Ada Lovelace Day 2015: Celebrating Prof. Marika Taylor and Diversity in STEM

#AdaLovelaceDay #ALD15 #5GreatEngSci #5GreatSciEng

 
Happy Belated Ada Lovelace Day! This annual celebration of women in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths) surpassed itself this year with over 130 independent events spanning 67 cities, 19 countries, and across all 7 continents - including Antarctica! Congratulations!

Ada Lovelace Day 2015 Events Around The World

Ada Lovelace Day (ALD) is all about nominating female STEM heroes to increase the visibility of women in STEM. It is one of many campaigns addressing the gender inbalance in these areas, which is itself part of the bigger problem of a general lack of representation of minority and marginalised groups in these disciplines.

So here is a slightly longer* blog post looking at the importance of events like ALD, the wider issue of diversity in STEM and, most importantly, celebrating the work of an exemplary female mathematician and living example of women pushing the boundaries of STEM research, my Ada Lovelace Day hero: Professor Marika Taylor.

But first, I have another bandwagon to jump on...

* 'slightly longer' is a bit of an understatement - to this end I will also posted the key sections as shorter posts in their own right

Hawking – Turing – Lovelace

Big names in Physics, Maths and Computing. Big names, in fact, in the overlapping areas between these three domains. Big names whose tales have been famously told on the big screen, the small screen and, of course (regular readers may have picked up a theme here), the radio (see below). Big names who are united by the work and passions of Professor Marika Taylor, Professor of Theoretical Physics at the University of Southampton.

As the former, Hawking and Turing, have recently had entire films dedicated to them (and rightly so) this post will concentrate on the stories, messages and legacies of the latter, Lovelace and Taylor – during the telling of which Hawking and Turing will both appear, fear not, avid fans!

Ada, Enchantress of Numbers

https://www.vlsci.org.au/page/publications

It may have become apparent that I am a bit of an Ada Lovelace fan. She has already featured in previous blog posts here and here. And I am not ashamed to give her yet more room on these pages!

Ada Lovelace – or Augusta Ada King, Countess of Lovelace – was the daughter of prominent anti-slavery campaigner and ‘amateur’ mathematician Anna Isabella Milbanke and her husband the notorious poet and Victorian celebrity, George Gordon, Lord Byron. (Incidentally, it was on holiday with Lord Byron in Geneva that Mary Shelley – then Mary Wollestonecroft (jr.) - wrote the haunting novel Frankenstein. Shelley, of course, being the daughter of Mary Wollstonecroft (sr.), author of one of the first and most important equalist texts, A Vindication on the Rights of Men and A Vindication on the Rights of Women. It all links together!). Her life, in all its many colours and shades, is told expertly and in many mediums (see below), many of which have been published recently, somewhat arbitrarily in light of what would have been her 200th birthday – however, her story is fascinating and whatever the excuse, I highly recommend learning all you can about her!

Of course, Lovelace is most famously known for being ‘the world’s first computer programmer’ for her work on the development and understanding of the Analytical Engine. The Engine which, had it been built, would have been the world’s first computer, was invented by Charles Babbage (who coined her nickname 'The Enchantress of Numbers') – however, it was Lovelace who saw its full potential and her translation of the italian mathematician Luigi Federico Menabrea's paper on it with extensive annotations and additions (which tripled the length of the paper) is the world’s first documentation of the idea of programmable computers. Although the most famous, this was but one of a number of mathematical advances she made, including designs for powered flight as early as 1832. Unfortunately she died before seeing many of her concepts become a reality; but her legacy lives on, both in the field of mathematics and as she posthumously becomes a beacon for celebrating the achievements of women in STEM subjects.

Marika, Master of Mathematics

It was through organisation of events for this year’s Ada Lovelace Day celebrations at the University of Southampton that I was fortunate enough to find myself in conversation with Prof. Marika Taylor. Taylor, who before taking her post at Southampton was associate professor at the Unviersity of Amsterdam, completed a postdoc (post-doctoral research position) at Havard as well as holding fellowships at the Universities of Cambridge and Utrecht.

She studied Natural Sciences at the University Cambridge because her school decided that the entrance requirements for studying Maths were too hard for their students. Given that, from reading her father’s engineering textbooks, she was at A-Level Maths standard at the age of 11, this seems somewhat short-sighted. However, the grounding in Physics – for which she was the top of her year - that the course gave her, along with the Masters of Mathematics she took afterwards, meant that she was perfectly poised to set her mind to solving one of the greatest problems of our generation during her PhD: unifying the theories of quantum mechanics and gravity, or string theory. For this her supervisor was none other than Stephen Hawking (see, I told you he’d appear!).

Now her research applies the theories of gravitational holography to understanding phenomena such a black holes and high-temperature superconductivity. She is also on the management committee for the Southampton Theory Astrophysics and Gravity (STAG) research centre pooling the expertise of researchers from three different research groups across two university faculties to tackle the fundamental problems of physics and astronomy; and is chair of the Mathematical Sciences Athena SWAN committee which addresses gender equality issues.

