On Monday 10th December 2012, Fern Watson and Mercedes Gimeno-Segovia, both Research Postgraduates in the Physics Department at Imperial College London, presented to students at Henrietta Barnett School.
Fern and Mercedes spoke to around 20 sixth form students from the school’s science society at their weekly meeting. After telling the students about their own inspirations and interests, Mercedes and Fern told the students what led them both to study physics. The talk then focused on successful female physicists.
Mercedes and Fern told the students about various successful female physicists and spoke about why their work was important. Mercedes and Fern also looked at the physicists lives and attitudes, impacts on people around them and challenges they had faced during their careers.
The talk prompted the students to ask a variety of questions about physics, role models and the different careers that a physics degree can lead to. Following the talk one student said: “I was very inspired by the visit to our school and really enjoyed the talk.“