Gender inequality in Science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) and in the life sciences field continues to be an obstacle for women and girls, but most affected are women of colour who have historically faced significant challenges in pursuing careers in the sciences. With a global push to get more girls interested in STEM subjects, AMAKA profiles inspirational Black British Women who have forged ahead with curiosity, determination, and brilliance to light a path for those behind to follow.
The inspirational achievements of Maggie Aderin-Pocock, an award-winning Black British female space scientist, are worthy of mention. At a young age, she overcame dyslexia to obtain her degree in physics and a doctorate in mechanical engineering.
Her acclaimed work has ranged from making hand-held land mine detectors to designing revolutionary space instruments, such as the Gemini Observatory telescopes in Chile, the James Webb Space Telescope, and satellites for the European Space Agency.
Aderin-Pocock’s notable scientific contributions have helped humans better understand weather and climate change predictions. In addition, she has changed the stereotype of scientists from being white and male to include her female contemporaries, who are also making a difference in British society today.
Elizabeth Anionwu (British/Irish/Nigerian)
Elizabeth Anionwu (British/Irish/Nigerian)
One of the most celebrated Black female scientists in the UK is Elizabeth Anionwu. She is a healthcare administrator, lecturer, and emeritus professor of nursing at the University of West London. Born in Birmingham in 1947, Anionwu was inspired to become a nurse at a young age when a caring nun treated her childhood eczema in an expert and sensitive manner.
She overcame an upbringing marred by racism and physical abuse. She started working for the UK's National Health Service (NHS) as a school nurse assistant in Wolverhampton at 16. At the time, the young nurse devoted herself to her duties as a health visitor and tutor working with London's black and minority ethnic communities.
Anionwu fought to make the NHS fairer by speaking out against discrimination. In 1979 Anionwu helped set up the Brent Sickle Cell and Thalassemia Information, Screening and Counselling Centre in two rooms in Willesden hospital in north-west London. It became the model for 30 other centres. These centres helped patients with these inherited blood disorders understand their conditions, access treatment, and decrease the chances of the illness passing on through generations.
Anne-Marie Imafidon (British/Nigerian)
Anne-Marie Imafidon (British/Nigerian)
One of the brightest minds in the British tech space is Anne-Marie Imafidon. She grew up in Walthamstow, East London, the eldest of five children. Her parents had emigrated from Nigeria and were determined for all their children to reach their potential.
At the age of 11, she passed her computing A-Level and at 13, she secured a scholarship to study at John Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland. By 20, Imafidon had become one of the youngest students to graduate from the University of Oxford in Mathematics and Computer Science.
On leaving Oxford, she went into financial services working for a range of global banking companies. In 2013, Imafidon co-founded Stemettes, an award-winning social initiative dedicated to inspiring and promoting the next generation of young women in the STEM sectors.
The computer scientist holds honorary doctorates from Open University, Glasgow Caledonian University, Kent University, Bristol University, and Coventry University. She is also a visiting professor at the University of Sunderland, sits on the Council of Research England, and is an Honorary Fellow at Keble College, Oxford.
Imafidon was voted the most influential woman in tech in the UK of 2020 by Computer Weekly and featured among the top 10 Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic leaders in tech by The Financial Times.
Elizabeth Opara (British)
Elizabeth Opara (British)
Elizabeth Opara’s love for the sciences developed at a young age with the help of her mother, a health visitor. She read her mother’s books on anatomy, physiology and children’s Encyclopaedia Britannica.
The researcher has a medical biochemistry degree from Royal Holloway College (University of London) and a doctorate in biochemistry from Oxford University.
Opara began her academic career at Kingston University, where she worked for 22 years. She started as a lecturer in human and clinical nutrition in 1998 and became a senior lecturer in nutrition in 2000.
She is currently the head of the School of Human Sciences at London Metropolitan University, where she contributes to the strategic policy-making and corporate management of the teaching and academic function of the university.
Throughout her career, Opara has drawn attention to the under-development of Black female STEM graduates in the UK and the lack of Black female STEM leaders in academia and industry.
She advocates decolonising the STEM curriculum and promoting racial equity in the learning, teaching and research environment.
