Staff win Suffrage Science Award
Two members of staff have been recognised by an award that honours women in science.
Professor Catherina Becker from the Centre for Neuroregeneration and Pippa Goldschmidt, visiting fellow in the School of Social and Political Science, have won the Suffrage Science Award.
Uniting women in science
Organised by the Medical Research Council, the awards are presented to ten female scientists and science communicators at the Royal Academy in London to mark International Women’s Day (8 March).
The Suffrage Science Awards were established to commemorate, promote and unite women across science and engineering.
Suffrage spirit
Prof Becker and Dr Goldschmidt were nominated by a winner from last year. Each will inherit a piece of jewellery from a previous winner.
The heirlooms, handcrafted and designed by Central Saint Martin’s College of Art and Design, were inspired by the jewellery awarded to women of the Suffrage movement in recognition of their campaign for equal voting rights.
Inspiring women
Professor Catherina Becker is Director of the University’s Centre for Neuroregeneration. Her research investigates how specialised nerve cells called motor neurons can be repaired or regenerated.
It is hoped that better understanding of these mechanisms will lead to new treatments for spinal cord injuries and neurodegenerative diseases, such as motor neuron disease.
Pippa Goldschmidt is an author who writes fiction about science. As well as her work with the School for Social and Political Sciences, she received a PhD in astronomy from Edinburgh, and in 2009 was a writer-in-residence at the University’s ESRC Genomics Policy and Research Forum.
She is the author of the novel ‘The Falling Sky’ and her short stories, poetry and non-fiction have been published in a variety of publications, and also broadcast on Radio 4.