Ada Lovelace Day encourages people to champion the female scientists and engineers that have inspired them. Illustration: Alex Bertram-Powell

Today is Ada Lovelace Day, a worldwide grass-roots event set up to promote female role models in science, technology, engineering and maths (the STEM subjects). The idea is, by making these women more visible, not only are their profiles raised, but the profiles of all women in these fields.

This year, Ada Lovelace Day has also produced an ebook, for which I wrote a chapter, alongside a selection of other scientists and writers. I wrote about Jean Golding, the lady who set up Children of the 90s, the dataset I use for my PhD, but to hear about her you'll have to get the book! Instead, I've asked friends, colleagues and people I admire to share their tales of inspirational women.

Professor Jenny Thomas, CBE, physicist, leading the Minos experiment in Fermilab

Jenny Thomas is a neutrino scientist who arrived at UCL at the same time as me, in 1996. I was very green. There was a lot about UCL that we liked, but a lot that we wanted to change. Without Jenny's uncompromising lack of fear and "we have to stick together" mantra, I think I would have bounced off into mediocrity, or another institution anyway. But together we succeeded. She had (and has) an amazing ability, in science and in institutional politics, to see where we ought to be, regardless of where we happen to be right now. This is liberating and inspirational. I've learned a huge amount from Jenny, both about science and about how to get it done effectively.

Professor Jonathan Butterworth, physicist working on the Cern LHC, and Guardian Science Blogger

Dr Jane Mellanby, emeritus fellow in physiology and psychology

Dr Jane Mellanby, physiologist and my tutor at Oxford University, is intimidatingly clever and staunchly individual. She turns her research powers to whatever interests her, including why women are less likely than men to get firsts. Dr Mellanby accepted me into St Hilda's (at the time an all-female college) to study Psychology, Philosophy and Physiology and backed me up when I wanted to study all three subjects (something you now aren't allowed to do). In tutorials she cut through the vague and asked questions about whatever I didn't understand. She held a week-long reading party in her own home where mobile phones were banned and journal authors visited. She taught me to question whether research really says what it claims and she inspired me in her refusal to let her interests be constrained by subject, role or expectation.

Dr Lucy Maddox, clinical psychologist, lecturer and BSA media fellow

Beatrix Potter, author, illustrator and natural scientist

My grandmother had a wonderful set of heavy brass Beatrix Potter character figurines that almost wore away from the constant rubbing of my sister's and my hands when we were children. We loved them. And we loved her stories. But aside from her children's books, Potter had always been deeply involved in studying and painting animals, plants and insects, becoming a noted botanist with a particular penchant for fungi. Despite having no formal scientific training she performed experiments at her home in the Lake District, painstakingly recording her observations that led to her submitting a scientific paper. Her work epitomised the spirit of the Victorian amateur scientist in a changing world dominated by heavily whiskered men. A brilliant painter, a fastidious observer of the natural world, a wit and a rebel. Just like Peter Rabbit.

Dallas Campbell, science broadcaster

Professor Caryn Lerman, Mary W Calkins professor of psychiatry

I've been fortunate enough in my career to have worked with some outstanding senior colleagues; this matters enormously, since scientists learn to be PhD supervisors, mentors and so on through these interactions early in their careers. In other words, if you're lucky enough to work with supportive, intellectually generous people, this influences your own internal model of how to behave. One of the most important of these is Caryn Lerman at the University of Pennsylvania. I was a visiting fellow in her lab as a postdoc, just before I moved to Bristol to set up my own research group. My time working with Caryn taught me two things. The first was the value of integrating multiple research perspectives, from the basic (animal models, genetics) to the applied (human psychopharmacology, clinical trials), and that this could be achieved in a single group. The second was the importance of trusting the members of your group to think and work independently, make their own mistakes (and hopefully learn from them!), and feel ownership of their successes. She continues to be a friend and colleague, and I would not be where I am without the time I spent working in her lab.

Professor Marcus Munafò, biological psychologist

Dr Joan Bond, research chemist and head teacher

A deciding factor in my wanting to work in science was our head teacher, Dr Joan Bond. Dr Bond had been a research chemist before moving into teaching and she took us for chemistry O-level. She evidently was a successful synthetic chemist (I was delighted to find a load of her publications online) but as impressive to me was the stories she used to tell about her research life. I found these endlessly fascinating, not least because she was continually having accidents (most stories ending up with holes burnt in floors, things stuck to ceilings, handfuls of sulphur being chucked at fugitive mercury escaping under floorboards). I loved all these stories, and (the possibly slightly clumsy) Dr Bond made working as a research chemist seem very dramatic.

