Grantham-born Professor Valerie Gibson says there is 'so much opportunity' for women in science
To mark International Women's Day yesterday (Wednesday) we are launching a series of features celebrating the achievements of prominent women from the Grantham area.
We are proud to launch 'Inspirational Women' with a focus on the life and career of scientist Professor Valerie Gibson.
From being a Grantham schoolgirl to becoming a professor at one of the country’s most prestigious universities, Prof Gibson is not only an advocate for women in science, but is one within her industry to aspire to be.
She was brought up in Huntingtower Road, and said growing up in Grantham was “a lot of fun” as it was “a vibrant town with a lot of industry”.
She was a pupil at the Kesteven and Grantham Girls' School, in Sandon Road, until 1980, and it was there that her career path took a turn towards science, more specifically physics.
She said: “I think when I was choosing my A-levels, I had a very good physics teacher and I really enjoyed physics, maths and the sciences.
“Also at the time, the headmistress used to run astronomy classes at lunch time and I really enjoyed those.”
After KGGS, Valerie went on to study physics at the University of Sheffield.
“I focused on my course at university and all of my immediate friends were physicists," said Prof Gibson.
“In my first year I enjoyed astronomy on Fridays."
She graduated from Sheffield in 1983 and took up a summer job with CERN, the European Organisation for Nuclear Research, in Geneva.
Through her work with CERN, she was involved in many research projects, one of the most prestigious being on the Large Hadron Collider.
This is the world’s largest and highest-energy particle collider, and work is still being carried out on this project.
The collider was first discussed in the 1980s when the WZ2 bosons were discovered in 1983.
The collider was then discussed to try to search for “other mysteries of the universe”, said Prof Gibson.
On getting to work on such a ground-breaking project in science, Prof Gibson said: “It’s been a very long project and the large hadron collider will continue until 2035, so there’s many years to go yet.
“It started taking off in earnest in 2010 and we’ve only got a fraction of the data so far.”
Prof Gibson believes science offers “so much opportunity” to women, and is an advocate for the industry.
She is a patron for Grantham's Gravity Fields festival, an event focused on arts and science.
This year, South Kesteven District Council announced in its new draft budget a proposal to scrap £80,000 of funding for festivals across the district - including Gravity Fields.
Prof Valerie said it would be “very unfortunate” for the town to lose the festival.
She said: “The long term vision was to provide a focus to help regenerate the town and influence the younger generation to study and consider a career in science.
“The science programme of the festival was reaching out to young people to actually consider doing something in science and technology that is beyond current possibilities within Grantham.
“Grantham is so fortunate to have [Isaac] Newton as a figurehead.
“The town is missing out on a unique opportunity to use Newton’s life and the whole story of the development of science as a means to attract new talent and industry to the town.
“We could really make something special out of the area with the festival. Newton and Grantham for science is akin to Shakespeare and Stratford-upon-Avon for the arts.”
It is widely acknowledged that STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) careers are male dominated.
According to STEM Women, in 2019 only 24 per cent of the UK STEM workforce was made up of women.
Although this has increased since 2016 by 216,522 to take the total number over one million, there remains a long way to go until there is an equal number of women to men in the sciences.
Prof Gibson claims that when school pupils are considering their options for A-levels, “girls of that age are achieving the same as boys”.
However “only 20 per cent of girls go on to do physics at A-level, so that reduces the number to 20 per cent immediately”, said Prof Gibson.
She added: “I’ve faced lots of difficulties in my career, especially being a woman and having children, so you take a lot of time out of your career and of course that sets you back on the career ladder and also there has been biases against women.”
Despite these challenges, Prof Gibson is “proud” to say she has been the University of Cambridge’s equality champion for several years.
With this, she has been involved in arranging application processes at university level to “make sure we can attract and retain women into undergraduate, postgraduate, post-doctorate and permanent positions in science”.
She said: “Now we’re in the situation where we’ve pretty much reached equality, but of course there is the historical bias we have to contend with.
“I think you have to make small changes and they can have big effects.”
Prof Gibson believes there is “so much opportunity for everybody in science and it’s not only the traditional areas of science”.
“There is so much impact you can have on the economy and socially by undertaking a career in science," she said.
“There’s opportunities out there in the science and technology area out there that are so rewarding."
From a woman with a successful scientific career behind her to any women who are thinking of pursuing a career in the sciences, Prof Gibson concluded: “If you really enjoy science, do it.
“Believe in yourself, focus on the quality of your work and always have a positive attitude that will empower you and enjoy a career in science.”
