11 February marks the International Day of Women and Girls in Science – a day where we want to highlight and honour women everywhere for their contributions to the advancement of science all around the globe. At EMBL Events, we are proud to have three amazing scientists in our team who manage and support our training courses from start to finish, Elisabeth Zielonka (EZ), External Scientific Courses Programme Lead, Swetlana Krez (SK), Training Lab Technician, and Irena Provaznikova (IP), Training Laboratory Officer. We spoke to all three about their journey to become scientists, who inspired them along the way, and what they would like to tell girls thinking about becoming scientists.

Could you tell us a bit about yourself and what you do?

EZ: My name is Elisabeth and I am a biochemist with a PhD in chemistry. I joined EMBL’s International Centre of Advanced Training  (EICAT) in November 2017, where I lead development and strategy implementation of the scientific courses programme. Together with  my team we manage face-to-face, virtual, and hybrid external scientific courses at EMBL Heidelberg and support the smaller EMBL sites. These courses cover advanced  technologies and methods and contribute to EMBL´s mission to train the next generation of  leading scientists in our member states and worldwide.

IP: Hi, my name is Irena and I have been working at EMBL for more than 3 years now. I am a part of the Scientific Training Team led by Elisabeth. When I am not working from home with my cat, you can find me in our office in the beautiful ATC building in Heidelberg. My role at EMBL is to support organisers and trainers who come here to teach and network with course participants, coming from all around the world. My responsibility is to ensure that everything is ready for the wet-lab practicals as well as the computational ones.

SK: I am Swetlana, part of the External Scientific Courses Team here at EMBL, Heidelberg. Our team contributes to one of EMBL’s core missions in educating the future generation of scientists and my responsibility is to support organisers carry out their practical programme. Our extensive courses program covers the whole spectrum of molecular biology, from data analysis courses to genome editing and cutting edge microscopy techniques.

Why did you want to become a scientist?

IP: I guess there were four main factors: love for nature, curiosity, dedication, and wanting to learn new things. Also, I always thought that being a scientist is super cool!

SK: Scientists play a crucial role for society and its development, as you could just witness during the Covid-19 pandemic where the world relied on scientific efforts to develop a vaccine as quickly as possible. My dream was always to cure a disease and to contribute to the overall well-being of humanity. In my position now my focus has changed to education but my goal is still the same.

EZ: Thinking back I was always interested in nature and the mechanisms of life. I became a scientist because I wanted to contribute to something bigger. During my time as a postdoc, I realised that science communication and training other scientists became more important to me. Through EMBL´s course programme, we empower many scientists at various levels with cutting edge technologies.

Can you tell us about the women who have inspired you in your own journey to become a scientist?

IP: You read about many great female scientists from different fields who are more or (unfortunately) less famous as for example Marie Curie, Rosalind Franklin, Margaret Hamilton, Barbara McClintock or Jane Goodall who I think have been great inspiration to all of us. A whole lot of mutual inspiration and motivation also came from my fellow scientists and colleagues during my studies. It just all clicked together and we were a great team.

SK: That might be a cliché now, but my greatest inspiration was Marie Curie; the first woman to win the Nobel Prize and the only one to win two Nobel Prizes in scientific fields. Unfortunately, female scientists were often overshadowed by male partners. But I am glad that things are changing now and women are fighting for equality, also in the scientific world.

EZ: There are so many fascinating and inspiring female scientists out there. Most important to me are the ones that have accompanied me during my scientific career, whether for a shorter or longer period of it. Pursuing a scientific career can be challenging – independent of gender. In my opinion, it is key to not only follow a role model but to be driven by an intrinsic motivation and passion for what you do and love.

Why do you think it is important for more women to enter STEM?

IP: Women have so much potential and great qualities which should be seen and appreciated more. Everyone should be given a fair chance to do good, explore the world and contribute to our knowledge and understanding how things work on this planet and beyond.

SK: Our minds shouldn’t be dominated by discriminating gender roles anymore. It is a shared responsibility, also for men, to break stereotypes and give the same opportunities to women. And our world is becoming even more complex, fast living and intertwined. Scientists will especially play crucial roles in resolving problems like climate change and therefore shape the future for all of us and future generations. That’s why it’s important to enable more women in STEM, so they can be represented equally in all decision-making processes that have an impact on the world.

EZ: The world is facing many challenges. The complexity of these challenges require diverse teams – diverse in gender, background, education, etc. Not considering women would mean to exclude about 50% of potential knowledge capacity to overcome these issues. I am very pleased to see the high application numbers of female scientists for our training events. It feels like a little contribution towards a diverse scientific community. 

Do you have a message for girls who are thinking about pursuing a career in science?

IP: Nothing is just for boys anymore!

SK: I would like to quote Simone de Beauvoir – French author, philosopher, and feminist: “I wish that every human life might be pure transparent freedom.”

If you have freedom, you will find your passion. Once you have found your passion, live your life to the fullest and nothing will stop you.

EZ: You only have one life, so you should pursue a career that you feel is important to you. If you do something with passion and feel that your work can actually make at least a small difference, the challenges you face may hopefully feel smaller. STEM offers many types of careers and there are always funding opportunities, go and see what’s out there for you.

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If you would like to join one of our training courses, be sure to have a look at our programme here: www.embl.org/events. We look forward to seeing you in Heidelberg or virtually!