Anne-Marie Osawemwenze Ore-Ofe Imafidon (born 24 June 1990) is a British-Nigerian computer scientist. Imafidon founded and became CEO of

Stemettes Stemettes is a social enterprise which encourages girls and young women aged 5–25 to pursue careers in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Maths (STEM). Stemettes runs panel events, hackathons, the Student to Stemette mentoring programme supp ...

in 2013, a social enterprise promoting women in

STEM Stem or STEM may refer to: Plant structures * Plant stem, a plant's aboveground axis, made of vascular tissue, off which leaves and flowers hang * Stipe (botany), a stalk to support some other structure * Stipe (mycology), the stem of a mushro ...

careers. She was a computing, mathematics and language

child prodigy A child prodigy is defined in psychology research literature as a person under the age of ten who produces meaningful output in some domain at the level of an adult expert. The term is also applied more broadly to young people who are extraor ...

, having been one of the youngest people to pass two

GCSE The General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE) is an academic qualification in a particular subject, taken in England, Wales, and Northern Ireland. State schools in Scotland use the Scottish Qualifications Certificate instead. Private sc ...

s in two different subjects while in primary school. In June 2022, she was announced as the

British Science Association The British Science Association (BSA) is a charity and learned society founded in 1831 to aid in the promotion and development of science. Until 2009 it was known as the British Association for the Advancement of Science (BA). The current Chie ...

's new President.

Early life and education

Imafidon was born and raised in London. Her parents emigrated from

Edo State Edo, commonly known as Edo State, is a state located in the South-South geopolitical zone of Nigeria. As of 2006 National population census, the state was ranked as the 24th populated state (3,233,366) in Nigeria, However there was controversy ...

, Nigeria to London. Imafidon is the youngest female ever to pass A-level computing at age 11 and passed two GCSEs in primary school. After being offered a British scholarship to

Johns Hopkins University Johns Hopkins University (Johns Hopkins, Hopkins, or JHU) is a private university, private research university in Baltimore, Maryland. Founded in 1876, Johns Hopkins is the oldest research university in the United States and in the western hem ...

in Baltimore, Maryland, she obtained her master's degree from

Oxford University Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the ...

. She was one of the youngest people to receive a Computer Science Masters from Oxford University at just 20 years old. After obtaining her master's degree, Imafidon worked for many companies, including

Goldman Sachs Goldman Sachs () is an American multinational investment bank and financial services company. Founded in 1869, Goldman Sachs is headquartered at 200 West Street in Lower Manhattan, with regional headquarters in London, Warsaw, Bangalore, H ...

Hewlett-Packard The Hewlett-Packard Company, commonly shortened to Hewlett-Packard ( ) or HP, was an American multinational information technology company headquartered in Palo Alto, California. HP developed and provided a wide variety of hardware components ...

, and

Deutsche Bank Deutsche Bank AG (), sometimes referred to simply as Deutsche, is a German multinational investment bank and financial services company headquartered in Frankfurt, Germany, and dual-listed on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange and the New York Sto ...

. Imafidon was awarded an MBE in the 2017 New Year Honours for services to young women and STEM sectors. She holds honorary doctorates from Open University, Glasgow Caledonian University, Kent University, Bristol University, and Coventry University. She is also a visiting professor at the University of Sunderland and sits on the Council of Research England, and an Honorary Fellow at Keble College, Oxford.

Stemettes and entrepreneurship

Imafidon is the founder and CEO of Stemettes, a social initiative dedicated to inspiring the next generation of women in science, technology, engineering, and maths (STEM) careers. She started Stemettes in 2013 and has helped tens of thousands of girls realize their STEM potential. Imafidon has also launched Stemettes STEM resources app, which is used by thousands of high schoolers. Hundreds of Stemettes events have been held across Europe. At these events, teenagers benefit from mentorship from professionals at firms like Salesforce and Deutsche Bank. Imafidon decided to start Stemettes after hearing a keynote speaker while attending the Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing in 2012. She reflected on her own experience as a woman in STEM, being one of just three girls in a class of 70 while studying Maths and Computer Science at Oxford University. After attending a "Spotlight on STEM" workshop, Dr. Imafidon learned that the lack of women and non-binary people in STEM was a real problem. Eager to act, she decided to start Stemettes. Stemettes has exposed almost 50,000 young people across Europe to her vision of a more diverse and balanced science and tech community. Imafidon also co-founded Outbox Incubator, which is the world's first tech incubator for teenage girls. The incubator provided seed funding, intensive mentorship, and support to talented young women aged 22 and under who have innovative business and technology ideas.

Work

Imafidon hosts the ''Women Tech Charge'' podcast for the ''

Evening Standard The ''Evening Standard'', formerly ''The Standard'' (1827–1904), also known as the ''London Evening Standard'', is a local free daily newspaper in London, England, published Monday to Friday in tabloid format. In October 2009, after be ...

'', where she has conducted interviews with famous people in tech, such as

Jack Dorsey Jack Patrick Dorsey (born November 19, 1976) is an American Internet entrepreneur and programmer who is a co-founder and former CEO of Twitter, Inc., as well as a co-founder and the CEO and chairperson of Block, Inc., the developer of the Squar ...

Rachel Riley Rachel Annabelle Riley (born 11 January 1986) is a British television presenter. She co-presents the Channel 4 daytime puzzle show ''Countdown'' and its comedy spin-off '' 8 Out of 10 Cats Does Countdown''. She is a mathematics graduate. Her t ...

, and

Lewis Hamilton Sir Lewis Carl Davidson Hamilton (born 7 January 1985) is a British racing driver currently competing in Formula One for Mercedes. In Formula One, Hamilton has won a joint-record seven World Drivers' Championship titles (tied with Mich ...

. She is also a trustee of the Institute for the Future of Work, who research and develop ways to improve work and working lives. Imafidon also works with organisations such as the BBC and 20th Century Fox to increase the representation of female technologists on screen. In September 2021, Imafidon co-hosted a special episode of

Channel 4 Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network operated by the state-owned enterprise, state-owned Channel Four Television Corporation. It began its transmission on 2 November 1982 and was established to provide a four ...

's ''

Countdown A countdown is a sequence of backward counting to indicate the time remaining before an event is scheduled to occur. NASA commonly employs the terms "L-minus" and "T-minus" during the preparation for and anticipation of a rocket launch, and eve ...

'' - broadcast for the channel's ''Black to Front Day'' campaign. She reprised the role later that year - standing in

while she was on maternity leave; she did the same also for an episode of ''

8 Out of 10 Cats Does Countdown ''8 Out of 10 Cats Does Countdown'' is a British comedy panel show on Channel 4. The show follows the game of ''Countdown'', but presented in a comedic panel show format seen on ''8 Out of 10 Cats'', with the show being a crossover of the two. ...

'' which was broadcast in January 2023. In December 2022, Imafidon guest-edited BBC Radio 4's ''Today'' programme.

Recognition

She was recognized as one of the BBC's 100 women of 2017.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Imafidon, Anne-Marie 1990 births Living people Mental calculators English people of Nigerian descent People from Barking, London People educated at St Joseph's Convent School Place of birth missing (living people) Members of the Order of the British Empire Female Fellows of the Royal Academy of Engineering Alumni of the University of Oxford BBC 100 Women British women computer scientists Science communicators