‘Tapping all our talents: Women in science, technology, engineering and mathematics’ – 7th March

Published On Wed 4 Mar 2015 by Grant Hill

Professor Dame Jocelyn Bell Burnell, the first female President of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, will examine the progress made by women in traditionally male-dominated areas at the next Saturday Evening Lecture in Dundee.

Dame Jocelyn will talk about ‘Tapping all our talents: Women in science, technology, engineering and mathematics’ at the University of Dundee’s Dalhousie Building on Saturday, 7th March.

The lecture is part of International Women’s Day celebrations in the city and also marks the start of the 2015 Women in Science Festival which runs from 7th–28th March. In it, Dame Jocelyn will look at the role of women in the areas of science, technology, engineering and mathematics in Scotland and consider whether there has been a shift from the traditional perception of them being male dominated sectors. ‘Tapping all our talents’ is the title of a Royal Society of Edinburgh Enquiry that Dame Jocelyn chaired in 2012.

She will also make comparisons between Scotland and other countries to see how the gender balance is being addressed.

Professor Dame Jocelyn Bell Burnell inadvertently discovered pulsars as a radio astronomy graduate student. This discovery opened up a new branch of astrophysics and led to the award of a Nobel Prize to her supervisor. 

Her glittering academic career has seen Dame Jocelyn receive many prestigious awards and hold senior roles in the field of astrophysics. She was elected as President of the Royal Society of Edinburgh in October 2014, becoming the first woman in the organisation’s near 300-year history to hold the role.

SELS is Scotland's oldest continuous free public lecture series and its history can be traced back to a series of lectures held jointly with the Dundee Naturalists Society beginning with a lecture by Principal John Yule Mackay on Primitive Man in October 1924.

‘Tapping all our talents: Women in science, technology, engineering and mathematics’ takes place at the Dalhousie Building, Old Hawkhill from 6pm on Saturday, 7th March.

Free tickets are available from Tower Reception, 01382 385108, online at www.dundee.ac.uk/tickets, or by emailing events@dundee.ac.uk.

A drinks reception will follow this lecture. Overflow theatres may be in operation and the main lecture theatre is filled on a first come first seated basis on the night.

Forty-one exhibitions, talks, film screenings, fun days and other events will take place across the city in March as part of Women in Science 2015. The festival is a collaboration between the Universities of Dundee and Abertay, the James Hutton Institute, Hannah Maclure Centre and Dundee Science Centre. It is supported by many of the internationally acclaimed female scientists and researchers working in Dundee.

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