We're in the midst of a Golden Age of science on TV, but women are mostly absent. Girls are crying out for a female scientific role model, and Alom Shaha wants your suggestions
I'm a science teacher at Camden School for Girls. The school understands that same-sex role models are especially important for young women and our students are lucky in having role models ranging from the founder of the school, Frances Mary Buss to successful alumni such as Emma Thompson. Most importantly perhaps, they encounter good role models on a daily basis in the form of some of the most impressive women I have ever worked alongside.
I would like to report that I am some kind of role model as well, but I suspect most of my students are more impressed by the fact that I am friends with Professor Brian Cox than anything else.
Brian is just one of the people I worked with in TV who has gone on to bigger and better things. I've also worked with Marcus du Sautoy and Mark Miodownik, who will be giving this year's Royal Institution Christmas Lectures.
Now, I'm going to be a good little scientist and tell you that I don't have enough data to make a statistically sound statement, but I think I've got a pretty good eye for recognising science TV presenting talent when I see it. I'm disappointed that none of the women I have worked with has gone on to reach the same levels of success in TV as the men. In particular, I am astonished that Dr Tara Shears hasn't been given her own TV series and that no one has seen the potential of someone like Dr Jennifer Rohn, a cell biologist who has also published two novels and sings in a band. A couple of my students did some work experience with Jenny over the summer and described her as "awesome".
Science on TV seems to be in a Golden Age, with the likes of Brian Cox, Jim Al-Khalili and Adam Rutherford presenting some of the best science programmes ever made. These guys are presenting the kind of shows I wish I had worked on when I was in TV. However, as much as I am glad of this renaissance in quality science programming, there has been something niggling away at me – the lack of a female equivalent to these new heroes of science TV. Sure, there's Alice Roberts, who is fantastic, but I can't help but feel that women scientists are under-represented in these big-budget, glossy science series. I'm not going to go into the reasons why I think this might be the case, but it's certainly not because there isn't the talent out there.
As much as I am proud to have worked with Brian Cox, and as much as I am looking forward to the additional kudos I will get at school when my students realise that Mark Miodownik is a friend of mine, I wish I could tell my students that one of the woman scientists I have worked with was also famous – not just to expand the limited range of things with which I can impress them, but because I think it's genuinely important that my students have more women scientists as role models, and I'm not the only one to think so. There are lots of initiatives out there to promote female scientists as role models, but I suspect that having one woman scientist with Brian Cox's level of fame would have the same impact as many of these initiatives combined. Like it or not, appearing on TV is still one of the best ways to become a role model for young people.
I don't really work in TV any more, but as well as Tara and Jenny, here are a few UK and Ireland-based women scientists and science communicators whom I would like to see more of on TV:
Dr Aoife McLysaght is an evolutionary geneticist at the Molecular Evolution Lab Smurfit Institute of Genetics at the University of Dublin.
Dr Lucie Green is a Solar Researcher at the Mullard Space Science Laboratory.
Dr Aarathi Prasad worked as a research scientist in cancer genetics before moving into science policy and journalism. Her book exploring the limitations of sex and the future of human reproduction will be out early next year.
I have good reason to believe that this blog post will be read by at least one science TV commissioner, so please leave your own suggestions in the comments below.