When she was teenager, Dr Helen Scales was obsessed by the environment, but when she learned to scuba dive, her “vision turned from green to blue”, as she says in a new book.

"Suddenly all I could think about was being in the sea and swimming with fishes," Scales writes in A Passion for Science: Stories of Discovery and Invention, an anthology that explores the lives of some of our greatest scientists as part of Ada Lovelace Day.

Scuba diving wasn't the only thing that inspired Scales to pursue a career in marine biology. At around the same time, she read two books by Dr Eugenie Clark, known in marine biology circles as the Shark Lady. “I became totally wrapped up in stories of her adventures as she roamed the oceans in search of fish and I saw no reason why I couldn’t follow in her footsteps,” says Scales.

And follow in her footsteps Scales did, not only by pursuing a career in marine biology, but also by following the Shark Lady's lead in becoming a writer, contributing to National Geographic, Geographical, the Globe & Mail and the Guardian.

After carving her own career as an ichthyologist, Scales finally got the chance to meet her heroine at Florida’s Mote Marine Laboratory, where Clark was a founding director. Clark was just coming up to her ninetieth birthday and, although she has retired from teaching, she is not only still active in her research, she also still scuba dives.

Maths demands 'tension of mind beyond a woman's strength'

Eugenie Clark’s story is just one of hundreds of stories about the achievements of women in science, technology, engineering and maths that have been shared as part of Ada Lovelace Day. When I started the day five years ago, my goal was to collect these stories not only to inspire girls to study the STEM subjects, but also to provide support to women pursuing careers in these usually male-dominated fields.

Ada Lovelace is the ideal figurehead for this project: She was the world's first computer programmer, and the first person to realise that a general purpose computing machine such as Charles Babbage’s Analytical Engine could do more than just calculate large tables of numbers. It could, she said, create music and art, given the right inputs. The Analytical Engine, she wrote, “weaves algebraic patterns just as the Jacquard loom weaves flowers and leaves".

This daughter of “mad, bad and dangerous to know” Lord Byron achieved this distinction despite the fierce prejudices of the 19th Century. Her tutor Augustus De Morgan echoed the accepted view of the time when he said that maths problems presented “a very great tension of mind beyond the strength of a woman’s physical power”.

But Ada persevered in her studies, and De Morgan recognised her brilliance when he said that had she been a man, she would have had the potential to become “an original mathematical investigator, perhaps of first-rate eminence”.

From nerd cabaret to Wikipedia edit-a-thons

Ada Lovelace Day is not only about raising Ada’s profile, but also shining a spotlight on the achievements of all women in STEM, both historic and modern. It’s about drawing inspiration from all women, not just the famous ones, and supporting women at every stage of their career, from the choice of what to study at school and university through to often challenging professional milestones.

Our flagship event, Ada Lovelace Day Live! - a nerd cabaret featuring talks, science demonstrations, comedy and song - is a cross-discipline celebration of women in STEM, and will be held at Imperial College London from 6pm, 15 October. Performers include science communicator and demo designer Fran Scott, bioengineer Professor Molly Stevens, Chi Onwurah MP, Shadow Cabinet Office Minister with responsibility for cybersecurity, and technologist and comedy writer Leila Johnston, amongst others.

There will also be 40 independently organised grassroots events across Europe, North and South America, including several Wikipedia edit-a-thons that aim to increase the number of articles in the online encyclopaedia about women in STEM. There are also many other events, including talks, pub meet-ups, conferences and exhibitions covering the work of a plethora of women, from paleontologists to musicians to artists and sewing machine pioneers.

Take part, and share your stories of inspiring women

At its core, Ada Lovelace Day is about sharing stories about the women who have inspired you to dream big and pursue your goals, despite the obstacles in your way. We encourage everyone, men and women, to write about a woman (or women!) that they admire, to post the link to our site, and explore the resulting map of posts.

It doesn’t matter where you post your tribute - it can be on your blog, on Google Plus, on Tumblr, or below in the comments - just make sure that you add its permalink, the URL that links directly to it, to our list so that others can read about the women who have inspired you.

Suw Charman-Anderson is the founder of Ada Lovelace Day and a freelance social technologist. Ada Lovelace Day Live tickets are available online or on the door from 6pm, 15 October, Imperial College London, £5/£15. A Passion for Science: Stories of Discovery and Invention is available from the FindingAda.com website only, for £5.99.