Women at Imperial Week celebrates the achievements of Imperial’s employees, college students and alumni whereas shining a lightweight on the initiatives and help networks that empower ladies throughout the college. It additionally highlights the influence of main institutional programmes reminiscent of Imperial’s Science for Humanity technique.
At the center of the Science for Humanity technique is the School of Convergence Science, bringing collectively experience from throughout disciplines to deal with the defining challenges of the twenty first century.
Working at a world scale and in partnership with organisations throughout industries, Convergence Science at Imperial goals to remodel analysis, innovation and coverage to ship significant influence for society.
As Marisa Miraldo, Co-Director of the Health and Technology theme, explains:
“Convergence science, for us, is mission-driven. It is science for humanity. And humanity is not abstract – it is lived, embodied, and too often unequal. Convergence gives us the opportunity to bring science, technology and public policy together not simply to innovate, but to confront structural blind spots and redesign systems for impact.”
Across its 4 themes – Health and Technology; Human and Artificial Intelligence; Space, Security and Telecoms; and Sustainability – the School is co-led by six inspiring ladies Co-Directors. Their management helps to form the longer term of convergence science at Imperial and past. This article introduces these outstanding researchers, highlighting their work, their achievements, and the influence they’re making.
Health and Technology
Professor Marisa Miraldo
As Co-Director of Health and Technology Theme at Imperial’s School of Convergence Science and Professor at the Department of Economics and Public Policy at Imperial Business School, Marisa Miraldo sits at the crossroads of behavioural science, healthcare innovation, and public coverage.
An award-winning educator, she was honoured with the Julia Higgins Award in 2022 for her excellent contribution to Equality, Diversity and Inclusion. Marisa co-leads Imperial’s Women’s Health Network of Excellence and Women’s Health Initiative, championing analysis and management that handle longstanding gaps in ladies’s well being.
“Women have all the time spoken about their well being, their work and their lives. The failure has by no means been their voice; it has been our techniques’ willingness to listen to it. When ladies’s signs are dismissed, when pregnant ladies expertise racism in care, when communities face well being innovation deserts for the situations that have an effect on them, these aren’t remoted inequities – they’re design flaws.”
Beyond Imperial, Marisa serves as Associate Editor for the European Journal of Health Economics and sits on the editorial board of BMJ Public Health, serving to to form international conversations at the frontier of well being analysis.
Committed to amplifying underrepresented voices, Marisa additionally advises the “A Million Conversations Initiative,” empowering individuals from marginalised communities to have interaction straight with the healthcare trade and fostering the subsequent technology of various healthcare leaders.
“Our ambition is to convey that readability to the centre of analysis management, so that girls’s lived expertise turns into proof, proof reshapes energy, and influence is measured not by outputs, however by whose lives are improved. Because if convergence is really science for humanity, it should be accountable to all of humanity.”
Professor Faith Osier
Professor Faith Osier is on a mission to make malaria historical past and construct vaccine manufacturing capability in Africa. She is Chair of Immunology and Vaccinology within the Faculty of Natural Sciences and Co-Director of the School of Convergence Science in Health and Technology.
“Convergence science enables us to go beyond our individual strengths and solutions to create sustainable impact at scale across multiple sectors. We celebrate Women at Imperial Week.”
Faith leads globally recognised vaccine analysis and directs the Chanjo Hub, one of the important thing initiatives supported by the UK Vaccine Network (UKVN), funded by the Department of Health and Social Care via UK Aid. Working with companions in Kenya, Ghana and South Africa, the hub helps set up small-scale vaccine manufacturing for illnesses that disproportionately have an effect on Africa.
A Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences, the African Academy of Sciences and the World Academy of Sciences, Faith can be a TED Fellow and recipient of the British Society for Immunology’s Lifetime Honorary Membership Award. She is captivated with supporting rising African scientists to ship the well being improvements the continent urgently wants.
Human and Artificial Intelligence
Professor Alessandra Russo
Professor Alessandra Russo is a Professor in Applied Computational Logic and Convening Co-Director of Human and Artificial Intelligence at the School of Convergence Science.
“Being able to contribute to this community, and to help open doors for others, is a source of deep pride for me.”
A pioneer in AI, Professor Russo has developed superior symbolic machine studying techniques with real-world purposes. Her current work focuses on neuro-symbolic AI, combining machine studying with symbolic studying and reasoning, aiming to reinforce robustness, interpretability and security of AI.
“I am proud to work in the Department of Computing and within the School of Convergence Science in Human and Artificial Intelligence because it is a truly interdisciplinary environment, where ambitious ideas in AI can be rigorously explored across computing, engineering, medicine and the social sciences. I have the privilege of working with exceptional colleagues and students who care not only about advancing the state of the art, but also about making AI more robust, interpretable and safe for society.”
Amongst different management tasks, she co-directs the UKRI Centre for Doctoral Training in Safe and Trusted AI, leads Imperial’s SPIKE research group and has coated the position of chair for the Imperial-X (I-X) multi-disciplinary AI analysis initiative.
