r/LadiesofScience

Hi y'all I've been looking forward to put posters of inspirational women in my room, and i think i have space for atleast ten.

Suggest some names down there, so far I've decided to go with

1. Heddy llamar

2. Malala yousufzai

3. Maria skłodowska curie

4. Shakuntala devi

5. Lilavati

6. Dr. Tessy thomas

7. Rosalind franklin

8. Mae jemison

9. Kristina koch

10. Kalpana chawla

11. Mary anning

12. Ada lovelace

13. Mileva maric

And so on.

I am a science student and a space enthusiast so I'm looking for women in space science or women who did humanitarian work like malala so I'd prefer suggestions in that category

There are just soooo many i can't decide who to go with😭

Following the discussions under my previous MSCA video, I made another short video on a question that appeared repeatedly:

Why do technically strong MSCA proposals still get rejected?

The video discusses several recurring weaknesses observed in evaluation reports and reviewer comments, including:

• vague objectives,
• weak impact sections,
• poor implementation planning,
• generic host justification,
• and proposal readability.

One recurring point is that MSCA evaluation is often not only about the science itself, but also about the applicant’s potential for research independence, long-term impact, and fit within the European research ecosystem.

Interested to hear perspectives from others who applied for MSCA or similar European fellowships.

What do you think are the most underestimated reasons proposals fail?

Hi guys, I saw a post that really resonated with me (Ways to force myself to attend units? Women in STEM specific : r/Monash) and unfortunately my essay was over the limit hahah. Can @ reddit pls fix this

Screenshot 1: Reddit not allowing me to post a response ffs [1]

​I'm a STEM girlie (in cs, math, physics and stats, so very, very male dominated courses like you)!

>I say at the start of every semester, THIS is the semester I will rock up to every class... then at the 2nd or 3rd class I decide attendance is not for me.

This sentiment is something everybody has regardless of gender. However, I will say that most of the research on educational psychology has been conducted on and by white men, so there probably is some bias in education in the sense that the world is made for white men (I realised this quite young, and got very, very, very depressed). However, I think we need to acknowledge the work and effort that brilliant people in all various fields have completed, so we now consider a less biased sample space when conducting research. Anyway sorry for the nerdy yap haha.

>It's mostly a combination of the fact that the TAs often appear untrained or not friendly

Okay, I've been at a few universities in Australia, and have had all kinds of TAs. You said they often *appear* untrained or not friendly. This indicates to me that you yourself aren't putting proactive work to critically engage with the content. And, that's OK! Learning how to learn is the ultimate outcome of university.

>sometimes I can't understand the lecturer's accent

This has happened to me before, and it is a lot of work to self-learn through whichever medium you like the best. However, some things are out of our control, so you either cop it and complete the unit and get a HD, or you don't try and get a mark lower than you were expecting.

>I work quite slowly (distracted by class noises etc) and often need to finish outside of class, or the in person resources are easily accessed online and I don't really see the point in showing up.

As a neurodivergent person, this sounds like it could be ADHD. Everyone has a little bit of neurodivergence in them, but if the symptoms are excessive then it could be ADHD. Or perhaps some other confounding variable impacting your ability to concentrate.

Never in my life have I met a combination of straight up rude and/or creepy people in FIT units. I always attend the first few classes and they usually make us participate in some sort of group activity. On multiple occasions I have had people hitting on me, staring or frequently glancing over at me, talking over me in group discussions and being intentionally rude for no reason. I just met these people! I attend uni to learn! On one particular occasion, I was participating in a group activity when the guy scribing intentionally ignored my points, and when another guy repeated the *exact same thing* he'd write it down. It seems like something easily brushed off, but this is not a rare occurrence.

Ok, this paragraph is a big one to respond to. So, I'm going to split it up line by line for clarity:

>Never in my life have I met a combination of straight up rude and/or creepy people in FIT units.

