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Prof Rachel Oliver

@profrachelgan.bsky.social
2.2K followers 574 following 1.4K posts

Materials scientist, mum, mountain-biker.

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Prof Rachel Oliver @profrachelgan.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
This comparison of the relative volume of media attention experienced by Jason Arday and James Orr is striking. One thing worth adding to @samanthaasumadu.substack.com's excellent analysis below is that Orr is also under investigation for bullying a student: www.theguardian.com/education/20...
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Prof Rachel Oliver @profrachelgan.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
One of the challenges of being a senior woman in academia is that our models for leadership are usually male & frequently achieve their goals by making rude demands. If women try that, it really doesn't go well for us. So a lot more emotional load is involved in formulating every request.
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Prof Rachel Oliver @profrachelgan.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
Motion to restore trans rights overwhelmingly passes.... a little bit of good news.
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Prof Rachel Oliver @profrachelgan.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
Great to have colleagues from the University of Sheffield visit us last week. Close interactions between different NEF centres really help us provide a better epitaxy service to the UK community!
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CaSE @sciencecampaign.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
CaSE Executive Director Alicia Greated FIET FRSE set out our call for better long-term oversight of UK R&D capability at the House of Commons Science and Technology Committee yesterday.
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Prof Rachel Oliver @profrachelgan.bsky.social · 12/09/2026
In the face of researcher concerns that the change in policy to prioritise longer larger grants may have undesirable impacts on EDI, UKRI suggest they will "keep an eye" on it. Gee, thanks! I'm not sure that covers their duties under the equality act. www.researchprofessionalnews.com/rr-news-uk-p...
researchprofessionalnews.com
Fewer, longer research grants ‘could exacerbate inequalities’ - Research Professional News
Science minister’s call for larger, longer-term investments prompts fears around benefits for “big hitters”
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Prof Rachel Oliver @profrachelgan.bsky.social · 12/09/2026
I was pleased to have the opportunity to unpack some of my concerns about UKRI prioritising larger longer term investments and the implications of that for EDI for @sophieatrpn.bsky.social at @resprofnews.bsky.social. Has there been an equality impact assessment of this policy change @ukri.org?
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Prof Rachel Oliver @profrachelgan.bsky.social · 10/09/2026
The changes to the funding system being suggested by the new Science Minister here sound very much like a plan to funnel more funding to male, stale and pale researchers with less oversight and scrutiny. Very worrying.
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Mic Wright @brokenbottleboy.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
NEW | On a shocking interview… ANALYSING JUSTIN WEBB’S INTERVIEW WITH ED MILIBAND ABOUT SANCTIONS ON ISRAELI SETTLEMENTS On the absence of balance in an encounter where the Foreign Secretary’s Jewishness was called into question. brokenbottleboy.substack.com/p/analysing-...
brokenbottleboy.substack.com
Analysing Justin Webb’s interview with Ed Miliband about sanctions on Israeli settlements
On the absence of balance in an encounter where the Foreign Secretary’s Jewishness was called into question.
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Cllr Dr Alex Powell @apowelllaw.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
Why is this being written up like 'opps, what an unfortunate mistake' rather than what it is? A group of racists deciding to gather outside a venue because that venue was currently accomodating people who are not white.' It's racism. Ergo, those gathering are racists. Call it what it is.
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Prof Rachel Oliver @profrachelgan.bsky.social · 31/08/2026
Andrew Gilligan is claiming that an actual Baron who sits in the House of Lords is unqualified to lead a Cambridge college. These efforts to tear down Black excellence and revert Oxbridge to an old white men's club need to stop. Far, far too much tragedy has already come from this.
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Prof Rachel Oliver @profrachelgan.bsky.social · 27/08/2026
This is a really important article. 👇 Please read.
