Durham’s Calendar Girl

Durham PhD student Alison Auld has appeared as a role model in a new calendar to showcase the real face of female scientists.

With women forming only 12.3% of the UK skilled workforce in science, engineering and technology in 2010, the ScienceGrrl Calendar 2013 was launched today to raise money for projects that break down gender stereotypes and encourage young women and girls to see science as an enriching, exciting and productive career choice.

Alison, from the School of Engineering and Computing Sciences, said “I became involved in ScienceGrrl through Twitter. The thoughts and experiences shared in just 140 characters about women in science were inspiring.

“The real strength of ScienceGrrl is that it is driven by passionate and inspirational women scientists.  We are real women doing real science and we want to show how exciting it is.”

The calendar features thirteen photos of scientists and science presenters including Professor Dame Nancy Rothwell and Tomorrow’s World’s Kate Bellingham, and is used to demonstrate the impact of the work of these female scientists.

Founder and Director of ScienceGrrl Heather Williams said: “ScienceGrrl celebrates what female scientists are already doing and encourages girls and young women to follow in our footsteps – and achieve even greater things.

The 13 images in the ScienceGrrl Calendar 2013 can only showcase a small part of the fascinating and valuable work undertaken by the diverse range of women in STEM, but it is a beautiful introduction to the female face of science.”

Professor Roger Crouch, Head of the School of Engineering and Computing Science, at Durham University, and a keen supporter of the project said: “Science Grrl is a smart, energised, important network which the School is delighted to support.

We all need to do more to attract the brightest, most creative minds into science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM) subjects. The forward-looking stance and hungry-for-change attitude tell us that ScienceGrrl means business.”

Durham University is committed to tackling the unequal representation of women in science and is recognised for this by the Athena SWAN Charter which celebrates good employment practice for women working in this field.