Dr Eleonora D'Elia is a Strategic Teaching Fellow for Outreach in the Department. This year she led the creation of lab in a box projects for remote students, volunteered to create face shields for hospitals and recently won the Materials Community Champion Award for her commitment to fearlessly tackling difficult issues to make our community a better place. 

What was your proudest achievement this year? 

I have had many proud and low moments this year, like everyone during the pandemic I guess. I was really happy to have been able to help NHS frontline staff during the hardest times when everything was shut and there wasn’t enough PPE for them to be safe. With a grassroots organisation called “Helpful Engineering”, I commandeered the dormant laser cutter and 3D printers in the department that weren’t being used by staff or students and printed/laser cut over 2000 visors. It was great to feel helpful in such a tough situation for many, but particularly for those who were fighting this pandemic daily and putting their lives at risk. I also found a great community of people who are now still helping in every way they can!

What was your biggest challenge this year? 

Juggling childcare and work! With a 2yo son at home and being alone in the house with him, my daily routine became a battle between changing nappies, cooking, a climbing/screaming toddler on my back on zoom/teams calls and trying to figure out how to make the experience of university still worthwhile for our students remotely. I know this was the life of many members of staff during the pandemic (and still is!).
Not fun. I would give it a 1 out of 5 stars on Trip Advisor.

What does Women at Imperial week mean to you? 

It means a celebration of the incredible women members of staff, researchers, and students that make this university so strong. It means we need to take steps to make sciences more inclusive for women and shout from the rooftops how absolutely amazing research and academia can be. It means we take this week, and we apply it to every single day of the year to bring equality and inclusion to the standard it should be.