February 11 marked the third annual United Nation’s International Women and Girls in Science Day.  Celebrated worldwide, its purpose is both to recognize the achievements of women in science and to encourage girls to study science.

We at Cadenza are proud of our efforts to encourage women in STEM, led by the example and the work of our founder and CEO, Dr. Christina Lampe-Onnerud. Lampe–Onnerud holds a Ph.D. in Inorganic Chemistry from Uppsala University, Sweden and conducted post–doctoral work at MIT, where she now serves on the Chemistry Department Visiting Committee. Christina’s leadership in STEM was detailed in the article, “Women in STEM”, just published by the University of Toronto’s campus newspaper, The Varsity.  We’re included a copy of the write-up below.

Cadenza is also very pleased to be collaborating with Dr. Radenka Maric of the University of Connecticut, an international leader in STEM-related education and research.  As Vice President of Research at UConn, she oversees all of the university’s $260 million research programs, including all STEM-related research at the university. Notably, Dr. Maric serves as the Principal Investigator on Cadenza’s sponsored research project at UConn, which focuses on carbon-containing anode materials for batteries.

Dr. Maric and Dr. Lampe-Onnerud both were honored by the Connecticut Technology Council in 2015 as Category Winners of the 11^th Annual Women of Innovation Awards Gala—Dr. Maric for Research Innovation and Leadership and Dr. Lampe-Onnerud for Entrepreneurial Innovation and Leadership. Dr. Maric is fourth from the left in the picture below, with Dr. Lampe-Onnerud next to her, fifth from the left.

The challenge to increase women in STEM is significant.  Last year, the United States Department of Commerce’s Economics and Statistics Administration issued its Women in STEM: 2017 Update. Key findings include:

• Women filled 47 percent of all U.S. jobs in 2015, but only 24 percent of STEM jobs. Likewise, women constitute slightly more than half of college educated workers, but make up only 25 percent of college-educated STEM workers.
• Women with STEM jobs earned 35 percent more than comparable women in non-STEM jobs — even higher than the 30 percent STEM premium for men. As a result, the gender wage gap is smaller in STEM jobs than in non-STEM jobs. Women with STEM jobs also earned 40 percent more than men with non-STEM jobs.
• While nearly as many women hold undergraduate degrees as men overall, they represent only about 30 percent of all STEM degree holders. Women comprise a disproportionately low share of degree holders in all STEM fields, particularly engineering.

The following chart makes it clear how far we still have to go. We encourage you to join Dr. Maric, Dr. Lampe-Onnerud and all others dedicated to encouraging more girls and women to pursue STEM education and careers. Only by doing so will we keep the needle moving in the right direction on this critically important issue!

 

 

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https://thevarsity.ca/2018/02/11/women-in-stem-christina-lampe-onnerud/

Women in STEM: Christina Lampe-Önnerud

Chemist and entrepreneur spearheads innovation in the battery industry

By Rachel Takacs

Published: 1:57 pm, 11 February 2018

MIA CARNEVALE/THE VARSITY

Though not widely known in pop culture, Dr. Christina Lampe-Önnerud is a Swedish chemist, battery inventor, entrepreneur, and an important part of a growing industry.

She has made several appearances at innovation conferences to talk about entrepreneurship, her research, and her goals. Among her achievements include the invention of ‘lego-block’-like battery cells that, when connected together, can provide immense power for a variety of services.

Lampe-Önnerud hopes to create an overall system that uses energy efficiently but in a way that is practical. She describes it as being able to self-prescribe the use of energy one would need in order to accomplish different tasks throughout the day. This would allow control over the amount of time the battery lasts for or, in the case of automobiles, the distance travelled.

She is also a founder of Boston Power, a Massachusetts-based company that manufactures and markets internationally-used lithium-ion batteries for transportation, utility energy storage, and portable power. She also founded Candenza Innovation Inc. in 2012, which “is poised to become a world leader in battery architecture, performance, and safety, with a mission to solve big problems through innovation in technology.”

With at least 20 years of experience in the battery industry and two companies under her belt, she has built a solid reputation among her peers and continues to push innovation to new levels.

Lampe-Önnerud is a leader in her field who has inspired many women across the globe. As both an inventor and an entrepreneur, she has taken many great risks — like quitting her consulting job at a technology firm to start her own company — to pursue her goals of revitalizing the way we use energy as a society.

Due to her efforts, Lampe-Önnerud now holds partnerships with the likes of HP and ASUS in battery development and holds over 80 patents to her name.

This article is published as part of a series of profiles in honour of the International Day of Women and Girls in Science on February 11.