Women of the Future brochure

Contact us: John Innes Centre Women of the Future Norwich Research Park Colney Norwich Norfolk NR4 7UH UK Telephone +44 (0) 1603 450000 Fax +44 (0) 1603 450045 email: jic.communications@jic.ac.uk Š Women of the Future 2015

Follow us:

@nextgenstemm #WOF15

Thanks also to Mabon Ellis JIC for logo design, Dr Simon Fox, Educational consultant, Principal at Flegg High School, JIC external relations team, Andrew Davies for photography

Unlocking Nature’s Diversity

Welcome

Welcome to the John Innes Centre and the Women of the Future Conference. This is an exciting opportunity for you to learn firsthand how a career involving science can lead to amazing things, from predicting when earthquakes might happen to developing a new vaccine from plants. As a plant scientist at the JIC I have had the opportunity to carry out ground breaking research, travel to exotic locations and make programs for you tube and radio to present my research. I get to work with outstanding scientists from around the world, every single one of whom started out like me, with an interest in science in school. By getting to know some of the most successful and influential current female scientists such as Dr. Maggie Aderin-Pocock, I hope you too will be inspired to choose STEMM as a career and grasp the incredible opportunities just waiting to be explored.

Samantha Fox, Research Scientist at JIC and lead organiser of the Women of the Future conference

A message from the Director

A key aspect of our mission at the John Innes Centre is to train scientists for the future. We place tremendous value on working with young people and in particular are keen to promote science as a career to girls and young women. As such I am proud to support this allfemale led program including world-leading scientists Dr. Maggie Aderin-Pocock, Professor Jackie Hunter, Chief Executive of the BBSRC and Professor Caroline Dean, John Innes Centre. I hope these accomplished women, along with the role models you will meet today, from the John Innes Centre and industry will inspire and encourage you and give you the confidence to pursue your own career in science. As a father of a daughter with an engineering degree I know first-hand how daunting it can seem at times to girls embarking on a science career.

By the end of today I hope that you will agree with me that Science is most definitely for girls!

Professor Dale Sanders FRS, Director, John Innes Centre

 

Sponsors of Women of the Future

Conference Schedule - John Innes Centre, 23 April 2015 08:45 - 09:15

Arrival and Registration

09:15 – 09:25

Opening address Samantha Fox, conference organiser Welcome from the Director Professor Dale Sanders FRS

09:25 - 09.45

Professor Caroline Dean OBE, FRS John Innes Centre

09:50 - 10.15

Professor Jackie Hunter CBE, FMedSci CEO Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council

10:20 - 11:00

Keynote Speaker Dr Maggie Aderin-Pocock CBE Space Scientist and TV presenter

11:00 - 11:20

Refreshments (Conference Centre Foyer)

11.20 - 12.30

Concurrent Question & Answer Session:

Group A

11:20 - 11:40 Maggie Aderin-Pocock

Merton Auditorium

11:45 - 12:05

Networking with NBI PhD Students Centrum Link Corridor

Group B

Group C

Networking with NBI PhD Students Centrum Link Corridor

Jackie Hunter G34/G35

Jackie Hunter G34/G35

Maggie Aderin-Pocock Merton Auditorium

12:10 - 12:30 Jackie Hunter Maggie Aderin-Pocock G34/G35 Merton Auditorium

12:30 – 13:15

Lunch

13:15 - 16:15

Concurrent Workshops:

Group A

13:15 – 14:10 STEMM Employers

and Networks

Conference Foyer

Group B

Networking with NBI PhD Students Centrum Link Corridor

Group C

Being a Researcher STEMM Showcase – G34/35 Meet a Scientist Teachers: Engaging Role-model with the Norwich Rec Centre Hall Research Park

14:15 – 15:10 STEMM Showcase – STEMM Employers

Meet a Scientist and Networks

Role-model Conference Foyer

Rec Centre Hall

15:15 – 16:10

Being a Researcher STEMM Showcase – G34/35 Meet a Scientist Teachers: Engaging Role-model with the Norwich Rec Centre Hall Research Park

16:15 - 16:30

Closing address and prize giving (Merton Auditorium)

Being a Researcher G34/35 Teachers: Engaging with the Norwich Research Park STEMM Employers and Networks Conference Foyer

Samantha Fox, Research Scientist, John Innes Centre

Nicola Patron, Head of Synthetic Biology, The Sainsbury Laboratory

Tori Cann, Lecturer in Humanities, Expert in Gender Equality, University of East Anglia

