WomenInLeadership
The second speaker was equally inspiring and probably more a proponent for gender diversity. Sue Nelson, a former BBC science correspondent, is an award-winning science journalist, radio presenter and editor of The Biologist, who also writes for national newspapers. Her passion for science and the world it governs began at school with an outstanding physics teacher, Mrs Swartz. Engrossed by the wonders of the space age and rockets to the moon, she wrote to NASA — at 13 years of age — expressing her huge interest in space, and asked how she could become an astronaut. Over 30 years later, with her interest in science and space undimmed, she presents the Space Boffins podcast and makes short films for the European Space Agency. She produced the forthcoming Radio 4 programme Save the Moon!, broadcast on 24 April 2014, on the potential carving up of the moon for minerals by various commercial interests, and why the UN laws governing rights to the moon are outdated.
Sue’s life lesson to us all is: go for it; don’t wait for permission. Sue, aware that science can appear a male preserve, passionately supports women’s inclusion. Geek is chic, she says. She used social media to campaign against male-only advertising by Lynx for an astronaut recruitment competition and joined an online AstroGirls
campaign to encourage more women to apply. At its closing date, out of 87,000 applicants in the UK and Ireland, 250 were short-listed. Sue was one of them. She completed the tough physical challenge. Although none of the few women short-listed got through to the final phase, the campaign raised the profile for women who — like many men — are also interested in space, and aim high. She takes this commitment to gender diversity into schools, where she speaks to young girls about the possibilities of science, its role in our universe and their exciting career potential in deeply fascinating industries. She also mentors a woman journalist student at City University and reports on women’s issues for Radio 4’s Woman’s Hour. Throughout her everyday work as a director of the Wheathampstead-based Boffin Media, a specialist media production company that produces radio programmes, videos, magazines and podcasts, she remains inspired by the mentoring of her former physics teacher, Mrs Schwarz, on the Wirral, a woman she remembers with enormous respect and affection.
INSPIRE
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