School of Biosciences achieves Athena SWAN Bronze Award

We are delighted to announce that the Athena SWAN assessment panel agreed that our school has reached the required standard to achieve the Bronze Award in the April 2013 award round.

The Athena SWAN Charter recognises commitment to advancing women's careers in science, technology, engineering, maths and medicine (STEMM) employment in academia. The Charter was launched in June 2005. Any higher education institution which is committed to the advancement and promotion of the careers of women in STEMM in higher education and research can apply for membership.

The beliefs underpinning the Charter are:

• The advancement of science, technology, engineering, maths and medicine is fundamental to quality of life across the globe
• It is vitally important that women are adequately represented in what has traditionally been, and is still, a male-dominated area
• Science cannot reach its full potential unless it can benefit from the talents of the whole population, and until women and men can benefit equally from the opportunities it affords

On Wednesday 9 October, Professor Dame Athene Donald will be visiting the School and giving an Athena SWAN/Women in Science seminar at 1pm. Professor Donald is a Physicist from Cambridge who is also the University's gender equality champion. She chairs the Athena forum and is on the Royal Society's equality and diversity network. Find out more about this seminar here.