Congratulations to our Department of Mathematics and Information Security Group (ISG) for winning a Bronze Athena SWAN award. The award recognises their commitment and excellence in the advancement of gender equality, highlighting the impact of collaborative efforts to support the development of diversity and inclusion measures.
The Athena SWAN submission was led by Professor Mark Wildon, Equality and Diversity Champion for Mathematics and ISG and joint Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Director for the School of Engineering, Physical and Mathematical Sciences at Royal Holloway.
Professor Wildon commented
“I am delighted that the hard work by all involved has been recognised by Advance HE and this award reflects our commitment to putting equality and diversity inclusivity at the heart of everything we do. I look forward to working with colleagues to implement our Action Plan. The risk that Covid-19 amplifies existing inequalities in society makes this more important than ever.”
He added,
“Among our first new actions is a session we ran in induction week in September for all new EPMS students on ‘Why we need to talk about Equality and Diversity', highlighting the Black Lives Matter campaign, unconscious bias, and the nine protected characteristics, with an accompanying video which has already attracted high viewings.”
The Departments of Maths and ISG are also linked by a group of students and staff, WISDOM (Women in the Security and/or Mathematics Domain), previous winners of an Enhancing Fairness Award. The group offers a support network and fosters an inclusive environment in which a high proportion of women can be encouraged into the fields of Information Security and Maths.