Leading Lights is an exhibition of portraits by renowned photographer Richard Cannon, profiling 19 exceptional young people involved in science and engineering. The exhibition aims to throw perceptions about scientists out of the window and show that the field isn’t all about men in white coats working in laboratories. Traditionally science and technology have been male-dominated areas but some inspirational young women whose portraits are on show are the proof that careers in science can be exciting and give you the chance to travel the globe as well as making a difference to the world around you.

The young women (and men) are STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths) ambassadors and they all volunteer to raise the profile of these areas, travelling around the UK visiting schools and colleges, telling young people why they should get involved.

www.stemnet.org.uk/leadinglights

Some of the Leading Ladies of Leading Lights:

Liza Brooks

Liza Brooks, 25, is a mechanical engineer and co-founder of True Snowboards in Wiltshire. Liza Brooks is in the third year of her engineering doctorate at Cranfield University – one of the world’s leading centres of expertise in composites technology. She is also Technical Director for True Snowboards and works to make sure its boards perform to the highest standard.

Liza uses her engineering skills to analyse the performance characteristics of different boards and develops new materials for them – she then has the fun of testing them out on the slopes at Morzine in the French Alps. “I love my job”, says Liza, “because of the variety. One day I can be in the laboratory testing materials for a new board and the next day I’ll be out testing it on the slopes to see if all my work has paid off.”

Liza is pictured testing one of her True Deviant snowboards in Sevenoaks in Kent.

Laurie Winkless

Laurie Winkless, 25, is works for the European Space Agency, looking into the use of Nanomaterials in the space industry.

Nanomaterials are used in everyday products including sporting goods like tennis rackets and golf clubs to make them lightweight and strong, and in cosmetics and sunscreens to allow them to be absorbed into the skin more easily. However, their use in the space industry is limited and Laurie’s work is breaking new ground in applying Nanomaterials technology to Europe’s space industry.

“The weight of spacecraft is a key factor in the overall cost of any space mission” she says. “If we can identify better, lighter and more efficient materials and the best ways of using them, it will have a huge impact on the space programme”.

Laurie is pictured outside the University of London observatory.

Jo Carris

Jo Carris, 23, works within the Sustainability Team for London 2012, specialising in Energy and Waste. She is helping ensure that the next Olympic and Paralympic Games are the greenest games in history, by meeting challenging targets to reduce the carbon emissions of the Olympic Park by 50% and to reuse and recycle 90% of construction waste.

She is involved in pushing the boundaries of current practice to make each 2012 construction project environmentally sound. Talking about her work, Jo says: “The Olympic Park in east London is one of the largest regeneration projects in Europe. Being able to implement green initiatives on a project of this scale is hugely satisfying.

Jo is pictured in front of a wind turbine at Coldham Wind Farm in Cambridgeshire.

Clare Wood

Clare Wood, 29 is pictured with Ben Evans, 27 and they are both working on one of the world’s most exciting engineering projects – BLOODHOUND SSC, a supersonic car which is being designed to break the world land speed record.

Clare first studied Civil Engineering with Architecture at Glasgow University, after which gained her PhD in computational engineering at Swansea University. Clare is using state-of-the art computational methods, first developed over 30 years ago at Swansea University for the aerospace industry (and now used to model BLOODHOUND SSC!) to understand complex blood-flow related problems in medicine. Her current research, which is being carried out in collaboration with cardiovascular surgeons, aims to understand more fully the impact of cardiovascular surgical intervention and the use of cardiovascular devices such as artificial heart valves.

Clare and Ben are pictured in an industrial wind tunnel at Southampton University.

Leading Lights Exhibition tour dates:

Museum of Science and Industry, Manchester
May 1st-29th, 10am-5pm
www.mosi.org.uk

Cheltenham Science Festival (Town Hall)
June 3rd-7th, 10am – 8pm
www.cheltenhamfestivals.com/science

Thinktank, Birmingham
June 9th – July 2nd, 10am – 5pm
www.thinktank.ac

Explore@Bristol
July – 27th August,10am-5pm weekdays and 10am-6pm weekends
www.at-bristol.org.uk