Elizabeth Pollitzer trained originally in Biophysics and obtained PhD in Information Science from the University of London (Kings’ College). She spent more than 20 years as researcher and lecturer at the Department of Computing at Imperial College, London. Elizabeth is director of Portia, a not-for-profit organisation she co-founded in 2001 with several women scientists and engineers at Imperial College. Portia's aim is to use scientific evidence to advance understanding and actions towards greater awareness of how gender issues impact on science values, knowledge, and quality of outcomes.
In 2011, she established the Gender Summit platform for dialogue, which brings scientists, gender experts, as well as decision makers and stakeholders in science endeavours to jointly examine new scientific evidence and agree when, why, and how biological and/or socio-cultural differences between females and males influence quality of research outcomes and where organisational and/or methodological improvements are needed. Today regionally-sensitive Gender Summit platforms are active in Europe, Africa, Asia Pacific, North America, and Latin America. The Gender Summit Community of experts and practitioners is currently 7000 persons strong.
