Dr Helen Sheridan, associate professor in pharmacognosy at Trinity College Dublin
On Saturday, visitors to Trinity College Dublin’s (TCD) front square were treated to various displays of Soapbox Science from Ireland’s most prominent female scientists. They included Dr Helen Sheridan, who tackled ‘nature’s pharmacy’.
The free Soapbox Science event was well-attended and spanned a range of scientific fields, including ecology, genetics, chemistry, psychiatry, nanoscience, medicine, and veterinary medicine.
The 12 speakers had a maximum of 15 minutes on the day to catch the eye and open the minds of their audience with props such as mummified bats, Count Dracula, misbehaving brains and a model of a farmyard animal.
Associate professor in pharmacognosy at Trinity College Dublin, Dr Helen Sheridan, drew the attention of many of the kids present, with her eye-catching witch costume – she explained her ability to create formulas and medicines from plants and fungi would have meant she was identified as a witch back in the day! Her talk was entitled Nature’s Pharmacy: Therapeutic Gifts From Flowers, Fungi, Frogs and Ferns. Watch her Soapbox talk here:
Women Invent Tomorrow is Silicon Republic’s campaign to champion the role of women in science, technology, engineering and maths. It has been running since March 2013, and is kindly supported by Accenture Ireland, Intel, the Irish Research Council, ESB, Twitter, CoderDojo and Science Foundation Ireland. You can nominate inspiring women in the fields of STEM via email to womeninvent@siliconrepublic.com or on Twitter to @siliconrepublic.
