Women in Science

I am so grateful to have had the opportunity to attend the “WISE- How can Luxembourg do better” program on ‘Women In Science’ a few months ago, following the #internationaldayofwomenandgirlsinscience. 

As an aspiring scientist/academic researcher, I was refreshed and invigorated by the panels, namely on “How to manage mobility and maternity in a career in science”, “How to inspire young girls to pursue a career in science” and “How to create an inclusive environment in a lab”, where scientists working in either industry or in research at various Luxembourgish institutions shared their experiences and opened the floor to an enriching and insightful discussion in the audience as well. I felt compelled to contribute after the second panel and share what aspect of research captivated me and what my role is in propagating this message. After hastily recounting the tapestry of events that culminated in my zeal to conduct biomedical research, which included internships, meetings with inspiring professors, seminars, precollege programs and books, I went on to speak about how I aim to promulgate this wide-eyed enthusiasm to younger students in my school- one of the most potent mechanisms being my science column in my school’s student-led newspaper. 

I wanted to stress that although societal, cultural and even individual changes must assuredly be made to ensure that women too can hone their technical, quantitative or leadership skills and be at the forefront of research, more fundamentally, these incentives and ambitions need to be nurtured as early as preschool, not to mention secondary school. The desire and fervour to, as I like to call research, “discover for a living”, ultimately has its roots in the presents you gift your children for Christmas or even, as I may optimistically believe, the articles youth read in their school’s journal. 

I hope that we can all seek to eradicate the common misconceptions of dark, lonely labs yielding unstable, predominantly unrewarding careers and broadcast the fact that a career in academic research is really more about answering questions, not knowing a little less every day and ultimately, directly contributing to the advancement of a society that holds science as one of the cynosures of human development. 

I hope to see concrete steps being taken to address the issues many women face in their scientific careers and embark my academic journey in a world that is increasingly bettered by both of mankind’s wings, male and female.