1
Women in Science
Symposium
2011
Warwick Women in Science Symposium | 19th – 20th September 2011
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Contents
Welcome
3
Timetable:
Monday
4
Tuesday
5
Keynote Address Biography
6
Participant Biographies
7
Warwick Careers Service
10
Important information
12
Acknowledgements
14
Useful Websites
15
Survey
16
Warwick Women in Science Symposium | 19th – 20th September 2011
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Welcome to the
Warwick Women in Science Symposium 2011
Thank you for joining us by participating in this Warwick Women in Science Event. We
are very much looking forward to the next two days and hope you will find them
inspirational, stimulating, useful and fun. We are extremely lucky to have participants
from various walks of life who can share their amazing stories and insights with us.
Mission Statement
The event will seek to inspire, educate and establish a supportive network for female
PhD students and early-career researchers in the sciences at Warwick.
Many of us have a passion for science and the desire to pursue a career in the scientific
world, however as women, we face some unique obstacles and challenges. All of us may
have asked ourselves similar questions during our academic careers: Can we succeed in
Academia?... Can we become successful leaders?... What steps can we take, now, in our
early careers, towards this goal?... Can we leave Academia and succeed in Industry?...
Are the challenges different?... How much does having a family have to interfere with
our career?... Do we have to make a choice?... Why aren't there more women in
prominent positions in scientific fields?... Should there be more women in prominent
positions in scientific fields?... What can women offer to science that is unique?
We hope that by the end of the event that we all will have gone some way toward
answering these questions for ourselves.
WIS
Warwick Women in Science began as an after dinner discussion between four people, in
the middle of rural Wales. In the company of three budding female scientists the natural
discussion revolved around why women leave science and how the fourth member of
the conversation (Ann Canham) became successful, while maintaining her enthusiasm,
personal life and sanity. We considered the unique challenges faced by women and how
those challenges have been overcome by several inspiring women of our acquaintance.
We formulated the idea of WIS and holding a Symposium where like-minded women
could come together. We hope to enable women who would like to be successful to
interact with and learn from women who are successful in the many diverse facets of
science. We were lucky to find kindred spirits in Alison Rodger and Ann Canham,
without whose support the event would have been impossible.
In 2010 we discovered that our vision was also shared by many of our peers. Due to the
success of our inaugural symposium we have decided to make WIS a recurring event, to
reach as many Warwick Women as possible. We all believe that becoming a success
requires one to be proactive and is truly about meeting our own potentials, whatever
we as individuals consider those to be.
With many thanks,
Lauren Hepple, Natalie James, Kate Jordan & Helen Playford
Warwick Women in Science Symposium | 19th – 20th September 2011
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Monday 19th September
10.30
Registration and Coffee
10.50
Welcome
Lauren Hepple, Helen Playford, Kate Jordan, Natalie James – Chairs
11.00
Keynote Address
‘Maintaining the momentum: opening up the full range of science
careers for women’
Diana Garnham – Chief Executive of Science Council
12.00
Lunch
13.00
Maximising your Leadership Potential
Dr Ann Canham
14.00
Coffee
14.15
Decision-Making Skills and CV Writing
Professor Alison Rodger
15.45
Coffee
16.00
Vignettes: Stories of Success
Professor Pam Thomas
Professor, Department of Physics, Warwick University
Dr Rachel O’Reilly
Associate Professor, Department of Chemistry, Warwick University
Professor Laura Green
Professor, School of Life Sciences, Warwick University
Dr Irene Hames
Editorial Consultant, Irene Hames Consulting
18.30
Dinner
Warwick Women in Science Symposium | 19th – 20th September 2011
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Tuesday 20th September
9.30
Breakfast
10.00
Breakout Sessions
10:00
11:00
12:00
Breakout Session 1
Breakout Session 2
Breakout Session 3
Please note, each breakout session will be offered 3 times. Available
breakout sessions include:
CV Clinic – Gill de Calvo (PhD’s) 10:00 – 10:50 CV Group Workshop
11:00 – 13:00 Individual 15 minute slots
CV Clinic - Julie Gallimore (PDRA) 11:00 – 12:15 Individual 15 minute slots
Careers in Academia – Dr Rachel O’Reilly and Professor Laura Green
Careers in Science Publishing – Dr Irene Hames
Leadership Potential – Dr Ann Canham
13.00
Lunch
At 13.30 a panel of our speakers will be available to answer your
questions.
