One is developing a robot to explain energy, another has contributed to making the movement of electrons observable. The seven winners of the European Women in STEM Awards recount scientific journeys that lead to research, industry or business creation.
A robot given to her by her uncle made Lila Trepy want to learn to program. She was nine years old. Since then, she has joined a club, participated in a European competition and imagined Joule, a conversational robot that answers young people’s questions about energy. Her name now appears on the same list as that of Anne L’Huillier, 2023 Nobel Prize in Physics.
Women in STEM Europe brought together these paths in the first edition of its European Women in STEM Awards, whose six prizes and the jury’s favorite were awarded on October 22 in Paris.
The issue begins at the time of study choices, at the start of the 2025 school year, girls represented only 14.2% of the enrollment in the “engineering sciences and physical sciences” specialty in the general final year, according to the DEPP.
French tech already has references, notably with Pascale Senellart who transforms research on photons into quantum computing technologies with Quandela, Maud Vinet who mobilizes her experience in semiconductors at Quobly and Hélène Huby who leads a large-scale space transport project with The Exploration Company. So many role models that make visible the path between scientific training and the construction of an industrial project.
Transform knowledge into a usable tool
The first winners show this transition on very different scales. It can start with a signal as everyday as the voice, with a medical image or with a problem in the functioning of financial markets.
Lara Gervaise, Technology prizeworks on what the voice can reveal about health. Virtuosis AI, which she co-founded, analyzes acoustic characteristics like pitch, rhythm and vocal quality from samples that can be as short as thirty seconds. The company seeks to derive indicators for screening and monitoring health, as well as for well-being.
Stéphanie Magazzeni, Engineering prizecontinues this relationship between observation and medical decision in retinal imaging. The organization is rewarding her for her contribution to technology used in the diagnosis of diseases that can lead to blindness.
Chief Scientific Officer of Heidelberg Engineering since 2025, she has more than twenty-five years of experience in medical technologies, particularly in ophthalmology. Its activity links scientific work to the instruments and practices of health professionals.
Maria Scetta, Mathematics & Data prizeapplies mathematics to another difficulty: a stock can be listed on a stock exchange and remain difficult to buy or sell. When orders are few, a transaction can cause the price to vary significantly. DeltaBlock, which she co-founded, develops algorithmic solutions to improve this liquidity, particularly for small and mid-caps.
Continue research and open your discipline
Mamta Pommier, Science prizecombines her activity as an astrophysicist with an international commitment to the place of women in astronomy. She chairs the “Women in Astronomy” group of the International Astronomical Union, which works on their visibility and career conditions.
Anne L’Huillier, European STEM Role Model of the Yearcontributed to opening a new field of observation of matter. In 1987, she discovered that passing an infrared laser through a gas produces numerous light harmonics. The study of this phenomenon prepares advances on attosecond pulses, which make it possible to explore the dynamics of electrons.
An attosecond represents a billionth of a billionth of a second. The 2023 Nobel Prize in Physics, shared with Pierre Agostini and Ferenc Krausz, recognizes this work. Between the initial observation and this recognition, more than thirty-five years passed. This course also gives the measure of the time necessary to develop knowledge and the means to exploit it.
Different gaps depending on the disciplines
| Specialty in general terminal | Share of girls |
|---|---|
| Engineering sciences and physical sciences | 14.2% |
| Digital and computer sciences | 15.5% |
| Mathematics | 41.8% |
Source: DEPP, 2025 school year, France, public and private education under contract under the Ministry of National Education.
Learn by building, then transmit in turn
Lila Trepy, Young STEM Leader awardfound in robotics a way to put his curiosity to the test. In an interview with the municipal magazine of Saint-Germain-lès-Arpajon, published in April 2025, she confided how the desire to understand electronic objects had led her to dismantle them, then to create her own montages.
This learning continued within Atelier Creatik and during competitions, where you have to design, program and work with other teams. With Joule, she puts this practice at the service of other young people: her conversational robot answers their questions about energy and allows them to discover the issues.
Ema Nicole Gheorghe, jury’s favoritetakes this path through algorithmics. Silver medalist at the European Girls’ Olympiad in Informatics 2025 and gold at the Romanian Informatics Olympiad, she competitively solves problems that require designing and programming algorithms. She also voluntarily gives algorithmic lessons to other young people, particularly girls, according to Women in STEM Europe.
Communicate the steps that make the next step possible
Through its seven winners and its selection of 71 Talents 2026, resulting from applications and additional identification, Women in STEM Europe seeks to broaden the available references. The documentary project “Hors Calculs”, presented during the evening, enriches this approach by following women from college to professional life.
FW.MEDIA strongly supports this initiative to raise awareness of those who build these technologies and tell their stories about their work, in order to go beyond preconceived ideas and show a generation what science allows us to design, manufacture and direct.
An intention that Léna Touchard, general director of Women in STEM Europe, perfectly sums up: “A role model is not necessarily an exceptional figure: it is also a woman who is two, five or twenty years ahead of you, and whose journey shows that what comes next is possible. »