 

https://community.emc.com/people/ble/blog/2011/11/06/holographic-principle-to-multiverse-reality

 

A Higher Plane - A Shared Experience

Talking to someone whose job is to fathom some of the most complex and yet most fundamental questions of our universe is quite inspiring and also a little dizzying. What must it be like to go home to toast and bills and TV after spending your working day comtemplating much deeper concepts? Do they lose their relevance?

Taylor remains remarkably grounded; she is passionate about her work but in no way arrogant; she doesn't mention Hawking until I ask her directly, having found out from another University lecturer and Marika Taylor fan previously; and we discuss in-depth the issue of encouraging more women in STEM, which she is equally passionate about.

This is a problem that she tackles, refreshingly, like a scientist - it is surprising how many trained scientists, mathematicians and engineers leave all the rigorous logical thought they have spent years refining aside when discussing diversity in their fields. Taylor, however, applies her curiosity-driven problem-solving skills well as she draws from her experiences without considering them definitive.

Although she comes from a priveleged background, having attended a private school and had access to both materials and a STEM role model through her father as an engineer, she understands more than most the importance of encouraging diversity in areas where minority and marginalised groups - such as, but not exclusively, women - are unrepresented: Co-ordinating last year's Ada Lovelace Day celebrations not only did she ensure there were posters of key female mathematicians on show but also of non-western european mathematicians such as Srinivasa Ramanujan; Before showing 'The Imitation Game' at this year's celebrations, their speaker discussed the difficulties and prejudices Turing (mentioned as promised!) faced both due to his sexuality and the suspected though unconfirmed Asperger's syndrome.

Reaching Out to 'People Like Me'

So what is the solution? Outreach is undeniably a key tool. In Dr. Emily Grossman's talk on Women in Science at the University of Southampton ALD15 celebrations last week it was highlighted that most children decide whether or not they are a 'science person' at primary school - so showing children that STEM subects could be for them at as young an age as possible is important.

However, it is becoming increasingly apparent that how we approach outreach is just as important as doing it at all. STEM disciplines have a long histroy of public engagement and in the last 20-30 years have heavily targeted women yet figures have barely changed in this time. What are we going wrong?

In a study carried out by WISE (Women in Science and Engineering) it was found that outreach events by the wrong people or in the wrong context could in fact be off-putting young women from entering STEM. Improving this can be as simple as changing your sentence structure: there is evidence to suggest that girls generally respond better to nouns ('I am an engineer, an innovator, an investigator, a communicator') rather than verbs ('I build this, develop that). Also, public engagement and outreach is generally carried out by STEM professionals and academics who, despite having the best of intentions, have had little or no training in these activities. To help solve this WISE have released an education pack called 'People Like Me' to help those carrying out outreach and public engagement, details of which can be found here.

Once more on this subject, Taylor shows her ability to remain objective and unbiased. Though she herself always knew that she wanted to head in a Maths and Physics direction, she acknowledges that this is not a pre-requisite for all budding young STEMettes; some fantastic STEM researchers went through several career decisions - and, indeed, career changes - before, and after, making some fantastic achievements in these fields (Dr. Melora Larson, the aforementioned Dr. Emily Grossman to name but a few). I have personally noticed frequently that the girls and women I have come across in my experience as an engineer have been particularly motivated and have identified with their chosen subject, be it aircraft, space or combatting cancer, from a young age; whereas the majority of the boys and men ended up in these fields because they weren't bad a Maths and Physics. Of course I have met some super keen male engineers too - and this is not to underestimate the importance of having a passion for what you do - but the lack of women who 'ended-up' in engineering is indicative of the message that engineering is something you can only getting out to a very small female audience. Unless this is addressed, we're never going to leave our comfortable minority zone and as a society we'll miss tapping into the ingenuity of almost half the population.

Good Direction

Taylor also highlighted the importance of following up outreach with good careers advice and educating schools and colleges about what academia and industry are looking for so they can pass on the correct information to their students. She uses the example of her own school not encouraging her to take Maths even though she was clearly exemplary in this subject; and there are many stories of students who, despite showing clear ability and talent in scientific fields, are unable to continue studying in these areas because they have been advised to take more specific subjects at A-Level such as Accounting, Business and Law. It is worth noting that with Maths and Physics or Chemistry A-Levels it is still possible to study and work in accounting, business, law and similar subjects - but without them it is very difficult to enter any STEM field.

This in itself is a problem specific to the UK - we are forced to specialise very early, where many other education systems encourage a much broader education. A recent article from the National Association of Head Teachers (NAHT) shows the importance of encouraging both academic and artisitic development in tandem. Recognising this, initiatives such as The Science Room @ The Art House are helping bring the arts and sciences back** together.

** A few hundred years ago it was perfectly normal to be proficient in both!

A Cog in the Machine

Conclusion: there is a lot of work to do. Luckily, there are also a lot of good reasons to carry it out and equally a lot of motivated people to do it. Initiatives like Ada Lovelace Day not only prove this but provide a brilliant platform for such people to meet, find support to carry on the struggle and feed off each other's enthusiasm. They help concentrate energy and publicity and improve visibility of the amazing STEM women and other underepresented groups. As do WISE, the Athena SWAN charter, STEMettes, STEM Women, Black Girls Code, The Grace Hopper Celebration, Reducing Stereotype Threat...the list goes on!

