From Women’s Eyes - with Gihan Kamel and Barbara Montanari

"In order to achieve full and equal access to and participation in science for women and girls, the United Nations General Assembly declared February 11 as the International day of Women and Girls in Science in 2015" (from the UN website). CECAM honors this important occasion with a special afternoon dedicated to women who contributed to our field and beyond.

It will start with a conversation between Gihan Kamel (SESAME facility, Jordan) and Barbara Montanari (Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, UK), who will share with us experiences and perspectives based on their remarkable professional journeys. Ample time will be provided for interactions with the audience – that we really hope will be diverse and engaged – to enable a broad discussion, hopefully bringing different points of views to the conversation.

This event is fully online and registration is not required.
Zoom link https://epfl.zoom.us/j/69375618928?pwd=hZFBExQf7MbiAPC3CErroVt5fTNuiw.1

Dr Gihan Kamel is the SESAME (Synchrotron Light for Experimental Science and Applications in the Middle East) Infrared Beamline Principal Scientist, on leave from the Physics Department, Faculty of Science, Helwan University, Cairo, Egypt. Dr Kamel obtained her PhD. in Physics in 2011 from the University of Rome, La Sapienza, Italy, and was beamline researcher at Daɸne-light at the Italian Institute for Nuclear Physics (LNF-INFN) before moving to SESAME in 2015. At SESAME, she focuses on using infrared light for various scientific studies, ranging from biology, medicine, archaeology, material science among many others. Her work has had a significant impact on expanding research opportunities and fostering scientific exchange across borders in a region with a complex political landscape. Through her efforts, Kamel has become an advocate for the role of science in building bridges and fostering peaceful collaboration. She is also extensively involved in the establishment of the first African Light Source. In 2015, she earned recognition for her presentation at a TEDxCERN | TED conference on the theme of "Breaking the Rules." Dr. Kamel was honored with a recognition of the President of the Italian Republic at the International Day of Women in 2017. In 2020, she was awarded the Eureka South Shore Prize ex-aequo Laureate of Eureka Prize of the French organization amcsti (The professional network of scientific, technical and industrial cultures) for her role at SESAME that brings together scientists from the eight founding states of this unique experiment in this region. In 2021, as part of the ‘Championing the Decade of Action’ - an initiative being implemented by ECA and other UN agencies – Dr Kamel was selected by the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) as one of twenty-five African Women scientists featured within the African and global research and development (R&D) communities in the publication titled “Earth, Oceans and Skies: Insights from selected, outstanding African women scientists”. In 2023, she was chosen by Nature to comment on the challenges facing women scientists in the Middle East. Gihan Kamel received the John Wheatley Award from the American Physical Society (APS) in 2024.

Dr Barbara Montanari is Associate Director for Programmes and Strategy at STFC Scientific Computing, part of the UK National Labs. After 2 decades of research in computational materials science, she moved to senior strategic and management roles. Over the last 10 years, she has led a Division of 80 computational scientists and software engineers, and driven the creation and evolution of three major national initiatives  - CoSeC, Ada Lovelace Centre and PSDI. These programmes deliver methods, software, and data workflows, platforms and services used by thousands of researchers across physics, chemistry, biology and engineering. Barbara also shapes digital research infrastructure in the UK and internationally through roles on steering and review boards (e.g., UKRI Digital Research Infrastructure, EuroHPC, ESFRI). She was recently elected President of the CECAM Council.