Her recommendation for the subsequent technology of ladies desirous to pursue STEM careers: “STEM is not, and has never been, only for men. Women bring a strong analytical mind, an exceptional work ethic and a powerful desire to prove themselves – forces that can drive remarkable success in science and engineering. History is rich with examples of women who have transformed STEM and changed the course of their disciplines. The next major scientific discovery could just as well come from a woman ready to combine curiosity, resilience and ambition with the opportunities now available in STEM.”
Space, Security and Telecoms
Professor Julie McCann
Professor Julie McCann is one of the Co-Directors of the Space, Security and Telecoms theme at the School of Convergence Science. She is a Professor of Computer Systems and can be Imperial Principal Investigator for the CHEDDAR Hub, a nationwide consortium of universities advancing future communications and connectivity applied sciences past 6G.
Julie heads the Adaptive Emergent Systems Engineering (AESE) group, which investigates sensors and communications techniques’ behaviour within the bodily world and makes use of that perception to develop safer, extra resilient distributed applied sciences. Julie’s focus in these areas is crucial to making sure we ship resilient, sustainable and scalable options to Space, Security and Telecoms challenges.
“It’s so important to celebrate initiatives like Women at Imperial week. At the School of Convergence Science, we innovate and disrupt to produce creative solutions to problems affecting all of society. Our success lies in bringing together the expertise and know-how of the diverse researchers we have across the university.”
Sustainability
Dr Mirabelle Muuls
Dr Mirabelle Muuls is an Associate Professor of Economics and Convening Co-Director of Sustainability at the School of Convergence Science. She can be the Co-Director of the Hitachi-Imperial Centre for Decarbonisation and Natural Climate Solutions. This week she’s celebrating inspiring position fashions – “like Maggie Dallman whose work in research, outreach and leadership continues to shape the Imperial community.”
She’s proud that ladies in science convey views “that connect people and drive science toward real-world impact.”
Her present analysis focuses on the economics of local weather change, in search of particularly to grasp the influence of local weather change insurance policies and local weather change on companies’ emissions, vitality effectivity, innovation, competitiveness and efficiency.
Mirabelle advises ladies making an attempt to pursue STEMB careers to:
“Go for it: your ideas and perspective are exactly what we need to tackle the world’s biggest challenges.”
Ms Alyssa Gilbert
Alyssa Gilbert is the Director of Innovation at the Grantham Institute – Climate Change and the Environment, and the Director of Undaunted. She is a Co-Director at the School of Convergence Science, main on the Sustainability mission of ‘Nurturing’, which envisions an Earth that helps affluent, wholesome individuals and flourishing nature.
To have a good time Women at Imperial week, she’s desirous about some of essentially the most pioneering ladies in science from a long time previous, and celebrating how far now we have come, with ladies energetic in such a variety of scientific disciplines and kinds of roles.
One space of excellence is Alyssa’s management in engagement actions to inspired employees throughout the College to have interaction wider audiences. She recognises the essential position of public help, insights and information in shaping analysis, coverage and enterprise for a greener, extra sustainable future.
Her recommendation for girls making an attempt to pursue careers in STEMB:
“Have the confidence to follow your curiosity. All careers, but especially careers in science, involve developing new skills, knowledge and networks. For each step you take, ask if you have the potential to do it well, not if you have already delivered those activities. And then go for it!”
Operations Team
Our Co-Directors are the faces of every theme, those in entrance of the digicam. Behind the scenes is a group that retains the cogs turning, and can be made up fully of ladies. The Operations group consists of operations, bid improvement, stakeholder, influence supply and communications specialists.
Daniela Manca
Daniela Manca, Director of Operations for the School of Convergence Science, turns bold concepts into coordinated motion. She leads operations throughout her group whereas working carefully with senior leaders to drive strategic convergence throughout Health and Technology, Human and Artificial Intelligence, Space, Security, Telecoms and Sustainability – guaranteeing daring considering interprets into real-world influence.
Daniela joined Imperial in October 2025 after greater than seventeen years at the University of Cambridge. Throughout her profession she has supplied strategic management to skilled providers employees, partnered with the Senior Leadership, and helped form and ship tutorial visions translating them into operational excellence. A collaborative and energising chief, Daniela empowers others to innovate, co-create and ship options which might be each imaginative and sensible.
“I’m extremely proud to work alongside so many robust, bold, and galvanizing ladies at the School of Convergence Science. At the core of our mission is a daring dedication to tackling international challenges via innovation, sparking discovery, and accelerating progress.
The ladies main our initiatives embody what purposeful, future targeted management seems to be like. They convey not solely deep experience and fervour for his or her disciplines, but additionally humanity, integrity, and a way of risk that elevates every part we do. Their management is greater than spectacular – it’s a highly effective mannequin for the subsequent technology of changemakers.
We aren’t right here merely to work inside present techniques. We are right here to remodel them – to disrupt, to problem, and to drive the cultural shifts wanted to construct a greater future. A future wherein ladies thrive, excel, and lead boldly. A future formed by power, creativity and the assumption that constructive change just isn’t solely potential however inevitable when ladies are empowered to steer.”
Meet the wider School of Convergence Science Operations Team
Find out more about the School of Convergence Science