The next in our series of historical women in STEM, career tips, and community questions!
Got ideas or want to share your story? We’d love to hear from you! 🙂 >> erin@feminstem.co.uk & zahrah@feminstem.co.uk. 💜
Holiday Wishes 🎄
As FeminSTEM wraps up the year, we want to say thank you for being part of the community. Hoping you’re having a lovely break, filled with kindness, and rest, whatever and however you choose to celebrate 💜.
Community 2026 ⭐️
Watch out for comms next year, and invites to new events to keep you all growing and thriving in your studies & careers:
💜 Webinars to support your personal & professional development
💜 In-person meet ups to build your community
💜 Regular newsletter & WhatsApp updates to keep you all in loop
Weekly STEMspiration ⭐️
Historical Women in STEM
As part of our Historical Women in STEM series, this week we’re spotlighting Hedy Lamarr. You may recognise her as a glamourous Hollywood actress but behind the fame and camera lights was a brilliant inventor who helped shape STEM as we know it today.
During World War II, Lamarr became concerned about military communications being intercepted. She collaborated with the composer George Antheil to develop a frequency-hopping spread spectrum to rapidly change radio frequencies to prevent interception. While groundbreaking at the time, her work was largely ignored. Her work eventually laid the foundations for modern technologies like Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and even GPS.
Lamarr’s contributions were dismissed because she was a woman, a celebrity and lacked formal engineer training. Societal expectations overshadowed her brilliance, a persistent challenge that women in STEM still face.
Lamarr’s story is reminder that innovation doesn’t have to come from the conventional paths laid out for us. She combined creativity and interdisciplinary thinking to solve real-world problem. She challenges us to trust our ideas, pursue curiosity boldly, and defy stereotypes, even when the world isn’t ready to recognise our contributions.
STEM in the News 📰
This week we are trying out a new segment where we give you snippets of exciting things happening in the world of STEM!
UK scientists link common virus response to bladder cancer mechanisms
UK researchers identified that the body’s immune response to a common virus may play a role in triggering bladder cancer.
Findings suggest cancer risk may be linked to how the immune system reacts, not just genetic mutations or environmental factors.
This research opens pathways for earlier detection and targeted therapies focused on immune responses rather than the cancer alone.
Digital health innovations recognised in the Ripple Women’s Digital Health Challenge
UK women researchers were awarded for developing AI-driven digital tools tackling gaps in women’s healthcare.
Projects used machine learning and data analytics to improve diagnosis, monitoring, and patient support in areas often under-researched.
| Get Involved |
| Got an idea for newsletter segments? Let us know by replying to this email! If you’re a STEM employer >> talk to me about your plans to improve inclusivity for women in STEM, let’s see how we can get you there together. If you’re a woman in STEM >> reach out and have your story featured! Young women need to see the generation of women before them working in industry to be inspired, that could be you! |
Thanks for being part of feminSTEM.
Erin 💜
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