The Queen’s Gambit: The Launch of a Research Career (2005)

Chess is a game of logic and strategy, and requires creative thinking and imagination. Chess is a science. The opening often determines the course of the whole game. Equally, the beginning of a scientific career is important in terms of which options and opportunities open up and how they will influence the future of a scientific career. Here I would like to present ten young women who have chosen science for their future. They are at the beginning of the game, opening with the queen’s gambit – an opening that opens up the chessboard for the queen. What is at stake for them? The opportunity to do what they like, to contribute to the development of human knowledge and to fulfil their childhood dreams. They don’t like sacrificing even a small pawn and don’t capture just for the sake of capturing. Science is a game of chess. It is a strategic game where you have to combine tactics and think several moves ahead. The scientific careers of these women have often been as tortuous as the path of a knight on a chessboard.