Inspiring women in science and technology – your pictures

Elephants, grandmothers, and menopause: My name is Virpi Lummaa, and this is me introducing my son to one of my Burmese study elephants. I am a biologist from the University of Sheffield, and my research focuses on understanding the similarities and differences in how we human women and elephant grandmothers grow old. I work with family genealogies of women from my home country Finland as well as century-long records of elephants working in the timber industry in Myanmar. I cannot imagine anything more fascinating than spending my days (and nights!) investigating how and why we grow old, why we as one of the only species have mid-life menopause, and why some individuals age faster than others. As a single mum, my kids travel with me even to study elephant poop in Myanmar and what is best, they think that kind of job is a perfectly normal thing to do. Not surprisingly then, my role model and childhood hero is Jane Goodall.
Photograph: lummaa/GuardianWitness

Mimic Diagram Verification - Industrial Training: This is a photo of myself taken during my Industrial Training at a High Voltage Protection and Control design and Panel Manufacturing Company. At present I work at Ceylon Electricity Board as an Electrical Engineer. I love to get my hands dirty and be thorough with my work.
Photograph: Zahra Marzook/GuardianWitness

Making comets - at one of my department's public open days: I'm a planetary scientist working at the University of Oxford. I study the atmospheres of planets inside and outside the solar system, which helps us to understand how our own planet and its atmosphere might have formed. There are many inspirational women in my department, at various stages in their careers, and I'm very lucky to have so many role models. Someone who has really inspired my own recent development as a researcher is Dr Suzanne Aigrain; as well as being a great scientist and communicator, she's a really supportive supervisor, and I feel I've been very fortunate to spend my first postdoctoral position working with her. @DrJoVian.
Photograph: DrJoVian/GuardianWitness

Vivetha Natterjee has a passion for vehicle technologies: Vivetha is 26 year old and she works as development engineer within advanced technology and research at Volvo Group. She enjoys to turn ideas into (vehicle) technologies and apply automation to safest and more energy efficient transportation. Vivetha is the youngest role models featured in the inGenious Science platform and share how she made it and why what she does is unisex.
Photograph: Michela_eun/GuardianWitness

Sharing some microbe love: This is me showing off some bacteria at a recent science festival in Scotland called Bang Goes the Borders. For some reason, everyone thought bacteria isolated from in between toes was a bit icky! Nothing is better than sharing my love of microbes with my students during classes and also the students of the future (pictured here)! Taking part in science festivals such as BGTB is just one of the ways I try to show that science is for everyone, is relevant to every day life, and importantly, that it can be a lot of fun!
Photograph: CT_Microbiol/GuardianWitness

Bechtel's Ailie MacAdam: building mega projects vital for our country: My colleague, Ailie MacAdam, is an award winning project director with vast experience on mega projects. She has worked in engineering for over 25 years and has been one of the leading female engineering voices from the UK’s largest infrastructure projects for many years. She is currently Bechtel project director for the central London section of Crossrail, Europe’s largest engineering project. There she oversees the construction of 21 kilometres of twin tunnels under the capital and all of the railway’s new central London stations. Ailie’s unrelenting passion for her job and excellent project management skills are inspirational to every woman (and man) that she works with. She is a mentor to many in the industry and finds time between work and motherhood to also be an ambassador for the Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics Network (STEMNET).
Photograph: julietwhitcombe/GuardianWitness

Collecting palm specimens in Madagascar: I'm a botanist at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, and I look after Kew's unrivalled herbarium collection of palm material, and undertake systematic research on palms and orchids, which involves a lot of travel around the world for fieldwork and conferences. In this photo, I am collecting leaf samples for RBG Kew from threatened palm species in the Itremo Massif, central Highlands of Madagascar for a population genetic study assessing how genetically diverse and isolated populations are and what can be done to protect them best.
Photograph: IbuAnggrek/GuardianWitness

Inspiring the next generation of new physics experiments: A physicist at the University of Sheffield, Professor Gillian Gehring studies magnetism, growing magnetic thin films and exploring magnetic and optical properties. Gillian’s work to create new films that are both magnetic and semiconducting has the potential to generate a new kind of computer where information storage and data processing are combined in one material. Professor Gehring's cites her role model in STEM to be Dame Kathleen Lonsdale, a very eminent crystallographer working in the 1930s and 40s. She argued strongly that women who had raised a family had done a great service to their country and deserved as much special help to get them back into education and employment as men returning from the war.
Photograph: ID4998807/GuardianWitness

Earth science in some amazing places: I’m Dr Kathryn Amos, a Lecturer in Sedimentology at the University of Adelaide, Australia. I’ve had a lot of fun as a scientist, from sampling flood waters in tropical rivers to describing the sediments in deserts, simulating sea-floor processes in large tanks of water and interpreting ancient environments from sedimentary rocks that are hundreds of millions of years old. Being a scientist has provided me with constant stimulation, plenty of adventure, opportunities to travel, to use cutting-edge equipment and technology, and to work with and teach some inspirational people. I was (and continue to be) taught, mentored and influenced by some amazing, smart, successful women. Whilst STEM fields continue to be male-dominated, the women are there.
Photograph: blastberuffled/GuardianWitness

Raising the profile of women in digital at 300 Seconds: Two friends and I, who all work in different digital fields, grew sick of complaining about the lack of women speakers at tech conferences, and decided we ought to do something about it. So we put on an evening of quick-fire (5 min) talks where we could hear from women in digital - and in doing so, help them to build their profile, confidence and skills. It was truly inspiring to see so many talented women who've previously shied away from the spotlight 'leaning in' sharing their experiences on a public platform. In that way, I hope that some of them will have taken one more step towards being leaders in our industry. This photo shows one of our speakers, Kirsty, public speaking for the first time. She was brilliant.
Photograph: sharonodea/GuardianWitness

Notes on a peat bog: I work for the Moors for the Future Partnership, which is a conservation organisation working on the upland peat bogs of the Peak District and South Pennines. Being so close to Manchester and Sheffield, the legacy of 200 years of industrial pollution has taken its toll on these hills. My role is to monitor and assess the impacts of the conservation works on the blanket bog – an internationally important habitat. I love learning about natural patterns and processes through collecting and analysing data, and just finding out what's going on, beyond that which we can see. When I graduated from university, I wanted a job that would give me variety, and keep me learning every day – I definitely have that working on peat bogs!
Photograph: RachaelMaskill/GuardianWitness

New Beginning: I never found a female scientists name in the Wikipedia people list for Bangladesh, it surprised me so much. Social custom, educational environment, career opportunity everything is about, raising a girl to become a good mom. Somehow I learnt to follow my dreams. I believe woman has all the potential to be out here, all they need is to believe in them.
Photograph: arefintumpa/GuardianWitness

Helping to change perspectives towards women in STEM: As a woman working in a science field and in communications, I do community outreach, talks and projects in schools and libraries. I am always happy when I see a good balance of girls and boys, men and women at any science event. But the day my son came home with this sheet from school, I was a truly proud mamma. It reminded me how important it is to show boys, as well as girls, what different role models in science can look like.
Photograph: kimberlykowal/GuardianWitness

Curating Biology: I am a curatorial trainee at the Manchester Museum. This means I look after and research specimens in the Entomology, Zoology and Botany collections. I also assist any visiting researchers and students who want to examine the museum's collections. But a curator's role isn't just about being behind the scenes. I'm also involved in public and education programmes about why natural sciences collections are important and how they relate to the living natural world.
Photograph: Nyctibiidae/GuardianWitness