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Author Archives: Athene Donald
The Greatest Engineer?
Isambard Kingdom Brunel may only have been trumped by Winston Churchill when the BBC prepared its list of top 100 Great Britons, based on a public vote, but I wonder if most people’s perceptions were as hazy as mine were … Continue reading
Posted in Clifton Bridge, Great Western railway, History of Science, IK Brunel, LTC Rolt, SS Great Britain
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Cultural Differences?
How does the French academic environment differ from the British, particularly for women? Each year a group of us convene at ESPCI (the École Supérieure de Physique et de Chimie Industrielles de la Ville de Paris in France) in the … Continue reading
Posted in Equality, ESPCI, France, Science Culture, Women in science
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On Lechery and Other Failings
Recently there has been some discussion about ‘what do professors do?’ in the press, with comments from fellow OT blogger Stephen Curry (and on my own blog here), with a major emphasis on leadership, mentoring, teaching and the desirability of … Continue reading
Posted in recommendations, references, Science Culture, Unconscious bias, Women in science
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Seminars that Bomb
It’s a strange thing how giving essentially the same talk at different venues/to different audiences can lead to such variable responses. The reasons for this are many and complex, and not always under one’s control; sometimes it is far from … Continue reading
Posted in audience, Interdisciplinary Science, public speaking, Research, Science Culture, students
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Training for Professors?
Recently I was asked to describe what professors do day-by-day in 200 words. I declined; I felt it was an impossible task. Some days are spent being ground down by committees of the sort that sap all one’s energy and … Continue reading
Posted in careers, education, multi-tasking, science, Science Culture, skills, training
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Innovating with Sex and Gender in Mind
If you are designing seat-belts, who do you design them for? Or if teaching aspiring doctors the symptoms of heart disease and the presentation of heart attacks, whose symptoms do you describe? Clearly the correct answer to both questions should … Continue reading
Posted in design, gender, Londa Schiebinger, Research, Science Culture, seatbelts, sex
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Levelling the Playing Field
This article has been published in the November issue of Physics World. The Research Assessment Exercise (RAE),which has been used to measure the quality of UK research for more than 20 years, has now morphed into the equally clunky sounding … Continue reading
Posted in consultation, Equality, HEFCE, maternity leave, outputs, REF, Research, Women in science
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David Willetts and the Round Table
Last week, fellow OT blogger Jenny Rohn and I were among the attendees at the roundtable discussion headed up by Paul Nurse (President of the Royal Society) and David Willetts (Minister of State for Universities and Science), held at the … Continue reading
Posted in careers, industry, internships, postdocs, research careers, Science Culture, Science Funding, Teaching
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The Trouble with Women
A couple of weeks ago I took part in a debate organised by the local chapter of the Triple Helix Society given the provocative title of ‘The Trouble with Women’, designed to debate why women are still found in such … Continue reading
Posted in classroom, education, Equality, expectations, Maths, physics, teachers, Women in science
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The Royal Society and Diversity
It is very easy to pillory long-established organisations for being insufficiently diverse. As a member of Cambridge University and a Fellow of the Royal Society, I see it all the time. It is assumed these venerable institutions are ‘bad’. It … Continue reading
Posted in Equality, felllowship, FRS, minorities, Royal Society, statistics, University Research Fellowships, Women in science
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