In participation in the British Science Week 2018, the University of Dundee Women in STEM Society is carrying out interviews with women in STEM to get to know them better and hear their experience working in STEM fields.
Today we have Aurora Sicilia-Aguilar, a current lecturer at the University of Dundee.
Q: What study path did you take? A: I got my undergrad degree on Theoretical Physics from the Autonomous University of Madrid (UAM, Spain), and my PhD half way between the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics (USA) and the UAM. Q: Do you remember what it was that first made you look at STEM as a viable career path? A: I was always very interested in science since I was a quite young child. I used to look at stars with awe. Some inspiration came from my maternal grandfather, who used to talk to me about planets, solar eclipses and comet Halley. Some further inspiration came when I found my father's navigation books (he's captain of a ship) on positional astronomy and meteorology and understood how rainbows and ice haloes are produced. At age 11 I decided I wanted to be an astronomer and do spectroscopy, and this is what I mostly do. Q: Male dominance in STEM subjects is still very common, why do you think this may be? A: I think it is mostly a cultural issue. I have lived in Spain, USA, Germany, Switzerland, and UK, and there are huge variations about the number of women in STEM in all these countries. When I was an undergrad, women were about 30-40% in Physics/Theoretical Physics at the UAM in Spain (below 50%, but not so few). Later, I found it quite shocking that the presence of women in Physics in other countries is so small and that people may still even ask you why on Earth you decided to do a scientific career... Q: What are your views on the disproportion between females studying in STEM fields, and those that hold higher up positions in said fields? A: I think the issue needs to be addressed already in primary school, increasing scientific culture of people in general and making sure that both boys and girls feel motivated, otherwise it will be harder or even too late to change people's minds later in their education. For people in higher up positions, things such as how to deal with the "double career problem" in academy and how to account for the effects of maternity and childcare breaks in highly competitive positions are still open issues. You are required to build up a competitive career very quickly, and anything that delays this (trying to find a job in the same city than your partner, having decreased participation in conferences due to pregnancy/maternity/childcare, etc) makes things increasingly hard for women and families. Q: If you could have dinner with one inspirational woman in STEM, dead or alive, who would you choose? And why? A: Emmy Noether. Noether's theorem on symmetries and conservation laws is one of the most beautiful pieces of Physics I have seen, but shockingly many people don't know about it!