But as important as such initiatives are, we must be careful not to become too enclosed - to end up simply 'preaching to the converted'. The real task is to target those people who still believe that STEM is 'not for people like me', starting at as young an age as possible and continuing all the way up to adult, via as many ways as possible such as Bright Club which uses the medium of stand-up comedy - after all, the biggest influences in a child's education are often not their teachers or the STEM ambassadors that come to their school but their parents; as Prof. Marika Taylor can relate from starting her love of Maths and Physics by indulging in her father's engineering textbooks from a young age.

So a very Happy Ada Lovelace Day 2015 from myself and my STEM hero Professor Marika Taylor! It is a step in the right direction and a cog in the machine towards progress which, though it moves slowly, is most definitely moving.

Finding Ada...Everywhere!

As promised, a list of links of all the various places Ada has been popping up this year...

'The Thrilling Adventures of Lovelace and Babbage': This inspiring and well-informed web-comic is now available in a beautiful book! Definitely my favourite source of Ada information - and pictures for this blog post! I also had the surprise honour of meeting its creator Sydney Padua at this year's Ada Lovelace Day Live event - and of course I had Thrilling Adventures on me so was able to get it signed!

'Calculating Ada: The Countess of Computing': She hasn't quite made the big screen like her successors, Turing and Hawking, but this BBC Four documentary is a nice introuction to Lovelace and the Difference and Analytical Engines. It's also hosted by Dr. Hannah Fry, another fantastic STEM ambassador and role model (see, for example, her TED talk on the Mathematics of Love).

'The Letters of Ada Lovelace': Also on the BBC as part of their Make It Digital season is this two-part examination and dramatisation of the letters sent by Lovelace to Babbage, her mother and her comtemporaries. The two parts are entitled, 'The Poetry of Mathematics' and 'Thinking Machines'.

More Ada on Air: Lovelace has also been featured in the past on BBC Radio 4, in Melvyn Bragg's 'In Our Time', on 'Great Lives' nominated by Konnie Huq and, of course, in 'The I.T. Girls' which I might one day stop telling people to listen to...maybe, once I'm sure that everyone has listened to it...

Ada Lovelace Exhibition: It turns out there is something that trumps even the great combination of Lovelace and Radio: The Ada Lovelace Exhibition at...THE SCIENCE MUSEUM (London)! That's right, two of my favourite things have been combined! The exhibition is open until March 2016 - and look out for the Evening Exchange events looking at the influence of Lovelace's work on poetry, music and art in one-off workshops.

Happy National Women in Engineering Day!

#NWED

As mentioned in the blog overview, it would be great if we didn't have to single out any social group in order to celebrate their acheivements because they were already celebrated for the acheivements themselves. However, this is unfortunately not the case as of yet. One such understated and underrepresented group is that of women in engineering - despite there having always been great and inspiring female engineers throughout history! (See IET poster below and previous blog posts.)

There are still unbalances to be redressed and that's why brilliant intiatives such as National Women in Engineering Day should get our full support.

Here's a great blog post by another Woman in Engineering celebrating, and highlighting the impotance of events like, National Women in Enginering Day, from which we can all take courage.

http://www.oliviatakescourage.blogspot.co.uk/2015/06/celebrating-national-women-in.html

Happy NWED! And here's to a future in which we'll be celebrating a proportionally represented NED instead.

http://www.nwed.org.uk/

Poster link: http://www.wes.org.uk/sites/default/files/u82/Celebrating%20Women%20Engineers%202014%20IET%20poster.pdf

For more information about Women in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths) initiatives, see the STEM Outreach Links and Non-News Links pages

Adding the Third Dimension: Favourite Female TV Characters - Guest Post

I love television.  Some people might be a bit snobby about it as an artistic medium, but I think it’s great.  It has the power to tell a story in incredible detail in several hours over several weeks, or to dip into one for half an hour.  You can get to know longstanding television characters in a way that you never could in a film, or even a book.  They become a part of your life; something to discuss with friends or ponder in the shower.  Television can keep you hanging on the edge of your seat or it can be the entertainment world’s equivalent of a worn pair of slippers and an old jumper.

But one thing television doesn’t always do is give us great female characters.  Lists of favourite television characters (including my own, regrettably) are often dominated by those flawed, comic, brilliant, but male creations.  All too often, sadly, their female counterparts are two-dimensional stereotypes.

So I’ve put together a list of my favourite female characters, who I believe exhibit some of the originality of our favourite male characters.  The list is by no means exhaustive, as it only covers characters from programmes that I’ve watched myself, so I welcome suggestions and recommendations of other shows featuring brilliant female characters!

