© MPI-CBG
On 28 March 2019, the Institute was open to girls, who are interested in a career as a scientist. We encourage the discussion with interested girls, because even today female scientists have often a more challenging time in the science world than their male colleagues. Eighteen girls had the chance to hear about career paths in science from our female staff and could ask them questions like: What is it like to be a scientist? Can you do research and have a family? Why did you decide to become a scientist? After the discussion, the girls went on a tour of the building to see zebrafish, worms, and fruit flies.
The neighboring Center for Systems Biology (CSBD) also offered a program for girls: A group of 24 school girls visited the CSBD as part of the Girls’ Day program organized by the Faculty of Computer Science at TU Dresden. They were introduced to systems biology and the interdisciplinary research conducted in the group for “Scientific Computing for Image-Based Systems Biology”, led by Ivo Sbalzarini. In the 3D virtual reality CAVE, they literally walked through a mouse liver and witnessed the development of a fruit fly embryo and zebrafish eye. Afterwards, the group got creative: the girls were turning genome sequences into music.
Girls’ Day, an initiative of the Federal Ministries for Education and Research (BMBF), and for Family Affairs, the Elderly, Women and Youth (BMFSFJ), is a German-wide campaign, where a wide range of professions and activities is presented to school girls. Particularly, the girls are encouraged to pursue technical professions and fields, where women are still under-represented, such as in the “MINT” fields (Mathematics, Engineering, Natural Sciences and Technology).