Celebrating the Women of PDN

To honour International Women’s Day 2023, and acknowledge the work of our colleagues, the ED&I Taskforce at PDN would like to showcase some of the trailblazing women in our department who have held or currently hold prestigious roles.

A series of portraits have been commissioned, highlighting just a few of the many incredible women of PDN. These portraits, taken by Adrian Newman of AVMG, will be displayed in the Physiology Lecture Theatre, and it is hoped they will inspire all of our current, and future, students and staff members.

Professor Sarah Bray FMedSci

Professor Sarah Bray was appointed the Joint Head of Department in 2018, together with Bill Colledge. Professor Sarah Bray joined the department of Anatomy as the first female faculty member in 1991 and is now a Professor of Developmental Biology. Professor Sarah Bray is an elected member of EMBO and a fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences and her pioneering academic journey will pave the way for many female researchers to come.

Professor Abigail Fowden

Professor Abigail Fowden is a Professor of Perinatal Physiology and was appointed as the Head of School of Biological Sciences in 2015; the first female to hold the position. Professor Fowden began her scientific career in Cambridge as an undergraduate student at Girton College in 1972 and has become an internationally recognised researcher with almost 50 years’ experience of academia.

Professor Christine Holt FMedSci FRS

Professor Christine Holt obtained her PhD from King’s College London in 1982 and did her postdoctoral training at the University of Oxford and the University of California San Diego (UCSD). In 1996, she became a tenured Associate Professor at UCSD, after which she moved to the University of Cambridge in 1997. In 2003, she became the Professor of Developmental Neuroscience. She has received many awards including the Rosenstiel Award (2022), and was elected a Fellow of the Medical Academy of Sciences, The Royal Society and the US National Academy of Sciences. She became Professor Emerita in 2019.

Professor Kathy Niakan

Kathy Niakan is Mary Marshall and Arthur Walton Professor of the Physiology of Reproduction and Director of the Centre for Trophoblast since 2020. She is Chair of Cambridge Reproduction, an interdisciplinary strategic research. From 2021, she has been an Honorary Group Leader at the Babraham Institute and Affiliate Member of the Cambridge Stem Cell Institute. She is a Group Leader at the Francis Crick Institute, formerly the National Institute for Medical Research, since 2013. Prior to this she was a Centre for Trophoblast Research Next Generation Research Fellow. She obtained a B.Sc. in Cell and Molecular Biology and a B.A. in English Literature from University of Washington. She obtained her PhD at University of California, Los Angeles. She undertook postdoctoral training at Harvard University.

Professor Ewa Paluch

Ewa Paluch was appointed the 19th Professor of Anatomy in 2019; the first female to hold this title. She began her academic career at the Curie institute in Paris, after which she started her lab at the Max Planck Institute of Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics in Dresden. In 2013, she became a Professor of Cell Biophysics at University College London, and later moved to Cambridge in 2019, where she became Professor of Anatomy. Having 20 years of experience in academia, Professor Paluch is a highly established and celebrated researcher.