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UNSW SMaRT Centre Director, Professor Veena, features in a UNSW push to promote International Day of Women and Girls in Science as a leading voice supporting STEM (science, technology, engineering and maths).
UNSW announced today it is proud to recognise the integral role of women in STEM and celebrates the women driving this pioneering research, and highlighted the roles of two key female academic leaders to help promote STEM more broadly, including Veena.
Veena said: "When we talk about decarbonisation, people say, ‘well, Australia's a small country, how much impact can we really have?’ But we have clever science and engineering capability, and we can inspire others to come on the journey with us. To me, that’s one of the most important contribution we can make. We also need to advocate for new solutions, and to train and educate future generations of the importance of STEM(S) – science, technology, engineering, maths and sustainability as an underpinning principle.
"The global push towards renewable energy and electrification hinges on the availability of metals and other critical materials. Using waste as a feedstock for remanufacturing offers a promising solution to these challenges, and using resources from waste batteries must be an important component in this effort.
"Promoting STEM(S) and greater sustainability continue to be extremely important to me, and as I engage with many people every day, I see these issues are generating a community and industry ground swell that we should embrace to help our society collectively tackle the challenges we face, to improve our environmental, social and economic wellbeing.
"I am very proud of the work I’ve achieved with the team at the UNSW SMaRT Centre, pioneering microrecycling science and new technologies like Green Steel Polymer Injection TechnologyTM and MICROfactoriesTM to help solve some of our urgent waste and resources challenges and deliver better social, environmental and economic outcomes. It is vitally important to continue the progress made on encouraging greater participation of women and girls in STEM as they play an important role in tackling global challenges, within industry, in the economy and in the way communities shape the future."
Announcement excerpt:
With world-renowned academics in Science, Technology and Engineering, UNSW is committed to growing the number of women pursuing careers in STEM through quality education and teaching transferrable science and technology skills.
UNSW experts available for comment:
Scientia Professor Veena Sahajwalla is an internationally recognised materials scientist, engineer and inventor. She is a leading expert in recycling science and has recently been appointed an Officer of the Order of Australia (AO). She is also the founding Director of the Centre for Sustainable Materials Research & Technology (SMaRT) at UNSW which has pioneered new technologies to help solve some of Australia’s urgent waste and resources challenges.
Prof. Sahajwalla says, “Women in science and engineering play such a vital role in helping to solve the many challenges we face to improve our environmental, social and economic wellbeing.”