Unfortunately, welcome to STEM, and FIT. As a high-performing woman in any industry, there are bound to be incidents like this to happen. And STEM is especially bad for women representation (and all the other unfortunate consequences due to historical patriarchal society) in developed Western countries. However, Australia is trying to make a change. And Victoria has consistently been one of the most progressive state and territories to live in (only really behind Canberra). Out of them, Monash has had one of the most progressive open-minded stances I've seen in any University I've had the unfortunate pleasure of having to liaise with.

Fun fact iirc: Monash has the largest female IT portion in the southern hemisphere at 29% as of Sem 2, 2025 Bcs Orientation (I can't remember if it also had the largest number of women, cuz percentage neq to number kids!)

TLDR: Monash FIT not perfect but very gord compared to all other countries rn

I always attend the first few classes and they usually make us participate in some sort of group activity. On multiple occasions I have had people hitting on me, staring or frequently glancing over at me, talking over me in group discussions and being intentionally rude for no reason. I just met these people! I attend uni to learn!

Yeah, you summarised my own personal experiences and observations very well. Yeah, the type of people (mostly men in the context of STEM) who do this are usually lacking social awareness due to a variety of reasons. However, I have had to learn the hard way that I am not responsible for their behaviour and actions because we are *adults* and here to learn. I found myself in a loop of self-blame, because my childhood friends stated that if they did not know me, they would think I am "down bad" for them, when I am just being polite and nice. And multiple men have misunderstood my politeness or niceness as romantic interest. The ones who tend to make those types of conclusions also tend to be the men who rage, target and harass me when I do not return their affections. I have spent a huge portion of my life catering to these men out of fear and playing n-dimensional-D chess. What I mean by this is: pretending to like them romantically when I actually dislike them, then acting in a way that they would not find appropriate for a romantic partner. This means that they "leave" happy, wishing me all the best, and I can rest assured that my predictions will probably not happen. Unfortunately, this subconscious coping method of dealing with this type of sexism has had a huge and very horrible impact on my life. And I hope that my post here can provide some sort of "wake up call" to any woman who relates to this all too well.

WE NO LONGER NEED TO COP THIS BEHAVIOUR!!!

ESPECIALLY IN AUSTRALIA, AT MONASH!

MONASH HAS A STRICT NO TOLERANCE POLICY!!

On one particular occasion, I was participating in a group activity when the guy scribing intentionally ignored my points, and when another guy repeated the *exact same thing* he'd write it down. It seems like something easily brushed off, but this is not a rare occurrence.

Yeah, unfortunately this Neanderthalic behaviour is a type of sexism (covert maybe I can't remember the right word off the top of my head). I have experienced this myself many, many times, so I've just decided to play into this haha. I dress however I like (which is in feminine clothing), and I let judgemental people place me into a box. I act like an airhead and pretend I don't know what you mean, and then when it comes time, I pull the rug under you hahaha. It's quite satisfying being the underdog!

In addition, the people who are in my opinion, worthwhile to interact with are those who are able to make unbiased judgements based on what they have observed rather than circumstantial evidence. It kind of becomes a "are you worthy of my attention" test?

Now, my official response to this would be:

1. Talk to the person directly. I know this can be hard, but sometimes people fail to realise their own mistakes. Sometimes, our overthinking is wrong, and the only way we can find out is by talking to people.

Post-edit & Aside: Oh, I just realised I have a tendency to email lecturers instead of emailing my TAs first, whoops. Also, I'm pretty sure I'm using "Aside" in a different context, but hey, English is a living language, and the meaning of a word is just what society considers it to mean.

Screenshot 2: A friend expressing his opinions after I first posted this [2]

2. If 1. fails, and you do not see any active efforts to change, then email the CE and express your concerns. You do not need to name names, but just say, hey this happened to me in this class. Any competent and caring CE would respect your request for anonymity and perhaps make an announcement or post if they think this is an important issue to be addressed.

3. This is pretty nasty protocol and procedure. I'm not going to go into the details, but you only go beyond the first supervisor (e.g. your TA or CE) if you are unhappy with how things were dealt.

