Dr Emma Ross, PhD Exercise Physiology, Brunel University

She began her career teaching physiology and soon led a team supporting our Olympic and Paralympic athletes.

Dr Ross teaches girls and women how their bodies affect athletic performance and, in her words, helps them become “architects of their own health”. Having experienced postnatal depression and debilitating periods herself, she has a fire in her belly “to ensure that, in future, women are fully educated in what to expect from mind and body”.

Over 30 scientific publications and a Sunday Times ‘Changemaker’ SWOTY Award later, Dr Ross' expertise is world renowned. She is now the scientist behind The Well HQ, a women’s initiative providing health courses to sports professionals and facilitating girls' sport in schools.

Anything else? “I’m the first person in the world to take a brain stimulator via Yak to Everest base camp (for research purposes, not just for fun!)”