Lisa Rajan (born 1972) is a children's author and former politician. She has written 20 books in the Tara Binns and Dani Binns series published by Collins Publishing, a division of

HarperCollins HarperCollins Publishers LLC is one of the Big Five English-language publishing companies, alongside Penguin Random House, Simon & Schuster, Hachette, and Macmillan. The company is headquartered in New York City and is a subsidiary of News Cor ...

Early life

Rajan lives in South London and studied at

Imperial College Imperial College London (legally Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine) is a public research university in London, United Kingdom. Its history began with Prince Albert, consort of Queen Victoria, who developed his vision for a cu ...

. She has a BSc in Biotechnology and an MSc in Science Communication. She has worked in scientific research, scientific publishing, medical copywriting and was a writer for the

New Scientist ''New Scientist'' is a magazine covering all aspects of science and technology. Based in London, it publishes weekly English-language editions in the United Kingdom, the United States and Australia. An editorially separate organisation publishe ...

. She was previously an elected member on Southwark Council.

Career

Politician

Between 2002 and 2016, Rajan was a Liberal Democrat

councillor A councillor is an elected representative for a local government council in some countries. Canada Due to the control that the provinces have over their municipal governments, terms that councillors serve vary from province to province. Unl ...

for

Southwark London Borough Council Southwark London Borough Council is the local authority for the London Borough of Southwark in Greater London, England. It is a London borough council, one of 32 in the United Kingdom capital of London. History There have previously been a numbe ...

, representing the ward of Surrey Docks. At the 2002 local election, Rajan was elected as a Liberal Democrat

for

, representing the ward of Surrey Docks. During her time on the council, she served as a cabinet member for Environment and Transport and then Children's Services and Education. On 24 May 2021, Rajan was made a Honorary Alderwoman of Southwark recognising her service to the council.

Author

In 2017 after having a daughter she realised most children's books had male lead characters so she decided to write stories where a girl does the jobs normally associated with men. The Tara Binns and Dani Binns stories feature a different

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 ...

career. Each book is produced in conjunction with real STEM professionals provided by the

WISE Campaign The WISE Campaign (Women into Science and Engineering) encourages women and girls to value and pursue science, technology, engineering and maths-related courses in school or college and move on into related careers and progress. Its mission statem ...

. In 2020 they were a 3-star winner in the STEM category of the Teach Primary awards 2020.

Bibliography

Tara Binns books

Dani Binns books

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Rajan, Lisa Living people 1972 births Alumni of Imperial College London English children's writers Liberal Democrats (UK) councillors