PHOTO: BBC, GETTYWhat inspired you to get into
STEM?
Aoife I was lucky, I had a
family that was pro-maths. I
always just followed the thing
that I loved, despite getting
quite a low mark at A-level
maths! I pursued it to degree
level, despite advice from
teachers saying I definitely
shouldn’t do it.
Jess I also grew up among
scientists. My parents are
both medical doctors, and I
think that I was always
fascinated by understanding
the world around me a bit
more. And I had really, really
great teaching at school. Then
I went to art school before
doing physics at university.
Suzie I wasn’t great at science,
actually. I wasn’t bad at it, but
I wasn’t great at it for a long
time when I was at school.
But again, my parents are
fairly scientific and I think
that’s helpful. I have a twin
brother and he’s a neutrino
physicist, so family dinner
conversations are fascinating
these days. And again, not
being brilliant at it, if you
work hard enough, you canget to where you want to go.
Angela Well, I’m not really a
scientist anymore. I’m
someone on the other side, if
you like. But I did study
engineering at university, and
part of the reason I think I
did that was because my dad
had been an engineer. In my
culture, in India, where my
family are from and where
I’ve lived, engineering is a
prestigious, high-valued thing
to do. I never had this sense
that I think a lot of other
people in my school had that
it was getting greasy and dirty
and being a mechanic. For
me, it was an exciting route to
understanding how things
work. You know – taking
things apart and fixing them
and building new things. That
was what I really loved about
studying engineering. It was
just making things all the
time. I miss that now,
although I do make all the
flat-pack furniture at home
and do all the DIY!Research suggests that students
are encouraged to get great results
at senior school level to get intouniversity, and people are maybe
put off doing STEM subjects
because they think it’s going to be
really hard to get high marks. Yet
some of you say you didn’t
necessarily get the top results in
science and maths subjects...
Suzie Yes, I hear that all the
time from students. “Oh,
science is really hard,” or they
think that they’ll get As in
other subjects and physics
would be harder to achieve
that. If that’s what’s putting
people off, that’s such a
shame. They’re missing an
opportunity there.
Aoife The perception that it’s
hard to do well in maths is
something that’s really
stubborn. Maths was the most
popular A-level in 2016, of all
of the A-levels. For an
average A-level, you’d expect
around 26% of people to getAs and A+s, but in maths it’s
more like 60%. But there’s
still a stuck view that it’s
difficult, and that’s something
we all need to work together
to get over. You don’t need to
be the top of your class to go
on and work in STEM jobs.
Often we don’t look for the
highest grades – we look for
logical, thoughtful, motivated
problem-solvers.
Jess Most parents want their
daughters to become doctors
or teachers, and as a result,
subjects like chemistry, which
is required for university
medicine, is completely
gender-balanced at A-level. If
they made physics a
requirement for university
medicine, it would be
completely gender-balanced
at A-level overnight. There’s
evidence that if you’ve got aDR SUZIE IMBER
ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR.
OF PLANETARY SCIENCE.AT THE UNIVERSITY.
OF LEICESTER. IN.2017, SHE WON THE.
BBC TWO SERIES.ASTRONAUTS: DO.
YOU HAVE WHAT..IT TAKES?.@SuzieImberSpace
“Reaching out when they’ve
chosen GCSEs or A-levels –
it’s too late.”
Women In Science
After winning Astronauts: Do You Have
What It Takes?, Suzie is keen to apply
to ESA (the European Space Agency) in
future to become a real-life astronaut.