In a male dominated unit, I expected some general misogyny, but it seems like it just gets worse the further into my degree I get. (3rd year)

I think this is cuz of IT faculty. I tend to find the more educated a person is, the more likely they are to be able to remove their own personal biases and empathise with people better. Which is why the people that have changed the world or made a meaningful contribution tend to be the people who didn't "fit in". My point is: for cs third year most of the people in there are there to just finish their degree (cuz of sunken cost fallacy) and thus are not the type to actually have critical thinking skills to even comprehend their own faults (Dunning-Kruger effect haha).

Are there any suggestions from people who have also experienced this? How do you put up with it?

Anyway, rant done, I would just like to say I have personally suffered events such like this at the hands of a TA. And this TA may be teaching my core second year unit. I am under the impression he also socially isolated me from an entire community (related to my degree) out of anger I did not reciprocate his feelings (I applied the same strategy but met my bf so I was able to tell the truth and say I have a bf haha). Context aside, I did not. I spiraled into drinking as a way to cope with the insomnia, with the inevitable doom that something may happen because of his actions, and I cannot control it.

If you're reading this (cuz ik you know this is my account, and ik you monitor Monash reddit), fuck you. We are the same age, yet you act like a fucking toddler. You are one of the most narcissistic, self-deprecating, pick-me guys I have ever met. And, I have met a lot online, and now I understand how they are able to "appear" normal; it's because men like you mask their true intentions and only reveal it when they feel like they can take advantage of you without any consequences. But I'm sorry buddy, you picked the wrong target, because I will fight back if you take advantage of my tolerance.

Anyway, personal anecdote aside, I am still suffering from the consequences of his actions. You reap you sow.

If I have to just pull through it - any suggestions on elective units that don't require in class participation/quizzes/marked labs to pass? Don't really care what field, as long as I don't need to rock up (or pre-reqs)

I don't have any particular courses in mind with these requirements, but I do have a list of people who I think actually care about women (this is in no particular order btw and defs not a comprehensive list):

Post-edit aside: I just realised I could've created a table to categorise this better, but I can't be fucked haha.

For Mathematics:

- Tim Garoni

- Todd Oliynyk

- Julie Clutterbuck

- Victor Villalba Rojas

For Physics (ngl I think the physics department is one of the best departments for this stuff, but I haven't interacted properly with a lot of them and honestly don't remember their names):

- Scott Findley

- Lincon Turner

- Sam from PHS2061 labs

For IT:

- Pierre Le Bodic

For Arts:

- Andrew Junor

Course specific:

FIT1045

- Andrew Cain

FIT1058

- Rebecca Robinson

- Alejandro Stuckey De La Banda (guys I had to open up my Monash email to make sure I didn't butcher his last name lmfao)

- Graham Farr

- Thomas Hendrey

And ngl, there's probs a lot of staff I can't even name off the top of my head. There's also a lot of students (but I would need their permission before I doxx them publicly like this)

Anyway, my point is you are the heroine of your own story. As with media, we can watch the heroine go down her journey but usually (apart from games etc.) we can tell that her actions, words, and perspective do change how she interacts with the world. So, your actions can and do change the world you interact with. Mask, but do not do it at the expense of your own health!

Post-edit:
##
whoops I got distracted here and forgot what my post edit was gonna be
##

Screenshot 3: Me implementing my own advice (so I don't come off as a hypocrite hahah) [3]

​Anyway, signed:

The spiraling female science/cs student hahaha

Anyway, if you would like to come hang out or meet me, a few of my friends, we are organising a student-run poker event in Week 12 Friday at 6pm (29/05). I hope we can make a good event with the little time and resources we have left. Of course, it is not a guarantee this event will happen, and there is no pressure whatsoever to reveal who you are.

https://discord.gg/KqKkgJ82

Screenshot 4: My own reflection on my own behaviour and how my actions and behaviour affect people [4]

References:

[1] Ways to force myself to attend units? Women in STEM specific : r/Monash

[2] AA #real-general-proper-:sweat_smile: at 4:51am on 16/05

[3] AA #real-general-proper-:sweat_smile: at 5:20am on 16/05

[4] AA #real-general-proper-:sweat_smile: at 5:29am on 16/05

I recently uploaded a detailed breakdown of how I won a Marie Curie MSCA grant with a SHERPA proposal scoring 94.20%.

