The afternoon included an introduction from Professor Chris Willis highlighting the progress that had been made in the strive for gender equality, but underlining that more work was still required. Dr Charlotte Dalton gave a talk about her career odyssey charting what inspired her as a young scientist, through her PhD to her current role as an associate principal scientist at CatSci Ltd.
A panel discussion was chaired by Dr Natalie Fey and featured Dr Beatrice Collins, Dr Charlotte Dalton, Dr Charlotte Farrow, Professor Carmen Galan, Dr Kerstin Kinkelin and Dr Sbu Mbatha. The panel discussed the following questions:
- What allows you to continue to achieve your career goals?
- What do you do individually to make a change?
- What do you wish you had known 10 years ago?
The talks and panel discussion were punctuated by interactive audience polls that highlighted issues surrounding inequalities in gender pay gap and how this varies as a function of career stage. These events were followed by a series of short talks chaired by Professor Carmen Galan on building a company from your chemistry research. The afternoon then concluded with a social mixer event for attendees.