Vinita Marwaha Madill discusses her career in the space industry, including presently working at the European Space Agency (ESA) on human spaceflight operations and spacesuit design. Vinita founded Rocket Women, a platform to inspire girls to study STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics) and provide advice to women in STEM, and will talk about the importance of inspiring the next generation to study STEM.

Only one in five UK A-level physics students are female, a figure that has not improved in 20 years. With only 6% of engineers in the UK being female, the physical sciences are lacking a diverse technical talent pool. Girls decide at the age of 11 to move away from science, when they’re in an education system where the choice of subjects at school severely limits their options for working in other fields later. Vinita will explore the education and career choices made by girls, through a combination of peer pressure influence, access to role models and gender stereotypes.

Through Rocket Women, she believes that an effective way to inspire is by showing girls examples of successful female role models in the industry. Vinita will provide advice for women in STEM that she’s learnt from her own experiences, living and working in 5 countries, and through completing Rocket Women interviews with accomplished women in the space industry globally.

Image courtesy of NASA/Bill Ingalls