Tassie’s STEM superstars are smashing stereotypes
Two Tassie women will step into the spotlight as STEM specialists to show that “science happens all around us” and to inspire young women to join the ranks of scientists.
Tasmania
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TWO Tasmanian women are breaking down the stereotypes around STEM to prove to girls that they can be scientists too.
The Superstars of STEM program is aimed at supporting 60 Australian women to step into the spotlight as experts in science, technology, engineering and maths and become role models for young women and girls.
Tasmania’s superstars are University of Tasmania biomedical scientist and fatigue and stroke researcher Lila Landowski and CSIRO plant scientist and adaption researcher Rebecca Jordan.
Dr Landowski said it was exciting to be among the women chosen.
“I can’t wait for all 60 of us to continue to show girls that hey, you can be a scientist — if you can see it, it’s a lot easier to be it,” she said.
“I also want to show Australia that science happens all around us and we’re just regular people.”
In her research Dr Landowski is working with David Howells and Rebecca Fuller in developing a new model for testing potential stroke therapies to better guide future drug development.
“If you have a stroke, we’ve got one drug therapy that 90 per cent of people won’t benefit from,” she said.
“People have been trying to create more for over 50 years and we’ve developed many that will work in a petri dish or in animals — but not in people.
“The question is, why isn’t this working in a human? The issue is in the way we’ve been testing these drugs.”
Dr Landowski is also looking into what happens inside our brains while we’re fatigued.
“We used to just think of fatigue being a symptom of something else,” she said.
“But the reality is it might be a separate disease process.”
Dr Jordan’s love of nature inspired her pathway into biology.
She now researches how plants can adapt to changes in climate and how variations can be used to inform decision making in the future.
She said it was an honour to be chosen among this year’s 60 Superstars of STEM.
“I’ve been so fortunate to have really amazing female role models throughout my career and I’m looking forward to passing that on and showing girls the sky’s the limit,” she said.
“I really love STEM and I find it so exciting because you get to be really curious about the world around you.
“I think STEM can be seen as quite dry but there’s a really fun exploratory nature around it.”
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