Ada Lovelace Day is an annual international event which aims to celebrate of the achievements of women in Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths (STEM). Across BioAscent, female staff members in all departments contribute greatly to the success of our projects. This year, we are marking Ada Lovelace Day by highlighting the important day-to-day work carried out by some of our inspiring female scientists

Eilidh McCormack – Lab Automation Specialist, Compound Management

Eilidh is a true expert in data handling and lab automation, bringing precision and discipline to one of the most technically demanding roles in our team. She orchestrates the movement of hundreds of thousands of samples, designing and executing workflows that can involve more than 8 million compound transfers in a single week. There’s no “one-click” shortcut here—every detail must be configured, monitored, and validated to ensure our clients’ requests are delivered flawlessly. Her mastery of both lab and data automation means she not only sets complex systems in motion but also confirms, step by step, that they’ve done exactly what she intended.

Sarah Frew – Senior Scientist, Biosciences

Sarah makes a strong contribution across several areas—from complex cell biology to mentoring junior staff. She’s taken the lead on a key client project, trained two junior team members, and supervised a year-long industrial placement. Sarah has a real interest in complex cell biological models, and she’s shown a natural ability for mentoring junior scientists. Whether working with clients or students, she consistently goes above and beyond to keep projects moving forward.

Anna Boyle – Scientist, Chemistry

Anna is an integral part of the analytical chemistry team. She has done a fantastic job establishing and running a busy chiral SFC service for our medicinal chemistry labs. Anna uses SFC to quickly and efficiently separate mixtures of isomers, isolating enantiomerically pure material. This work is invaluable to support the medicinal chemistry projects we run for our clients.

Emily Ritchie – Associate Scientist, Biosciences

Joining a new workplace straight from university can be a steep learning curve. Emily has done a fantastic job settling into her new role as one of our graduate scientists in the biosciences department. She has drawn on skills in mentoring to transfer expertise across projects and taken on the role of health and safety officer for the department. In just a short space of time, Emily has become a really important part of our biosciences team.

BioAscent is a dynamic integrated drug discovery and compound management CRO. We offer inspiring career opportunities to those looking to develop their career in a fast-paced and stimulating environment. To find out more about working at BioAscent, click here.