The University of Liverpool’s Computational Biology Facility (CBF) has announced the winner of its International Women’s Day (IWD) Scholarship aimed at women wanting to retrain in data science.
Statistics show that less than 25% of data science professionals are women. However, it is a field with high demand. The IWD Scholarship aims to bridge the gap for women in the field of data science and allows access to all of the CBF’s professional courses for a period of five years.
Winner Dr Shakila Bibi did her PhD at the University of Warwick and has worked in biotechnology, designing biosensors for measuring neurotransmitters. Now after a career break, she is looking to reskill and train to be a data scientist specialising in computational biology.
Shakila said: “I took a career break to raise a family but felt the need to reskill and train in order to rejoin the workforce. I have completed a digital skills program in data science via Coventry University, learning Data analysis using SQL and Python. The IWD scholarship granted to me at this opportune time will give me the opportunity to learn R and specialist quantitative methods that will enable and ease my journey into computational biology.”
Dr Eva Caamano Gutierrez, CBF Manager said: We’d like to extend our congratulations to Dr Shakila Bibi for being awarded this scholarship. There were many excellent candidates, and it was a tough decision to make.
“Dr Bibi has gained access to all CBF professional courses for a period of 5 years and will have access to a peer-peer support community to continue nurturing her skillset and expertise. We hope we can support to support her in making her chosen career path a reality.”