On February 11th the School of Physics and Astronomy joined in with the International Day of Women and Girls in Science celebrations, using Twitter (@PhysicsUoL) to showcase some of the valuable, innovative research currently being led by women around the School.
In the final post in this series, we move beyond the planetary explorers showcased in our first post, and the astronomical discoveries in our second post, to look at the future for astronomy in general within the School. This looks particularly bright, considering the many PhD and Masters students whose work we celebrated on #InternationalDayOfWomenInScience.
Future and Current Leaders
For her final year Masters project, Nora Drewes has been modelling the spectral energy distribution of the EUV bright quasar PG1415+451 – looking at the light emitted by a black hole surrounded by a hot disc and other X-ray emitting material.
Amongst the achievements of the School’s we have Miti Patel searching for signs of neutron star mergers, making use of the wide field optical telescope at the GOTO Observatory, whilst Beth Henderson has been investigating the variability of brown dwarfs using data from the Next Generation Transit Survey.
Finally, we also drew attention to some of the leadership roles being held by women in the School. Undergraduate student Charlotte Paton is the current president of the University of Leicester Physics Society, whilst Megan Perks and Natalia Stylianou are joint presidents of AstroSoc…
… whilst it was also excellent to see some of the women working in the School getting some well-deserved recognition further afield recently. Dr Jenny Carter won the L’Oreal-UNESCO UK and Ireland For Women in Science Rising Talent award for her work on the ESA SMILE project, whilst Dr Harjinder Sembhi and Dr Suzie Imber were both asked to tell their stories as part of the University’s celebration of International Day of Women and Girls in Science.
It was great to take the time to recognise the many achievements and contributions of all the women within the School of Physics and Astronomy, and this review only scratches the surface. We hope that it will inspire us to continue celebrating and acknowledging the success of women in the School (and in science generally) all year round!
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