The campaign for real role models

role models - science

Valentina Tereshkova
Valentina is a retired Soviet cosmonaut and became the first woman to fly in space, in 1963.  Coming from a working class background Valentina became an expert parachutist.  She later obtained an engineering education and became a prominent Communist politician and international representative, actively supporting many organisations.

Sally Ride
Astronaut Sally was the first American woman to fly in space, in 1983.  Sally has been a member of the President’s Committee of Advisors on Science and Technology and Professor of Physics and Director of the University of California’s Space Institute.  In 2001 she founded her own company, Sally Ride Science, to pursue her passion of motivating girls to pursue careers in science, maths and technology.

Ada Lovelace
Ada wrote the world’s first computer programmes for the Analytical Engine, a general-purpose machine, and she also wrote the very first description of a computer and of software, in the first half of the 19th century, a whole century before the first machines resembling modern computers were developed.

Naomi Halas
Professor and scientist Naomi Halas is the inventor of nanoshells - tiny glass particles coated in gold. She dreams of a world without cancer, and believes that nanotechnology may hold the key. Placed by a tumor nanoshells capture and absorb light shone through the skin, then convert it to heat, gently killing the cells. This non-invasive procedure has the potential to revolutionize cancer treatment as a non-toxic alternative to chemotherapy.

Filming with Naomi gave Abi the initial inspiration for PinkStinks, and cooltobe.me

Grace Hopper
Admiral Grace Murray Hopper was a pioneer computer scientist. Her work in the field has led the way in making space for women's participation on an equal basis. Grace spent time as a teacher of mathematics, associate professor, lieutenant, research fellow, commodore and later Admiral. She was one of the first software engineers and one of the most incisive strategic 'futurists' in the world of computing. Her work embodied or foreshadowed enormous numbers of developments that are now the bones of digital computing.