Minorities in STEM is a UK community that aims to promote, showcase & support people from ethnic minorities studying and working in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM). This group will aim to make STEM more reflective of the multicultural society in which we live.

Our goal is to set up a network to increase the visibility of minority folk within STEM - from students to academics and professionals. We are hosting an open informal forum to kick things off and we hope this will develop into a series of networking events both formal and informal in the future.

For our first meeting, we would like to invite you to join us to show your support and start some discussions around the main issues faced by minorities working in STEM. We want to understand how we can tackle underrepresentation and to hear from you - tell us your thoughts!

We have a few short talks followed by open, round-table breakout discussions on specific topics with all attendees.

Speakers include:

Imran Khan - Head of Public Engagement at Wellcome. Originally a biology graduate, he studied science communication and then spent five years working in science policy – including as Director of the Campaign for Science and Engineering. Before Wellcome, he was CEO of the British Science Association.

Hana Ayoob - The Programme Manager for the Cheltenham Science Festival, Hana is responsible for developing and delivering areas of the Science Festival programme.

Ozy Ismail - Oz is a current PhD student studying neuroscience. He has worked and studied across 4 academic institutions and accumulated nearly 10 years of research experience.

Tiv Balendra - Systems Integrator and Software Engineer at BAE Systems. Tiv is also a leading part of BAE Naval Ships D&I BAME Steering Committee.

Yolanda Ohene - PhD student in Biomedical Imaging at UCL. Yolanda is a BBC BAME Expect Voice and an avid science communicator at festivals, schools and events.

Timetable for the day:

14:00 -14:30: Registration and refreshments

14:30 - 15:00: Introductory talks followed by a series of short talks on academia, media, industry, education and public engagement.

15:00 - 16:00: Roundtable discussions and breakout talks.

16:00 - 16:30: Closing talks and discussions.