Discussing half-baked ideas productive for water studies

GILLIAN LEWIS

Microbiologist. Environmental consultant for Woodward-Clyde and senior lecturer at Auckland University.
Age:40


What makes your day at work?


My motivation is to understand why environmental changes, particularly microbiological changes, occur, and to use that knowledge to build solutions to environmental challenges.

What really makes my day is adding a new piece to my understanding - like working how much of a problem stormwater is on beaches. Sometimes the pieces are remarkably small.

How did you get where you are today?


It was really a matter of growing up for me - I grew up beside the Mataura River in Southland and it was seriously polluted. [It] sparked my interest in finding positive ways to improve the problem.

Also, having a passion for understanding what bacteria and viruses are up to in the environment.

What is the most important lesson you've learnt on your way up?


That no matter what you're doing, it is possible to make it enjoyable for both you and the people around you.

Believe it or not, I actually enjoy myself when I'm thinking about the interaction between sewage wastes and stormwater discharges.

How have you dealt with any pitfalls in your career?


A real danger is not asking enough questions to properly understand the nuances of a project. To work as an effective team of environmental consultants - both scientists and engineers - we have to understand each other and although asking apparently stupid questions can be uncomfortable, it often gets results.

What advice would you give to a young person starting a business career?


Take the time to build a core of real strength in some specialist area (I have done this in the area of microbiology) but work to build some breadth around that strength, which is what I have tried to do in the wider area of environmental science.

Specialist work allows you a focus and base of credibility to build new initiatives, while the breadth gives you the scope to recognise that new initiatives are possible. This is a critical skill in the very competitive area of environmental consultancy, and while it isn't an easy approach, I've found it enormously rewarding.

What's the biggest challenge for your organisation in the present economy?


In my particular area of water quality there are some really big issues with respect to aging sewers and stormwater systems. We are working with an infrastructure that is aging but in a climate where people do not want to spend any more on rates for pipes they can't see.

It's a community, not Government, issue. People want to live in the cities and have access to all the things that cities provide, but there is a price to that. [As consultants] we must develop integrated and practical environmental solutions, recognise changing social expectations and be able to think into the future.

What one thing would you have done differently throughout your business life?


If I find myself looking back, then its time for a change. One thing I should have done more of early in my career was to build stronger networks of people with similar interests - in the broader sense. I find that discussing half-baked ideas with people I respect is incredibly productive - you need a range of those trusted people around so you get a breadth of intellectual fertiliser.

What ambitions do you have?


To keep building my environmental understanding and to apply it where it will do the most good. I don't get too structured in my [thoughts] because if I channel my thinking I might miss the off-beam opportunities and left-field thinking that has led to some of my most productive projects.

How do you relax?


I create things that satisfy my own, rather disorganised, sense of beauty. I grow flowers rather than garden, paint garish acrylics, make junky jewellery with power tools and spend hours marvelling at the beauty of the sea.

* Dr Gillian Lewis spoke with Dita De Boni.