Daisy Steiner (Spaced)

Jessica Hynes

I don’t often see women like me on television.  Even the brilliant ones often look and dress in a way that is completely alien to me.  Not Daisy Steiner.  She dressed comfortably, in combats and hoodies (and, in defiance of television rules, often in the same outfit in more than one episode, as if she, like us, did not own a limitless wardrobe), wore no makeup and, well, basically looked normal.  She was one of life’s lovable losers: a permanently procrastinating unemployed writer wandering through her 20s fuelled by endless cups of tea.  Her flaws weren't cutesy, nor were they melodramatic – they were wonderfully ordinary; her self-doubt and her laziness.  Daisy’s bumbling naivety and sense of fun make her one of the warmest and real characters in British comedy.

Spaced is available to watch on 4OD.

CJ Cregg (The West Wing)

Allison Janney

West Wing creator Aaron Sorkin didn’t always present women in the best of lights and it is telling that very few strong female characters emerged during his reign as writer and executive producer of the hit US political show.  But in the male-dominated corridors of the White House, Claudia Jean Cregg walked and talked with the best of them.   The only woman on President Bartlet’s senior staff, CJ’s Press Secretary was intelligent, opinionated and funny, nailing one-liners and slapstick with equal aplomb.  She was as witty, tough and driven as any of the men she worked with, and could even match them for a dysfunctional personal life.  Her elevation to White House Chief of Staff in the latter seasons of the show, a role in which she adeptly balanced compassion with political savvy, demonstrated just what a powerful character she was.

I defy you to watch this scene without laughing:

Donna Noble (Doctor Who)

Catherine Tate

Say what you will about Russell T. Davies’ stint at the helm of Doctor Who, but he certainly knew how to write female characters.  And by far and away his best was the super-temp from Chiswick, Donna Noble.  An antidote to the string of youthful companions, Catherine Tate’s Donna brought a sense of maturity to the TARDIS and a welcome respite from all the sexual tension with the Doctor.  Donna was gobby, but compassionate, and wasn’t afraid to challenge the Doctor’s authority.  Always resourceful, Donna possessed a whole CV of transferrable skills to call upon in any situation.  On the surface a comic character, it was painfully clear that all that sass was covering up deep-rooted insecurity, as Catherine Tate deftly conveyed the subtle layers of Donna’s character.  Donna’s fate, to be cursed with returning to her old life and never remembering the Doctor, was so very tragic.

This will always remain one of my favourite Donna scenes:

Leslie Knope (Parks & Recreation)

Amy Poehler

Leslie Knope is a relentlessly positive, devoted public servant.  After a rocky start in Season 1, when it felt like she might become a cliché of a bumbling, incompetent woman, Leslie grew in assurance to move from Deputy Director of Pawnee’s Parks and Recreation Department to Governor of Indiana (which we learn from a flash forward in the series finale).  Leslie is content in her own skin and happy with what she is doing with her life.  She is hard-working, ethical and good at her job – qualities that don't often come together in comic political creations.

Monica Geller (Friends)

Courtney Cox

This might seem an odd choice, and yes, Monica did embody many female stereotypes: thin and glamorous (having overcome her teenage weight problems to become accepted), and obsessed with weddings and babies.  But during my teens, when I first became hooked on Friends, Monica showed me that women could be so much more than those stereotypes.  They could even embrace those qualities that society tried to teach me were unfeminine – competitiveness, obsessive cleanliness and organisation (it’s really just good sense), uninhibitedness (The Routine), control-freakishness, impulsivity and immaturity, and an uncontrollable need to please.  And on top of all that, she was head chef of an upmarket New York restaurant.  Monica – you were neurotic, loud and kind of annoying, but sometimes I cannot deny how alike we are (rules do help control the fun!)

I learnt my best dance moves from the Gellers...

Dana Scully (The X Files)

Gillian Anderson

When the producers of the X-Files originally conceived the character of Dana Scully, they imagined a tall, blonde, sexy bombshell.  Instead they got Gillian Anderson: 5 foot nothing, with mousey hair (that would be died red for the show) and an ill-fitting suit.  But when she read opposite David Duchovny at her audition, the chemistry between the two actors was instantly apparent.  FBI Special Agent Scully, a medical doctor with a degree in physics, managed to remain sceptical in the face of Mulder’s belief in extra-terrestrial life for a large part of the sci-fi series.  She was unflinching in the face of danger and conducted her work, including all manner of disturbing autopsies, with a calm authority.  Since the X-Files first aired in 1993, Scully has even been credited with encouraging women to forge careers in STEM subjects.

Lisa Simpson (The Simpsons)

Voiced by Yeardley Smith

For twenty five years now, girls have been able to grow up watching Lisa Simpson, one of television's greatest feminists.  She’s a member of MENSA, an awesome jazz saxophonist, a science and nature nerd, maths prodigy and all-round child genius.  Lisa may not have the impish charm of her older brother or populist appeal of her father, but she is far more inspirational.  She is never afraid to be different, has the courage of her convictions and has strong views on the role that girls and women should have in society.  Yet despite her sometimes precocious worldly wisdom, she is in no hurry to grow up.  When a new girl, Alex, arrives at school with perfume and mobile phones, Lisa struggles with her desire to fit in, but ultimately comes to the conclusion that she’s happiest as she is.  “We've only got nine, maybe ten years, tops where we can giggle in church and chew with our mouths open and go days without bathing,” she declares. “We'll never have that freedom again."  Amen to that, Lisa!

