The Biggest Splash

In her talk, Professor Goodfellow will cover a range of topics relevant to roles that women play in science. She will cover issues such as her own career path and research interests, trends in modern biology, gender differences in university choices and careers, and the historical and sociological perceptions of women who engage in scientific endeavour. She also explains what she means by the biggest splash, referred to in the title of her talk.

The annual lecture is presented by this high profile female scientist as part of outreach to girls and women who may be interested in science. To date, these lectures have all been supported by Schlumberger. The first was delivered by the NASA astronaut, Dr Bonnie Dunbar in May 2002, the second lecture in May 2003 was given by Professor Dame Julia Higgins, Foreign Secretary of the Royal Society and Professor of Engineering at Imperial College London.

The Cambridge University Initiative for Women in Science, Engineering and Technology (SET) was established in March 1999, a development of the Secretary General’s Women in Science Group set up in 1993, to consider strategies for increasing the representation of women in science at the University. The general picture in Cambridge is one of continuing under-representation of women in SET. There has been little significant change to the occupational hierarchy in all these disciplines where numbers of women fall away at each level (undergraduate, graduate, post-doctoral, permanent staff), whether the baseline is low (e.g. in engineering) or high (e.g. biochemistry).

The lecture will be held at 5 pm in the Palmerston Room, Fisher Building at St. John’s College, University of Cambridge.

For more information, contact Hannah Kvan at 01223 764 091 or via email on hk260@admin.cam.ac.uk.