The University of Melbourne's Bio21 Institute hosted 140 girls from among eight secondary schools across Melbourne taking part in a 'Girls in Science' event designed to encourage more females to consider a career in science.

Organised by L'Oreal as part of its 2009 For Women in Science programme, the event included a panel with past and present winners of the L'Oreal Australia for Women in Science Fellowships, which were awarded the previous night, followed by tours of the Bio21 Institute hosted by female students and researchers.

Professor Tony Bacic, Interim Director of the Bio21 Institute welcomed the students and highlighted the importance of these types of events for inspiring future generation scientists and congratulated L'Oreal on the initiative. "The opportunity to hear about and see science in action is tremendous and we encourage you to talk with scientists to find out firsthand about their exciting work, their interests and the challenges they face in their careers."

The panel kicked off with ABC radio's Natasha Mitchell as moderator and fellowship winners -genetics researcher Marnie Blewitt, immunologist Natalie Borg, astrophysicist Tamara Davis and sexual health researcher Catriona Bradshaw - talking about their experiences of tertiary education in science and their careers following their PhDs.

Students were invited to join the discussion where they asked questions ranging from what subjects the scientists took at secondary school through to how they manage to balance their work and private lives.

The Bio21 Institute then opened up its doors to host the students on tours where they found out more about science in action from early career researchers and students from areas ranging from biochemistry to nanotechnology, pathology to chemistry, engineering to zoology.

These hosts were Laura Vella (Pathology), Diane Robinson and Michelle Ma (Chemistry), Alison Funston (Chem/Nanoscience), Sara Long (CESAR/Zoology), Eleanor Saunders and Emma Petrie (Biochem & Molecular Biology) and Lydia Ong (Chemical & Biomolecular Eng).

PhD student Michelle Ma took girls from the Academy of Mary Immaculate to show them the practical side of research and the high-tech 'tools of the trade' used by many of the biologists and chemists at the Institute.

Biochemist, Eleanor Saunders provided some useful advice for aspiring future scientists, "Science as a career relies on so much more than just being able to do experiments. You need to be creative, open-minded, self-motivated, passionate and a great communicator and more importantly willing to learn from other disciplines".