Thursday: Prof Singh Ponders

Today was all about an initiative I have been working on with several of my international colleagues and the University of British Columbia. To celebrate International Women's Day we have each brought a senior female scientist from our respective countries for a conference (in the loosest sense but I don't know what else to call it) about promoting gender equality in Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths (STEM).

The day started with an early breakfast with the press. The main event was this evening where we had an audience of about 200 and each speaker spoke for about 10 mins on their personal journeys into their respective fields. It was really interesting.

This is our UK speaker, Ilina Singh, who is professor of neuroethics at Oxford. She said: 'We need to create a context in which girls and women see diversity in STEM. Let's not have old fashioned ideas about what it is to be a scientist'.

it was a really good event.