Bernadette Stolz has received a L'Oréal-UNESCO For Women in Science UK and Ireland Rising Talent fellowship in the category of Mathematics and Computer Science.
The Rising Talents Programme is designed to provide flexible and practical financial support, alongside tools and wider support, for early career women scientists to pursue their research. Five grants are awarded to outstanding women postdoctoral scientists in the fields of Physical Science, Engineering, Mathematics and Computing, Life Science, and Sustainable Development. These fully flexible Fellowships are each worth £15,000.
Bernadette's work develops techniques in topological data analysis (TDA) to study biological data, in particular dynamical networks and spatial data. Her research can be broadly categorised into three main groups: developing TDA techniques to answer biological questions arising from experimental data; developing novel data science methods based on TDA: and using TDA in combination with mechanistic models to link form and function in biological systems.
In her fellowship she will extend her work to mathematical models of tumour vasculature to enable predictions and investigate links between form and function. She will further develop techniques based on persistent homology to quantify heterogeneity in cancer tissue images and develop novel biomarkers for patient stratification, disease phenotyping, treatment prediction, and treatment scheduling. Ultimately, she hopes to make persistent homology biomarkers standard for cancer diagnosis and prognosis.
Bernadette is a Postdoctoral Research Associate in the Centre for Topological Data Analysis in Oxford. She has degrees in Molecular Medicine and also Mathematics (Major) and German Language and Literature Studies (Minor). She did her PhD in the Mathematical Institute, Oxford, (Lincoln College).