Sue White (Green Wing)

Michelle Gomez

Sue White was completely bonkers.  No, really; completely and utterly, off-the-wall crazy.  As Staff Liaison Officer for East Hampton Hospital, she was full of crushing put-downs, bizarre non-sequiturs, wholly inappropriate responses and a worrying lack of attention to her actual job (“Take this, ‘Dealing with Difficult People’, and f*ck off!”)  What else can you say about Sue White?  There has never been any character – male or female – on television quite like her, and there probably never will be again.

Sue White on religion:

Margo Leadbetter (The Good Life)

Penelope Keith

The Good Life may have centred on Tom and Barbara Good’s attempts at self-sufficiency, but it was always their stuck-up next door neighbour Margo who stole the show for me.  With her iconic seventies’ outfits and immaculately coiffured hair, Margo was an unashamed middle class Conservative snob.  She ordered around her long-suffering husband Jerry and despaired at the actions of her neighbours.  Although, by her own admission, she had no sense of humour, she certainly knew her rights and and her place in society.  When The Good Life first aired in 1975, Margaret Thatcher had just become leader of the Conservative Party, and Margo is very much a woman of that era – assured, resolute and independent, whilst maintaining a healthy respect for the old housewifely traditions of suburbia.

Geraldine Granger (The Vicar of Dibley)

Dawn French

Back in the 1990s, when lovable clergywoman Geraldine Granger first bounced onto our screens, the ordination of women vicars had only just been approved and was a controversial topic.  Despite this, The Vicar of Dibley was never a controversial show, and although the villagers were initially discomforted by their new female vicar, Geraldine was able to win them all over with her charm, her sense of humour and her devotion to the Christian faith.  Her character helped normalise women vicars in Britain, as well as bringing a sense of humanity to the clergy.  She had a weakness for chocolate, a healthy sexual appetite and an extremely positive acceptance of her wonderful voluptuous curves.  In the end though, what makes us love the Vicar is exactly what the people of Dibley love about her too – her kindness and big-hearted attempts to do good in the lives of the people she cares about.

Sarah Lund (The Killing)

Sofie Gråbøl

The character of Inspector Sarah Lund took the dysfunctional, maverick male detective stereotype and turned it on its head. With her distinctive knitwear and uncommunicative manner, Lund spends long periods of the Danish murder mystery drama staring into the middle distance with a slight frown as she mulls over the latest grisly murder on her plate. There are no histrionics with Lund; no passionate outbursts – she is an emotionally guarded introvert who battles her demons in private. Against conventional gender roles, Lund struggles with family relationships and seems untroubled by her social isolation, much as many of her male counterparts do. She truly is a rarity in the world of television crime drama.

General Election Special - Guest Post

2015’s General Election is shaping up to be one of the most interesting in recent years.  There is barely a sliver of daylight between the Conservatives and Labour in the polls, which is due, in part, to the growth of smaller parties; a sign, perhaps, that we are finally moving away from the two-party politics that dominated the latter half of the twentieth century and the beginning of this one.  But the most surprising aspect of this election was not that there were seven party leaders debating the issues, but that not one, but three of those leaders were women.

This election is unprecedented in many ways, but the increased role of women is one of its big positives.  One in four candidates standing are women, more than at any other election.  It’s predicted that women could make up 30% of MPs in the next Parliament – a significant increase on the 22% elected in 2010.  It’s not quite the 50% that it should be, but it’s inching slowly towards it.

As Harriet Harman said, when launching Labour’s Women’s Manifesto: "All women are different but there are some commons themes.  Above all, we need to make sure women understand that politics and democracy is for women as well as men.  Too often women feel politics is just a group of men shouting at each other, who don't understand their lives.”

One way of achieving this is to raise the profile of the women who are already in politics.  Below is selection of the women who are currently Members of Parliament and who will be standing for election again on 7^th May.  There wasn’t space to include all 148 female MPs, so I’ve tried to choose one from each party whose journey into the House of Commons and political activity tell the most interesting story.

Diane Abbott (Labour)

Labour, due to their socialist roots, have always lead the way on getting women into politics, with their first three female MPs taking their seats in 1923.  53% of Labour candidates contesting their target seats in 2015 are women and they also lead the way on numbers, having 86 female MPs.  Despite this, they have never had a female leader, though Diane Abbott challenged for it in 2010.

Abbott took her seat as MP for Hackney North and Stoke Newington back in 1987, becoming the first black woman elected to Parliament.  Born to Jamaican immigrant parents in 1953, Abbott attended Newnham College, Cambridge, where she read history.  After graduating she worked in a number of positions, including as a television researcher and reporter.

