Luba Orlovsky

Meet Luba Orlovsky, Analytical Research Lead, exploring how AI and Machine Learning can help businesses and customers alike!

Luba Orlovsky is the Analytical Research Lead at Earnix, a global provider of intelligent, composable, SaaS solutions for insurers and banks. At age 19, she moved to Israel to pursue her academic aspirations. She holds a Bachelor of Science degree in industrial engineering and a Master of Science in operations research from the Israel Institute of Technology. During her career she’s held different analytics related roles in several companies, from algorithm developer and market analyst to head of analytics in the customer experience department and analytical research lead today in Earnix. 
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Archaeologist Patricia Pillay

Meet Patricia Pillay, Archaeologist and PhD Candidate in Anthropology!

Patricia Pillay is a Doctoral Candidate  in Anthropology at the University of Auckland, who is a trained zooarchaeologist. Patricia comes from both a biological sciences and arts background in anthropology and archaeology, which have been foundational to her research. Her research focus is on human-animal long-term interactions to inform on current heritage management and conservation as well as extinction processes.
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Jennifer Michaelson - Chief Development Officer, Cullinan Oncology

Meet Dr. Jennifer Michaelson – Researcher, Scientist, Executive, and Dedicated Mentor for Women in Science!

Jen Michaelson has more than 2 decades of experience in oncology, immunology and immune-oncology, and is currently serving as the Chief Development Officer at Cullinan Oncology. Jen has played an integral role in building Cullinan’s diverse pipeline over the years and continues to identify the most promising science in cancer research. Her unique background spans academia and research to pipeline and drug development for biopharma and early biotech companies. Jen is passionate about the work she does for Cullinan Oncology and about giving back in the biotech community. Jen leads by example in both her work and personal life, showing that one can be a successful scientist, raise a family, and give back to the community in more ways than one.
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Luba Orlovsky

Meet Luba Orlovsky, Analytical Research Lead, exploring how AI and Machine Learning can help businesses and customers alike!

Luba Orlovsky is the Analytical Research Lead at Earnix, a global provider of intelligent, composable, SaaS solutions for insurers and banks. At age 19, she moved to Israel to pursue her academic aspirations. She holds a Bachelor of Science degree in industrial engineering and a Master of Science in operations research from the Israel Institute of Technology. During her career she’s held different analytics related roles in several companies, from algorithm developer and market analyst to head of analytics in the customer experience department and analytical research lead today in Earnix. 
portrait
Archaeologist Patricia Pillay

Meet Patricia Pillay, Archaeologist and PhD Candidate in Anthropology!

Patricia Pillay is a Doctoral Candidate  in Anthropology at the University of Auckland, who is a trained zooarchaeologist. Patricia comes from both a biological sciences and arts background in anthropology and archaeology, which have been foundational to her research. Her research focus is on human-animal long-term interactions to inform on current heritage management and conservation as well as extinction processes.
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Jennifer Michaelson - Chief Development Officer, Cullinan Oncology

Meet Dr. Jennifer Michaelson – Researcher, Scientist, Executive, and Dedicated Mentor for Women in Science!