In the video, I go through:
• The real Evaluation Summary Report
• What reviewers liked and criticized
• Excellence, Impact, and Implementation sections
• Common MSCA proposal mistakes
• Gantt charts, dissemination strategy, and knowledge transfer
• Practical proposal-writing tips from a real funded application

I also discuss how competitive MSCA calls are becoming and what applicants can do to improve their chances.

The project itself focuses on self-healing perovskite photovoltaics and micro-concentrator architectures beyond the Shockley–Queisser limit.

I hope this can help future applicants preparing MSCA or Horizon Europe proposals.

Would love to hear feedback from others who applied for MSCA or European grants.

Hello! I’m (28F) starting a degree in chemistry in the fall. For reference, I already have my bachelor’s (communications and marketing) and master’s (public administration and environmental policy/planning). I’ve worked as a city planner, in corporate for a medical device company, and now I’m a full-time wedding and portrait photographer.

I know that my background has nothing to really do with science or chemistry. However, I wanted to challenge myself with something new (call it “free will maxing”). There are no stakes. I really just want to challenge myself by learning something completely different and finding ways of enjoying it since I don’t really “HAVE TO” do this.

Would love any advice on how to prepare properly for this kind of degree, as well as what a career would look like. I’d love any information!

For further information, my school and career history has been very social media heavy and I feel like I’d like a time in my life where I won’t have to log on to make a living. I could live a private and simple life. ADDITIONALLY, I can confidently say I’ve lived out all of my wildest dreams by the age of 28. I truly sped-run my career and ambitions.

Thanks in advance!

UPDATE: I think talking a bit about my personality and communication style might help provide insight. I’ve worked my whole life in subjective environments. I’m a very direct person, which can be a double-edged sword in the creative field. I’m really good at what I do, but maybe bringing those two worlds together could create something really interesting in my life.

Women phd holders around the world, what made you pursue phd ?

I have a bachelor's degree and I work in an automotive manufacturing company. I am thinking of pursuing higher studies from sometimes and I'm thinking of considering masters then a job. But I'm also getting some advise about phd.

Would it be worth to do masters+phd ? I mean I would love to have a Dr infront of my name and to be among 2% of women who have phd.

I am actually good in studies, I liked studies, but I don't know if I have what it takes to have a phd ?

Any advise ?

I am looking for a technical co-founder / CTO for Aura. Co-founding with Priyanka, a pre-clinical research scientist.

Problem we are solving: Connecting personal context and daily life with the biomarkers that flash as numbers on a wearable dashboard. Your wearable knows your HRV dropped but doesn't know you fought with your boss!

Aura is the voice companion that hears what your wearable can't measure and your chatbot can't remember, built for women.

Traction: 100+ signups on waitlist in 48 hours. 155+ consumer interviews with 78% women resonating with problem statement. Beta testing activated.

2 advisors onboarded. A post-doc expert in female health and endocrinology from SF and another Tech advisor who is a principal investigator and the owner of multiple AI research labs across India and US.

Four unsolved problems compose into one product:

- voice as the input modality at consumer cost

- longitudinal per-user memory across months

- clinical-grade signal extraction from unstructured speech

- habit formation deep enough that a woman talks to an app daily about her whole life, not sporadic venting to ChatGPT once a month

No one has shipped this because no one has shipped across all four.

Stage: Pre-seed. Beta testing. Raise in motion.

