Caroline Ford

Caroline E. Ford is an Australian scientist at the University of New South Wales and advocate for women in science. Her research aims to understand why gynaecological cancers develop, how they spread and how best to treat them, and she leads the Gynaecological Cancer Research Group at the University of New South Wales, which was established in 2010.

Education Ford completed her Ph.D. at the University of New South Wales in oncogenic viruses, particularly related to breast cancer. where she investigated mouse mammary tumor virus (MMTV) sequences in breast tumour samples from women and men. Ford leads the Gynaecological Cancer Research Group at the University of New South Wales.

Ford convened Australia's first massive open online course (MOOC) on personalised medicine.

STEMMinist Bookclub Ford started the global STEMMinist Bookclub in early 2018, bringing together three of her great loves — science, feminism and reading. This has evolved into a bimonthly bookclub and forum for discussing feminism, inclusion and diversity in STEMM. Since its establishment it had 4,000 members from 25 different countries in 2018, with online discussions on Twitter. Members meet up physically in cities around the world, including Sydney, New York, Atlanta, Dublin, Istanbul, Montreal, Vancouver, Cambridge and Oxford (often in a pub). Ford was interviewed about the STEMMinist Bookclub by Jane Caro and Catherine Fox for an episode of their Women With Clout podcast in July 2019.

Recognition and awards 2003: Fresh Science award, for young Australian scientists whose published, peer-reviewed research had not been featured in the news, and who demonstrated a strong ability to explain their work

2003: A national Australian award "for her ability to communicate her results to the public in an engaging, easily understood manner",

2018: Women's Agenda Leadership Award in Science, Medicine, and Health

2018: Recognised as a leading Australian in the field of ovarian cancer research by the Witchery White Shirt Campaign The campaign has raised $12m Australian dollars to fund ovarian cancer research.

Selected works

Journal articles

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