Close
Paperwork signing session for those using WIS for Leadership and Decision Making
Module of Postgraduate Certificate in Transferable Skills in Science
Warwick Women in Science Symposium | 19th – 20th September 2011
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Keynote Address Biography:
Diana Garnham
Diana Garnham is Chief Executive of the Science
Council, an umbrella organisation for learned societies
and professional bodies in science which works to
promote science and its applications for public benefit.
The Science Council also awards the designations of
Chartered Scientist (CSci) and Chartered Science
Teacher (CSciTeach) and maintains common
professional standards in scientific practice. A key
project is Careers from Science aimed to improve
science careers information for 11-19 year olds and
show how well science and maths can equip people for
a very wide range of careers (see http://www.futuremorph.org and the recently
launched the http://www.hiddensciencemap.org.
After studying politics and war studies, Diana did research in international politics at
the University of Wales, Aberystwyth. She has led a number of representative umbrella
organisations and coalition campaigns in science with a strong focus on developing
collaboration and consensus.
Diana Garnham is chair of the BIS Science for Careers Expert Group, has recently retired
after serving eight years on the Council of the University of Nottingham and is a trustee
of Sense about Science and several other charities. The Science for Careers Expert
Group has recently published a series of reports arising from its Action Plan.
Warwick Women in Science Symposium | 19th – 20th September 2011
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Participant Biographies
Dr Ann Canham
Ann retired from BP, where she was Vice President HR, at the end of 2005. During her
career at BP Ann held several sales and marketing roles before moving to HR where her
roles included a mix of Global Generalist HR and OD. Leading diverse global teams and
working with diverse groups across the world provided enormous motivation and
stimulation and opportunities. Continuing to work with such groups and individuals
remains a major source of enjoyment and fulfilment. Ann has a first degree and Ph.D. in
Psychology.
Since Leaving BP, Ann is now pursuing a varied work lifestyle doing only the things that
she enjoys and feels passionate about with the overall aim of providing stimulation,
challenge and fun. Her work portfolio now includes coaching senior executives,
facilitation for senior executive leadership programmes and dialogues, women’s
leadership development, transferable skills training for PhD students and transition
coaching for graduates. She is also called upon to act as a member of assessment panels
for appointment of senior University positions.
In the Charity sector Ann is trustee of a leading independent school and Chair of a
charity that supports families affected by Drug and Alcohol abuse. She is also a member
of a Lord Chancellor’s sub-committee assessing suitability of candidates for the
magistracy.
Ann lives in Buckinghamshire with her husband Richard. She has two daughters who
remain a source of challenge, learning and enormous enjoyment and fulfilment.
Professor Laura Green
I graduated from the University of Bristol with a BVSc (hons) and spent one year in
practice before being awarded a Wellcome Trust Scholarship which provided three
years funding for a taught course MSc followed by a two year PhD. We had our first
child in 1992 whilst I was completing my PhD and I was appointed to a lectureship one
year later. I was a lecturer at Bristol from 1993 – 1999 with quite a high teaching load.
During this time I established a research group and had two more children. With a
desire to improve my research I moved to Warwick in 1999 and was appointed to
senior lecturer in 2000, reader in 2004 and chair in 2005. Over this time I widened my
research portfolio and collaborated widely and was successful in competing for grants
and writing papers. Since 2006 I have had strategic advisory roles to DEFRA, RELU,
BBSRC and FAWC and am currently chair of Committee A for BBSRC that decides which
of 450 grants per annum should be funded, funding of ~ 40 million pounds is available.