I’m going into Immunology following my bachelors in biochemistry, and I love the idea of having dyed hair but I’m curious if I could have a more colorful hairstyle if I become a full time professional later on. (Specifically a red and pink neopolitan style if that matters)

I also do experiment with doing tattoo designs on my arms but don’t have any permanent ones for fear of losing opportunities in my future field.

I’d love to hear any advice on either issue!

I’m a clinical laboratory baby so sorry if this is a stupid question but I have no idea what to wear.

I know the basics of lab safety, I used to wear very casual (tshirt/sweats) clothing at my previous laboratory but this one is asking for more office wear.

I was wondering if anyone could provide some advice or examples on how not to burn up in a long sleeve in Florida summers but still be lab compliant?

Hi friends.

Chemist that does a lot of chemical physics type stuff. Working for a govt lab, but the US administration and its policies throughout the last year and a half have REALLY worn me down. The stress of losing telework, threat of firing all probationary employees (which included me), budget cuts, crumbling infrastructure, under staffing, and being told to do MORE with LESS accumulates over time until it feels like death by a million paper cuts.

The job has lost all flexibility and I am an only child (not by choice) that has to occasionally take care of two sick parents in different states. My own boss and his boss are very supportive of me taking leave when I need to care for my parents. They understand that no one chooses these shitty circumstances. Pretty much everyone else is unsupportive. The only thing that convinces these other colleagues that I care about my job is working 12 hour days when I am not caring for my parents.

I recently received funding to study a topic a co-PI and I are passionate about, but my co-PI left my job and the person taking on her tasking was voluntold to do so. He's frustrated by the circumstances (understandably so, it's not his passion project the way it was for her) but it feels as though he might be taking his frustration out on me. The colleague also seems frustrated by other coworkers that don't take their jobs as seriously as he takes his own job. It seems like he's actively looking for opportunities to narc when I know they do good work.

I get drained hearing these comments and fear that people are making similar judgments about me. I'm just trying my fucking best but it doesn't seem to matter. I don't want to work 12 hour days. I keep getting told by various people (including my own boss) that I work too much. What other choice do I have when this colleague that is supposed to work with me says he can't complete all of the tasks that were assigned to him, besides learn how to do them myself? I am the one who has to bear the consequences if our funding doesn't deliver as promised.

I love my partner and we're considering marriage soon. He's tied to this area because of his own career opportunities and educational path. The drama of the last year and a half alongside my co-PI leaving has sucked all joy out of the job. But what if I'm the problem? What if I lack resilience and grit and am just a baby??

I wasn't necessarily the best math student but I can work on that. There's a lot of overlap between chemical physics and electrical engineering, which has dramatically better job prospects in my area. So I'm considering that educational path, and yet work is so overwhelming right now that I don't have a ton of time to study besides weekends.

I wish I could quit and pursue an EE masters full time but both my mom and partner keep telling me to not give up on the funding I worked so hard to acquire. But at this point I can't care about the funding. Maintaining the health of my relationships feels way more important. My mom's cancer is stage IV and my dad had heart problems this last year. My partner misses having more time with me because we see each other for an hour and a half on weeknights. This job doesn't seem conducive to caring for the things that matter to me.

I need someone smarter than me tell me what to do.

hi ladies! im going into my 4th year of health sciences. i feel a bit... ashamed asking this question cuz im starting so late. i havent had the best grasp of uni.

long story short: undiagnosed adhd and ocd = bad grades for me which means i gotta do second degree if i wanna get into med school unless theres a god given miracle (i finished this year with a 3.3 gpa which is.. my highest one). and with this poor grasp of uni, i havent gotten to ask any of my profs to do research along side them.

i am a very anxious person and i dont have a close relationship with any profs so i feel weird asking them if i could do research with them, especially cuz i dont have th best grades.

how would i even go about getting into it at this late stage? can i do any sort of project alone? we have summer research internships, i just wasnt able to apply for one this year.

i feel behind and a bit like a failure. the only thing i can credit my name to is being president of a club. i want to rant but ill save that for a therapy session lol.

Thanks in advance!