Dr Maria Bruna wins 2016 Women of the Future Award for Science

Dr Maria Bruna has won the 2016 Women of the Future Award for Science, for her work on stochastic models of interacting particles and its application to industry. Maria is a member of the 2020 Science programme for the Mathematical and Computational Modelling of Complex Natural Systems, where her research seeks to explain how individual-level mechanisms give rise to population-level behaviour in biology and ecology.

The Women of the Future Awards, supported by Aviva and now in their eleventh year, recognise inspirational women aged 35 or under and celebrate their talent across 14 categories including business, science, culture, media, technology, mentoring and more. 

The awards ceremony was held at the London Hilton on Park Lane, founder Pinky Lilani CBE was joined by Cherie Blair CBE, QC, Baroness Shami Chakrabarti CBE, and the Rt Hon John Bercow MP, Speaker of the House of Commons.

Founder of the awards, Pinky Lilani CBE DL, commented, ‘Through the Women of the Future Programme we have built a remarkable, informal community of influential women determined not only to build fruitful professional and personal relationships with one another, but to be advocates for an exciting new generation of business talent.’

Maria is a Junior Research Fellow in Mathematics at St John’s College Oxford, as well as being a member of the Computational Biology Group (CBG) at the Computer Science Department. Maria’s background is in Mathematics as well as Industrial Engineering. She studied at the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya in Barcelona, before moving to Oxford University to complete an MSc in Mathematical Modelling and Scientific Computing and subsequently a DPhil on stochastic models of diffusion. 

Winners of other categories of the 2016 Women of the Future Award include Danielle Brown, an archer who has won gold in two consecutive Paralympic Games and three World Championships, before setting up her own training company. Meanwhile, Maxine Mackintosh was awarded the Technology and Digital award for her work as Chair of HealthTech Women UK, which helps women become leaders in medical innovation.

Find out more about the Women of the Future Programme and Awards at their website: awards.womenofthefuture.co.uk/