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It's in everyone's best interest to help close the gender gap in the sciences.

In the past, there was active discrimination against women in science. That has now gone, and although there are residual effects, these are not enough to account for the small numbers of women, particularly in mathematics and physics.

We will have to be very vigilant that young female scientists have the same opportunities as their male colleagues.

I feel it is now my duty to speak to young women, to encourage them to have careers and, particularly, careers in science.

Science shouldn't be just for scientists, and there are encouraging signs that it is becoming more pervasive in culture and the media.

There aren't that many female role models in science. There are a couple of women, but mostly you've got Neil deGrasse Tyson, Richard Dawkins, Lawrence Krauss - they're all guys. Bill Nye the Science Guy. I love that guy, but it's all guys.

One of the reasons I like working with schools is to try to convince women that they can be scientists and that science can be fun.

I think that for a lot of women there's a subtle but unfortunately effective discouragement of women pursuing the STEM fields.

Technology is one of the key drivers of female economic empowerment, but the fields that women choose to participate in are still decidedly gendered.

When I was a physics major in the late 1970s, my very few fellow female students and I had high hopes that women would soon stand equal with men in science. But progress has proved slower than many of us imagined.