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National Epitaxy Facility @epitaxyfacility.bsky.social · 25/08/2026
🚀 Exciting Opportunity: Funded PhD Studentship in AI-Assisted Semiconductor Discovery! 🔬💡 This is a unique opportunity to be trained in the epitaxy process and combining AI/machine learning. ➡️ Full details and application link: www.nationalepitaxyfacility.co.uk/about-us/car...
nationalepitaxyfacility.co.uk
Careers - National Epitaxy Facility
PhD Studentships Funded PhD studentship in AI-assisted materials discovery There is a position available for a funded PhD studentship for research and development in AI-assisted discovery and developm...
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Carly @nautiluscarly.bsky.social · 23/08/2026
We are tired of the single reductionist narrative about the kindest person we knew. So we're gathering everything good about Jason Arday, in the words of the people who were there. In memory of Jason Arday, 1985 - 2026. leilacancode.github.io/everythinggo...
leilacancode.github.io
Everything Good About Jason Arday
First-hand accounts from people who knew him. Collected by his students.
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Athena Kugblenu @athenakugblenu.bsky.social · 06/08/2026
I don't know if Jason Arday is liar. I do know the person who has dedicated himself to Arday's ruin thinks Black Africans are inferior to white people and makes a career out of trying to prove it. Cofnas should have no place in this arena
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Prof Rachel Oliver @profrachelgan.bsky.social · 06/08/2026
Many of the toilets in my Department are individual little rooms with their own loo, sink and hand dryer, but they used to be labelled as either male or female. Now they've largely been relabelled for universal use. (We do have toilets with multiple stalls which are still labelled make or female).
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Prof Rachel Oliver @profrachelgan.bsky.social · 06/08/2026
From within the Cambridge ecosystem, I can state definitively that I have never seen any Cambridge professor receive anything like the amount of scrutiny that has fallen on Jason Arday. That is true even of a very small number of people whose behaviour I believe truly merits serious scrutiny.
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Times Higher Education (THE) @timeshighered.bsky.social · 04/08/2026
While higher education has talked a lot about EDI, are Black academics noticing the difference in their day-to-day lives? A conference gave them a space to reflect: www.timeshighereducation.com/campus… #Highered #Academicsky
timeshighereducation.com
Making space for Black voices in higher education
While higher education has talked a lot about EDI, are Black academics noticing the difference in their day-to-day lives? A conference gave them a space to reflect
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Prof Rachel Oliver @profrachelgan.bsky.social · 31/07/2026
Detectives in TV shows looking at evidence down an optical microscope and claiming to hence learn information involving features that would not be resolvable in optical microscopy, or data types that optical microscopy does not collect. Also applies of other types of microscopy , such as SEM, tbh.
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Prof Rachel Oliver @profrachelgan.bsky.social · 30/07/2026
I talked to Varsity (Cambridge student newspaper) about some of the issues facing women in STEM: www.varsity.co.uk/science/31882
varsity.co.uk
‘Death by a thousand cuts’: Professor Rachel Oliver on why women in STEM suffer
Dhruv Shenai speaks to Professor Rachel Oliver about gender inequality in research grants and the biggest issues women in STEM face
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Kate Devlin @drkatedevlin.bsky.social · 28/07/2026
Shadow use of genAI as a reviewer is shitty because you're putting someone else's work into the machine w/o consent, and as an author I'd rather hear Reviewer 2's bad attitudes than LLM platitudes. But if you sanction reviewers you'll just have no reviewers. It's a lose-lose situation.
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Prof Rachel Oliver @profrachelgan.bsky.social · 28/07/2026
On top of everythng Kirsty says, the funding call for the "AI Lab" was launched with such a short deadline as to make the writing of thorough, well-considered proposals virtully impossible....
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Prof Rachel Oliver @profrachelgan.bsky.social · 22/07/2026
The government seems pretty stumped about how to reduce the prison population... but there is a simple solution: free the majority of women prisoners, replacing their custodial sentences with non-custodial measures. Sounds like a sweeping statement but ... www.theguardian.com/society/2026...
theguardian.com
Burnham stirs up political row with review of release plans for violent criminals
PM says he wants to make sure ‘everything has been looked at’ after backlash from family of PC Harper
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Prof Rachel Oliver @profrachelgan.bsky.social · 16/07/2026
The idea of keeping track of who's doing the labour of parenting is getting a lot of hate here. But in many families, not keeping track tends to mean women do more & that that labour is invisible. Keeping a spreadsheet wouldn't be my choice, but I'm not seeing many suggestions for better solutions.
