. Following my undergraduate studies, I moved on with my postgraduate degree. During my master thesis, I specialised in using different types of magnetometers, measuring and analysing earth’s magnetic field anomalies. At that time, I had my first job offer and I worked as a student assistant at Bayerisches Landesamt für Denkmalpflege. The decision to continue with a PhD was just something that came naturally to me. Working in laboratories are my happy place and therefore I decided to push myself a bit more at that time, changing field and becoming a PhD student in mechanical engineering. I spent three years in a composites laboratory, manufacturing materials from natural resources for high energy applications. At the same time as my PhD project, I worked as a graduate teaching assistant, supervising students during laboratory experiments. At the end of my PhD, I took one step further that led my current work as Knowledge Transfer Partnership (KTP) research associate. My research project focused on the development of optical waveguide devices in nonlinear optical materials for quantum applications. And more single steps are due to follow…

SS: What, or who, inspired you to get a career in science? 

SM: My own curiosity. As long as I can remember, I have always had questions to ask, such as: Why is the sky blue? Why can airplanes fly? And how do ships not sink? During my high school days, I found myself very fascinated with physics and chemistry subjects, especially when we had to do experiments. So after high school, the only path that was logical for me to follow was to study Physics. During my undergraduate degree my ‘curiosity’ questions were answered and many more were generated. From my undergraduate degree to my PhD, and still to this day as a researcher, I feel the same enthusiasm, the same excitement to work in a laboratory and contribute to expanding the limits of our scientific knowledge.

SS: What is the most fascinating aspect of your research/work?

SM: The most interesting fact of my research is the conversion of the theoretical knowledge into practice. The way I can use light for material manufacturing and characterisation up to quantum applications. The major aspect of my project is the manufacturing of crystals for quantum communication on satellites. So far, quantum sensitive data are encrypted and sent across fiber-optic cables (figure 1) and channels together with the digital “keys” needed to decode the information. Quantum communication takes advantage of the laws of quantum physics to protect data.

Figure 1: Optical fiber

SS: Research in STEM is increasingly multi-disciplinary. Which subjects do you use in your work?

SM: By working in the optoelectronics department, physics has an important role in making decisions about the design of experiments and evaluating the results. Physics leads the way for understanding the properties of the various materials used, laser sources and choosing the right way to analyse the results according to the selected applications.

Figure 2: Computer chips for quantum applications

Nonetheless, I continually use engineering (mainly mechanical) to create a new experimental installation and modify existing optical equipment.

Physics and engineering are smoothly integrated with each other, making this work possible.

SS: What 3 attributes do you consider important to your work (e.g. creativity, team-work, etc), and why did you pick these?

SM: Personally I strongly believe that teamwork is the most important quality. The ability to work in harmony with my colleagues, finding ways to complete tasks in the most effective and efficient way and working towards a common goal contributes to building a healthy working environment.

Secondly I will highlight the eagerness and willing to add to our knowledge base and skills. Working in experimental fields, the need for continuous improvement either in practical skills or theoretical knowledge never stops. The passion and drive to keep pushing ourselves to learn more is directly connected with the evolution of our fields of research.

To move forward and overcome failures, persistence is needed more than anything and determination to try as many times as needed to succeed.

SS: If you could change one thing about the scientific culture right now, what would it be?

SM: The continuous pressure for publications. Many research projects are guided by the pressure/need to generate data, which can easily be published. Research should never be compromised either in terms of funding or in the research just for publicity purposes.

SS: What would be your top recommendation to a female student considering pursuing a career in academia?

SM: In the words of Winston Churchill: ‘’Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts.’’

No one has ever said that a career in the academic world is easy or full of continued success. However, the fear of failure must never diminish the belief in our abilities. Feet to the ground and eyes to the goal!

SS: What words of encouragement would you give to children who might be interested in a career in science?

SM: Find what excites you most, ask as many questions as you can and let it light up your way! No question is stupid and nothing is easily won. The scientific world is a great place to be part of and every little contribution is big enough!

Do not let anything stop you from being part of it! Join us!!!