Abbott has been something of a livewire within the Labour party, often voting against party lines.  She voted against the Iraq War, and has opposed ID cards and the renewal of Trident.  Her speech on civil liberties in the debate on the Counter Terrorism Bill won recognition at the 2008 Human Rights awards.  She served briefly as Shadow Minister for Public Health under Ed Miliband's leadership, before being sacked in a re-shuffle, but chairs the All-Party Parliamentary British-Caribbean Group and the All-Party Sickle Cell and Thalassemia Group.  Outside of Parliament she founded the London Schools and the Black Child initiative, which aims to raise educational achievement levels amongst black children.

She has often courted controversy, with frequent media appearances and comments on race, but was re-elected with an increased majority in 2010.  She has announced that she will be putting herself forward to become Labour’s candidate for London Mayor in 2016.

Dr Sarah Wollaston (Conservative)

It could be argued that the Conservatives have the best record of all when it comes to prominent women, having elected a female leader as far back as 1975; a leader who would go on to become one of the most iconic British Prime Ministers of the twentieth century.  But it’s been 25 years since Margaret Thatcher left Downing Street and today the Conservatives are lagging behind other parties when it comes to the proportion of female candidates and MPs.

Dr Sarah Wollaston studied medicine at King’s College London and worked as a GP for twenty years before entering politics.  She was selected as a candidate for Totnes in 2010 through the country’s first open primary and was subsequently elected to Parliament with an increased majority for the Conservatives.

Wollaston is Chair of the Health Select Committee and since election has gained a reputation for being an independent-minded MP, unafraid to oppose the party leadership in defence of the interests of her constituents.  She has rebelled against the Coalition on several key issues, voting in favour of a referendum on Britain's membership of the European Union in 2011, for a cut in the EU budget in 2011 and voting against military intervention in Syria in 2013.

She is, understandably, very interested in health issues.  Her opposition to NHS reform in 2011 resulted in the Conservatives changing certain clauses at her request, and she subsequently voted in favour of the revised Health and Social Care Bill.  She has also been a vocal proponent for minimum unit pricing for alcohol and was greatly admired for standing her ground on the issue, clashing with the party leadership when she declared that the plans for minimum pricing had been shelved due to party strategist Lynton Crosby’s ties to the alcohol industry.  In 2013, she jointly won The Spectator Parliamentarian of the Year Award for her opposition to a Royal Charter on press regulation.

Jo Swinson (Liberal Democrat)

Things are looking pretty bleak for the Liberal Democrats at the moment, but they’re looking even bleaker for Liberal Democrat women.  Only 12% of the party’s MPs are women and polls suggest that figure could be even lower after the election.

Jo Swinson hales from East Dunbartonshire and has been an active member of the Liberal Democrats since she was seventeen.  After graduating from the LSE with a BSc in Management, she first stood for Parliament at the age of 21, contesting John Prescott’s seat of Hull East in 2001. She lost, but gained a 6% swing for the Liberal Democrats.

She took her home seat of East Dunbartonshire in the 2005 General Election, becoming, at 25, one of the youngest women ever to become an MP.  She is currently the Parliamentary Under Secretary of State, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills and the Junior Equalities Minister.

Swinson was vocal in her opposition to the Iraq War and the Labour government's proposals for national identity cards. She supports measures to tackle climate change and reducing the voting age to 16 as a way of engaging young people in politics. Although she believes more women should be involved in politics, she opposes positive discrimination to address gender imbalance, controversially wearing a pink t-shirt emblazoned with the slogan “I am not a token woman” to the Liberal Democrat’s national party conference in 2002.

Caroline Lucas (Green) 

The Greens can boast that they are the only party with all female MPs.  Of course, they only have the one MP, but unsurprisingly, the Greens have an impressive record when it comes to female representation.  They are fielding the highest number of female candidates and are the only political party where a female leader has handed over the reigns to another female.

Born to Conservative parents, Caroline Lucas gained a first class degree in English Literature from the University of Exeter in 1983.  Whilst a student, she became heavily involved in the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament.  She joined the Green Party in 1986 and held numerous positions within the party’s leadership, before becoming leader in 2008.  She was elected MEP for the South East in 1999, and in 2007 announced her intention to stand for Parliament in Brighton Pavilion, where the Greens had been gaining in popularity.  In 2010, she was elected as the first Green MP and in 2012 stepped down as leader of the Greens to concentrate on her role as MP and to allow other members of the Green Party to gain prominence.

Lucas has been a popular, at times radical, but always hardworking MP.  She has been an outspoken and welcome voice in opposition to the political establishment in the House of Commons.  She was reprimanded for breaching the Parliamentary dress code by wearing a t-shirt with the slogan “No More Page 3” in the chamber and was arrested during a non-violent protest against fracking in Balcome.  She is a tireless advocate for the causes she believes in, including promoting localisation over market-led globalisation, protecting the environment, animal rights, the advancement of women and disarmament.  Despite her popularity, dissatisfaction with the Green-run Brighton Council could cost Lucas votes in the election and it’s unclear whether or not she will retain her seat.

Eilidh Whiteford (SNP)

The SNP have been a powerful force in 2015’s election, with leader Nicola Sturgeon's debate performances surprisingly managing to eclipse the popularist platitudes of Nigel Farage and UKIP.  As a progressive party, the SNP, and Sturgeon in particular, are keen to promote gender equality.  Although the SNP only recently voted to introduce all-women shortlists, they already have the second highest proportion of female general election candidates of the six main parties in Scotland, at 36%, behind the Scottish Green’s 43% and ahead of Labour’s 27%.

