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Ambitiously Her

Dr. Mariana Quiroga Londoño 2 Episodes Oct 15, 2026

Ambitiously Her is a podcast for women in STEM and beyond who aspire to become everything they imagined. Hosted by Dr. Mariana Quiroga Londoño, a Bioinformatics Postdoc Scientist in Oncology and Cambridge University alumna, the show shares her personal journey and features candid conversations with women who have walked similar paths. Listeners can expect mindset shifts, career strategies, and practical takeaways to grow ambitiously and unapologetically, regardless of their starting point or background.

Episodes

AI, Public Policy & Angel Investing: Dorothy Chou’s Unconventional Career Path Oct 15, 2026 01:03:47 Dorothy Chou spent nearly a decade shaping how AI meets the public, from building the industry’s first transparency report to leading the public engagement lab at Google DeepMind. Now she’s an angel investor with 40+ companies in her portfolio and chair of UCL Partners. In this conversation, she shares how a self-described “worst at science and math” kid of biologist immigrants ended up at the cen

Breaking Generational Cycles, Play Therapy & How to Set Boundaries ft. Dr. Sydney Conroy Oct 3, 2026 00:47:29 In this episode, Dr. Mariana sits down with Dr. Sydney Conroy, a therapist, writer, educator and researcher focused on mental health, trauma and play therapy. Sydney earned her PhD from the University of Cambridge, where she studied the impact of COVID-19 on mental health and collective trauma recovery. She is also the creator of the Soft Academia Planner and the Soft Academia advice column on Sub

Taking Up Space: Becoming a PI, Mother & Advocate in Academia ft. Dr. Simone Webb Sep 14, 2026 01:00:59 Dr. Simone Webb is a Royal Society Career Development Fellow at Newcastle University to transition to become a PI, where she investigates one of biology's most intriguing frontiers: how the nervous system regulates the formation of blood and immune cells. With a PhD from Newcastle, an MSci from UCL, and multiple publications in the world's most prestigious scientific journals, she's bu

First-Gen Neurodevelopment Postdoc on Multiple Income Streams, Endometriosis & Motherhood ft. Dr. Cindy Pham Aug 31, 2026 01:11:35 In this episode of Ambitiously Her, host Dr. Mariana Quiroga Londoño sits down with Dr. Cindy Pham, a postdoctoral research associate in neurodevelopment and mental health at King's College London, for a conversation that goes far deeper than academia. Cindy shares her journey as a first-generation Vietnamese-Australian scientist: from her father's escape from Vietnam by boat with less tha

From Blood cancer patient at 21 to Cambridge PhD & Gates Scholar ft Julia Viladevall Aug 14, 2026 00:39:56 Julia Viladevall, PhD researcher in hematology at the University of Cambridge's Stem Cell Institute, joins the show to talk about the winding, deeply personal path that led her there. In this episode, Dr. Mariana sits down with Julia to talk about her journey from Argentona, near Barcelona, to Paris to Cambridge, and how a Hodgkin's lymphoma diagnosis at 21, just days into her dream rese

Breaking into Biotech & Pharma without a PhD ft Marie from Lab Skills Academy Jul 31, 2026 01:00:50 You don't need a PhD to build a career in biotech; you need curiosity, consistency, and the courage to say yes.In this episode, Dr. Mariana sits down with Marie, founder of Lab Skills Academy (@labskillsacademy) and host of the When in STEM Podcast, to talk about her unconventional path into cell and gene therapy. Marie shares how a bachelor's degree and Northeastern University's co-op

How to build a career in Bioinformatics ft Dr. Camilla Lyons Jul 14, 2026 00:59:12 In this episode, Dr. Mariana Quiroga Londoño sits down with her longtime friend and fellow bioinformatician, Dr. Camila Lyons, a PhD from Cambridge University and now a postdoc at EMBL. But this conversation goes far beyond the CV. Mariana and Camila open up about what it's like to be women navigating male-dominated rooms, the loneliness of a PhD, being ghosted after job interviews, and the co

How Training for HYROX Transformed my Mindset, Purpose & Resilience Jun 30, 2026 00:28:36 Most people underestimate how deeply discipline shapes your identity and how much pushing through discomfort can unlock hidden strength. In this episode of Ambitiously Her, Dr. Mariana Quiroga Londoño shares how training for Hyrox, a demanding hybrid fitness race, transformed her perspective on resilience, purpose, and self-love, proving that even without an athletic background, you can conquer go

How a First-Gen, Immigrant Mom graduated from Yale with a PhD ft Dr. Fernanda Sulantay Vargas Jun 15, 2026 00:52:57 Most of us struggle with balancing careers, motherhood, and personal dreams, but Dr. Fernanda Sulantay Vargas proves it’s possible. In this episode, Mariana and Fernanda discuss Fernanda’s journey from community college to a Yale PhD in computational science, all while raising two children and breaking barriers as a Salvadoran immigrant and first-generation Latina in STEM. Fernanda opens up about

Episode 0: My Path, My Purpose & Why I Built This For You May 31, 2026 00:18:49 This is the episode before Episode 1, the one where Mariana shares her own path. Where she came from, what she carried, and why that journey is exactly what led her to create this podcast.Ambitiously Her is for the woman who refuses to shrink. The one who is building something meaningful and knows the path forward is rarely a straight line. If you've ever felt like you're doing too much an

Ambitiously Her

Episodes

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