To mark International Woman's Day 2023, The FEBS Journal is pleased to feature a woman scientist who has made incredible contributions to the field of gas-phase structural biology and protein folding research.

Professor Dame Carol Robinson started her journey in science at the age of 16, as a lab technician at Pfizer (based in Kent). At the same time, she also studied part-time, taking evening classes to obtain a degree in chemistry. After a master’s degree at the University of Swansea and a PhD at the University of Cambridge, she worked as a post-doc in Peter Bennett’s lab (University of Bristol), before taking a career break of eight years to spend time with her family but made a strong comeback, working on protein folding at the University of Oxford.

Carol has made history as the first female professor of chemistry at the University of Cambridge (2001), and also at the University of Oxford (2009).  In her research, she has continuously pushed boundaries, pioneering the application of mass spectrometry for elucidation of the 3D architecture of macromolecular complexes, including membrane-bound assemblies and for her significant scientific achievements she has received many awards and honours, including Royal Society Fellowship, the Davy Medal, the Rosalind Franklin Award, and the FEBS/EMBO Women in Science Award.

In this interview-based article, Carol discusses some of her career highlights and ongoing research aspirations, and reflects on her unique experiences to offer advice to early career scientists.

Read the interview in full here: https://febs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/febs.16743