I am also a member of FAWC (Farm Animal Welfare Council) who advise government
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on issues relating to farm animal welfare in GB. I have acted as director of postgraduate
studies for biological sciences since 2007. I owe my success to hard work and
determination and being strategic but could not have achieved my goals without
support from my husband and family throughout and my PhD supervisor and several
colleagues who have never doubted my ability to have a career and a family. I am
passionate about ensuring that women (and men) understand how to be successful in
their careers.
Dr Irene Hames
Irene Hames has a PhD in cell biology but has worked in scientific publishing for over
30 years. Following a decade as a freelance copy editor, book editor, project manager
and trainer, she spent 20 years as the managing editor of a large, international science
journal. She now works as an independent editorial consultant. She is frequently called
upon to give talks and advise on editorial issues and has been a member of a number of
working parties on peer review. She is the author of the book Peer Review and
Manuscript Management in Scientific Journals: guidelines for good practice, published by
Wiley-Blackwell in association with ALPSP (the Association of Learned and
Professional Society Publishers). Irene is a Council Member and Trustee of COPE
(Committee on Publication Ethics) and also holds advisory roles with Sense About
Science (on the Advisory Council) and the International Society of Managing and
Technical Editors (on the Industry Advisory Board). She is also a Specialist Adviser to
the House of Commons Science and Technology Select Committee.
Dr Rachel O’Reilly
Dr O’Reilly is currently an EPSRC fellow in at the University of Warwick. She graduated
from the University of Cambridge (1999) and completed her PhD at Imperial College in
2003. She then moved to the US to work at IBM Almaden and Washington University in
Saint Louis, under the joint direction of Professors Craig Hawker and Karen Wooley.
In 2004 she was awarded a Royal Commission 1851 fellowship and in 2005 she moved
to the University of Cambridge with a Royal Society Dorothy Hodgkin Fellowship. In
2008 she was awards the RSC Meldola award and in 2009 the Macro group young
researchers medal. She moved to Warwick in 2009 and is currently an associate
professor in the chemistry department.
Professor Pam Thomas
Professor Pam Thomas has been a member of staff in the Department of Physics at the
University of Warwick since 1990 and a full professor since 2005. She was educated at
Oxford University, where she took an BA (Hons) in Physics and a DPhil on the subject of
Optical Activity in Crystals in the Physical Crystallography Group of the Clarendon
Laboratory. Following a period as a Research Fellow at the Clarendon Laboratory, she
Warwick Women in Science Symposium | 19th – 20th September 2011
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moved to Warwick in 1990 to found and head the Ferroelectrics and Crystallography
Group, which is part of the larger Condensed Matter Physics activity in the Department.
Pam is also responsible for the strategy and running of the inter-departmental X-ray
Diffraction Facility within Physics. This has benefitted enormously from investment
under the project Advanced Materials 1: Creating and Characterising Next-Generation
Materials, supported by Advantage West Midlands and the European Regional
Development
Fund
under
the
Birmingham
Science
City
initiative.
She is a frequent user of central facilities including synchrotron radiation at ESRF
(France) and Diamond (UK) and neutron diffraction at ILL (France) and ISIS (UK). Pam
is a member of the Commission of Inorganic and Mineralogical Crystallography for the
IUCr, vice-chair of the Condensed Matter Physics division of IUPAP and Conference
Chair for XTOP2010, the international conference on High-resolution X-ray Diffraction
and Imaging, which was held at the University of Warwick in September 2010.
Since October 1st 2010, Pam has also been the Director of the Science City Research
Alliance for the Universities of Birmingham and Warwick in addition to her role as a
research professor at Warwick.
As of 1st September 2011, Pam has taken up the role of Chair of the Faculty of Science.
Professor Alison Rodger
Alison was born in Scotland; then lived in England; New Zealand; Australia; and
England where she has remained for a (long) while. Her BSc, PhD and DSc are from
Sydney University, her MA from Oxford (well at least they recognised she had some
qualifications from Australia). She was Beatrice Dale at Newnham College Cambridge
for three years from 1985 together with being an Overseas Scholar of the Royal
Comission for the Exhibition of 1851. She then spent six year in Oxford first at St
Catherine's College funded by Unilever then at St. Hilda's College as a Violette and
Samuel Glasstone Fellow. At that time she set up the first Couette flow linear dichroism
faciltities in the UK and that has been increasingly the basis of her research.