I'm struck now that this was probably the first time I'd ever heard a woman, who wasn't a teacher, talking about her working life and her job. Dr Bond seemed to me both a great teacher and a wonderful role model: she was a woman of dignity and intelligence and you really wanted her to like and respect you, even as she wandered over and broke all your test tubes (she remained notably clumsy). I know I'm both lucky and privileged that my interest in science was met by an example of the kind of adult woman I could aspire to be.

Professor Sophie Scott, neuroscientist

Professor Kia Nobre, and Professor Dorothy Bishop

Growing up, I had lots of science books and I was particularly drawn to the story of Marie Curie. Her sacrifice and achievements at such a period in history were astonishing. In my academic life I know many inspirational women, but two in particular have had a profound effect on my work. The first is Professor Kia Nobre from Oxford University. Kia is a powerhouse in the cognitive neuroscience of human attention and memory. I remember, several years ago, the first time I saw Kia give a lecture and being blown away by the pace and sophistication of her research. The second is Professor Dorothy Bishop, also from Oxford. Dorothy's blog articles inspired me to pursue science communication and, in particular, the long-overdue reforms we need to scientific publishing. From Kia I've developed an aspiration to do better, more ambitious, cognitive neuroscience; from Dorothy I've been inspired to try and change the way we do science in the first place.

Dr Chris Chambers, senior research fellow in psychology

Professor Penny Gowland, physicist specialising in MRI

I've been particularly inspired and encouraged by Professor Penny Gowland, a physicist who specialises in Magnetic Resonance Imaging. She was my tutor and the only female lecturer during my undergraduate degree in physics with medical physics at Nottingham University, and has two children. When I met her she was working part-time so she could balance her work and home responsibilities, and seeing her as a respected physicist and hands-on mother showed me it was possible to be both. Penny's accomplishments are evidence that part-time working doesn't automatically hamper your productivity, which is a breath of fresh air in today's "long hours" culture.

Dr Heather Williams, senior medical physicist for nuclear medicine, and director of ScienceGrrl

Dr Claire Johnston, medical doctor and PhD immunologist

She isn't a famous scientist, a group leader, or highly cited – she's my sister, Claire Johnston – and she's the reason I'm a scientist.

When we were growing up, we had no relatable scientific role models. I remember us doing crazy "chemistry experiments" when we were kids with household chemicals. Claire was the only person I knew that had gone to university. Without her, it's likely that university wouldn't even have seemed like an option to me. That was the reality of our schools.

She studied microbiology at Manchester University, before moving to Imperial College for her Masters, and then back to Manchester to complete her PhD investigating immunity to parasites. Postdoctoral positions around the UK were followed by a postgraduate medical degree at Swansea University. She's currently a foundation medical doctor in Edinburgh – and still inspiring me.

Dr Rich Johnston, materials researcher and BSA media fellow

Mrs Francine Thomas, secondary school science teacher (now head of physics)

It would be tempting to name one of the many important but overlooked historical female scientists, but as someone who essentially bumbled his way into science, the most obvious choice for influential female scientist would be my A-level chemistry teacher, Mrs Francine Thomas. I knew I wanted to do science, but Mrs Thomas was the first person who taught me to really engage with and enjoy it for its own sake (particularly chemistry, which I always struggled with). Plus, I remember me as a teenager, and not once did she snap and try to stab me with a broken test tube. For both these reasons, she deserves maximum kudos.

Dr Dean Burnett, psychiatry lecturer and Guardian science blogger

Professor Emer Colleran, microbiologist

The woman scientist who inspired my career in science is Professor Emer Colleran. She trail-blazed a way through the very male world of wastewater engineering and microbiology in the 1980s and 1990s. During this time, she was the foremost Irish expert in environmental science, and a top European leader in bioenergy production and wastewater treatment. Until her retirement in 2007, Prof Colleran was chair of microbiology at the National University of Ireland Galway, where she inspired thousands of undergraduates and steered scores of PhD students. Throughout her career, she was a prolific environmentalist and heritage campaigner, and much of this positively spilled into her teaching and mentoring.

Dr Gavin Collins, lecturer in microbiology and BSA media fellow

Professor Eileen Kowler, vision psychologist

My PhD looked at how we make predictive eye movements towards moving blobs on a screen. It sounds pretty dull, but understanding how that process works underlies a lot of our understanding about how we make decisions. One of the most important researchers in that field is Professor Eileen Kowler at Rutgers University. Reading her work really brought home to me how exciting and important basic science can be, and definitely helped to spur me on through the early stages of my research career. The fact that she won the 2013 Davida Teller award for an outstanding woman vision scientist with a strong history of mentoring just underlines what a brilliant scientist and teacher she is.

Dr Pete Etchells, lecturer in biological psychology and Guardian science blogger