Environmental
Engineering
Where Females are not so Rare
Margret
Dunlop
I am an environmental engineer working for
a consulting firm in Australia. I work for a wide range of
clients including developers, government and industry.
My team and I are undertaking some water monitoring
work for an industrial client at the moment. We have been
out in the field for the last couple of days,
monitoring groundwater wells and surface waters. The results
are starting to be tabulated and so I'm looking to make sense
of what is happening now to predict the potential impacts
of a change in their operations on the environment.
Our data and decision making will help them make the decision
on what to do in the future. The decision will have to be
approved by the environmental regulators so its' important
that we have a good understanding of what's going on.
I did a combined degree in environmental
engineering and science at uni which
allowed me to do a wide range of useful things. Fortunately,
there were lots of other women in my course, so it was easy
to get along.
I spent some time doing 'typical' engineering afterwards,
designing water and wastewater systems but it just wasn't
for me. Fortunately, I found a job in the environmental industry
and really enjoyed the work. I am beginning to work on more
challenging jobs in terms of managing nutrient
impacts on waterways and wetlands from new developments and
redevelopment of intensive agricultural areas such as piggeries
and chicken farms.
There is not much known about this so there's lots of chance
to experiment and develop innovative solutions for big and
small problems. I get to combine chemistry, hydrology
(water science) and biology, which
is really what I want to do.
I was interested in science at school and decided to become
an engineer because it seemed to be a career path that allowed
you to make decisions rather than just describing
what was going on. I also wanted to do something environmental.
My family considers chemistry to be a dinner table
discussion topic so it was almost assumed that I
would do a science based degree. However, it was still a bit
out there for me to be a female engineer.
Some of my classmates definitely thought it was odd, but I'm
very happy with what I do.
|
|
