The “Surviving as a woman in science” meeting held on November 2^nd at the BioPark brought together women from many different scientific backgrounds and at different stages in their careers to hear some inspirational talks and to discuss the stategies for combining a career with family commitments and to succeed in achieving their goals.

All the feedback received from our delegates was very positive and we also had a lot of good comments. “Inspirational”, “Well organised with different points of view and experiences” and “Good advice” were some of the remarks from the delegates.

Several delegates asked for meetings on writing grants & finding research funding so if you would be interested in attending such a meeting please let us know.

Dr Maureen Cooper spoke about the roles that woman assume in the workplace and gave some rather unflattering portraits of these different types of women, including the bimbo, the dutiful daughter and the Maggie Thatcher.

Bob Ferguson told us about the different ways men and woman juggle. We have a lot more balls apparently. Bob gave us some tips on how to do this more successfully – to think more carefully about our balance of home and work commitments and how to prioritize.

Professor Dame Julia Polak gave her own personal experience of carving out a highly successful career in regenerative medicine and told us of how her own serious illness had influenced her research and led to her setting up a charity to fund further research.

Margaret Collins talked about how to get our message across. Her approach was to think about the personality type of the person we were seeking to influence and to tailor our message accordingly. We had fun trying to identify into which of four types ourselves and our colleagues fell into.

Dr Katie Perry of The Daphne Jackson Trust and Dr Sabine Best of The Royal Society discussed funding and fellowship opportunities for women in science and Dr Pia Ostergaard gave a personal perspective as a Daphne Jackson fellow.

From the feedback forms

The delegates were very happy with the meeting, and all would consider coming to this meeting again or to another of our meetings.

Comments on the venue & the food

• Very good
• Parking appreciated
• Fantastic food, yummy muffins