This coming weekend 12 female scientists are to discuss their research in science, technology, engineering mathematics and medicine (STEMM) at the Soapbox Science Dublin 2020, one of the 40 Soapbox Science events taking place this year. Due to restrictions in place as a result of Covid-19, this even will take place virtually on Saturday July 11 from 2pm-6pm. It will also be live streamed to Facebook and YouTube on the day.
Soapbox Dublin 2020 is supported through funding from UCD through a seed funding programme and the UCD Earth Institute. It is organised by Dr Dara Stanley, Dr Angela Feechan, Dr Tara Dirilgen, Dr Saoirse Tracy and Dr Anna Tiley, researchers in the UCD School of Agriculture and Food Science, and Dr Hannah White, UCD School of Biology and Environmental Science.
Dr Dara Stanley states that Soapbox Science aims to highlight the women in the industry by featuring a number of female scientists speaking on a diverse range of topics, an attempt to “break down stereotypes around who scientists are”.
Dr Fatemeh Golpayegani, UCD School of Computer Science, will deliver a talk on ‘Sustainable Solutions to Urban Problems’. Speakers from Trinity College Dublin and RCSI University of Medicine and Health Sciences such as Dr Chiara De Santi (RSCI) and Annie Regan (TUD) will be present also.
Dr Golpayegani stated, in relation to her talk, that “according to a study by the UN, 55% of the world’s population live in urban areas, a proportion that is expected to increase to 68% by 2050.” She also notes that while cities “provide exciting and unique opportunities for growth, they face daunting economic, environmental, and societal challenges that will increase even more” and opines that “computer science is a powerful tool that can work along many other sciences to find sustainable solutions to address these problems”.
Other talks such as Dr. Chiara De Santi’s ‘Tiny and shiny: when small molecules can fight human diseases’ and Annie Regan’s ‘Material Science: from tea-towels to nanomagnets’ and many more will be held throughout the day. The full list of speakers and the title of their talks for the day is outlined below.
Casey Conway, Reporter.
