Happy International Women’s Day 2025. From the UN Women website:
“Equal rights. Equal opportunities. Equal power. On International Women’s Day (8 March), that is the bold call for action for all women and girls worldwide. As we mark the 30th year of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, the world is deeply unequal. International Women’s Day is a chance to rise and demand action and to deliver on the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action to make the world equal and better for everyone.” https://www.unwomen.org/en/get-involved/international-womens-day
The ASP celebrate all #WomenInSTEM and want to highlight our first #womeninparasitology #BMMwinner Professor Leann Tilley. Professor Leann Tilley has made an outstanding contribution to the science of parasitology and the first woman to win the ASP Bancroft-Mackerras Medal for Excellence (BMM) in 2010.
Professor Leann Tilley is an internationally recognised expert in Plasmodium cell biology and drug development and was also made a Fellow of the ASP in 2018. Her research explores fundamentally new methodologies and has led to substantial research innovation. This led to her appointment as Deputy Director in 2006 and Director (2013-2014) of the ARC Centre of Excellence for Coherent X-ray Science. The Centre brought physicists and biologists together to develop new approaches to probing biological structures and processes. She also served as Associate Director (Structural Biology) of the Bio21 Molecular Science Institute.
In 2016, Leann was awarded the Georgina Sweet Australian Laureate Fellowship, the highest award of the Australian Research Council, following her Australian Professorial Fellowship (2011-15). She has also been awarded the Beckman Coulter Discovery Award of the Australian Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology in 2011, the Eureka Prize for Infectious Diseases Research in 2016 and the Bob Robertson Award from the Australian Society for Biophysics. She was President of the Australian Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology from 2017 – 2018.
Leann has generated >$40M in research funding over the course of her career and in addition to strong support from the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) and the Australian Research Council (ARC), has played a leading role in initiatives that have brought substantial benefit to many including numerous major equipment bids, Co-Operative Research Centres, an ARC Centre of Excellence and, of particular significance to the ASP, the ARC/NHMRC Research Network for Parasitology bid; Leanne was, subsequently, an important member of the Network’s Management Committee.
Leann has published 189 manuscripts in highly ranked international journals including Nature, Nature Communications, Nature Reviews Micro, PNAS, and Blood. The quality of the images from her lab has been recognized by 16 journal front covers. Her research has been cited >9300 times and she has a h-index of 58.
Leann is an outstanding mentor. She has supervised more than 40 higher degree research students to completion and four of her students were awarded the Rob Lewis Medal and recognised as giving the best presentations at international conferences. She has also mentored 26 post-doctoral fellows and is particularly keen to promote the involvement and success of women and early career researchers in parasitology research and eagerly contributes to relevant mentorship schemes. Professor Tilley has been an outstanding role model for women in parasitology. During her Georgina Sweet Laureate Fellowship and her role as an ambassador for women in science she established and sought funding for travel and research awards for women including three awards of $25,000 each year to Australian female researchers, and four Travel Support awards ($3,000) for Female Keynote Speakers at Australian conferences.
Leann continues to act as a champion for women in science whilst making significant contributions to the field of malaria research and paving the way for future generations of female scientists.
Progress on women’s rights (source: UN Women)
In knowing and pushing forward for progress, there is hope.
- For 89 per cent of governments, ending violence against women is a top priority today, and 193 countries have legal measures against it.
- Data shows that countries with domestic violence laws have seen less cases of violence against women.
- Most of the world has reached parity in education. By bridging the gender gap in accessing and shaping science and technology, we clear the remaining bottlenecks to equal opportunities and create technology that serves more people and the planet.
- More States have strengthened care services and 32 per cent of countries globally now promote better pay and safe working conditions for care workers.
- There are 112 countries with a national plan to engage women in peace and security processes – a significant increase from 19 countries in 2010.
Make 2025 count for feminism: What you can do right now
#ForAllWomenAndGirls
#IWD2025