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Prof Rachel Oliver @profrachelgan.bsky.social · 15/07/2026
Interesting article - including an account some someone who switched out of academia and then came back. I think the increasing porosity between academia and industry is a really positive thing, and Universities should encourage these less usual career pathways!
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Prof Rachel Oliver @profrachelgan.bsky.social · 09/07/2026
The sad thing is, we have a travel agent that we are meant to use to book University travel, and they somehow managed to combine all the disadvantages of both the old school human-being approach and the modern web-based version.
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Prof Rachel Oliver @profrachelgan.bsky.social · 07/07/2026
Perfect opportunity for the bin-faced one.
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Prof Rachel Oliver @profrachelgan.bsky.social · 03/07/2026
It appears that certain right wing folk really can't cope with people who don't agree with them being allowed to have conversations that don't involve them.
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Prof Rachel Oliver @profrachelgan.bsky.social · 02/07/2026
It's not lack of reporting routes that is the problem. It's what happens when harassment is reported. The answer to that question is too often nothing. Or worse, sometimes the person making the report is effectively the one who is punished.
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Prof Rachel Oliver @profrachelgan.bsky.social · 02/07/2026
Article here from chemistry world on the Women in Research charter with some comments from me on why I think it doesn't go far enough. I have a lot to say about this (unsurprisingly) and I'm going to expand below on my comments on bullying and harassment. 🧵 www.chemistryworld.com/news/uk-gove...
chemistryworld.com
UK government’s new charter aims to better support women in research
'Now is the time for research institutions to step up and level the playing field for women,' notes one government official
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Prof Rachel Oliver @profrachelgan.bsky.social · 01/07/2026
Whilst, I am really glad that PhD students are now more likely to have access to paid maternity leave, this "charter" barely even touches the edges of the issues experienced by women in the sector.
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Prof Rachel Oliver @profrachelgan.bsky.social · 27/06/2026
There's a very real and obvious unfairness here that the Guardian article overlooks. Students who start off as undergrads on 4 year degree courses don't have to take a post-grad loan, but do get a masters. Students who do a bachelors degree and a separate masters are saddled with punitive debts.
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Prof Rachel Oliver @profrachelgan.bsky.social · 25/06/2026
This morning on BBC Today, one of the presenter's somewhat suggested that Kemi badenoch calling Bridget Phillipson a "spiteful class warrier" was justified because Phillipson once suggested a Tory MP was racist. I was aghast at this false equivalence. 🧵 ca.news.yahoo.com/bridget-phil...
ca.news.yahoo.com
Bridget Phillipson Reignites Row Over Tory MP's 'Racist' Attack On Muslims Praying
The education secretary hit out a day after getting into a war of words with Kemi Badenoch.
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Kirsty Grainger @kirstygrainger.bsky.social · 24/06/2026
Remember that FOUR week turn around for a £40M call @ukri.org. Turns out it was actually a £60M call. How does this meet the Nolan Principles of Openess? UK invests £60m in two university-led AI research labs www.researchprofessionalnews.com/rr-news-uk-p...
researchprofessionalnews.com
UK invests £60m in two university-led AI research labs - Research Professional News
Minister makes case for “forward-facing” academic research infrastructure
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Prof Rachel Oliver @profrachelgan.bsky.social · 16/06/2026
This is one of the things that bothers me about the ban... disabled teenagers, LGBTQ+ teenagers, even just teenagers with unusual hobbies will lose opportunities to make helpful connections that their schools and commuities may not be able to replace...
