Celebrating International Women's Day
To mark International Women's Day on Saturday 8 March 2014, over the next two weeks we will be profiling each of the University's ten 'Women of Achievement' 2013.
The University works hard to promote gender equality and support the career development of talented women working in all disciplines. Its Women of Achievement awards recognise women - staff and students - who have achieved an external prize or award in their field for either outstanding research, teaching, scholarship or technical work.
Today's featured 2013 celebrant is Professor Jennifer Kirkham, Pro-Dean for Research & Innovation in the Faculty of Medicine and Health and Professor, and Head of the Department of, Oral Biology in the School of Dentistry. Alongside her role as Pro-Dean, Professor Kirkham maintains a truly impressive research profile with awards as Principal Investigator and Co-Investigator totalling more than £26.5 million over the last five years, and patents in the US and Europe. Her research in the role of proteins in the control of enamel crystal growth, has underpinned her “Filling without Drilling” translational work in the use of self-assembling biomimetic peptide scaffolds in the treatment of early tooth decay. This work resulted in a spin out company, Credentis, and a new CE-labelled device (“Curodont”) for clinical use.
Professor Kirkham also holds an affiliated Professorship at the Forsyth Centre for Dental Research, Boston, USA, an honorary Professorship at the Dental School, Nanjing University, PRC and a Visiting Professorship at the Centre for Nanoscale Science and Technology at the University of Peking, Beijing, PRC. She is a former President of the International Association for Dental Research (IADR) Mineralised Tissue Group and is a frequent invited speaker at international conferences. In the UK, she was a member of the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) sub-Panel 10 (Dentistry) for the Research Assessment Exercise (RAE) and is a former president of the British Mineralised Tissue Group of the British Society for Dental Research.
Professor Kirkham was awarded the prestigious Charles Tome Prize by the Royal College of Surgeons in 2012 for her work in dental research.
The other Women of Achievement 2013 celebrants who will feature on For Staff over the next two weeks are:
Cheryl Frances-Hoad
Beverley Kenny
Dr Bridgette Bewick
Ella Jakubowska
Professor Griselda Pollock
Jennifer Rodley
Professor Liane G. Bening
Rawia El Rashidy
Professor Sheena Radford
Twenty-five other women from across the University were nominated for outstanding work in their field, and their names are recorded in a Roll of Honour.
The Women of Achievement awards help to support the University's Athena SWAN objectives. The University of Leeds has been commended for its work to support the career development of talented women working in the traditionally male dominated fields of Science, Engineering and Technology (SET) in the form of a prestigious bronze award under the Athena SWAN Charter for Women in Science. In addition to the University’s Bronze Award the faculty of Mathematics and Physical Sciences has achieved a Silver Award and the School of Healthcare, the Faculty of Engineering and the School of Medicine have achieved Bronze Awards.
Read more about Athena SWAN and Leeds' Women in Science, Engineering and Technology (WiSET) on the Equality Service website.
(banner image: (l-r) - top row, Griselda Pollock, Bridgette Bewick, Rawia El Rashidy, Beverley Kenny, Ella Jakubowska, Liane G. Benning: bottom row, Jennifer Rodley, Sheena Radford. Photographs © Lawrie Phipps)
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