when you're six years old, your role model isn't Mary Curry. My role model was my mom,

and she remains my role model to this day. She really had this huge impact on me, where she

gave me this almost like absolute certainty that I could do anything. She told me, you know,

every day, there's nothing a boy can do that you cannot do.

And you owe it to yourself to do it, actually.

Science on the menu, a podcast by the European Food Safety Authority.

Hello and welcome to Science on the Menu, the podcast of the European Food Safety Authority, EFSA.

My name is Maria and I will be your host

for this episode of our podcast dedicated to women in science.

Joining me today is our very own Oceanne Alper,

a scientific officer in EFSA's Novo Foods team.

Welcome, Oceanne.

Thank you very much for having me, Maria.

I'm very happy to be here.

Thank you for coming. So together with

Osean, we're going to dive into what it's really like to be a female scientist in Europe.

We'll discuss the progress that we have made towards female representation in science,

but also some of the many challenges this still remain. So, Osean, quite a few big topics there to unpack.

A lot to unpack. I'm here for it. But before we dive in, we actually have a small surprise for you.

A surprise. We know that today is a special day. It is a big day for me. Yes. It's your 40th birthday.

My 40th birthday, yes. So we wanted to just give

you a little something to thank you for spending the day with that. A cake. Here's the magic hand.

...