Gill Malin, Lecturer in Environmental Science, University of East Anglia

Annis Richardson, Post-graduate student, John Innes Centre

Carole Thomas, Head of Directorate, John Innes Centre

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Plenary Speakers Professor Caroline Dean OBE, FRS runs a world-leading group at the John Innes Centre studying the interactions of plants with their environment. Her lab has discovered how plants sense and remember winter and use this to tightly regulate the timing of the switch to flowering in spring. Caroline did her PhD at the University of York, spent 5 years as a post-doctoral research fellow in a biotech company in California and returned to the UK in 1988. She is a Fellow of the Royal Society and Foreign Member of the US National Academy. She was recently awarded the BBSRC Excellence in Bioscience and FEBS/EMBO Woman in Science awards for her outstanding contributions to plant biology.

Professor Caroline Dean OBE, FRS

Professor Jackie Hunter CBE, FMedSci is Chief Executive of the Biotechnology and biological sciences research council (BBSRC) and has over thirty years of experience in the bioscience research sector, working across academia and industry. Jackie gained her first degree in Physiology and Psychology at the University of London followed a PhD at the Zoological Society of London.

Jackie is a current member of the Council of the University of Hertfordshire. Jackie was awarded a CBE in the Queen’s Birthday Honours list for Services to the Pharmaceutical Industry as well as the Women of Achievement in Science, Engineering and Technology (SET) awards in the category SET Discovery, Innovation and Entrepreneurship in 2010. Jackie is a Fellow of the British Pharmacological Society and was elected a Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences (FMedSci) in 2014

Dr Maggie Aderin-Pocock MBE is a space scientist whose passion is presenting science to a general audience and demonstrating that you ‘don’t need a brain the size of a small planet’ to understand, participate in and enjoy science. Her BBC 2 programme, “Do We Really Need the Moon?” earned Maggie the talkback Thames new talent award at the prestigious Women in Film and TV Awards in December 2011. She went on to present “Do We Really Need Satellites?” and was one of the main scientists on Channel 4’s Brave New World. She is currently presenting the new series of Sky at Night on BBC 4 and Mini Stargazing for Cbeebies. She also makes regular appearances on The One Show, Newsnight and Woman’s Hour and was a guest on Radio 4’s Desert Island Discs. Maggie studied at Imperial College where she obtained her degree in Physics and her PhD in Mechanical Engineering. Since then she has spent much of her career making novel, bespoke instrumentation ranging from hand held land mine detectors to an optical subsystem for the James Webb Space Telescope. To further share her love of science Maggie conducts “Tours of the Universe” and other public engagement activities, showing school children and adults around the world the wonders of space.

Professor Jackie Hunter CBE, , FMedSci

Dr. Maggie Aderin-Pocock MBE

Being a Researcher Dr. Christine Faulkner, Project Leader, John Innes Centre.

We all look around us and wonder why and how. I look at plants and wonder how do they cope with the environment when they can’t get up and move to somewhere more comfortable? How do they resist disease when they don’t have an immune system like an animal? Being a scientist allows me to investigate these questions while also exploring solutions to important problems like how we protect food crops when they experience environmental changes and disease threats. As a project leader I have a research team that works Dr. Christine Faulkner with me to answer these questions. It is my job to see the big picture and keep on top of scientific developments in our field, to make sure that everyone is on track and doing relevant research. I travel and talk to scientists from all over the world, exploring opportunities for our teams to work together. Science is dynamic and sharing ideas is how we constantly adjust our research to new information and technologies. I chose my job because I want to provide scientific answers, but I also aim to train the people in my team to be plant scientists of the next generation, asking and answering really difficult questions. There are many unknowns in plant science and we need people willing to find answers.

Dr. Charlotte Miller, Post-doctoral Scientist, John Innes Centre For me, science is like a wonderful jigsaw puzzle and each day when I wake up I have a fresh opportunity to find another missing piece. One of my favourite things about working in research is that it promotes creativity. It encourages you to think in new ways and allows you to achieve things that you never thought you were capable of. I have very recently started my first job as a post-doctoral scientist. I have the privilege to work alongside some of the most inspiring people that I have ever met. My research is focused towards understanding how we can breed crops with increased yield. Being part of something which could one day have great global impact makes me incredibly proud to be a scientist.

Dr. Charlotte Miller

Claire Drurey, Postgraduate student, John Innes Centre As a PhD student at the JIC I feel like I’m at the cutting edge of science – the research I do is finding things that no one knew before, and I find that intensely rewarding. You get told on a daily basis that no one knows the answers to all the questions and that’s both scary and exciting. Through my PhD I’ve gone from not knowing my way around a lab to planning my own experiments to try and answer these questions. You never know what will come up next. Although we already know so much there is still more to find and discover, and the world is far more intricate than you could ever imagine. My work together with the rest of my research group will help to uncover and explain some of that intricacy and that’s what Claire Drurey I love about my PhD and science as a whole.

