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.
Late in 2009, she came back to work at her alma mater, the University of New South Wales. Ford leads the Gynaecological Cancer Research Group at the University of New South Wales. Her team has a particular focus in the Wnt signalling pathway, which is involved in cancer metastasis, the role of ROR1 and ROR2 receptor molecules in spreading cancer, and how they can be blocked to stop metastasis. Ford convened Australia's first Massive Open Online Course 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. 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.
Awards and honors
In 2003, Ford received a 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. Ford won a national Australian award in 2003 "for her ability to communicate her results to the public in an engaging, easily understood manner," leading to media attention from around the world on her Ph.D. results about viruses causing breast cancer. In 2017, she was selected as an inaugural Superstar of STEM, a program delivered through Science and Technology Australia, to increase the public visibility of women in STEM. In 2018, she received the Women's Agenda Award for Emerging Leader in Science, Medicine & Health. Due to her research contributions, Ford was recognized as a leading Australian in the field of ovarian cancer by the WitcheryWhite Shirt Campaign in 2018. The campaign has raised $12m Australian dollars to fund ovarian cancer research.
