Athena SWAN Launch – International Women’s Day 2015 – Friday 6th March 2015
This year the University celebrated International Women’s Day with the launch of the UL bid for an Athena SWAN Award, which as recognises and celebrates good practice in recruiting, retaining and promoting women in STEMM (science, technology, engineering, mathematics and medicine) in higher education. The conference which was organised and sponsored by HR and members of the Athena SWAN Steering Committee was titled ‘Embracing the Past Informing the Future in STEMM” was opened by the President and was chaired by RTE’s Claire Byrne. The 190 participants, male and female from across the institution, also included external delegates from industry partners and other HE institutions. Speakers on the day included former British MP Edwina Currie; Professor Sibel Erduran, Chair of STEM Education at UL; Professor Linda Doyle, Trinity College Dublin and Dan Twomey, Dell EMEA among others. Representatives from Queen’s University also presented on the day setting out how they achieved being one of only 5 institutions in the UK and Scotland to hold a Silver Athena SWAN Award.