We are passionate about encouraging women to enter STEM careers, and we love an opportunity to highlight trailblazers in the sector.

International Women in Engineering Day (IWED) gives us a perfect opportunity to do this; to reflect on and celebrate the achievements of women engineers across the globe and to help highlight the career opportunities available to women in this industry.

IWED 2022 is looking at engineering heroes and the future, focusing on inventors and innovators who will change things for the better. One woman who encapsulates this perfectly, in our view, is Professor Sarah Gilbert.

Currently a Professor of Vaccinology at the University of Oxford, Professor Gilbert specialises in the development of vaccines against influenza and emerging viral pathogens.

Best known for her work developing the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine against COVID-19, she also led the development and testing of the universal flu vaccine, which underwent clinical trials in 2011.

As of January 2022, more than 2.5 billion doses of the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine had been given across 170 countries, and Professor Gilbert was made a Dame Commander of the British Empire by the Princess Royal in February for her services to science and public health in COVID vaccine development.

Professor Gilbert has also been involved in testing vaccines designed to induce T cell responses to the antigens we encode, initially using antigens from malaria, influenza, and tuberculosis.

It’s safe to say that her work in engineering new vaccines has saved many lives around the world and will continue to do so for years to come. This International Women in Engineering Day, we’d like to raise a glass to Professor Gilbert and to all women in engineering roles across the world who are helping to change things for the better.