#GEANTwomeninSTEM: Anne-Hélène Turpin

In honour of Women & Girls in Science Day and International Women’s Day, two important days marked by the United Nations and celebrated across the globe, we are celebrating the women in our community. As our wonder women are involved in many fields, we decided to focus on specific fields and this year we are highlighting the women in Trust & Identity! Like everything in the world of GÉANT, our trust and identity team is a strong collaboration between women (and men!) all over the globe.

There is no one-size-fits-all when it comes to our colleagues working for T&I, which shows perfectly in this series.

Let us introduce you to Anne-Hélène Turpin, federation identity enthusiast.

Who are you and what do you do?

My name is Anne-Hélène Turpin and I work as the Specific Digital Programs Manager at RENATER since December 2011.

What is your study and professional background?

I studied Computer Methods and Information and Communication Technologies at DESS.

How did you end up in STEM?

I started my career at Britair (Air France Group) as Test and Evaluation Manager for aviation planning software, then I have worked for the Academy of Nantes deploying information systems and decision-making tools. I also participated in the development of the national examination management software application at the Academy of Rennes.

Are there any challenge(s) you face as a woman in STEM (personal, in the sector, in T&I)?

The attitude of some male staff, thinking that women do not do computer science.

What is it you do in the field of T&I?

I was recruited by RENATER in 2011 as Studies and Applications Projects Department Manager and then as head of the Specific Digital Programs Department. I am in charge of the Educational Resource Access Manager ERAM, a project to advance digital education. ERAM is a free service for schools offering access to digital education resources directly from the Virtual Learning Environment (VLE) and within a legal framework assured by the Ministry. It covers all types of educational digital resources: handbooks, encyclopedia, multimedia resources as well as training resources, such as the Bank of Digital Resources for Education and Éduthèque, digital collections managed by the French Ministry.

Name your greatest experience or achievement in T&I work

My greatest experience in T&I work is having worked on Gateway between two identity federations. For several years, the federation of identity has been deployed in parallel by National Education, for primary and secondary education, and by RENATER, for higher education institutions and research organisations. National Education community has created a circle of internal trust to pool applications, RENATER, for its part, has defined a frame of reference and an architecture allowing all institutions that register to use the identity federation service. Over time, the interconnection of these two circles of trust has become indispensable. Despite different methods and tools used in these federations, the approaches are based on similar standards. On the basis of this, National Education worked with RENATER to integrate its federation hub into the Education Research federation. National Education staff can thus access resources deployed for Research Education. Conversely, resources of the National Education are made available to the staff of the superior.

Any inspiring words for our readers?

Do what you like and motivates you.

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From all the men and women at GÉANT, we would like to show our gratitude to the female career tigers, young professionals, researchers, students, mothers, experts, in short all the hard working women contributing to not only trust and identity, but all the work we are doing in R&E networking.

Make sure to keep an eye on the GÉANT blog and social media channels and follow the campaign under #GEANTwomeninSTEM.

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