The three women — Profs Lisa Houghton, Rachel Brown and Caroline Horwath, all from the university’s department of human nutrition — were yesterday reflecting on their collective achievement, just days after officially joining the university’s newest cohort of professors.
All three have been with the department for more than a decade, but Prof Houghton said they were "really pleased" to step up in a department they cared so much about.
"I certainly feel it’s very well deserved by all three of us in terms of the care and effort we’ve put into our career at both the student level and research level ... and the service that we’ve done across the university and in the community."
The trio were among 30 university academics promoted to the position of professor in an announcement in December last year.
The promotions took effect last week, on February 1.
However, Prof Houghton — also the head of department — said as well as the personal achievement, she was pleased to be a role model for other women considering a science career.
Being able to do so in time for today’s international milestone was also "a really wonderful, timely event for us," she said.
"We do have students that do say they want to be just like you, so it is important that we do have a profile in the field of science.
"I think it’s really important [to be] a role model. We can balance that career and family and have it all, I guess, although not that the daily grind is easy every day."