SPRING festivals

HOLDING OUT

edinburgh science festival FOR A HERO

As the clever people over at Edinburgh Science Festival prepare to inspire, amaze and blow our collective minds once more, they’re also shining a special light on the achievements of women in STEM science, technology, engineering and mathematics. To celebrate, Deborah Chu asks four women involved in this year’s event about how they discovered their passions and who has been a source of inspiration to them 20 THE LIST 1 Apr–31 May 2019

AMANDA TYNDALL Festival and creative director of Edinburgh Science Festival

At school I was one of those people who kind of liked everything, but there was this tendency which still exists to push people towards one vocation. I considered medicine, but I didn’t want my life planned out that much, so I did a degree in pharmacology and neuroscience. After working in science publishing, I did a masters in science communication, which introduced me to the magic of making science relevant to different audiences. After the course, I worked freelance as an event organiser for places like the Science Museum in London. Then I became head of programming at the Royal Institute in London, on the back of which my boss, Baroness Susan Greenfi eld, asked me to go to Australia to trial projects for the Premier of South Australia. I went over for six months and ended up staying for six years, as I set up the rst international branch of the Royal Institute. Then I came here!

In terms of inspiration, Ada Lovelace was the one who recognised that Babbage’s analytical engine had applications beyond pure calculation