This year we are delighted to have an outstanding panel of four women academics who will discuss various aspects of women in science and public policy.

Anne McLaren was a leading stem-cell scientist who in the 1950s performed the world’s first IVF birth using mice – work which helped lead to human in vitro fertilisation. She later went on to influence public policy around IVF, serving on the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority. She received many honours for her contributions to science and became the first woman Officer of the Royal Society (as Foreign Secretary and Vice President). Anne was a Trustee of the Oxford International Biomedical Centre, which commissioned this event.