Alison moved to Warwick University in 1994 where she has remained since. Her focus
has been on research into flow-orientable biomacromolecules as (perhaps fortuitously
or intrinsically) these are the ones about which we have comparatively little structural
information and her techniques give data not available from any other source and
training young scientists to enable them to reach their potential. As well as being
fascinated by biomacromolecular structure she is committed to training early stage
scientists and to that end has devoted a great deal of time and energy to the MOAC
Doctoral Training Centre; the Postgraduate Certificate in Transferable Skills in Science;
and most recently working to achieve a bronze AthenaSWAN award for the University
and Silver for chemistry. Although AthenaSWAN's headline goal is about retention of
women in Science, Engineering and Technology, it is now widely recognised that if we
create a working environment where women do well, then men do better too.
Warwick Women in Science Symposium | 19th – 20th September 2011
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Warwick Careers Service
The Centre for Student Careers & Skills organises workshops on making applications;
going for interviews and assessment centres. If you've applied for a job and would like a
tailored mock interview you can book this though SDS Reception in University House.
All Careers events are advertised on our website including presentations by
organisations that are keen to recruit Chemists and Scientists. Vacancies are published
on our Vacancies database each day so check this regularly for new opportunities.
Destination information from previous Chemistry students is available to help you in
career planning. See the Resources section of our website, under Graduate Destinations,
to see the latest graduate destinations information. The data is collected as part of a
national survey each year. Six months is very early in a career so these results are only a
small insight into some of the destinations open to you after you graduate. Sample sizes
are very small too.
You can also get an idea of what to do in the future through doing work experience.
Read the reports written by students who have done an internship or other type of
work experience on myAdvantage Info Sheets.
And don't forget to visit the Student Careers & Skills in the Learning Grid in University
House, to pick up free guides and Careers publications, whether you have a definite
focus for your ideas or not. There are also many reference books and audio visual
materials, many of which are now available to watch on line under the Resources tab
(see Careers Films).
Careers Advisors for Science Faculty
Chemistry, Life Sciences and Maths: Gill de Calvo
Computer Science and Psychology: Siobhan Scanlon
Engineering: Lisa Carr
Physics: Asaf Federman
Statistics: Andy Lloyd
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Careers Support for Research Staff
Roberts’ funded support staff: Who does what?
Julie Gallimore - j.a.gallimore@warwick.ac.uk, Ex 23498 (SCS) – 60% FTE to provide
careers advice & support as well as providing training initiatives / workshops in the
Researcher programme.
Careers support focuses on all aspects of career decision making and we can help you
explore your unique set of skills, values and motivation. We are experienced in supporting
researchers as they make applications, create CV’s and prepare for interviews. Many
researchers who are managing contract working chose to take up this support ahead of
changes to their contract to help them manage their transition.
Sandy Sparks - sandy.sparks@warwick.ac.uk, Ex 74121 (LDC) - 80% FTE to provide
enhanced communication and providing information to the research staff through; the
monthly e-newsletter, annual researcher learning & development programme, the
research staff groups in faculties an departments and the LDC/ Researcher website. One
to one coaching. Manages the Roberts‘ funding for individual researchers &
departments.
Trudy Hillier - t.j.hillier@warwick.ac.uk, Ex 24670 (LDC) - 30% FTE to develop training
initiatives for research staff in relation to Leadership & Management Development and
Personal Effectiveness. One to one coaching and tailored workshops
Dr John Burden - j.p.burden@warwick.ac.uk, Ex 51243 (RSS) – to provide support &
advice to research staff on writing successful fellowship bids and grant applications.
Advice and guidance about developing an academic track record as part of securing
fellowship and grant funding.
