What happens when female scholars meet influential leaders?
17/03/2026
On the 5 March 2026, our British Council Women in STEM Scholars had the privilege of sitting down with two excellent role models of industry and academia: Professor Dame Karen Holford, Chief Executive and Vice Chancellor of Cranfield University, and Professor Dame Helen Atkinson, Deputy Vice Chancellor of the Faculty of Engineering and Applied Sciences.
Hosted by the Student Funding Team, it was an inspiring session where the barriers between leadership and learning dissolved, allowing for an honest conversation about what it truly means to navigate a career in STEM today, work-life balance, building a support network and whether to dive straight into a PhD or gain industry experience first.
This event supported the next generation of female STEM leaders, and gave our scholars the opportunity to learn from real career journeys and gain valuable inspiration and guidance.
Seeing our scholars, including those representing fields from Bioinformatics to Autonomous Vehicle Dynamics and Control, engaging with such high-calibre leaders, perfectly embodies the spirit of International Women’s Day. Meeting in the same week as we celebrate, sharing their experiences and asking questions, our scholars are not just learning—they are actively shaping the future of STEM.
Cranfield supports female students in STEM by offering these specific scholarships:
Categories & Tags:
Leave a comment on this post:
You might also like…
Using AI tools for your literature review
There are a proliferation of AI tools that can help you organise your life, work and study. This post focuses on academic or scholarly tools that have been developed to enhance the literature searching process, whether for independent research, an assignment or thesis. Bear in mind that these predominantly relate to finding journal/research papers, and not technical, business or trade sources such as standards, market research, industry reports or financial data. So ...
Finding successful past Cranfield theses
It’s always a good idea to look at examples of theses before you start work on your own. You may find them valuable for reading previous research, and for looking at structure, style and methodology. ...
On‑campus or off‑campus? How Cranfield students found their home away from home
Finding the right place to live is one of the biggest decisions you’ll make as you begin your student journey. Whether you’re looking for the convenience and community of living on-campus or the independence ...
Avoiding common referencing errors
As librarians, we get to see the full spectrum of reference lists in student work —from exemplary to … well, let’s just say, works still very much in progress! We are experts in spotting mistakes ...
Using your Mendeley library after you have left Cranfield
So you have spent the whole year (or more) lovingly collecting references around the topics that matter to you and now you have a large, personalised library in Mendeley Reference Manager containing all that information. ...
Referencing the use of generative AI in your work
We recognise that Artificial Intelligence (AI) has, and will increasingly, become a part of our everyday lives and that we need to adapt to it. Hopefully you will have already seen the guidance for staff ...