Professor Natalie Stingelin has been chosen by Professor Roisin Owens, University of Cambridge, to receive a prestigious award celebrating their achievements. Stingelin and eleven other awardees were honored at an online celebration on Monday 8 March, the tenth anniversary of the scheme. This will be the fifth Suffrage Science awards for the Engineering and Physical Sciences.

Founded by the MRC London Institute of Medical Sciences (LMS) ten years ago, the Suffrage Science awards celebrate women in science for their outstanding scientific research, communication work, and support of women in STEM. The original Suffrage Science awards went to women researchers in the life sciences.  The engineering and physical sciences branch was added in 2013, and maths and computing in 2016.

What is truly unique about the Suffrage Scientists award is that each recipient receives a handcrafted item of jewellery commissioned from students of the art and design college, Central Saint Martins-UAL. But rather than produce a new set of pieces for the next awards, each holder chooses who they would like to pass their award onto. This “relay” generates “an extensive ‘family tree’ of incredible scientists and communicators,” says the Suffrage Scientists press release.

Suffrage Science pioneer Professor Fisher said: “We dreamed up the awards scheme to celebrate the contribution that women have made to science, which often gets overlooked. This is as important now as it was ten years ago. This year’s awardees join a community of over 148 women scientists. I’m thrilled that since 2011, the awards have travelled from the UK, across Europe to the USA, Hong Kong, Iran and to Ghana, illustrating the international nature of science and engineering, and the global effort to improve the representation of women in STEM.”

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