Trevor Robinson - t.robinson@warwick.ac.uk (Education) – 1 day per week – Business
Engagement support through the Business Engagement Pilot Project
Warwick Women in Science Symposium | 19th – 20th September 2011
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Important Information
Lunch & Dinner: Please be advised lunch and dinner will be provided in the MOAC
seminar room. If you have any special dietary requirements please let us know.
Vegetarian options will be available for all meals.
Coffee/Tea: Mugs will be provided for coffee and tea at all times, we ask that the
delegates please help us keep the area tidy by putting their used mugs in the
dishwasher.
Symposium Location: The WIS Symposium will be held in the MOAC area of Coventry
House on the Main Campus of Warwick University. Please find a detailed map below.
MOAC is on the 2nd (top) floor of Coventry House (building 14); please turn left at the
top of the stairs. Please do not ask at reception as they are associated with the NHS and
not MOAC. The nearest parking to MOAC is Car Park 7 (see map).
Accommodation for presenters: Accommodation for presenters from out of town
(pre-arranged) will be provided at Scarman House (see map below, building 52).
Warwick Women in Science Symposium | 19th – 20th September 2011
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Acknowledgements
The organisers of the Warwick Women in Science Symposium would like to extend their
warmest gratitude to Professor Alison Rodger, Dr Dorothea Mangels, Sarah Shute and
MOAC for all of their support, without which the Symposium would not have been
possible.
We would also like to thank Ann Canham for her inspiration and support.
Further thanks are extended to all our participants for generously donating their time,
stories and expertise to the event.
Finally, our thanks to all the delegates who made this WIS event a success.
Warwick Women in Science Symposium | 19th – 20th September 2011
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Useful Websites
http://www.wisecampaign.org.uk/about_us/overview.cfm
(STEM) studies and careers.
WISE - Women into Science, Engineering and Construction works with industry and education to inspire girls and attract
them into Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics
http://theukrc.org/
The UKRC works with a wide variety of organisations to offer training,
consultancy and other support to female staff, management, members
and students. They have experience of working with women in all
areas of science, engineering, the built environment and technology
(SET) to strengthen their careers and progression.
http://www.athenaswan.org.uk/html/athena-swan/
The Athena SWAN Charter recognises
and celebrates good employment
practice for women working in science,
engineering and technology (SET) in higher education and research.
http://mumsinscience.net/NEW/
Mums in Science was established in 2005 to
support parents who work, have worked or
want to work in any aspect of science. We form
part
of
the Euroscicon
group and
in
collaboration with Euroscicon have run workshops for WOMEN IN SCIENCE.
http://www.womeninscience.co.uk/
L’Oréal-UNESCO’s For Women in Science is an international
programme which recognises the achievements and
contributions of exceptional females across the globe, by
awarding promising scientists with Fellowships to help
further their research.
http://girlgeekdinners.com/
Girl Geek Dinners: for like-minded women
interested in Science, Engineering and
Technology to meet, network, learn from each
other and listen to a speaker.
http://www.camawise.org.uk/resources.html
Cambridge’s Association for Women in Science and Engineering has a website with lots of
helpful resources for obtaining funding, international and national women’s organisations and
events taking place throughout the year.
Warwick Women in Science Symposium | 19th – 20th September 2011
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Survey
Please tell us how you felt this WIS event has gone and what we can do to improve future
events and Symposia.
Please rate the following from 1-5 (1 = dire; 5 = ideal) and leave any comments you would
like to make.
Overall success of the event?
1 2 3 4 5
Usefulness of the Developing Leadership workshop?
1 2 3 4 5
Impact /usefulness of the Vignettes: Stories of Success?
1 2 3 4 5
Usefulness of the Breakout Sessions?
1 2 3 4 5
Impact/Usefulness of the Panel Lunch?
1 2 3 4 5
Quality of the speakers?
1 2 3 4 5
Catering?
1 2 3 4 5
Facilities?
1 2 3 4 5
Would you come to future WIS events (circle one)?
YES
NO
Any other recommendations (future speakers, future events, improvements, general
comments, etc.
Warwick Women in Science Symposium | 19th – 20th September 2011