Fiona Scott (@fi0n0), Sussex Drug Discovery Centre, University of Sussex, is taking part in Soapbox Science Brighton on 1st June 2019 with the talk:“Medicinal Chemistry vs. BakeOff”

Soapbox Science: What attracted you to Soapbox Science in the first place – and what are you most looking forward to/excited about in taking part? 

Fiona Scott: I have enjoyed doing various public engagement activities in the past and the novelty of sharing my science on Brighton seafront really appealed! I volunteered at last year’s event and am thrilled I am getting to share my love of medicinal chemistry and baking with the public on this unique platform.

SS: Tell us about your career pathway

FS: After secondary school, I completed a MChem Chemistry with Drug Discovery at University of Strathclyde in Glasgow. Part of this combined bachelors/masters degree included an industrial placement year with Corden Pharma Switzerland where I worked on the drug delivery system for a recent FDA-approved drug! I also did other internships during my undergraduate with Glasgow Science Centre and GlaxoSmithKline, another pharmaceutical company.

After my MChem I, rather ironically, had to delay starting a cancer-based PhD project to have treatment for a mild case of thyroid cancer, but I am now 2.5 years in remission and more than halfway through my PhD at University of Sussex in the Drug Discovery Centre.

SS: What, or who, inspired you to get a career in science? 

FS: There was a mixture of factors. In my first science lesson at high school, we were introduced to Bunsen burners. I couldn’t believe we were allowed to play with fire at school!

From there, a general interest in how the world works at an ingredient level grew and I was encouraged by the careers adviser to pursue a science degree when I wasn’t sure about what I wanted to do.

When I was applying for university a family friend was diagnosed with a rare form of cancer and sadly didn’t survive. I decided I wanted to do something about that so my searches for “chemistry” degrees became searches for “medicinal chemistry” degrees – I don’t have the stomach for a career in medicine!

SS: What is the most fascinating aspect of your research/work?

FS: I’m fascinated, and at times, overwhelmed, by how complex cancer is and the progress researchers have been able to make in tackling this set of diseases so far. Taking a more targeted approach, where we take advantage of what makes cancer cells and healthy cells different, is having a relatively more successful impact on patients as we tackle individual types of cancer.

SS: Research in STEM is increasingly multi-disciplinary. Which subjects do you use in your work?

FS: I use organic chemistry mainly, which is a sub-discipline of chemistry that largely involves making molecules in a laboratory that contain a lot of carbon atoms and other elements like hydrogen, nitrogen and oxygen amongst others.

I use maths to calculate my recipes and I require an understanding of biology when I am speaking to my project collaborators who are testing my molecules in individual enzymes and cancer cells.

I also use IT when I’m writing up reports, reading papers etc. and I do a smidge of computational chemistry which involves using computer software to simulate how my drug molecules fit into enzymes. Lots of subjects!

SS: What 3 attributes do you consider important to your work (e.g. creativity, team-work, etc), and why did you pick these?

1. FS: Resilience – chemistry doesn’t work a lot of the time. My project involves a lot of starting over and picking myself up to try again.
2. Creativity – chemistry is a science, but its also an art. There’s always a new way to try something and being able to think outside of the lab protocol and outside of the box is very useful.
3. Organisation – when you have several experiments running in the lab at once amongst other jobs it’s important to be good at managing your time and your workload.

SS: If you could change one thing about the scientific culture right now, what would it be? 

FS: I wish research wasn’t funded on a project-by-project basis. I appreciate you can’t just hand people money for indefinite periods of time, but it creates an unstable and highly competitive working environment for researchers.

It’s something like 0.5% of PhD students get a permanent academic position further down the line. There is a lot of hoop jumping when it comes to doing science, publishing your work, working long hours and I’m not sure how much longer I can personally put up with it, as is the case for many people currently or formerly in science.

SS: What would be your top recommendation to a female student considering pursuing a career in academia?

FS: Don’t let being in the minority put you down. If you work hard and know your stuff you have just as much right to be in the room as any scientist. I’ve always been one of the boys and find it immensely satisfying when I prove myself in situations when I’m the only lady in the room, be it getting a question right in a chemistry problem session or being complimented for coming up with a good idea or doing a good piece of work.

