It’s Ada Lovelace Day – an international celebration of the achievements of women in science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM).
Who was Ada Lovelace?
Ada Lovelace – born at a time when women were denied the vote and most were restricted from owning property – was a British Mathematician who went on to become the first computer programmer in history.
Lovelace collaborated with inventor Charles Babbage on his general purpose computing machine, the Analytical Engine. In 1843, Lovelace published what we would now call a computer program to generate Bernoulli Numbers. Whilst Babbage had written fragments of programs before, Lovelace's was the most complete, most elaborate, and the first published.
Lovelace was also the first person to foresee the creative potential of the Engine. She explained how it could do so much more than calculate numbers, and could potentially create music and art, given the right programming and inputs. Her vision of computing's possibilities was unmatched by any of her peers and went unrecognised for a century.
Read the biography of Lovelace to discover more about her inspiring story.
Ada Lovelace Day aims to increase the profile of women in STEM and, in doing so, create new role models who will encourage more girls into STEM careers and support women already working in STEM.
Wellcome Sanger Institute women in STEM
Sanger is proud to have a large community of women in STEM. Here we meet a couple of our newest PhD students and learn why they decided to pursue a career in science and the women in STEM they most admire (past or present!).
Cecilia Kyanya, PhD student
“The sciences (biology and chemistry) since a younger age always came easier to me than the languages. Thus, a career in science seemed the natural way to go. I find science fascinating, and very much like the problem-solving and constant learning. The icing on the cake is I get to do what I enjoy and contribute insights to global health challenges.
“A woman in STEM I admire the most is my mentor (and former Principal Investigator) Dr Lillian Musila of the Kenya Medical Research Institute. Dr Musila runs the first of its kind multi-site antimicrobial resistance [AMR] surveillance study of in and out-patient populations in Kenya. She is a member of technical working group of the National AMR Taskforce and has been instrumental in the development and updates to the National AMR Action plan. Recognising the need for alternative therapeutics for treatment of drug resistant infections, she has expanded her research into bacteriophages (viruses that “eat” bacteria) and is setting up the first coordinated phage biobank in sub-Saharan Africa.
“Dr Musila nurtured my interest in bioinformatics and challenged me to spread out beyond the wet lab. In addition to the science, I learnt to collaborate and pivot my networking skills. She offered much needed guidance and insights on life beyond the lab. For the younger ladies in science, her career demonstrates family and science/research can co-exist.”
Cecilia Kyanya, PhD student
“The sciences (biology and chemistry) since a younger age always came easier to me than the languages. Thus, a career in science seemed the natural way to go. I find science fascinating, and very much like the problem-solving and constant learning. The icing on the cake is I get to do what I enjoy and contribute insights to global health challenges.
“A woman in STEM I admire the most is my mentor (and former Principal Investigator) Dr Lillian Musila of the Kenya Medical Research Institute. Dr Musila runs the first of its kind multi-site antimicrobial resistance [AMR] surveillance study of in and out-patient populations in Kenya. She is a member of technical working group of the National AMR Taskforce and has been instrumental in the development and updates to the National AMR Action plan. Recognising the need for alternative therapeutics for treatment of drug resistant infections, she has expanded her research into bacteriophages (viruses that “eat” bacteria) and is setting up the first coordinated phage biobank in sub-Saharan Africa.
“Dr Musila nurtured my interest in bioinformatics and challenged me to spread out beyond the wet lab. In addition to the science, I learnt to collaborate and pivot my networking skills. She offered much needed guidance and insights on life beyond the lab. For the younger ladies in science, her career demonstrates family and science/research can co-exist.”
Madelyn Moy, PhD student
“I decided to pursue a career in science because I am a naturally curious person and enjoy learning about the world around me. The whole scientific process of being able to develop a question, generate a hypothesis, and systematically run experiments has also always been something I found extremely satisfying. There’s also nothing quite like being one of the first people to discover a particular result or phenomenon.
“A woman in STEM I admire is Flossie Wong-Staal. As the first scientist to clone HIV, her work inspired my interest in microbiology and performing research that can lead to treatments for infectious pathogens. Having grown up reading about the accomplishments of mostly white men in my science textbooks, her research has been particularly impactful to me because she was the first scientist I learned about who was also a fellow female Asian-American. I hope my career will one day have as much of an impact as hers.”
Madelyn Moy, PhD student
“I decided to pursue a career in science because I am a naturally curious person and enjoy learning about the world around me. The whole scientific process of being able to develop a question, generate a hypothesis, and systematically run experiments has also always been something I found extremely satisfying. There’s also nothing quite like being one of the first people to discover a particular result or phenomenon.
“A woman in STEM I admire is Flossie Wong-Staal. As the first scientist to clone HIV, her work inspired my interest in microbiology and performing research that can lead to treatments for infectious pathogens. Having grown up reading about the accomplishments of mostly white men in my science textbooks, her research has been particularly impactful to me because she was the first scientist I learned about who was also a fellow female Asian-American. I hope my career will one day have as much of an impact as hers.”
