A new campaign by the Institute of Sociology of the Czech Academy of Sciences celebrates women in science, but it also points out to the fact that Czech female scientists are not equally represented. The official hashtag of the campaign, launched on social media on Wednesday, is #WomenInScience.
The campaign called Female Scientists’ Successes in 2020 is coordinated by the Sociological Institute’s National Centre for Gender &Science. It will run from Wednesday until February 11, which marks the International Day of Girls and Women in Science.
Under the hashtag ZenyVeVede or WomenInScience, the institute will share successful stories of dozens of Czech as well as foreign female researchers on Facebook and other social media.
The first female scientist presented in the campaign is Lucie Augustovičová, who developed a ground-breaking method of freezing molecules very close to absolute zero. According to the scientific community, her discovery could push the boundaries of physics.
Another Czech female researcher promoted on the occasion of the upcoming International Day of Girls and Women in Science is Hana Sedláčková, a PhD student at the University of Copenhagen.
Together with her colleagues she discovered how certain types of proteins ensure that DNA replication proceeds at the right pace, explains the campaign’s coordinator Kristýna Veitová:
“The results of her research were published in the prestigious magazine Nature. She helped to unveil the function of the so-called MCM proteins in protecting cells again DNA instability. The discovery could help unveil the biological causes of certain types of cancer.”
The main goal of the campaign is not only to highlight the excellent results of Czech female scientists over the past year and motivate women to take part in scientific research.
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Authors: Ruth Fraňková, Štěpán Sedláček