Megan Stowe Programme Manager Corporate Strategic Procurement, Intel

Dr. Penny Maplestone Chief Executive British Society of Plant Breeders

Imogen Oglive Specialist factual TV researcher

Susan Thompson Education Coordinator Royal Society of Chemistry

Harriette Stone Earthquake Engineer UCL & World Bank

Lalitha Sundarum Bioengineer Cambridge Arsenic Biosensor Collaboration

Dr. Liliya Serazetdinova Adapt Low Carbon Group Director of Adapt Commercial Ltd

Laura Egobamien Biology Lead, non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) MedImmune

Dr. Grace Macauley Safety Physician in Oncology MedImmune

Uzo Nwamu Senior Engineer Vodaphone UK

Jessica Fleming IAEMA Environmental Consultant The Landscape Partnership

Rachel Austin Physiotherapist

Nikki Collins The Environment Agency

Alison Vinall Head of Radiotherapy Physics Norfolk & Norwich University Hospital

Natasa Solomou Radiotherapy Physics Norfolk & Norwich University Hospital

Organisations taking part in the Women of the future conference 2015 ALDE VALLEY SCHOOL

HOBART HIGH SCHOOL

ALDERMAN PEEL HIGH SCHOOL

LYNN GROVE HIGH SCHOOL

CAISTOR HIGH SCHOOL

NORTH WALSHAM HIGH SCHOOL

CITY ACADEMY NORWICH

OPEN ACADEMY

CITY OF NORWICH SCHOOL

ORMISTON DENES ACADEMY

DEREHAM NEATHERD HIGH SCHOOL

REEPHAM HIGH SCHOOL

FAKENHAM ACADEMY

SEWELL PARK COLLEGE

FLEGG HIGH SCHOOL

SPROWSTON COMMUNITY HIGH SCHOOL

FRAMINGHAM EARL HIGH SCHOOL

THE THETFORD ACADEMY

HETHERSETT ACADEMY

THORPE ST ANDREW SCHOOL

STEMM Career Exhibitors and Networks

Women in Science Exhibition A digital photographic display by Professor Kay Yeoman and students of University of East Anglia

Welcome

Welcome to the John Innes Centre and the Women of the Future Conference. This is an exciting opportunity for you to learn firsthand how a career involving science can lead to amazing things, from predicting when earthquakes might happen to developing a new vaccine from plants. As a plant scientist at the JIC I have had the opportunity to carry out ground breaking research, travel to exotic locations and make programs for you tube and radio to present my research. I get to work with outstanding scientists from around the world, every single one of whom started out like me, with an interest in science in school. By getting to know some of the most successful and influential current female scientists such as Dr. Maggie Aderin-Pocock, I hope you too will be inspired to choose STEMM as a career and grasp the incredible opportunities just waiting to be explored.

Samantha Fox, Research Scientist at JIC and lead organiser of the Women of the Future conference

A message from the Director

A key aspect of our mission at the John Innes Centre is to train scientists for the future. We place tremendous value on working with young people and in particular are keen to promote science as a career to girls and young women. As such I am proud to support this allfemale led program including world-leading scientists Dr. Maggie Aderin-Pocock, Professor Jackie Hunter, Chief Executive of the BBSRC and Professor Caroline Dean, John Innes Centre. I hope these accomplished women, along with the role models you will meet today, from the John Innes Centre and industry will inspire and encourage you and give you the confidence to pursue your own career in science. As a father of a daughter with an engineering degree I know first-hand how daunting it can seem at times to girls embarking on a science career.

By the end of today I hope that you will agree with me that Science is most definitely for girls!

Professor Dale Sanders FRS, Director, John Innes Centre

 

Sponsors of Women of the Future

Contact us: John Innes Centre Women of the Future Norwich Research Park Colney Norwich Norfolk NR4 7UH UK Telephone +44 (0) 1603 450000 Fax +44 (0) 1603 450045 email: jic.communications@jic.ac.uk Š Women of the Future 2015

Follow us:

@nextgenstemm #WOF15

Thanks also to Mabon Ellis JIC for logo design, Dr Simon Fox, Educational consultant, Principal at Flegg High School, JIC external relations team, Andrew Davies for photography

Unlocking Nature’s Diversity