Dr Ellen Thomas, Arzoo Ahmed and Cassandra Smith: A celebration of the International Day of Women and Girls in Science

“Although there is this sense where you don't really find as many women in science, and when we get missed out of science, I think we have been really lucky and fortunate to work with incredible women in large numbers. We're quite lucky to find the experiences that we have.” […] “Life is so precious, we really shouldn't be spending any time doing things we don't enjoy.”

In this week's episode of The G Word, Dr Ellen Thomas, Clinical Director and Director of Quality at Genomics England, is joined by Arzoo Ahmed, Ethics Lead of the Newborn Genomes Programme, and Cassandra Smith, Senior Bioinformatician, both at Genomics England. Ellen worked on the delivery of the 100,000 Genomes Project and Cassie did her PhD using bioinformatics to study parts of mitochondria before joining the operations team at Genomics England. Arzoo completed her MPhil in Mediaeval Arabic Thought before moving onto the Nuffield Council on Bioethics and then joining the Ethics Team here at Genomics England.

In this discussion, these three brilliant women talk through their roles and what inspired them to pursue a career at Genomics England. In celebration of the International Day of Women and Girls in Science, they also discuss the challenges they have faced along the way and how being a woman has impacted their career.