Our fifth terrific woman in STEM is Dr Dominique Tanner, who studies how metals like gold are concentrated by volcanic processes.

Dominique says that her “research passion is using petrology and geochemistry to understand how magmatic and/or hydrothermal processes create economic concentrations of metals in the Earth’s crust”. She uses tools like “electron microscopy, mass spectrometry and spectroscopy to investigate metallogenesis and characterise complex mineral assemblages.” She is also “passionate about promoting Earth sciences through tertiary education and outreach.”

Twitter: @DrDomTanner

Our fourth fabulous woman in STEM is Professor Gail Patricelli, who studies bird courtship.

Gail studies “animal communication and sexual selection, with a focus on understanding the amazing diversity and complexity in animals signals.” One of her current projects examines the “causes and functional implications of directional sound radiation in songbirds”. Gail has used video cameras and robots to study Australian bowerbirds and the North American greater sage-grouse, both of which have complex mating rituals. Her use of robotic female birds has helped her to more clearly understand courtship and the evolution of exaggerated male traits.

Twitter: @GailPatricelli

Our third awesome woman in STEM is Dr Tyr Fothergill, who studies human-chicken interactions.

Tyr is an “archaeologist who studies the recent past, the post-medieval or historical period, [who is] keen to investigate how our ways of thinking about the period from about AD 1500 to the present day can feed into critical heritage approaches.” Tyr is currently studying the “Cultural and Scientific Perceptions of Human-Chicken Interactions, mainly involving the application of zooarchaeological approaches (including palaeopathology and osteometrics) to archaeological materials in order to create fresh and nuanced understandings of chicken breeding and husbandry from domestication to the present day.”

Twitter: @FothergillTyr

Our second fabulous woman in STEM is Dr Joanne Cooper, who studies fossil birds.

Joanne is a senior curator of the avian anatomical collections at the Natural History Museum, London. She is responsible for about 35,000 specimens, as well as the preparation and curation of new skeletal and spirit specimens. She is an internationally recognised authority in avian osteology and the taxonomic identification of bird bones. Her research interests include the environmental and archaeological interpretation of fossil bird assemblages and she’s currently working on a Late Pleistocene bird assemblage from the Grotte des Pigeons, Taforalt, Morocco. She is also interested in the history of the bird collections, and is currently investigating Charles Darwin’s domestic birds, Captain Fitzroy’s bird collection from the famous 1831-36 voyage of HMS Beagle and John Gould’s collection of hummingbird cases.

Welcome to STEMmas, our Christmas celebration of women in STEM!

Our first amazing woman in STEM is Dr Sally Bound, who has developed recommendations for chemical thinning of the Packham pear.

Sally is a “Senior Research Fellow at the University of Tasmania, Australia. She works in the Perennial Horticulture Centre within the Tasmanian Institute of Agriculture. Her research focuses on crop manipulation and fruit quality in orchard tree crops, and on finding solutions to soil degradation. In particular, Sally works closely with industry to optimize crop yields and fruit quality. She also provides technical information and advice to orchardists and industry groups, and conducts workshops, seminars and training courses throughout Australia.”