Women Should be Seen and Heard - Seminar 5

With more than half the world's human population now living in cities, we can rightly call ourselves urbanites. Our cities have never been bigger, busier or more important to society. But that doesn't always mean that they 'work' as they should.

Our guest speaker for this seminar Laurie Winkless, explores the mechanics behind the metropolis in her book, Science and the City, by taking readers on a whistle-stop tour of urban landscapes across the globe. In this talk, she'll discuss the key things we need to consider to build better and more sustainable cities for all. From low-carbon power to smart flood defences, Laurie argues that science and engineering offer many of the solutions to the problems facing our cities... but only if we're willing to invest in them and to change some of our behaviour.

Alongside this, she'll talk about the challenges of communicating complex topics to the general public, and her own experience as a woman in STEM.

Laurie Winkless is a physicist and writer, currently based in Wellington NZ. Following a degree at Trinity College Dublin, a placement at NASA's Kennedy Space Centre, and a masters in Space Science at UCL, Laurie worked at the UK's National Physical Laboratory, specialising in materials. Thermoelectric energy harvesting – where heat is captured and converted into electricity – was her bag, and remains a favourite topic of conversation.

Laurie has been communicating science to the public for more than a decade, working with schools and universities, the Royal Society, Forbes, and the Naked Scientists, amongst others. She's given TEDx talks, hung out with astronauts and Nobel Laureates, and appeared in The Times magazine as a leading light in STEM. Science and the City is her first book, and she is currently working on her second, called Sticky.