International Women’s Day pays tribute to women’s achievements throughout history and across the globe. St Edmund’s is proud to celebrate and showcase just a few of its female Fellows, students, members, and alumnae’s recent achievements which have enriched College life.

St Edmund’s alumna, Dr Lina Iordanaki (PhD, Education, 2013) wrote an insightful blog about life as a PhD student on the Faculty of Education’s website late last year. She creatively condensed her PhD experience, during which she explored children’s picturebooks, graphic novels, literacy, and poetry, into eight photos. Lina successfully completed her PhD in 2017 with Dr Fiona Maine, also a Fellow of St Edmund’s.

Current student Olivia Slater, who is the first Indigenous Australian woman to undertake doctoral studies at Cambridge, has shown extraordinary perseverance in pursuing her studies at the College. Olivia enrolled at university in Australia as a mature student and parent before embarking on postgraduate studies (MPhil, PhD) at Cambridge through the generosity of two prestigious Charlie Perkins Trust scholarships. Based at the Faculty of Education, her research focuses on the rise of Indigenous performances as public displays of self-determination.

The talents of our female Fellows has received recognition within Cambridge and beyond. Dr Tina Barsby was awarded an OBE in the the 2018 New Year Honours List for services to agricultural science and biotechnology. Life Fellow and former Senior Tutor of the College, Dr Helen Mason OBE was awarded the 2018 Annie Maunder Medal by the Royal Astronomical Society, a recognition of her dedication and commitment to engaging young people to the scientific work she has done across a career spanning some 35-years at Cambridge. This prestigious award follows the OBE Helen received in 2014 for  her services to higher education and women in STEM. Last month, Dr Folma Buss was awarded a Pilkington Teaching Prize in recognition of her outstanding contribution to postgraduate teaching.

Some of you may know Fellow Commoner, Lily Bacon DL FRSA, as our Boat Club Senior Captain. As well as her boating duties, Lily is a co-founder and Executive Vice-President of Cambridge-based technology company RealVNC. Lily and four of her colleagues received the Royal Academy of Engineering MacRobert Award for engineering innovation and commercialisation, making her only the second female recipient since the awards were established in 1969. To add to her string of accolades, Lily was appointed Deputy Lieutenant of Cambridgeshire in February 2018.