Elizabeth Opara’s love for the sciences developed at a young age with the help of her mother, a health visitor. She read her mother’s books on anatomy, physiology and children’s Encyclopaedia Britannica.
The researcher has a medical biochemistry degree from Royal Holloway College (University of London) and a doctorate in biochemistry from Oxford University. Opara began her academic career at Kingston University, where she worked for 22 years. She started as a lecturer in human and clinical nutrition in 1998 and became a senior lecturer in nutrition in 2000.
She is currently the head of the School of Human Sciences at London Metropolitan University, where she contributes to the strategic policy-making and corporate management of the teaching and academic function of the university.
Throughout her career, Opara has drawn attention to the under-development of Black female STEM graduates in the UK and the lack of Black female STEM leaders in academia and industry.
She advocates decolonising the STEM curriculum and promoting racial equity in the learning, teaching and research environment.
Kathleen Adebola Okikiolu (British/Nigerian)
Kathleen Adebola Okikiolu (British/Nigerian)
The first black woman to publish an article in the Annals of Mathematics, Katherine Adebola Okikiolu, was brought up in a mathematical family. In secondary school, she developed an interest in mathematics and art.
Okikiolu obtained a bachelor’s degree in mathematics from Cambridge University in 1987 before earning her doctoral degree from the University of California at Los Angeles.
She excelled in a male-dominated field during her career and served as a faculty member at Princeton University, the University of California at San Diego and John Hopkins University.
Okikiolu has worked for mathematical outreach to disadvantaged minorities since early in her career. In 1997, she was the first black recipient of the Sloan Research Fellowship. In addition, she received the Presidential Early Career Awards for Scientists and Engineers for her mathematical research and the development of math curricula for inner-city school children.
In 2002 she delivered the Claytor-Woodward lecture at NAM, which was founded to promote the mathematical development of all under-represented minorities.
Kayisha Payne (British)
Kayisha Payne (British)
Healthcare and life sciences consultant, Kayisha Payne, has been working to address systemic racism in the engineering industry. She founded a not-for-profit organisation, the Black British Professionals in Science, Technology, Engineering & Maths (BBSTEM), that campaigns for a balanced representation of black individuals in STEM.
Payne began her higher education at Aston University, where she studied chemical engineering. She also has a master’s degree in advanced chemical engineering from the Imperial College London.
The young Black female scientist has amassed experience in the Cosmetic Industry (COTY) as a process engineer, playing a key lead in bringing a very popular product to market. In addition, she has project management experience working within the pharmaceutical and technology team at Mace. The healthcare consultant also had a brief stint as a biopharmaceutical process development scientist at AstraZeneca.
Payne has received recognition for her contribution to the sciences. In 2018, she was honoured by the Financial Times as one of The Top 100 Most Influential BAME leaders in Diversity and Technology. A year later, Payne was awarded the STEM Rising Star Award at The Black British Business Awards, and in 2021 she was named one of the Top 50 Women in Engineering.
Ijeoma Uchegbu (British/Nigerian)
Ijeoma Uchegbu (British/Nigerian)
Ijeoma Uchegbu grew up in Hackney, London and South East Nigeria. She delved into STEM in her search for a vocation that was challenging. After obtaining her pharmacy degree at Nigeria's University of Benin and a master's at the University of Lagos, she returned to the UK due to the infrastructure difficulties in the 80s that made research virtually impossible.
In 1994, she completed her doctoral studies at the School of Pharmacy London. Uchegbu was appointed to a lectureship within the Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences at Strathclyde University in 1997, where she worked her way up from a junior lecturer to a professor.
In 2006, she joined the University College London as a professor of pharmaceutical nanoscience. In 2010, she co-founded Nanomericsa; a speciality pharmaceutical company focused on exploiting pharmaceutical nanotechnology platforms for medicines development.
Uchegbu's research in pharmaceutical nanoscience has provided insights into how nanoparticles can be used to help deliver drugs to the body.
She has been awarded various prizes for her work, notably the UK Department for Business Innovation Skills' Women of Outstanding Achievement in Science Engineering and Technology award and the Royal Pharmaceutical Society's Pharmaceutical Scientist of the Year 2012, among other honours.
