Celebrating International Day of Women and Girls in Science 2024

Today, we are celebrating International Day of Women and Girls in Science 2024!

Women play a massively important role in science, something which the UN is seeking to shine a light on by celebrating this day. This is particularly evident here in St James’s Hospital, with women having a huge part to play in the function of our laboratory services. We have an all-female management team in our laboratory, comprised of our Clinical Director, Laboratory Manager, Quality Manager, ICT Manager, notwithstanding over a hundred other females leading the charge in their areas of expertise.

Dr Niamh Leonard, Clinical Director, LabMed Directorate

Clinical Director of our Laboratory Medicine Directorate, and Consultant Histopathologist, Niamh Leonard, notes that training as a doctor in a scientific field is “so varied and interesting” and allows doctors to be directly involved in patient care, though they do not see them on a daily basis – an extraordinarily important role within our health service that often goes unnoticed. On top of this, Dr Leonard is the terminal decision maker in the laboratory, ultimately making decisions which “affect the performance of the whole laboratory”.

Our Laboratory Manager, Fiona Kearney, notes that embarking on a career in science is “not often an easy choice”, but one that “offers endless possibilities”. From blood transfusion and cryobiology, to microbiology and histopathology, bioinformatics and statistical analysis, there is so many pockets of science that women excel in.

Fiona Kearney, Laboratory Manager

Passion is something that runs deep within our scientific staff, which is exemplified by people like Hayley Foy-Stones, Medical Scientist, in our Cryobiology Laboratory and PhD student with our academic partner, Trinity College Dublin, in the Trinity Translational Medicine Institute onsite here in the hospital. Hayley is passionate about youth voices in science, as evidenced by her recent election to the European Association of Biomedical Scientists as Student Facilitator, the first Irish medical scientist to hold the position. “Let’s continue breaking barriers and challenging stereotypes to empower all women in the field of science”, she says. “Together, we aim to inspire not just the present generation, but also the upcoming one to fearlessly pursue their passions”.

Great leaps are being made to close the gender gap in STEM, and much of that work is evidenced in the role women in science play in our hospital. We’d like to take this opportunity to say a word of thanks to those women excelling in science with us, and to encourage any girls to get involved with science. As our Laboratory Manager, Fiona Kearney says; “give science a chance, it can change your outlook on life”.