Presented by the Science in Australian Gender Equity (SAGE) Athena SWAN project in celebration of gender equity at the ANU

Hedy Lamarr is an actor from the golden years of Hollywood, who is not necessarily on the radar of non-buffs as much as her contemporaries like Bette Davis or Ingrid Bergman. Her highest profile role was as Delilah in 1949’s Samson and Delilah.

However, she has a very interesting story, one that is laid out well in the documentary Bombshell: The Hedy Lamarr Story. I want the story to unveil itself for you during the film, so I won’t give the details. Let’s just say that your use of technology to access information could have been vastly different or under-developed if it wasn’t for something Lamarr designed during World War II.

Of course, being a female inventor in the middle of the 20th century, she didn’t get the acknowledgement or remuneration that she deserved, which subsequently led to a life riddled with insecurity and depression. As well as being informative, this portrait of a desperate woman, who just happened to live in the wrong period of history, drew a great deal of empathy from me. So come along not just to be educated, but also to be moved.