International Women's Day at Life Sciences
As part of our International Women's Day celebrations in the School of Life Sciences, we put together a series of podcasts with former Sussex scientists who have progressed onto a range of interesting science careers.
These conversations provide some valuable insights into the day-to-day realities of working in these different sectors. They were also refreshingly positive about gender equality in their respective workplaces, which is a great sign of progress!
About the host
These podcasts have been hosted by Dr Louise Newnham who is a senior lecturer within Life Sciences. She is the academic lead for Athena Swan within the School of Life Sciences which champions gender equality in academia. Louise has been a researcher in the Genome Damage and Stability Centre, where she worked on understanding chromosome segregation errors in human embryos. She has also worked outside of academia as a clinical embryologist in an IVF laboratory. Louise also has a 5-year-old daughter and so can relate to the challenges faced by working parents in juggling work and caring responsibilities. She is particularly concerned about how the pandemic threatens to reverse a lot of progress that had been made on gender equality in science.
Pooja Patel - Analyst in the civil service
Pooja graduated from her Biomedical Science BSc at Sussex in 2018 and now works as an analyst at the Ministry of Defence. She was part of the taskforce that helped house homeless people in hotels during the covid-19 lockdowns. She also talks about all the transferable skills you learn from your degree that are hugely valuable in the civil service. Pooja is also a big advocate for equality and diversity within the civil service.
Dr Sonya Towers - Funding Manager at the Wellcome Trust
Sonya did her Chemistry BSc degree at Sussex before progressing onto an MSc in advanced microscopy and imaging. This led her to transition into a cell biology PhD at Sussex. She then went on to work at the Wellcome Trust; first as a funding manager and more recently as part of their research culture team. She speaks very positively about the working culture and career progression at Wellcome. She also greatly values the transferable skills learnt during her time at Sussex.
Dr Rosalind Holmes - Senior Patent Attorney for Pharma
Ros did her undergraduate MSci degree in Biochemistry and Biological Chemistry at Nottingham University. She then moved to Sussex to undertake her PhD in DNA repair and replication before deciding to train as a Patent Attorney at Proctor and Gamble. She is now a Senior patent attorney at Sanofi and is based in Germany. Ros shares her experiences of her current role and the process of becoming qualified as a patent attorney. She places great value on her time at Sussex as a research scientist; experience which really helps her relate to her scientist clientele. Again, she was very positive about the gender balance in patent law.
Dr Iga Abramowicz - Clinical Trials Manager
Iga carried out her undergraduate and MSc degrees in Poland where she studied Biotechnology. She then did her PhD in Birmingham before joining Sussex to work as a post-doc in the genome damage and stability centre. She now works as a clinical trials manager at BSMS. Iga talks about what’s involved in being a clinical trials manager, the challenges faced during the pandemic and how compatible her work is with family life.
Dr Ann-Sofie Schreurs - NASA Space Biologist
Ann-Sofie did her undergraduate and MSc degree at Pierre and Marie Curie University in Paris where she studied cellular and molecular biology. She then moved to Sussex where she did her PhD in DNA replication. She was awarded a student prize from the European space agency which spurred her on to apply for a post-doc at NASA, where she worked for many years and became a principle investigator. She primarily researches the effect space flight has on loss of bone density. Ann-Sofie is very positive about the progress that has been made on gender equality in science and a passionate advocate of outreach work to promote greater visibility of female space biologists.
Dr Beth Nicholls - Ecologist and UKRI Future Leaders Fellow
Beth carried out her PhD at Exeter followed by a post-doc at Rothamsted research. She then joined Sussex as a post-doc studying bee behaviour and pioneering the citizen science project ‘Team PolliNATE’. Beth then spent some time outside of academia as an outreach officer for South Downs National Park. She was then awarded the very prestigious UKRI future leaders fellowship and has just set up her own research group at Sussex. Beth is passionate about public engagement in science. She is also an active advocate of equality and diversity in science.
Dr Claudia Gray - Species Conservation Biologist
Claudia is a conservation biologist who previously worked at Sussex on rewilding and biodiversity projects. She has since moved on to work for the EDGE of Existence programme which supports species conservation efforts all over the world. Claudia is now a programme manager for species recovery at Zoological society of London where she continues to assist in numerous species conservation projects all over the world. As well as discussing work in species conservation, we also discuss the challenges of being a working parent to your children and strides forward that have been made in gender equality.
Dr Rozan Vroman - Neuroscientist, engineer, artist and musician
Rozan did her PhD in the Netherlands Institute for Neuroscience and then came to Sussex to carry out research on the visual cortex. She then progressed on to the University of Strathclyde where she is combining her neuroscience research with engineering of microfluidics systems for neuronal culture and imaging. Rozan is also an exceptionally talented artist and musician. We enjoy a sample of her beautiful music in the podcast and discuss how science inspires her creativity, including algorithm-based art! You can explore some of her art and listen to her music here: Resonance, Waggle Dance, Subconscious