Dr Sue Black

I wrote this years ago on a writing retreat which I really enjoyed. *** Does walking connect us? Walking through the country lanes around Totleigh Barton and Sheepwash today reminded me of various times when I’ve been walking in my life. Aged five or six I used to love looking at the different wild flowers along the side of the path. I would go home and look them all up in my “Ladybird book of…

I started BCSWomen – the UK’s first online network for #WomenInTech – back in 1998 after experiencing something similar to these women when attending academic computer science conferences as a PhD student. I had been to a few conferences by 1998 and had a few uncomfortable experiences including constantly being stared at by a keynote speaker after I chatted to him about my research. I thought…

Did you know that there were search engines before Google? I loved recording this first episode of our podcast #100moments that ROCKED computer science with Alan Emtage who created the world’s first internet search engine. Do give it a listen and let me know what you think.

What an incredible #IWD2023 I’ve had today. Keynoted @jisc and @railpen conferences in Birmingham then travelled to London for @WCIT event. So many incredible people, so much passion for making the world a better place and lots of wonderful selfies ❤️

Fabulous evening with FAB women Nelly Bencomo Betty Cheng Shelly Ambury in Soho last night, great chats abt #AI #SoftwareEngineering #EDI + a flying visit from the ex Lord Mayor #VincentKeaveny who kindly signed his #specialedition whiskey for William Hurley now in suitcase en route to Austin, TX 🧳🤞🏽

Yesterday we had a great 1 day project meeting in Peterborough. Transfire has 63 partners including our team at Durham university: Jo Stansfield, Ciel Newton and Mike Thakoordin who are working on the EDI aspect of Transforming the Foundation Industries.

Had a great lunch at #GCHQ Scarborough today chatting #TechUPWomen and Bletchley Park, then a quick brisk walk along the beach before travelling home 😊 also really lovely to spend some proper quality time with Johanna Waite 🙌🏽❤️💃🏽💯🎉 GCHQ Sue and Johanna on Scarborough beach Shadows Scarborough beach An early start at Durham station

Why do I love knitting?

I absolutely love knitting. I have no idea why. If I go a day without knitting I miss it so much. And when I am knitting I feel calm and content. It can’t just be any knitting though. What I enjoy making changes over time. At the moment I really enjoy 2 colour knitting using Double Knitting thickness wool. I’m making a jumper from a pattern called Guthrie. I bought the wool in Ann Arbor in…

Hiya, I’m looking for a researcher already working in an appropriate area to conduct a study which looks at whether vaginal mesh implants cause autoimmune diseases or auto immune disease symptoms. Are you or do you know anyone who might be interested? Here’s a relevant article about vaginal mesh. It’s an utter scandal that it has been implanted in millions of women then can go on to harden and…

The combination of being in lockdown due to COVID, going for frequent walks to get some exercise and either giving talks or being interviewed about my career has led me to start remembering particular events and situations that have reoccurred during my career. The type of situation that came to mind on my walk today was “Being shouted at by the CEO”. The situations were, on each occasion, when…

Research Assistant / Associate for ‘CoroNAb’ at Imperial College London #covid19

Dear All,

We are seeking a postdoctoral research assistant to join us on very short noticeat Imperial College to work on COVID19 evolutionary dynamics. I provide a job description below. This may be suitable for highly motivated post-docs or recent graduates who want to temporarily work on COVID19 for 1-2 years. The work can be carried out remotely for the time being and there is no need to…

#Mothercare to go into Admininstration – pale, make, stale boards can’t cut it anymore #tech #diversity #

Mothercare to go into administration.

I’m not surprised, and wonder how tech savvy and diverse the Mothercare board of directors are…

The most successful companies in the future are going to have diversity and tech savvyness at their core so that their products and services are fit for purpose in the 21st century, for a global, diverse marketplace.

Old school pale male stale boards aren’t going…

Great talk from Andy Stephenson kicking off Rob and I’s Computational Thinking module – 1st year Durham Computer Science module

Lovely to meet Charlie – 1st year CS UG – and all his class

Out in the evening to meet up with friends in Durham

Beautiful Durham Cathedral

On a Durham University panel talking about Diversity and Inclusion with Sir Paul Nurse

Selfie with Camila from maths department and…

Come and join us at Durham 🤩💃🏽👍🏽❤️🥳

Extended closing date for applications: 22nd of August 2019 

UK/EU PhD Scholarship is to start 1st of October 2019 Funding period: 1/10/19 – 30/09/22 

Project Description:

A unique opportunity of an industrial-collaboration fully funded UK/EU PhD scholarship at the prestigious Durham University (world-wide top 79th by QS World University rankings and 5th in the…

If I can do it, so can you – Alan Gore’s inspirational story

I love hearing other people’s stories of triumph against adversity, particularly involving education and technology changing people’s lives. I got a DSc from University of Kent at Canterbury Cathedral last year and was honoured to be invited to present the computer science department awards to students before the cathedral ceremony.  Alan Gore won two of the prizes and his lovely mum Jan…

Women’s Equality Party – Doing politics differently

Earlier this year I took a deep breath and put myself forward as the Women’s Equality Party candidate to stand in the 2020 elections to be Mayor of London.

As someone who had almost given up on politics ever representing someone like me, and not really imagining myself as a politician, it was a bit of a scary thing to do, but I felt the time to sit on the sidelines had passed. It’s not just that…

FREE TECH RETRAINING PROGRAMME FOR WOMEN!

If you are, or know of, any women in the Midlands/North of the UK who have a degree and might be interested in our exciting new tech retraining programme please tag them underneath or send them the details of #TechUP Women.   We will take 100 women and retrain them into tech careers: #datascientist, #agileprojectmanager, #businessanalyst or #softwaredeveloper part time over 6 months from July…