Dr Heather Williams

Our lives rely on good engineering. In fact, it’s probably a mark of really good engineering that you don’t really notice it – things just work, and intuitively so. Regrettably, engineers also tend to fade into the background, their innovation, creativity and technical skills going largely unrecognised. Yesterday, we marked National Women in Engineering Day by sharing the stories of…

We’re pleased to present ScienceGrrl’s Annual Report 2014 – celebrating our successes, reflecting on progress, and looking to the future. Thanks to Andy Dawes, Heather Williams, Liz Chilvers, Ellie Cosgrave, Anna Zecharia and all our chapter leads for helping us put this together. Click here to read the sciencegrrl_annual_report_2014-15 !

Last week I was honoured to be one of four medical physicists in the Science Council’s list of 100 leading UK practising scientists, designed to highlight the range of roles available to those working in science. 37% of medical physicists are women, a significant advance on female representation in many fields within physical science. But…

The Christmas Prize Draw closed at 6pm on Thursday 12th December, after which it was over to Jon Wood, Birmingham chapter lead, to tell us which of the 766 tickets belonged to 5 lucky winners. These were selected using a rather fabulous retro random number generator which bears a striking resemblance to the Sinclair ZX Spectrum of…

18th October marks the first anniversary of our launch party, and we’re celebrating our first birthday in fine style with fantastic events in Manchester and London, generously supported by Professor Brian Cox and Gia Milinovich. Lecture by Prof Brian Cox Thursday 10th October, University Place, Manchester Prof Brian Cox will be giving our inaugural ‘Because Science is…

One evening over a glass of wine, a very lovely lady called Anna Zecharia came out with a very wonderful idea. “ScienceGrrl should have local gatherings. Chapters.” We didn’t need to discuss it, we recognised it for the stroke of genius it was. It went straight into the strategy. What I didn’t foresee is quite…

Today the Business, Innovation and Skills Committee published its report of the enquiry into Women in the Workplace, which drew on 103 written submissions, oral evidence from 46 witnesses, and many more responses to discussions on Woman’s Hour and Mumsnet. It’s a thorough report, and also a well-written and engaging read. However, those who live…

It’s easy to imagine the academic world at the turn of the 20th Century, right? A world closed to all but the most privileged of men – whiskered gentlemen in stiff suits, pipe smoke and port, explorers with a whiff of pith helmet about them. Imagine, then, arriving on the island of Crete in 1904…

Pictured left to right: Becky John of WhoMadeYourPants, Liz Bonnin of BBCs ‘Bang Goes the Theory’ and ‘Stargazing Live’ and Heather Williams of ScienceGrrl, each holding a pair of pants which make up our new unique product. Thanks to the Science Museum for permission to also feature the model of the Hubble Space Telescope, in…

One of the aims of the ScienceGrrl 2013 calendar (now sold out, sorry!) was to show young women that science is for people just like them, and hopefully inspire them to pursue a career in science. But did we manage it? I asked the Physics Girlies at Holly Lodge Girls’ College in Liverpool what they…

Last week I was sorting through my ScienceGrrl e-mail and came across a really encouraging message from a lady who’d just returned to study Maths in her 50s. I thought it sounded like she had a story to tell, and asked her to write a blog for us. Which she did. I give you –…

I’m really chuffed – as we say in Yorkshire – to introduce this guest post from Amy Buchanan-Hughes, founder of The African Science Truck Experience (TASTE). TASTE runs a mobile science laboratory in rural Uganda so that students in underprivileged secondary schools can get a hands-on experience of science. According to an earlier post on…

ScienceGrrl started out as a reaction to *that* EC video, which spawned the idea to create a series of images representing who female scientists are and what they do – the ScienceGrrl 2013 calendar. In the process we collected a network of people who are passionate about passing on their love of science, technology, engineering…

International Women’s Day celebrates the achievements of women worldwide. In Russia (and elsewhere, I believe) it’s a public holiday. Here at ScienceGrrl, we wanted to take the opportunity this presented to highlight the great work that women are doing in science. The recent WISE report highlighted that only 13% of the STEM workforce are women,…