British vaccinologist Professor Dame Sarah Gilbert was awarded a prestigious award. She has been recognized for the development of Oxford University’s COVID-19 vaccine and her decade of experience in developing advanced vaccines at Oxford with university spinout Vaccitech. The hard work of Sarah and her team for the last 18 months became fruitful as the team has created the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine.
Sarah stated that the creation of a vaccine has shed light on the fact that everything can be accomplished when academic institutions and the private sector work jointly, and this is something we must build on.
Sarah has also talked about gender equality in her profession. She is of the view that there is good gender equality in her profession, but she thinks that there is a need to do more to aid women in getting the top jobs in their careers, such as by enhancing childcare arrangements. Sarah also believes that there is a need for discussion about the work arrangement as the pandemic has shifted the jobs to online mode.
In addition to this, she also gave advice to teenage girls. She advised: “It is good to choose what area to work in, but don’t be too particular or narrow down career options too early.” Furthermore, Sharmadean Reid, founder of The Stack World gave similar advice. She said that “My advice to girls would be to discover and experiment with as many career options as possible.”