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Lee Hurley @hleehurley.com · 12/06/2026
Hundreds of strangers in Belfast working together. Doing shopping, providing accommodation, driving kids to school, people to hospital appointments. Have just been told of a woman close to us who hasn't left her house since Monday so we'll be sorting her out today and getting her anything she needs
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Toby Earle 🇺🇦 @tobyontv.bsky.social · 10/06/2026
would be nice if my concerns about racists, fascists, and a white supremacist, who’s called for the government to be overthrown, using his far-right skewed social media platform to spread hatred were seen as legitimate as racists’ concerns
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Prof Nisreen Alwan @nisreenalwan.bsky.social · 10/06/2026
We want all our representatives in Parliament to show such unequivocal rejection of the politics of division.
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John Reed @johnreedwrites.ft.com · 10/06/2026
“What you're seeing is a race-based pogrom. We are seeing men going door to door asking to get the foreigners out based exclusively on the colour of their skin.” www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/cr...
bbc.co.uk
Houses, cars, and bus set on fire in Belfast night of disorder after knife attack - follow live
Northern Ireland's first minister says masked men were "burning families out of their homes". One pastor says black people were targeted, while an MP calls it a "race-based pogrom".
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Stephen Curry @scurry.bsky.social · 10/06/2026
Violence on the streets of the U.K. incited and enabled by Elon Musk, a fellow of the @royalsociety.org. When will our national academy stand up for the values it claims to espouse?
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Prof Rachel Oliver @profrachelgan.bsky.social · 08/06/2026
Great initiative! Shining a light on the excellent work done by facility managers in microscopy helps facilitate exchange of good practice and will support career development of a sometimes overlooked group. I'd love to see other types of microscopy (and other techniques) get the same treatment!
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Roland Smith @rolandmcs.bsky.social · 05/06/2026
Rightly angry piece from @iandunt.bsky.social about the Populist Right BS that followed the awful Henry Nowak murder case and how the media/national conversation has been drawn into it. iandunt.substack.com/p/an-abysmal...
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Prof Rachel Oliver @profrachelgan.bsky.social · 06/06/2026
Honestly, if we're going to have bots then acting as the personification of Tower Bridge and letting us know when it is open and why is what those bots should be doing.
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Prof Rachel Oliver @profrachelgan.bsky.social · 06/06/2026
I often see this with EDI stuff 👇. Serious problems are identified in an organisation, which mean that minoritised people are being treated unfairly. When folk in leadership learn this, they wring their hands and say they wish they could do something about it. But they can. And they choose not to.
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David K Smith @professor-dave.bsky.social · 04/06/2026
2023 Report: Black Men Seven Times More Likely To Die Following Police Restraint But clearly, according to Reform, we have 'two-tier, anti-white policing'. inquest.org.uk/news-and-com...
inquest.org.uk
New Report: Black Men Seven Times More Likely To Die Following Police Restraint But Racism Not Being Addressed
Families of Black people who die following police contact cannot get accountability for racism from a system that is not “fit for purpose”…
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Prof Rachel Oliver @profrachelgan.bsky.social · 04/06/2026
This is great news! Totally fantastic! Now.. can someone explain to me why, if the Ladies Bathing Pond can remain trans inclusive, the Women's Institute can't? Is there a useful legal argument being applied to the bathing ponds that could be applied elsewhere? @jolyon.goodlawproject.org do you know?
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Prof Rachel Oliver @profrachelgan.bsky.social · 03/06/2026
When someone shows you who they are, believe them the first time. Or in Farage's case, the eleventy billionth time. But believe it.
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Dan Kaszeta FRHistS @dankaszeta.bsky.social · 03/06/2026
I mean, the UK government barred me from speaking to a conference that they literally invited me to speak at and tried to ruin my career because I retweeted SuperTanskii, called Nadine Dorries a car crash, and called Rees Mogg a haunted pencil. Bit nobody can ban Farage from inciting violence?
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Prof Rachel Oliver @profrachelgan.bsky.social · 03/06/2026
Really helpful to have the Labour Government's work on Net Zero laid out clearly and in context. Green energy and sustainable industry are the best (possibly only) route to economic growth in this era of recurring energy crises.
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