Who inspires you?
9 February 2019
To celebrate UN International girls and women in Science day (11th February 2019) we asked some science communicators from Cardiff University’s spin out ‘science made simple‘ who was their inspiration…
Tell us about yours in the comments…
by Wendy Sadler
Which women inspire you? I reckon for me my mum was probably one of the first as she was always showing me experiments that got me curious about science from a very young age.
More recently I’d say Helen Arney as I love the way she has been able to combine comedy, science knowledge and music into a career that is really breaking boundaries in science communication.
Here at science made simple it’s our mission to inspire ALL people about science and engineering, but to celebrate today we asked some of our team past and present, about the women who inspire them…
“I’d say Katie Steckles for me! She does a brilliant job of communicating Maths in a really funny way, and is always looking for new ways to engage a real variety of audiences.”
Ruth Perkins
“I like what Amy Poehler is doing with her Amy’s Smart Girls project in America. It’s about getting girls to celebrate their interests and to be proud of their cleverness and skills rather than downplaying it. Her and Tina Fey have done a lot for women in comedy too, very strong and unapologetic about who they are.”
Becca Smithers
“I’m currently being inspired by Sarah Murphy – a Chemistry teacher at Stroud high school. she’s a fantastic teacher who really knows how to build the confidence of students and is always open to finding better ways to approach the subject. she is also our NUT rep and puts as much effort into this role- protecting the rights of teachers and the future of education. a champion for science, students and her colleagues, pretty blooming inspiring!”
Rosie Godfrey (former SMS, now a teacher)
“I’d like to suggest a colleague named Erinn Fagan-Jeffries. She’s a science communicator (also an alumnus of the Science Circus) who has gone back into research and is doing it in an incredibly engaging way. Not only is she doing entomology research, she quite diligently writes about what she’s doing and how she does it for a public audience (http://mustardthedinosaur.weebly.com/) and also runs a citizen science project to involve the public in her research as well (http://thecaterpillarconundrum.org/). Plus she does more outreach events on top of this like Famelab and Science In The Pub etc.
Adam Strang (former SMS, now a science editor in Australia)
“I say Emma Watson, because she’s an amazing actress but has used her fame to promote gender equality”
Zoe Gamble
…and if you haven’t seen Emma Watson deliver her speech on gender equality – then I’d highly recommend it. Not just for the powerful message, but for some tips on delivering powerful presentations too.