According to Unesco, less than 30% of researchers worldwide are women. At MQ, we are proud that 49% of our researchers are female. To celebrate International Day of Women in and Girls in Science, we spoke to some of our female MQ-funded researchers to find out why they got into mental health research.
Petra: My name is Petra Vertes and I lead the Systems and Computational Neuroscience group in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Cambridge. The main focus of my research is to improve our understanding of the biological basis of disorders such as depression and schizophrenia.
Ruchika: Hi, I’m Ruchika Gajwani, a clinical psychologist with a research interest in early intervention and youth mental health.
How did you get into mental health research and why it is important to you?
Petra: I originally did a degree in theoretical physics and my plan was to go on to a career in astrophysics because I wanted to understand the origins of the universe, the nature of time… that sort of thing. But during my studies, I also took a course in cell biology and I realised that biology and in particular the human brain is just as big a mystery as the universe is, but perhaps a more immediately useful mystery to try and get a handle on.
Ruchika: During my undergraduate degree at Delhi University in India, I was inspired by my professor of statistics who was a very dynamic woman, passionate about child development. Mental health research has not always been a priority. Building evidence and checking (both through process and outcomes) is important for good practice.
What you would say to other women or girls thinking about getting into science?
Petra: I was lucky that my parents (also scientists) have always encouraged my scientific curiosity. Others, both within my broader family and elsewhere, tried to steer me away from sciences from an early age because they felt it wasn’t a good career for a woman, or because they didn’t see in me the stereotypically male characteristics they thought were essential for this career. Cumulatively, these experiences - as well as the scarcity of female role models - shook my confidence now and then. Nearly twenty years later and as a young mother in science I am grateful for this opportunity to encourage other women to pursue their scientific interests and to tell them that, although not easy, it is definitely possible to balance scientific life and parenthood. Happily, there are increasing numbers of role models for this - for example one of the vaccinologists who developed the COVID-19 vaccine in Oxford is the mother of triplets!
Ruchika: If you are creative, love asking questions and are passionate about learning, then you will find a career in science to be rewarding.
At MQ, we're proud of the many fantastic female researchers that we support like Ruchika and Petra. If you want to find out more about the research we support, visit our research projects pages.
