Ellie Dobson

One of the Tech Women Celebration 50 - women changing the ratio of the tech workforce

Ellie Dobson is VP Product at Apheris and has built a rich career spanning various industries. Ellie has held key leadership positions at Graphcore and Arundo Analytics Inc., leveraging her expertise in product management and data science. With academic roots at the University of Oxford, she holds an MPhys and a DPhil in Elementary Particle Physics. Her career journey, from Research Fellow at CERN to leading roles in tech companies, reflects her commitment to innovation and leadership.

However, Ellie didn't grow up with a strong desire to work in physics or computing.

"For most of my pre-university years, I was on a completely different path, wanting to be a musician," she says. It was a twist of fate that changed everything.

"One day, around the age of 17, I stumbled upon an issue of my dad's New Scientist magazine about quantum physics. Something about the mysteries of the quantum world captured my imagination like never before. From that moment on, I was hooked. They say sometimes, all it takes is a spark of curiosity to set you on an entirely new journey. For me, that spark was the New Scientist magazine and it led me down this thrilling path."

It's been quite the path. One of Ellie's career highlights is one that has deepened human understanding of the fundamental building blocks of the universe.

"One of the most significant milestones in my career was being a member of the team that contributed to the discovery of Higgs Boson at the European Council for Nuclear Research (CERN) in 2012. Whilst I must acknowledge that this achievement was the result of the collective efforts of a large and dedicated team, spanning decades of research, it was a truly extraordinary experience to play a role in this historic discovery."