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September 2026 S M T W T F S 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30
Author Archives: Athene Donald
Mentors and Role Models
Five years ago I received a package in the post, with a covering letter from someone I’d never met. Dan Davis, Professor of Immunology at the University of Manchester and apparently a fan of this blog, had sent me a … Continue reading
Posted in careers, Dan Davis, gender champion, Julia Higgins, Peter Medawar, Sam Edwards, Women in science
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Getting Behind Diversity Statistics
Earlier this year UKRI published ‘harmonised’ diversity data across all its councils. These did not make for comfortable reading, with attention being particularly focussed on two findings: Female and ethnic minority awardees tend to apply for and win smaller awards: … Continue reading
Posted in EPSRC, Equality, grant funding, Science Funding, Unconscious bias, Women in science
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Of a Retiring Nature
The end of this month marks my retirement from my professorial position at Cambridge, something that I still find rather surprising. My career on that front has just faded out, yet another victim of the pandemic; the conference planned for … Continue reading
Posted in Churchill College, retirement, Science Culture, support, Women in science
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Research Culture, Fairness and Transparency
A week after the Science and University Ministers announced with respect to chartermarks such as Athena Swan “We have therefore asked the OfS, UKRI and NIHR to ensure that they place no weight upon the presence or absence of such … Continue reading
Posted in Athena Swan, BAME, Equality, grant-giving panels, Ottoline Leyser, Science Culture, UKRI
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We’ve Come a Long Way But…..
When Rita Colwell was born in 1934, neither Oxford nor Cambridge Universities had yet appointed a female professor in any discipline; Dorothy Garrod, the first woman to hold such a chair (the Disney Chair of Archaeology at Cambridge), was not … Continue reading
Posted in Athena Swan, Equality, harassment, Ottoline Leyser, Rita Colwell, Women in science
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Feeling the Fear
Readers of the Guardian may, over the years, have had reason to dip into Oliver Burkeman’s columns. As he hangs up his metaphorical boots, he summarised what he had personally learned from the exercise of writing these ‘self-help’ articles. In … Continue reading
Posted in growth, Impostor syndrome, Oliver Burkeman, Science Culture, self-confidence
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Investing in Education and the Levelling Up Agenda
Early years provision has suffered during austerity, and is continuing to see cutbacks, as Polly Toynbee pointed out last week. Yet children who fall behind at the outset of their education will find it very difficult to catch up later. … Continue reading
Posted in Augar Review, education, Further Education, social mobility
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Pandemic Staycationing
As far as I’m concerned, this is not a year for travelling for a holiday. Indeed, given some of the recent events, there hasn’t even been time to take any sort of extended break. However, we have been taking days … Continue reading
Posted in Cambridge life, dreams, jackdaws, novels, ornithology
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Pandemic Staycationing
As far as I’m concerned, this is not a year for travelling for a holiday. Indeed, given some of the recent events, there hasn’t even been time to take any sort of extended break. However, we have been taking days … Continue reading
Posted in Cambridge life, dreams, jackdaws, novels, ornithology
Comments Off on Pandemic Staycationing
Pandemic Staycationing
As far as I’m concerned, this is not a year for travelling for a holiday. Indeed, given some of the recent events, there hasn’t even been time to take any sort of extended break. However, we have been taking days … Continue reading
Posted in Cambridge life, dreams, jackdaws, novels, ornithology
Comments Off on Pandemic Staycationing
