It's International Women's Day on Friday 8 March – a global day celebrating the social, economic, cultural and political achievements of women. This year's theme is Balance for Better, which calls for a more gender-balanced society. From the board room to the government, media coverage to employment, gender balance is essential for economies and communities to thrive.

To celebrate International Women's Day, we spoke to women from the Faculty of Life Science & Medicine King's about their careers, inspirations and what drives them.

"I'm proudest of having been the supervisor of 21 extremely talented PhD students, from those 13 are women scientists"

Dr Cristina Legido-Quigley is a Senior Lecturer in Clinical Biomarkers & Metabolomics within the School of Cancer & Pharmaceutical Sciences. 

What are you proudest of in your career?

I'm proudest of having been the supervisor of 21 extremely talented PhD students, from those 13 are women scientists. 

Why did you decide to go into this field of study/research/work? What would you tell women who want to study in your field?

The chemistry of the human body is fascinating, molecules are tiny and powerful, I did my undergraduate at King's and I would tell anybody to study chemistry because you can apply it to absolute everything. 

Who or what made you want to work in this field? How has your field changed since you started, and where do you see it going in the future?

My father, he is a metallurgist and all my science teachers.

My field has advanced a lot in 15 years, we can now test for thousands of molecules in body fluids and by using algorithms we are working towards diagnosing disease at very early stage.

The idea is to halt diseases before it is too late, like Alzheimer's Disease, liver failure or severe complications in diabetes.