Alumni Success/International Women's Day

This International Women's Day we wanted to shine a light on to one of our past students who is making an impact in the fight against cancer.

Anna achieved 9A* and 6 A grade GCSEs, and began a Bachelor's degree in Biological Natural Sciences at Pembroke College, Cambridge, after completing her A Levels. 

After graduating, Anna began a Masters in Molecular Biology at the The University of Göttingen, which is an internationally renowned research university. Her work at the Max Planck Institute for Multidisciplinary Sciences allowed her to work with individuals from a range of different backgrounds, and the scientists were encouraged to share their research, to create an open-minded exchange of ideas.

Anna's master's thesis was graded excellent, and she returned to Cambridge to complete a PhD degree at Darwin College which was funded by an MRC Research Studentship. Her thesis was titled, 'Investigating genetic dependencies in metastatic kidney cancer' and her PhD was approved without correction, which is very rare. Her thesis report comments included:  

• ‘The writing and presentation of this thesis is exceptional. It is perhaps the most clearly written thesis I have ever read and should be held up as an exemplar of good scientific writing’.
• 'An outstanding thesis detailing major advances to the field of kidney cancer biology with important consequences for our understanding of transcription factor biology in cancer more generally'.

As a result Anna was nominated for the School of Clinical Medicine Milo Keynes Prize for outstanding thesis and viva performance.

In 2023 Anna accepted a place at the University of Helsinki in Finland as a post-doctoral researcher to continue her work in the Faculty of Medicine as part of the Translational Cancer Medicine Program.

The theme of this year's International Women's Day is Inspire Inclusion. We hope that Anna's journey after leaving Charters will inspire other students to follow in her footsteps and encourage more females to pursue a career in science. 

British Science Week runs from 8 - 17 March and we hope to inspire all students to think about science and the careers associated with this amazing subject.

Dr Anna Dyas