Dr Essie Rodgers is a lecturer in animal physiology at the University of Canterbury.
Conservation biologist and University of Canterbury lecturer, Dr Essie Rodgers, is the recipient of the 2022 L’Oréal-UNESCO For Women in Science fellowship.
The L’Oréal fellowship was created to assist exceptional early career female scientists. I’d actually applied a few times in previous years, so I was on the fence about doing it again, as it takes a lot of effort, but I decided to give it another try, and I’m so glad I did, as it’s such an honour to have received it.
I’m also a lecturer at Canterbury University, although I’m originally from Brisbane, which is a really biodiverse place where my family spent a lot of time outdoors, either camping or going to the beach. That really nurtured my innate fascination with animals because I was that child who was always bringing home lady beetles and stink bugs. I certainly never thought bugs were icky as some people do.
When I was 10, Dad’s work took us to Peru for a year and during our stay we visited the Amazon. Before we went into the jungle, we went to this really wild zoo where the monkeys weren’t in cages. They even tried to take the hair tie off my wrist, and I loved it. Then to go to the actual jungle and feel that wildness - we even saw pink dolphins, which were magical - that really lit a fire in me. Also around that time I discovered people like Jane Goodall, and I realised I could aim for a career working with wildlife in remote locations.
Back in Australia, I focused on getting good grades, because I knew if I did well I could study whatever I wanted. About that same time, I also heard that boys were better at maths and science than girls, and that made me try even harder to be better at those subjects.
Originally, I focused on primatology so that I could work with monkeys, then my interest broadened to explore conservation physiology, which is a bit like medicine for animals, but more to do with the threats and pressures animals face than about veterinary science.
I was determined to do my PhD overseas when I was offered a saltwater crocodile project, looking at how climate change affects their physiology and diving behaviour. This meant I had baby crocodiles in the lab. They’d come to me as eggs, and when they hatched they looked really cute and made high-pitched baby noises, which was rather deceptive as they’re aggressive from day one and come out of the egg biting. They are such fascinating creatures.
While I was doing my PhD at The University of Queensland my flatmate decided to keep a pet tarantula. She fed it from a colony of cockroaches that she kept in the living room and when we had guests over they’d be like, what’s in that box? Then the tarantula escaped, so then we had to tell guests there was a tarantula loose in the apartment. People usually thought we were joking, but we weren’t, although tarantulas aren’t venomous, so it wasn’t a huge problem.
I was very well supported when I was doing my PhD, but as I’ve risen higher in my profession I’ve come to experience more sexism. Some colleagues are definitely more comfortable with successful young woman scientists, but less comfortable as we progress.
Some examples of bias might seem quite minor, but when it happens all the time, sexism does take its toll. For instance, I’m often mistaken for a student. Or it’s assumed I don’t have a PhD when I finished it five years ago and now have my own lab group. To some people that might not sound so terrible, or they may even think it’s a compliment, but when it happens constantly, and your expertise isn’t recognised, or you don’t look what people expect a scientist to look like, it is trying.
The ceiling is real. When you look at the proportion of women with professorships, that level of academia is dominated by men. Today only 33 per cent of researchers are women, with fewer than 25 per cent in senior leadership positions. It’s also harder for women to get promoted, or to get funded. Which is why double blind processes are so helpful, when the gender of the applicant is concealed. It’s the same for scientists who don’t have western names.
The universities I’ve been at have taken steps around this at hiring level, but more needs to be done after people are hired. Supportive environments still need to be created, otherwise you have retention problems because if people aren’t included or collaborated with once they’re hired, they’re not going to stay. Things are getting better, but there’s still a long way to go.
Thinking about women and science, I try not to take sexism personally, because I know it’s a systemic problem. But I also strive to support young female students in the lab, which includes making new colleagues feel really welcome. I make it easy for them to collaborate too, because I can also have some of those unconscious biases, even though I’m a woman. So while I can’t change how other people treat me, I can change how I react to sexism and how I treat others.
Academics often spend time overseas, which is exciting but also isolating. After getting my PhD, I had several short-term contracts. I went to California to do my post doc, then to Belgium and the Pyrenees in France. which was very cool. But I’d finally make friends in a place, then I’d have to pack up and start again in a new place. For five years I moved once every year. I was also living apart from my partner a lot of that time and I did get lonely. So my coping mechanism, when the going got tough, was to get some exercise outside. To run, or go ocean swimming, because that sort of thing really connects me with nature and calms me.
A lot of scientists spend time in nature, at the beach, or by waterways, and we started to see how that leads to an increased sense of calm, improved moods, lower blood pressure, lower stress hormones. People who spend time in blue spaces are also less likely to have mental health issues, there’s even a reduced incidence of some cardiovascular diseases. To look more deeply into these connections, The Blue Space Project was created, which seeks to understand the impact spending nature can have on human health, both physical and mental.
Spending time in nature can also improve creativity, restore energy and lengthen attention spans, which are all linked to higher life satisfaction and as part of this research, we’re querying whether the quality of the blue space has any impact. My hypothesis is, that better quality, more pristine, blue spaces provide more health benefits to humans. This field is fairly new and has traditionally been dominated by psychologists, but now biologists are getting involved to figure out other parts of the puzzle, because not all blue spaces are created equal.
The world is changing quickly, and temperatures are rising which is why The Blue Space Project is also important for exploring the wider benefits of conserving our environment, because a healthy natural world is beneficial to all of us.
Beyond The Blue Space Project, a lot of my work focuses on helping wildlife become more resilient to climate change. Some species have an amazing ability to change their physiology, while other species are more vulnerable, so figuring out what works for some species could help us protect other species.
I’ll always be grateful to my PhD supervisor for teaching me that it’s okay not to know everything. A lot of academics feel pressure to know everything or when they’re asked a question, they feel they must have the answer, but no one needs to know everything and learning that has made me a much better scientist. In fact not knowing something is really exciting, because that’s what research is all about. Then we get to figure out what questions to ask, and from there we design experiments to get the answers. When I switched from preparing for exams and memorising things to being curious, that’s when science really came alive for me.
Curiosity is central to my life and it gives me the opportunity to travel and learn and meet people who are interested in similar things and together we grow this global work family. When young people ask me what direction they should go in, I say find an area that makes you excited, work hard and don’t be discouraged if it’s tough sometimes. Because to my mind, being a scientist and doing research is the best job in the world, because I get paid to learn and explore.
L’Oréal-UNESCO Women in Science has sought to ensure greater participation by women in science since 1998. To learn more go to www.forwomeninscience.com.au
The 19-year-old was found in a remote area in the hills of Upper Hutt.