At the moment I am working on two major projects. The first of these is editing the 2004 Annual Report. For this I have to collect and edit articles from members of the School, choose which photographs to use, and then put everything together using a desktop publishing programs. The other project is a study of equity issues in the School of Physics. This is a year long project, funded by the UNSW Equity and Diversity Unit, looking at the progress of academic staff and how to improve working conditions, particularly for the women academics. This is mostly finished – we are now graphing our results, writing the final report and developing recommendations.

So my plan for Friday 15th April was to find some final statistics for the equity report, proofread the latest draft version, check the layout of the annual report, and find some additional photos for some of the articles. After I had arrived at work, and had my first coffee of the day, I received an email requesting some statistics about the degrees we run. By the time I had discussed this with the Undergraduate and Postgraduate Directors, found the information and sent it off, it was already lunchtime! Where did my morning go?

After lunch I had to submit some changes for the new Faculty prospectus before it went to the printers, check some plans for Science in the City – a major outreach event held for schools during Science Week for which I will be organising the UNSW physics display, and book a room for next week’s quantum physics exam. Several students and academics dropped into my office as well during the afternoon, to ask questions or to get advice. So I finally began to find the statistics for the equity report at 4pm! I managed to get all the information I needed from the computer databases by 5pm, but decided work on the annual report could wait until Monday morning.

When I was younger my favourite subjects at school were english and history – I didn’t become interested in science until Year 9 when we were taught about Newton’s equations of motion. After that I was hooked, continued to study chemistry and physics throughout Years 11 and 12, and ended up completing a Bachelor of Science in chemistry. However, I realised long before I graduated that I wanted to work with people, rather than in a chemistry lab. So I also completed Graduate Diplomas in Science Communication and Science Education.

Like many science graduates, I don’t work as a scientist. However, much of my work requires the scientific knowledge from my studies, whether it be advising students on the best subjects to study or writing articles to include in the annual report. And even the day-to-day “adminstrivia” of my job uses the problem solving skills I developed though my degree. I may not be doing science research myself, but I’m still working in science and sharing my interest with others.