Festival of the Boy - Role models (part one)
The organisers of Festival of the Girl launched a new non-profit, Festival of the Boy, in May 2025 that aims to celebrate boys and challenge the limiting gender stereotypes that often affect them in dysfunctional ways.
They have asked RESILIENCE to contribute to their campaign focussed on providing support and resources to parents and carers to help them raise their boys in a less stereotyped way. The first part of their campaign is to publicise the stories of inspiring male role models from individuals to learn about the men and boys in their lives.
Dr Bernice Wright shared her male role models, just after the launch of Festival of the Boy. She is a teaching lecturer in cell and gene therapy and a research scientist in the Department of Biochemical Engineering at University College London as well as the lead for STEM outreach for the RESILIENCE Centres of Excellence. My male role models in my professional environment are Professor Gary Lye, Professor Daniel Bracewell, Dr Darren Nesbeth, and Dr Stephen Morris.
Here, we share the views of some of University College London’s research scientists.
Isa Senica
Professionally, there is one male role model that stands out for me: my PhD supervisor Gary Lye. He is a well-respected researcher in the field of biochemical engineering, and I can certainly see why!
My supervisor is incredibly intelligent with decades of expertise in the field. Yet, he is one of the humblest people I know. He strikes the perfect balance between professionalism and kindness, and always gives good advice on where I should take my project.
I hear many horror stories about PhD students in other fields having nightmare supervisors, but I am grateful that I cannot relate. I aim to be like Gary as I progress through my career. I think everyone should aim to be like him!
Beatrice Melinek
It might be a peculiarity of my family, but most of the stories about my grandparents and great grandparents were about the women: My fierce and charismatic grandmother who was the main breadwinner for her husband, herself and their 4 children; the great grandmother who survived 10 years with a body filled with cancers and laughed off radiotherapy, knocking on her chest so that her grandkids could hear the sound like wood that it made.
My grandfather fades into the background, except for small tantalising vignettes: a master builder, who knew how to keep a house from falling down with a simple wooden support and was so uncowed by heights that he would dance across the roof top, whilst his son (my uncle) held on for dear life; the second generation immigrant and shopkeeper whose smart investments established his family as more than just scrapping by, and who helped my parents find, and purchase for a reasonable price, the house I grew up in; the boxer great-grandfather, who played the piano, charmed the ladies and who, when his daughter (my grandmother) was hit by a car, picked her up and ran with her to the nearest hospital – saving her life and her leg; the immigrant great grandfather who made a living for seven children by painstakingly fine sewing badly damaged rags, to make them like new and always spoke English with a heavy accent.
My father isn’t the most demonstrative person. His hugs are stiff. Our cockatiel learnt to imitate the clicking noise a human makes with his tongue, because that’s what my father does instead of blowing kisses. But the thing I admire most about my father is his strong, almost rigid, moral centre. He never puts his own interests ahead of others; if it costs him money, he will still make a deal that he believes is fair to everyone or even favours the other person – he was never going to be a rich man. Secondly, you can see in his eyes that he is a gentle man; and when he feels he has to argue with you, for your own good, he goes in hard, to bulldoze quickly through the conflict. It’s frustrating, but impossible not to forgive – because it comes from a place of love. I try to emulate my father’s honesty, integrity and gentleness.
Eleanor Mathias
When I joined the University of Edinburgh to study chemistry, I was very lucky to be assigned Dr Peter Kirsop as my personal tutor within the department. After my first year, he invited me to spend some time in the organic teaching labs over the summer helping to develop and improve the practical chemistry experiments for undergraduates, which was the first independent lab work that I ever completed. I remember being made to feel like I could take my time to learn new skills and try more advanced techniques, fundamentally learning how to be safe and effective in my own work, while also learning how to make the most of having a supervisor for guidance.
I came back to this role each summer of my undergraduate degree and it led to my being able to work for the university as a chemistry ambassador, where I got my first introduction to science outreach.
Now working with RESILIENCE as an outreach fellow and continuing to find out how much I enjoy science communication, I want to thank Dr Kirsop for his invitation to help out in the labs and his investment in my chemistry skills beyond what is on the curriculum. It was through his holistic approach to science and science teaching that I got the very most out of my time in Edinburgh and continue to love chemistry.
Eshaan Saigal
My uncle has been one of the most important role models in my life. Some of my earliest and fondest memories are of us tackling brain teasers, him teaching me chess, or both of us getting caught up in conversations about science or history documentaries we’d just watched. He always encouraged me to ask questions and explore new ideas, making learning feel exciting rather than intimidating. His support and genuine interest in what I had to say made me feel confident and curious. I’m grateful for the impact he’s had on my life!