Jen Michaelson has more than 2 decades of experience in oncology, immunology and immune-oncology, and is currently serving as the Chief Development Officer at Cullinan Oncology. Jen has played an integral role in building Cullinan’s diverse pipeline over the years and continues to identify the most promising science in cancer research. Her unique background spans academia and research to pipeline and drug development for biopharma and early biotech companies. Jen is passionate about the work she does for Cullinan Oncology and about giving back in the biotech community. Jen leads by example in both her work and personal life, showing that one can be a successful scientist, raise a family, and give back to the community in more ways than one.
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Masuma Afrin Taniya is a senior year undergraduate research student studying Microbiology at Independent University, Bangladesh. During her time in the program, she has participated in several public speaking and essay writing competitions notably Famelab international, Hult-prize competition, Nature’s essay writing competition, and Sanger prize competition. From these competitions, She has acquired public speaking skills, good writing skills, confidence to distill complex ideas and communicate effectively to a non-specialist audience. In this article, she shares many vital tips for young readers who aspire to become a researcher.
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Just a few days ago was the International Day of Women and Girls in Science. There are countless programs intended to get young girls interested in science, or to support women to succeed in academia. Still, a very overproportionate number of women drop out of academia. The phenomenon is called the “leaky pipeline” : Up to the PhD, depending on the area of study, the number of men and women is almost equal. But after that? Why do more women than men leave academia after the PhD, and then even more after the first postdoc, and so forth? I think a lot has been said and written about some of the reasons. For example, a hostile, sexist work environment, about which thanks to #metoo more people dare to speak up about, can play an important role in scaring off non-male scientists. The difficulty of combining being a mother and the competitive world of grant- and paper-writing is another. It caused many grant programs to consider child-raising in their academic clocks, which might help to alleviate the inequality somewhat. But one issue I am seeing a lot in my peers is a different one and also concerns female scientists without children. It is an issue that made many women that I know drop out of academia after their PhD. And that “issue” is: Having an older partner. In the majority of cis-heterosexual relationships, the male part is older than the female part. Which means there is a high likelihood that the man gets a permanent or at least a somewhat secure job before the women does, and thus his job decides where the couple lives. This is true if both are scientists, and even more so if the man is not. But an academic career requires you to move. Doing a postdoc at the same institution where one did a PhD is not good for one’s career. Trying to start a junior group at one’s “home” institution, where the PhD supervisor is around, is difficult to sell in a funding application, and even ruled out by some funders. Academia asks for flexibility, for moving around and proving that one can perform in different environments. But how does this account for the realities of life? It is obvious that uprooting a family with kids is difficult. But I think what is often disregarded is that even without kids, in this flexibility criterion, women scientists have a clear disadvantage: Because of their, on average, older partners, who they met at some point in their life in some place they were studying or doing a PhD. If that partner has a secure job in this location – which is, again, likely, due to the on average further progressed career of the older partner – it is easier for the female scientist to leave academia and look for a job in the region than to convince her partner to start a new life in a new place, for just a few years of postdoc. Or for a non-tenured junior group leader position. From my personal anecdotical observations, this happens a lot. A lot of talented young female scientists convince themselves that the life and partnership that they have where they are is more important to them than staying in academia. And who can blame them? Yes, there are lots of men choosing to stay where their loved ones are over an academic career, too. But I feel like more of the men at least have the choice. The women feel like they don’t, because it would be insane to make their partner give up a secure job so that she can pursue an insecure career in academia. This is why I think we need a change in culture and grant conditions. The junior group leader program of the German Research Foundation, DFG, allows for applying to found a group at one’s “home” institution only for very well justified scientific reasons, e.g. the use of rare research facilities. All I am asking for is that the criteria can be broadened to include the location of partner or family as a valid reason. Of course it is important to have, at some point during the career, moved around, experienced different institutional cultures and changed perspectives. But isn’t this enough at some point? I have done a semester abroad during my Bachelor’s, a research semester abroad during my Master’s, moved across the country for my PhD, and now I am doing a postdoc abroad. After all this, is it really necessary to deny me the option to go back to where I did my PhD and where, incidentally, my partner has a permanent position in academia, i.e. something that’s almost impossible to find? One other – again, anecdotal – observation of mine is that women are more often ushered into science management than men. The institution where I did my PhD has a serious problem with underrepresentation of women from the postdoc level on, and has no female department head at all. But do they do anything to make female PhD graduates stay in academia? I have the impression that the opposite is happening, that the junior scientist support person in that institution’s HR actually recommends female PhD graduates to look into science management jobs instead of postdocs. Science management, i.e. administrative, positions seem to be the ideal jobs to “park” women – in the background, not in the spotlight where the men collect prizes for scientific discoveries. More female PhD graduates that I personally know are now going down the science management path than are staying on to try and climb the academic career ladder. And their male partners? Are staying in academia. Statistics show that, while the number of students at universities and PhD graduates increased over the last few decades, the number of academic researcher and professor positions has been almost stable. But the number of administrative positions has increased enormously, e.g. at UC Berkeley by more than 100% within 15 years. Are we creating these positions to get rid of talented female scientists that could otherwise compete for one of the rare scientific positions? I wonder if I should be cynically glad: This means less competition for me, because for various reasons many other women are discouraged from going where they may have dreamt going… before they found out how many obstacles academia is putting in their way.

An overlooked reason for women leaving academia!

The flexibility to move around which an academic career demands is especially disadvantaging female scientists, even without kids. Why? The average age difference in cis-heterosexual relationships and the according difference in career stage creates pressure to stay in a place where the male part in the relationship already has a job, instead of him giving it up so that they can move wherever the next short-term academic contract takes her.
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