I wish I wasn’t so aware of being female in a male-dominated sector, but I am lucky to have lots of inspiring role models, both female and others, who motivate me to work hard, regardless of my gender.

The only difference being a female in chemistry should be that, if you’re pregnant, there are certain chemicals you shouldn’t work with. Everything else should be fair game.

SS: What words of encouragement would you give to children who might be interested in a career in science?

FS: Stay curious and learn as much as you can growing up. Hopefully that will help you find the flavour of science that interests you the most. Scientists aren’t expected to know everything and being clever is not the important part of being good at science. We specialise in different fields, which increasingly branch out and overlap with others, so that as a community we can learn more about how the world works and how to solve its problems.

Dr. Mariana Alarcón-Correa, Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems, is taking part in Soapbox Science Munich on 1st June 2019 with the talk: “Autonomos nanorobots. Science fiction or real life?“ 

Watch here video interview here:

Dr. Estefania Munoz Diaz, miniVERSUM Akademie / German AerospaceCenter (DLR), is taking part in Soapbox Science Munich on 1st June 2019 with the talk: “The future will be digital. Do you understand robots?“ 

Soapbox Science Munich: What challenges do you encounter in your career?

Estefania Munoz Diaz: I’m working at the German Aerospace Center (DLR) in Munich. I got pregnant when I was at the final stage of my PhD. I decided to deliver the manuscript before delivering the baby, and this decision was one of the turning points in my career. I must admit that it was a very hard time, because the combination of pregnancy and PhD was challenging. I still remember breastfeeding my three months old baby just before defending my PhD in front of the jury. Looking back I’m glad that I took this decision, it was the right one for me. Now we are a little family of four.

In my institute at DLR, and I think this is a general trend, women keep working for years part time after the maternity leave. We do have only one female group leader and no female department leaders. I have got many “comments” from my own colleagues because I returned to work two months after delivering. My husband and I decided to reduce our working hours to 50% during our parental leave. In my opinion both, parental leave and the time afterwards, must be shared always equally between both parents. Only this way one day the entire society will consider children as matter of both parents, not only the mother. And this day having as many women as men in leading positions will be a reality.

SSM: What motivates you to give a talk in Soapbox science?

EMD: I personally think that disseminating science is as important as creating science. Therefore, I see as our duty to take every opportunity to bring science and technology closer to the general public. Especially for kids, who are born in a digital era, it is of crucial importance to present them the technology in a way that they are not only passive users of digital gadgets, but developers of future technologies. As Obama said “don’t just play on your phone, program it!”

SSM: What was the key event that brought you to the place where you are now?

EMD: I was in Berlin participating in a seminar and we had an exercise consisting of identifying our “career anchors” (by Edgar Schein). As a result of this exercise I decided to start my own company. miniVERSUM Akademie is an organization for children from four to 14 years old that offers workshops, courses and holiday camps with focus on robotics, coding and science experiments. miniVERSUM Akademie gathers my main drivers: On the one side, it covers my technological and independency needs. On the other side, it is a familiar company where even our children are part of it. Of high importance to me given my background, is to get more and more girls excited about technology. Thus, we regularly offer workshops free of charge for girls, moms and grandmas, e.g. girls’ day and mothers’ day among others.

SSM: What’s your favorite science superhero power?

EMD: I definitely love working with kids. I am still amazed how fast they absorb new concepts. Their problem solving thinking sometimes overtake my expectations. When I prepare challenges for them, sometimes they solve the problem in a way I did not even think about. In most of the cases I use robots and drones to “solve” real challenges, as for example cleaning up the plastic of our oceans or leading bees to flower fields.

SSM: What can we do to attract more women to STEM fields?

EMD: It is a reality: young women are nowadays so well prepared as never before. However, STEM studies are in comparison less chosen by women. In my opinion STEM women should make their voice loud and be more visible in order to be an example for those girls that have to choose now. For those little girls and boys who still did not even think about their career path, STEM women have to keep visible, so these little girls and the entire society one day will consider it normal that men stay at home as much as women stay and women are successful at work as much as men are.