In participation in the British Science Week 2018, the University of Dundee Women in STEM Society is carrying out interviews with women in STEM to get to know them better and hear their experience working in STEM fields.
Today we have Catriona Aitken, a 4th Year Undergraduate, studying BSc (Hons) Biological Sciences (Immunology).
Q: Where do you hope to take your degree?
A: I plan to use my Life Sciences degree to pursue a career within the pharmaceuticals industry. I hope to join a company who are at the forefront of immunotherapy development and cancer research, as these are the fields of research that I believe show huge potential for.
Q: Do you remember what it was that first made you look at STEM as a viable career path?
A: Various things inspired my choice of a career in STEM. Largely, my high school science teachers were responsible for nurturing my interest in the three main science subjects and allowing me to discover that I particularly enjoyed and excelled in biology. My choice of degree specialism in immunology was inspired by a university lecturer who's boundless enthusiasm and fascinating teaching meant that I became completely absorbed in wanting to learn more about that particular field.
Q: Male dominance in STEM subjects is still very common, why do you think this may be?
A: I feel that from an early age, science subjects are envisioned as being male-orientated due to a universal societal vision that this is the case. Though male dominance is less common in biological sciences than other STEM subjects, there is still a need for us to collectively encourage and inspire the next generation of female students to believe that they can achieve their goals. This starts with us all dispelling the myth that STEM subjects are male-orientated and showing that women are just as capable in these fields as men.
Q: What are your views on the disproportion between females studying in STEM fields, and those that hold higher up positions in said fields?
A: In the Life Science fields, there does remain some tendency towards higher positions being held by male scientists, though this has undoubtedly improved vastly in recent decades. In part, this may be due to the fact that many women may take career breaks during early motherhood, but this should continue to be celebrated whilst the field making a conscious effort to ensure that these women are not disadvantaged upon their return to work.
Q: If you could have dinner with one inspirational woman in STEM, dead or alive, who would you choose? And why?
A: I would choose Gertrude B. Elion, who was a prominent cancer researcher and shared recipient of The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1988 alongside Sir James Black (who later became Chancellor of the University of Dundee) and George H. Hitchings. The trio discovered a number of novel cancer therapy drugs, one of which later led to the discovery of one of the first successful drugs to treat AIDS. Gertrude later developed the first immunosuppressive drug, which are vital for preventing the rejection of transplanted organs by the immune system.