anja groth nominated by edith heard
A particularly formative experience for Anja took place when, during her master’s in Biochemistry, she worked at St Jude’s Children’s Research Hospital, where they treat children with brain tumours. This had a big impact on Anja; suddenly her research into the role of oncogenes became extremely important. She returned to Denmark to do her PhD at the Danish Cancer Society, where she worked on DNA damage. There, her fascination with chromatin was borne. Since 2008, she has been running a lab at the University of Copenhagen’s Biotech Research and Innovation Centre.
ungrounded,” she says. “No one in science will be selected for a PI position unless they’re qualified for it. It’s very important for women to have encouragement, for their mentors and supervisors to highlight their contributions and potential as future scientific leaders.”
In Denmark, as in the UK, the number of men and women that enter the life sciences is roughly equal, and remains constant through PhD and post-doctorate levels. The transition from post-doc to principle investigator (PI) is where the profession loses a number of talented women.
In Denmark there’s a tendency for younger women to get embarrassed by the gender issue in science, she says. “Some young women don’t feel they should be favoured over their male colleagues, but there are still a lot of barriers that we need to talk about in order to tackle them.”
I ask if there are any signs of this changing in Denmark. “Yes, I’m sure we can address the gender imbalance. I see very talented, driven women in my lab everyday, and if we give them the right conditions, I’m certain they will continue to advance independently in science.” Ungrounded Doubts
Anja doesn’t think everything can be solved by role models or soft skill initiatives like career development workshops. “The life of a PI has challenges when combined with family life, and many don’t find it attractive enough. I don’t think many women today would choose an academic career at the cost of family, so it’s
Anja thinks that the low number of women senior scientists is partly a consequence of family commitments, but she also believes that many talented women doubt their capabilities as future leaders more than their male colleagues. “But such doubts are
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