Women in STEM

The Managing Director of Merck Healthcare ANZ reflects on an exciting career in science and provides advice to new STEM graduates looking to make a difference.

From collecting stamps and organising dolls as a child, a fascination with order and patterns has led Edith Cowan University’s Professor Caroline Finch to rise to the top of the research world in sports injury prevention and recovery, using her mathematics knowledge to codify injuries into datasets that could be used by institutions around the country.

Louise Adams is the chief executive of Australia and New Zealand at Aurecon Group, an international engineering company based in Australia. A civil engineer by trade, she is also a member of Chief Executive Women, and a graduate of the Wharton Business School.

Seeing patients suffer, and not being able to help drove Julie Bernhardt towards researching the brain to help stroke patients recover. Improving the talent pipeline for women in medical research brings science closer to finding the answers that can help save lives.

For Defence, the lack of women in STEM degrees and within the pipeline is a capability issue. A diverse and inclusive workforce is not only key to the nation’s prosperity, but its security. As one of the largest investors into R&D, and novel technology, it is crucial that the staffing of Defence reflects the society we want to build.

Anastasia Volkova is the founder of satellite farming startup Flurosat, a precision farming platform that allows farmers to automate the monitoring of crops.

If want to encourage more brilliant young people from a wide diversity of backgrounds into science and technology, they need to see role models from backgrounds just like theirs working at the highest levels of our sector.

Muneera Bano’s work focuses on designing technologies that will help in creating an unbiased, fair and inclusive AI-based future for all people. Throughout her career, she has challenged existing biases in computer science and proven a point: given equal opportunity, girls can outperform men in any field.

Astrophysicist Kathyrn Ross is on a mission to have women recognised in NSW science courses