She is the editor of three books and a named inventor on 11 granted patents and 11 patent families. Uchegbu has also authored over 100 peer-reviewed journal articles and book chapters.
Tapoka Mkandawire (British/Malawian)
Tapoka Mkandawire (British/Malawian)
Originally from Malawi, Tapoka Mkandawire has been living and studying in the UK since she was 18. Her parents, who are both medics, inspired her to choose a STEM career. In 2016, Mkandawire’s love for the sciences grew after she completed her studies in molecular biology with industrial experience from the University of Manchester.
She solidified her place in STEM in 2021 with a doctorate in parasitology and molecular biology from Cambridge University, England. In addition, Mkandawire is a postdoctoral fellow at the Cryptosporidiosis Laboratory at the Francis Crick Institute.
Her research focuses on whipworms, how they cause a neglected tropical disease that affects millions of people in the tropics and how they could be used to treat Autoimmune diseases.
The young female scientist is also a public speaker interested in entrepreneurship. Mkandawire says she enjoys facilitating and seeing science grow from initial ideas into real-world implementation and helping those it was designed for.
Sigourney Bell (British/Jamaican)
Sigourney Bell (British/Jamaican)
After her aunt died of breast cancer in 2016, Sigourney Bell became interested in cancer research. Although she was already researching the disease, the sad incident increased her drive to ensure no one else had to experience what her family went through.
The Black British of Jamaican heritage first became attracted to science as a child, thanks to her mother, who supported her curiosity. Her interest in science further developed with the help of her biology teacher at Sydenham High School, who was always willing to answer her random questions.
Following her undergraduate degree in human physiology, Bell worked for Pfizer within their neuroscience and pain department and AstraZeneca’s oncology department.
Bell spent almost four years at AstraZeneca, developing her skills in understanding disease and resistance mechanisms for various cancers. She is a doctorate student at the University of Cambridge, researching a rare paediatric brain tumour and testing novel compounds to develop new therapies.
Lynn Asante-Asare (British/Ghanaian)
Lynn Asante-Asare (British/Ghanaian)
Lynn Asante-Asare is a medical student from South London studying at Leicester Medical School to become an oncologist. When she visited her grandmother in Ghana, her exposure to the healthcare system in the West African country sparked her interest in a career in medicine.
However, the year she lost a friend to Leukaemia, a type of blood cancer, she decided to become a cancer researcher and a pure scientist. Asante-Asare’s plunge into STEM began after high school when she took a gap year in 2010, teaching English and Maths to children in South Africa. After she returned to the UK, she went to the University of Warwick to study Biomedical Sciences in 2011.
During her undergraduate days, she took a year out of her studies to research cancer treatments in a pharmaceutical company called RedX Oncology, before returning to complete her degree.
She graduated with first-class honours in biomedical sciences in the summer of 2015 and began a funded doctorate at the Cancer Research UK Cambridge Institute that same year.
Asante-Asare completed her doctorate four years later in 2019 and moved to Leicester to study medicine at the University of Leicester Medical School. Outside stem, she loves playing video games.
Melrose Stewart (British/Jamaican)
Melrose Stewart (British/Jamaican)
When Melrose Stewart was growing up in rural Jamaica, she never believed she would become one of the most prominent physiotherapists in the UK. But fortune smiled on her after she relocated to the UK in 1965 at age 11.
The brilliant Stewart quickly settled into the Britiseducationalic system recording remarkable grades as she climbed the academic ladder. She decided to study physiotherapy after her friend told her about the discipline and got admitted to the Bristol school of physiotherapy.
After graduating, Stewart got a job as a physiotherapist at Queen Elizabeth Hospital Birmingham and later at Heartlands Hospital. When the opportunity came to delve into teaching, she hopped on and began her teaching career. Stewart has a master’s of education and a doctorate of cultural competence, both from the University of Birmingham.
After noticing that the chattered society physiotherapy did not focus on diversity, she started the first black and minority network group within the society. Stewart is passionate about physiotherapy and sees the discipline as something that can change lives.