Elizabeth Pollitzer

Organisation

Portia 

Job title

Director

Biography

Elizabeth Pollitzer holds PhD in Information Science from London University.  Her original science training was in Biophysics at Kings College University of London, where she was introduced to social responsibility of science through a course set up by Maurice Wilkins, which influenced her subsequent career plans.  She moved to Imperial College University of London, first to the School of Management and then to the Department of Computing, where she spent over 20 years as researcher and lecturer.  In 2001 together with a group of women scientists and engineers at Imperial College she set up Portia a not-for-profit organisation focused on improving gender equality in science practice and integration of gender dimension in science knowledge.  She coordinated a number of European and international projects, notably the UK Tri-Council Initiative on Cognitive Science and Human-Computer Interactions; the FP7 funded genSET project; and two projects dedicated to women’s early science career stage issues, one funded by the Elsevier Foundation and the other by the Robert Bosch Foundation.  She acts as expert adviser to the European Commission, and is now involved in three European projects: GenPORT, GENERA and NAPES.  She is also responsible for the coordination, organization, and global development of the Gender Summit platform, which brings scientists, gender scholars and policy makers together to examine research evidence showing influence of sex-gender factors in research results and in outcomes for women and men, and establish consensus on where impriovements are needed and what actions will achieve change.