This year marks ten years of International Day of Women and Girls in Science. This year, we’re highlighting some of our exceptional Undergraduate and PhD students.

1. Balvinder Dhillon

Balvinder is a fourth year Biomedical Engineering MEng student from Malaysia. During her time here she has been president of Hyperlink, hosted panel discussions with academics, and become a Research Assistant in the Centre for Advanced Robotics.

In November, Balvinder won the ‘junior nobel prize’ for her undergraduate research into ‘Development of a Bioresorbable Drug-Eluting Stent with Organ-On-A-Chip Validation’.

This year she has started an internship with Early – a company building tools that detect the earliest sign of life-threatening illnesses.

We can’t wait to see what the future holds for Balvinder.

2. Emma Nicolai

Last year, Emma, a third year Aerospace Engineering student, founded Queen Mary Students for the Exploration and Development of Space (QMSEDS), going on to win Student of the Year as an individual, and leading the society to win two awards at the UKSEDS Satellite Design Competition at Airbus.

In 2024 she also co-founded the Queen Mary Centre for Undergraduate Research and began an internship at Catapult Satellite Applications alongside her studies.

In 2025 QMSEDS will compete in the Olympus Rover Trail, National Rocketry Championship and attend several space conferences.

3. Anastacia Ogilvie

Anastacia has quickly risen through the ranks of Queen Mary Formula Student (QMFS), from Head of Aerodynamicist to Head of IC Concept, and now Team Principal.

In 2024, during her time leading the IC Concept team, QMFS attended the Silverstone competition to compete against other universities, where they placed highest of all London universities within the concept rankings – securing 6th place overall.

Anastacia, currently in her third year studying Mechanical Engineering MEng, is also a Student Ambassador with Ansys – hosting events and planning audience engagement activity.

Later this year she will begin a placement in Project Management at Mercedes AMG High Performance Powertrains.

4. Shreeya Patel

Shreeya is the founder of SmartX, her company for which she won the GrowIt Award.

She founded the STEM tutoring company during her undergraduate studies in Biomedical Engineering, which she is due to graduate from this year.

On top of this, she was the General Secretary of Queen Mary’s Hindu Society and Head Code Coach with Jam Coaching – teaching coding to children in Essex.

5. Fasika Bekele

Third year Chemical Engineering student, Fasika recently won the SEED award in recognition of the contributions she has made with her unique learning technique. The technique, which she developed with her father while she was still at school, came to the attention of SEMS academics whilst Fasika was a mentor in the Peer Assisted Study Support Sessions.

As well as mentoring, Fasika has also been a dedicated Student Ambassador, supporting the Proud to Be An Engineer project among other events during her time at Queen Mary.

6. Sunainah Amber

Sunainah is in the final year of her BEng in Aerospace Engineering.

During her time at Queen Mary, she has been actively involved in the Queen Mary Centre for Undergraduate Research and won the SEED award for developing the learning experiences of fellow students through events and strategy work. Her work on a consultancy project in the School of Engineering and Materials Science led to a paid internship with the external consultants.

She is also an Engineering Ambassador for APSTEM and tutors A Level students in addition to her studies.

Sunainah is hoping for a career in accounting once she graduates, and we know she’ll excel at it.

7. Deborah Olowu

During her fourth year as a Chemical Engineering student, Deborah was a finalist in the IChemE Young Engineers Awards for Innovation and Sustainability.

Deborah was previously a Course Representative and in 2024 she completed her placement year and an internship at the Institution of Chemical Engineers where she continues to volunteer alongside completing her MEng.

8. Olivia Allen

Following gaining her research masters in Molecular Biology from Portsmouth University, and a few years in industry including at the prestigious Francis Crick Institute, Olivia Allen joined Prof Martin Knight's group in the Centre for Predictive in vitro Models as a BBSRC London Interdisciplinary Doctoral training program (LIDo) PhD candidate.

She is working with Prof Martin Knight and Dr Stegaan Verbruggen to develop organ-on-a-chip models examining the role of air pollution-induced inflammation on bone health. She has already had a paper published in the Current Osteoporosis Reports journal and presented at the BioMedEng conference after just one year of her PhD.

9. Hattie Chisnall

Hattie is a PhD student in Prof Ana Sobrido’s Sustainable Energy Materials group.

After receiving her Masters Degree in Environmental and Sustainable Chemistry from the University of Edinburgh in 2019 she worked in private research before joining Queen Mary in 2022. Her research explores the development of catalysts for electrochemical reduction of CO2 – tackling rising levels in the atmosphere. Her work won Best Research Poster at the Industrial Liaison Forum.

Hattie has previously been a STEM Ambassador with the Ogden Trust, acting as a role model for children and visiting schools to spread the word about STEM subjects.

10. Yutong Sun

Yutong is a PhD student in Prof James Busfield’s Soft Matter Group.

She has returned to Queen Mary, where she received her Bachelor’s degree in Polymer Science and Engineering, following a year at Imperial College achieving her Masters in Materials Science and Engineering.

She is currently developing a “hero belt” – a belt with smart, stretchable sensors which monitor activity. In 2024 her research for this project won Best Research Poster at the Industrial Liaison Forum, and she travelled to Czech Republic to present at the European Symposium on Rubber Research.

She is a China Scholarship Council scholar and is supported by funding from The European Space Agency.

Last year we highlighted ten women engineers you should know.