To mark National Science Week, Claire O'Connell asks six women scientists about the families, friends and circumstances that encouraged them to enter the profession.
There was a time when scientists were, quite literally, men in white coats. Men dominated the field of science, eclipsing the contributions of their female counterparts.
Of course there were individual exceptions: trailblazers such as Marie Curie, a pioneer in radioactivity, Rosalind Franklin, who helped work out the structure of DNA (although she received little credit at the time) and Belfast-born astronomer Jocelyn Bell Burnell, who discovered the first pulsar. But for the most part, a woman's place was not in the lab. Today though, women are a growing force in science, especially in biology, and more girls are taking up the physical sciences, maths and engineering. We asked six Irish women scientists about what inspired them, and got answers as diverse as worm catching, star-gazing and escaping family traditions.
National Science Week begins tomorrow. See www.scienceweek.ie
DR MARY BOURKE PLANETARY SCIENTIST
It might seem like a bit of a leap from the Wicklow mountains to the landscape of Mars, but geomorphologist Dr Mary Bourke has taken that journey in her stride - metaphorically.
As a child she fell in love with nature while holidaying on a farm in deepest Wicklow each summer with her seven siblings. "Every single year we had three months to run wild there in the fields; it was absolutely brilliant," she says. "It was very undeveloped, you just had views of the mountains around you."
Her parents first recognised their eldest daughter's ease with the natural world when she came in from the fields, aged six, holding a long and wriggly worm that was her pride and joy, says her father, John, a retired inspector of taxes. They encouraged her to follow that interest, and were rewarded with her infectious enthusiasm. "She has a wonderful ability to impart knowledge. Her ability to transfer knowledge from herself to others was evident from the beginning," he says.
Mary went on to study geography at UCD and became interested in landforms, doing a Master's degree on the aftermath of Hurricane Charlie in the 1980s. Later, while studying river systems in Australia, the Smithsonian Institute in Washington asked her to work on a project involving images of Mars, and she became hooked on the red planet.
Now a NASA-funded researcher at the Planetary Sciences Institute in Arizona and a researcher at Oxford University, Mary travels the world observing the structures of landforms on Earth and comparing them with images beamed back from Mars.
Last year she caused a stir in the scientific community when she discovered evidence that sand-dunes on Mars could contain cores of ice, a useful water source for future missions there. "It's a hypothesis. We won't know until we go there with shovels and dig holes," she says.
AOIBHINN NÍ SHÚILLEABHÁIN THEORETICAL PHYSICIST
Being a woman in science makes it that bit easier to shine, says Aoibhinn Ní Shúilleabháin, last year's Rose of Tralee and the holder of a first-class honours degree in theoretical physics. She traces her interest in space and science back to childhood stargazing sessions with her father, Art, in her hometown of Carnacon, Co Mayo.
"Because we live out in the countryside we don't have any light pollution, so when you are out on a cold frosty night the sky is completely lit up with stars. I still get amazed that there are so many stars visible here," she says. "I was just fascinated. What were these lights up in the sky and why did they shine at night time only?"
Art, who was then a schoolteacher, speaks fondly about that special time with his daughter. "When Aoibhinn was around six it was a lovely time to go out with her and pick out the constellations then explain the myths associated with them. Then there's the wonder and awe about how far away they are," he says. "It wasn't a case of 'I have to go and teach my daughter science', it was more 'Let's go out and have a look'. I didn't know at the time it was having such an influence."
Aoibhinn was an all-rounder but decided to focus on physics for third-level, thanks in part to her interest in space. She got to work on particle physics at the world-famous CERN labs in Geneva and graduated top of her class in UCD, then spent part of her Rose of Tralee year travelling around schools, talking to students about science.
"The kids had the best questions, like what does the edge of the universe look like. They are really interested and they ask questions that science might never think of because as you get older your imagination gets curbed. They were fascinated that you need science to be a vet or a nurse," she says.
Aoibhinn has just started postgraduate studies in London on biological complexity, where she will be working on the maths behind complex systems such as the brain and gene pools.
"I'll be working on problems that have a direct impact on people," she says.
SARAH FLANNERY MATHEMATICIAN/COMPUTER SCIENTIST
Seven years ago, a second-level student from Blarney, Co Cork, hit the headlines when her project on cryptography, or "the science of secrecy", won the Young Scientist competition in Ireland and later in Europe. Today, Sarah Flannery is 24 and talks to me from the balcony of her office in California, where she works for a computer gaming giant, EA Games. "I'm cool in the eyes of my seven-year-old cousin," she laughs.
Sarah grew up steeped in science. Both of her parents lecture at Cork Institute of Technology (CIT), her mother, Elaine, in microbiology and her father, David, in mathematics. "Growing up, it was very common to have Mom comment on tiny germs, and Dad give us a puzzle to do at the dinner table," says Sarah. "We had a blackboard in the kitchen, and we would talk about maths puzzles over dinner as naturally as we would talk about anything else. Maths wasn't this alien thing that you met only at school. There was someone at home who could tell you how beautiful it was."