Currently, the SNP only have one female MP in Westminster (to their five male MPs).  Eilidh Whiteford has been actively involved with the SNP since 1986 and was elected as MP for Banff and Buchan in 2010.  She sits on the Scottish Affairs Select Committee and is the SNP's Westminster Spokesperson for Fishing, Food and Rural Affairs, and International Development.  Her causes include encouraging women in politics, opposing austerity and, obviously, greater devolved powers for Scotland.

Margaret Ritchie (SDLP)

Margaret Ritchie was elected to the Northern Ireland Assembly in 2003, became the leader of the Social Democrat and Labour Party in 2010 and has been the Member of Parliament for South Down since 2010.  On Remembrance Day 2010 Ritchie made history by becoming the first leader of a nationalist party to wear a poppy at a wreath-laying ceremony in Downpatrick and has attacked Sinn Féin for causing division in Northern Ireland.  Although described as “sincere, decent and focused”, Ritchie was not a popular leader of the SDLP and stepped down in 2011.  She resigned from the Assembly in 2012 to concentrate on her duties as an MP in Westminster.

Michelle Gildernew (Sinn Féin) 

One of ten siblings, Michelle Gildernew was born into a politically active Irish republican family.  The Gildernews were leading figures in the Northern Ireland Civil Rights Association during the 1960s.  Gildernew was appointed Sinn Féin representative to London in 1997 and was part of the first Sinn Féin delegation to visit Downing Street.  She was elected MP for Fermanagh and South Tyrone in 2001, though only held onto her seat by 4 votes in 2010.  Like all Sinn Féin MPs, Gildernew follows a policy of abstentionism and does not take her seat in Parliament.  Gildernew is a Republican activist and has campaigned on women's and mothers' rights.

Naomi Long (Alliance)

Naomi Long graduated from Queen’s University of Belfast with a civil engineering degree in 1994 and worked for several years in structural engineering consultancy before going into politics.  Her first foray into politics was in 2001, as a member of Belfast City Council; she also served as Lord Mayor of Belfast.  In 2001 she was elected as Member of Parliament for Belfast East, becoming the first MP for the Alliance Party.  Long became the first liberal-affiliated MP elected to Westminster in Northern Ireland since 1914. Despite the close relationship between the Alliance Party and the Liberal Democrats, Long does not take the coalition whip and is not a member of the Liberal Democrats.

I am not advocating voting for female candidates regardless of party or politics, simply because there is a woman on the ballot.  That, like assuming that there is a ‘woman’s vote’ and that we all think and act – and vote – as one, is insulting and does little to advance the cause of equality in politics.  What I am in favour of is promoting and raising the profile of female MPs, such as those above, in order to encourage more women to take that step towards candidacy.  If more young girls become familiar with female faces on those fabled green benches, maybe future elections will finally see women making up two in every four candidates.

Female Poets and Inspirational Women of The First World War - Guest Blog

In May 2012, following attendance at a performance of the musical “Bullets and Daffodils” about the life and work of WW1 soldier poet Wilfred Owen, I volunteered to help the little group of actors who travel around performing the musical drama. They also run a museum to the memory of Wilfred Owen called The Wilfred Owen Story, which is situated in Argyle Street, Birkenhead on the Wirral Peninsula in the north west of England.  Wilfred was brought up and educated on the Wirral Peninsula and by a strange coincidence so was I. At the request of  Dean Johnson who runs the Wilfred Owen Story Museum, I began researching women who wrote poetry during World War One for an exhibition held there in November 2012.  I began by looking for a woman poet with a connection to the Wirral Peninsula and discovered that May Sinclair was born in Rock Ferry, which is a few miles down the cost from Birkenhead.

By the time WW1 broke out in Europe in August 1914, May was famous on both sides of the Atlantic as an author and poet.  It was May who first used the phrase "stream of consciousness" to describe a literary work. Although she was by no means a young woman, May went to Belgium in September 1914 with the Dr Hector Monro Flying Ambulance Unit as Dr Monro's Personal Assistant.  May also financed the unit.   The experiences of the unit were such that within six weeks May was sent bak to England suffering from medical symptoms described as "Shell Shock".  She wrote about her experiences and wrote two poems which she dedicated to the unit.

I began to add poets of other nationalities and am slowly building up a list of women poets of all nationalities and from many different countries, for this was the first time a war affected every country of the globe and every man, woman and child too.  I'd love to know if you have poets to add to the list which you will find here http://www.femalewarpoets.blogspot.co.uk/p/female-poets-of-first-world-war-revised.html.

One of the poets for whom I have a great deal of admiration is Ella Wheeler Wilcox.  Ella travelled to France to entertain the American troops in 1918.  Can you imagine what it must have been like taking a liner across the Atlantic (no Jumbo Jets in those days) with the risk of torpedoes and mines sinking the ship at any moment?  And practical everyday things like travel-size cosmetics and toiletries and light-weight cases did not exist back then.  For younger women, Tampax and Lil-lets hadn't been invented yet either, but they were resourceful women and in spite of the terrible conditions they lived and worked in while in the various theatres of war, and in spite of being hampered by long hair, long skirts and high-button boots, they coped admirably and wrote about their experiences.

