STEM CORNER: Highlighting Successful Women in STEM

Our Maths Club initiative to connect students with women in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM)-based careers continues again in our ‘STEM Corner’.

LAURA: Can you please describe your career journey so far and what you are currently working on?

DR CALABRETTO: I went to university straight out of Year 12, where I did:

• a Bachelor of Arts/Bachelor of Science double degree (BA majors in French and Applied Maths, and BSc majors in Physics and Theoretical Physics)
   
  
• a Bachelor of Mathematical Sciences (Honours) in Applied Mathematics (my Honours’ thesis was on Mathematical Models of Neuron Firing – basically using mathematics to understand the equations the describe how biological neurons fire)

• a PhD in Engineering Science, in which I studied why fluids go from being well-behaved (laminar) before transitioning into an unstable then fully turbulent state – once we can understand turbulence, we can control it, which can mean faster planes, a better understanding of weather and climate, advances in diagnostic medicine and so much more!

While I was completing my PhD, I wasn’t really sure what I wanted to do afterwards so I applied for a couple of postdoctoral research positions and ended up as a Postdoctoral Fellow at ETH Zürich in the Institute for Mechanical Systems and, after about a year of doing that, I was recruited back to Australia to take up the position of Lecturer in Applied Mathematics at Macquarie University. A couple of years later I was promoted to Senior Lecturer and then a couple of years after that, I left academia and spent a year doing freelance science communication (I co-hosted a Twitch stream called Battery Low in conjunction with Arludo and the Australian Museum, did a bit of writing for Cosmos magazine, hosted RiAus/Cosmos’ podcast … that kind of thing). And finally … I became a Defence scientist, as part of Defence Science and Technology Group’s (DSTG) NAVIGATE Program. I am currently seconded as the Associate Director of the Defence Innovation Network (DIN), where I help link together university researchers, industry, and Defence, to help solve Defence innovation, science, and technology problems.

LAURA: How has your gender influenced your career journey in STEM? Do you think there is or have you encountered much gender bias in your chosen field?

DR CALABRETTO: I was lucky to be raised in a household that didn’t really believe in gender norms, and so I never felt like gender influenced any of my decision-making. Unfortunately, I have encountered a lot of bias due to my gender (and age too), since most of the places I have worked have been full of men who were, on average, much older than me. Depressingly, I do think there have been several occasions in the past where I’ve had to outperform male colleagues to even be considered as good as them. Having said that, I do think things are changing! We (as a society) are just so much more aware of all kinds of biases, and most workplaces are actively putting measures in place to minimise (and hopefully eventually eradicate) them.

LAURA: What was your schooling experience like? How did it influence your journey into this career?

DR CALABRETTO: I think I really enjoyed school for the most part. I went to my local public primary and high schools, which were good schools and I had pretty good teachers in general. If there was anything that influenced me in school in my career journey, I guess it was that I didn’t really like the chemistry curriculum in Year 12, so that probably dissuaded me from doing chem at university. On the other hand, I really liked the physics curriculum so that’s possibly why I ended up doing physics at uni.

LAURA: What is a challenge or barrier to success you’ve had to overcome and what did you learn from it that you could pass on to others?

DR CALABRETTO: I think imposter syndrome has been a challenge for me in the past. Unfortunately, I think the more you know about a topic, the more you realise there’s a bunch you don’t know, and so you can start to second-guess your own ability. I think for me, listening to the positive (and sensible) people around me, helped me be a bit more logical and realise that I was sometimes being unnecessarily harsh on myself and my abilities. Be as fair to yourself as you are to the people around you!

LAURA: Are there any particular programs or role models that influenced your career choice and journey?

DR CALABRETTO: I went to the National Youth Science Forum in the summer holidays before I started Year 12, where we got to visit university labs and facilities in Canberra. I don’t think the NYSF necessarily influenced my career choice, but I did find it to be a great experience as someone who was interested in pursuing a STEM career in Australia.

LAURA: What advice would you give to students in high school?

DR CALABRETTO: This may sound biased, but do as much maths as possible, for as long as possible! When you’re learning maths, you’re subconsciously learning a completely different way of thinking, which will be useful no matter what you do. It doesn’t matter what career path you follow, employers want logical/critical/analytical thinkers, problem solvers, researchers, and those who show creativity – that is what mathematics trains you to be.

LAURA: What would you like to achieve in your journey ahead?

DR CALABRETTO: I’m not sure where I’ll end up in my career, but at the end of the day, I would like to have had a positive impact on the world. I think the scientific endeavour is incredibly important, and without great people working in STEM, we’re limiting ourselves as a society. Howeverrrrr, I also think it’s important to be a good person in whatever you’re doing, and I think it’s possible to achieve great things while also building up the people around you to be their best too. (I’d also like to learn some statistics – the  world is all about data these days and one of my biggest regrets is not doing any statistics!)

LAURA: Are there any misconceptions about your work that you’d like people to know about?

DR CALABRETTO: I think there are loads of misconceptions about what a mathematician is or does (the number of times people ask me to split a restaurant bill in my head, because I’m a mathematician, is wild!).

Applied mathematicians are people who apply mathematical methods and techniques to solve real-world problems, and the real-world problems I’m interested in all have to do with (turbulent) fluid flow. Turbulence is just badly-behaved fluid (think of air, water, toothpaste, anything that flows!), moving in a messy, disordered, chaotic way. The problem is that we do not understand how or why it does this. Whether it be flow in a pipe or blood vessel, or the more complex flow around a boat hull, spinning projectiles, or aircraft wing, we still do not understand the fundamental fluid mechanics at play.

My research, which involves using mathematical equations, big supercomputers, and experiments in a lab, aims to understand turbulence at a fundamental level. Once we can understand turbulence, we can control it, which, as I mentioned before, can mean faster planes, a better understanding of weather and climate, advances in diagnostic medicine and so much more. And if I have to split a bill, I just use the calculator on my phone, because it’s way faster and more accurate than I am when doing it in my head!

Thank you, Dr Calabretto, and well done to Laura for an interesting and exciting interview!