David set age-appropriate puzzles for the children, but was careful not to give the game away too soon. Sarah took an obvious interest in working out the puzzles, but David insists she was not a mathematical genius. "What she had was passion and interest," he says. As she got older, Sarah went to evening classes her father ran in CIT and became interested in cryptography. Since winning the Young Scientist title in 1999, Sarah has completed a computer science degree in Cambridge and has worked for high-profile software companies.
But her proudest achievement has been writing the book In Code - A Mathematical Journey for her father, about her interest in maths.When publishers approached her after she won the competition, Sarah refused. "I used to hate having essays hanging over me so the thought of writing a book was beyond me," she says. But she eventually relented and wrote it while studying for her Leaving Cert. "It's now one of the things I am most proud of," she says.
PROF CATHERINE GODSON CELL BIOLOGIST
For Prof Catherine Godson, science was not a family tradition. In fact she went into science to escape the vein of history and politics that coursed through her family. "Science was my little niche. It gave me space to play," she says. But having different interests was not an excuse to slack off. "My parents always expected excellence, so if you were interested in science you had to be excellent at science."
When she had a kidney stone as a child, a grand-uncle who was a doctor drew the organs and blockages on her tummy in green marker. "I was just amazed at how all the bits fitted in together, so that was my first fascination," she recalls. Later, her science teacher in secondary school fuelled that fascination further. "She showed us the periodic table and how every single thing in the world had to be made of elements. I remember going home and telling my Mum and then looking around at the kitchen, the car. I suppose it was the reductionism of science, how it simplified everything, that fascinated me."
Catherine went on to do her PhD in UCD and worked in the US before returning to UCD where, in a curious link to her childhood experience with the kidney stone, her team identified important aspects of the genetics behind kidney disease and inflammation, particularly in diabetes. "You are talking about breaking a cell open and looking how molecules interact with each other and then extrapolating back towards humans," says Catherine, who is also UCD's vice- president for innovation and corporate partnerships.
Her father, Tony, was once a military pilot, but admits to being a technophobe who prefers poetry and history to science. "Catherine went against the grain. She has a mind of her own," he says. "But we always encouraged her to be excellent and to try her best. She did her own thing and she did it very well."
DR CAROL GIBBONS SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY ADVISER
When Dr Carol Gibbons was six, she used to swing from her mother's arm in the pharmacy next door to where they lived in Summerhill, Co Meath, as she watched the pharmacist, Mrs Lynch, at work. "My mother was a very good friend of Mrs Lynch and we'd take a look around the back and watch her prepare the medicine and count the pills. I was fascinated by the powders she had and how she would mix them into pastes for ointments. It was fun, it was like an expansion of playdough. That was probably the earliest experience that made me think: what goes into this?" says Carol, who until recently was deputy chief science adviser to the Government. Watching Mrs Lynch introduced Carol to the idea that a woman could do those things, says Carol's mother, Mary.
Carol, who describes herself as an "average student", loved the practical side of science at school. "My classmates would look at me and wonder what I had on my hands now, but it was just that feeling of being able to set up an experiment and see it working and the results of it and getting your hands dirty," she says. Carol went on to study chemical instrumentation in Limerick before qualifying for a PhD in Greenwich, London.
"I set my sights early on a research PhD because it opens doors. It's an international passport. I wanted to go abroad and keep my options open," she says. Her work involved making materials for TV and mobile phone displays, but she also took a shine to the business side, which led her to join Enterprise Ireland to liaise between research and business communities.
In late 2004 she joined the Government's then chief science adviser, Barry McSweeney, to work on strategies for science development in Ireland. When he left his post over controversy about the origin of his PhD qualification, Carol kept the office running until she joined the IDA last week as a scientific and technology adviser.
Her parents, Mary and Tom, have had faith in their eldest daughter throughout her unusual career path: "She has a good head on her shoulders and she went her own way, and we were very happy with that," says Mary.
AISLING JUDGE YOUNG SCIENTIST OF THE YEAR, 2006
Asking Aisling Judge about childhood influences is a bit strange. After all, she is only 15. Last January the Kinsale student became the youngest person to win the BT Young Scientist of the Year competition. She invented packaging that tells whether the food inside has gone off. She admitted she was "gobsmacked" by the win, even more so when she came home with third prize from the European Union Contest for Young Scientists in Stockholm in September.
But this young scientist very nearly wasn't one at all. "I used to hate science and I thought it was for geeks, but that was when I was in primary school and I hadn't really had a taste of it," she says. Her brother Edward entered the Young Scientist competition when she was 10, and she reluctantly went up to visit him. "I didn't want to go up to the competition because I thought it would be a load of geeks with projects I didn't understand, but I went and it was mind-blowing. It gave me a different perspective on life - I saw lots of people with things I would never have thought of as being science. There was a project on the best way to kick a football, and I had never thought of science in that way. As soon as I got into secondary school I really wanted to enter. I saw the fun up there; you get a buzz."
Aisling put the hours into her project, says her father Eamon. "On New Year's Eve she had to take readings after coming home from a family party, and then she was up at five to take them again," he says. "All along I wondered if she would have the guts and determination to do it, but I have seen it with her in sports that when she decides she wants to do something she does it - no question."
It's something of a relief to hear that Aisling is an all-rounder, and enjoys football, sailing and drama. For a career she plans on combining her interests in science and sport: "I've been thinking about physiotherapy; I really enjoy the way the body and muscles work."