By the time the exhibition was up and running in November 2012, I was well and truly hooked on researching the poetry of the First World War and had started a weblog - www.femalewarpoets.blogspot.co.uk.  People contacted me and asked for some of the exhibition panels and exhibitions were held in several other venues. I was also contacted by relatives of some of the poets on my ever-growing list.

I had also branched out to include some of the amazing women who were not poets - women like Mary Riter Hamilton, the Canadian artist who went to paint the aftermath, travelling to France in 1919.   Mary's story was so incredible - she lived in a tin hut among the Chinese workers who cleared away the debris left by the conflict and helped to bury the dead - that I could not leave her out.  Mary stayed in France for three years painting well over 300 pictures, her health suffered and she lost the sight of one eye but she did not give up.   That is how the heading "Inspirational Women of World War One" came into being and I put together a book which features some of those women.  I called the book "No Woman's Land" and started a weblog too - www.inspirationalwomenofww1.blogspot.co.uk.

The stories of those women is very inspiring and I feel we should celebrate their lives more.  I think it is a shame that women in general the world over do not seem to have built upon the progress made during the First World War when the world needed women.

Lucy London, January 2015  Photo:  One of Mary Riter Hamilton's pictures.

Do you know where you're goin' to? To infinity and beyond!

They say you should never meet your heroes. But sometimes it is not until you meet someone that they become your hero in the first place.

And when you do meet them, be sure to ask them awkward questions about how they got to where they are - being your hero - because the paths they take can often be as surprising as they are influential in helping you find your own way in life's great adventure...

I had just such an experience this summer at my first ever international scientific conference which took place in Charlotte, North Carolina, USA. Having decided to make the most of this experience and attend a pre-conference workshop - and, what's more, having decided at the last minute to switch workshops - I found myself in the presence of one Dr. Melora Larson of the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL). 

There's no point in hiding the fact that, space, spacecraft and spacecraft engines being obviously cool, the fact that Larson worked for JPL made her immediately equally cool in my eyes. Or, at least, potentially - and boy, did she live up to those expectations.

Levitating helium droplets in Spacelab 3

Like Prof. Athene Donald, Larson is one of the great science communicators who manages to express her own enthusiasm for a subject and make it both interesting and comprehensible for her audience. Although unassuming in nature, it was clear from the start that Larson knew not only a lot about cryocoolers (on which the workshop was based) and low temperature space applications but the notoriously difficult low temperature Physics underlying it all. An unusual combination of someone who has both the practical outlook and abilities of an engineer, as well as the depth of understanding of a pure scientist. This is highlighted in many of her projects but perhaps most so in that of the magnetic low-gravity simulator which she not only used for high-end experimental Physics research but was also instrumental in building.

Do you like the things that life is showin' you?

This combination of hands-on skills and a thirst for knowledge can be perhaps traced back to her childhood and her early influences and ambitions. Larson clearly takes after one of her own inspirations, her father, who was both a physical chemist and a dab-hand at woodwork.

She initially wanted to be either a fire-fighter or an astronaut and, unfortunately for America's firefighting community, the astronaut dream won out. Deciding to take the academic rather than the military route to walk among the stars, Larson studied astrophysics but soon became side-tracked by pure Physics - very in-depth pure Physics. 

In studying for her PhD from the University of California (Santa Barbara) she not only added extensively to our knowledge of low temperature helium but in the process also developed two very high accuracy (resolution of 5-20 nano-Kelvin) thermometers.

Do you get what you're hopin' for?

Manoeuvering MIRI towards ISIM

But the space community need not have worried that they'd lost their budding young astronaut. After her PhD Larson was offered a postdoc position at JPL where she has risen from triumph to triumph. The breadth of projects she has worked on range from the Confined Helium Experiment (CHeX) which flew on the Space Shuttle in 1997 to the Low Temperature Microgravity Physics Facility (LTMPF), an International Space Station (ISS) project until 2004; and, currently, the Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI), part of the very exciting NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope project.

Larson has also been a member of the board of directors of both the Cryogenics Society of America (CSA) and the Cryogenics Engineering Conference (CEC). She has been a past CEC board president and in 2017 will take office as CSA president. 

"I need to repair my turbo boosters. Are you still using fossil fuels, or have you discovered crystallic fusion?"

So you don't need to be an astronaut to work in space. And you don't need to have a plan to find where your talents lie - or, at least, if you have a plan you don't need to follow it. But it does help to have heroes to look up to, to inspire you and to encourage you. Thanks, Melora, for being one of mine!

Thanks also Diana Ross and Buzz Lightyear for the lyrics/quotes. Whether they contain cryogenic* instrumentation or not, spaceships will always be seriously cool....

ISS over Earth

 *Note that Cryogenics is not the same as Cryonics (see here).