Our ever-popular Lunchbox Lectures returned on Monday with a visit from Dame Alice Harpur School alumna (2011), Lizzie Martin, who gave our Year 9 to Upper Sixth students an insight about studying Physics and her subsequent career in cyber security.

Whilst studying her A Levels, Lizzie had no knowledge of the cyber security industry. She stressed that it was the skills she had learned during her time at university, which led her into this fascinating career. Physics does not feature in her current role and she made it clear that her colleagues came from all diverse disciplines, with the sales team being almost exclusively History & Politics graduates.

Cyber security is a rapidly growing industry with a distinct lack of female employees. Of her 23 colleagues, only three are women. This imbalance needs to be addressed and hopefully Lizzie’s enthusiasm and clear enjoyment of her work will have inspired at least one of her audience to consider a career in this area at some point in the future.