Science & Tech: Michelle Dickinson

Christina Riesselman. Photo / Otago Daily Times

It's been a great week for New Zealand women in science.

University of Otago geologist Dr Christina Riesselman won the L'Oreal women in science fellowship and Year 12 Orewa College student Jennifer Palmer became the first female and first high school student to win the Sir Paul Callaghan EUREKA! Premier Award Trophy.

Jennifer really is one to watch. I was lucky enough to be part of the judging panel blown away by her knowledge of how we could use synthetic biology to help prevent nitrate leaching from fertilisers applied to farmland by introducing specialised modified bacteria. When I was her age my knowledge mostly revolved around the lyrics to latest Backstreet Boys songs - not how biotechnologies could have an impact on our environment and economy.

Dr Riesselman equally impressed as she gave her award talk on the secrets hidden in sediment cores from kilometres below the Antarctic sea floor, revealing the stories of how our climate has changed over the last 11,000 years. Listening to her talk about how the industrial revolution has packed tens of thousands of years of environmental change into just 100 years and what our climate could look like a couple of generations from now, I was equally fascinated and horrified about the evidence of how quickly our world is changing.

Two amazing women, showcasing their intelligence and passion for science, yet I walked out to negative comments about the existence of women-only award schemes.

Personally I think celebrating and rewarding women can help to keep them in a field where, according to the New Zealand Association of Women in the Sciences, females with undergraduate degrees and doctorates earn on average $30,000 less than men with the same qualifications.

Jennifer Palmer. Photo / Supplied

Arguments against minority-specific awards revolve around the outrage that would result if a male-only prize were to be created. I agree - there probably would be outrage. However, I'm a big believer in celebrating people for their hard work and achievements and for encouraging minorities to step up as role models to help challenge stereotypes. If anyone wants to set up a men in nursing award I'll be first in line to support it.

One of the unique things I admire about the L'Oreal award is that the prize money can be spent on paying for science or paying for childcare. Science research jobs are hard, the field advances quickly meaning time spent away parenting can make it difficult to confidently come back, and so childcare support is one step in the right direction.

As New Zealand tries to diversify its export portfolio into the tech sector for an innovation rich economy, diversity of talent provides more ideas and perspectives for better solutions. Somewhere along our pipeline there is a big leak as statistics show primary science education starts off with equal gender participation, then a gap starts in high school and continues to widen through higher education resulting in only 13 per cent of women becoming engineers, less than 1 per cent of all patents being taken out by female inventors and only 3 per cent of women having won the Nobel Prize in science, none of whom were New Zealanders.

Perhaps the problem is partly a lack of role models for our daughters to aspire to be like. If I asked you to name a living female scientist or a female who hosts a TV science show, could you do it?

Hopefully Jennifer and Christina can help to inspire the next generation to follow in their science-filled footsteps so that in the future their daughters can easily name them on our high calibre New Zealand female science role model list.