The largest women-only recruitment drive in the history of Australian Astronomy and Space is underway at The Australian National University (ANU).
Deputy Director of ANU’s Advanced Instrumentation and Technology Centre (AITC), Céline d’Orgeville said the Centre is recruiting 10 new positions for people who identify as women to support the next generation of telescopes, small-scale space crafts and instruments for space missions.
“This includes the design and construction of large instruments like the 25-metre Giant Magellan Telescope,” Professor d’Orgeville (pictured) said.
“In Australia, Women make up only 28 per cent of the workforce in science, technology, engineering and math,” she said.
“But in Adaptive Optics – a field crucial to astronomical instruments and telescopes – the female participation rate is 15 per cent.”
Professor d’Orgeville said there were currently eight women on staff at the AITC, out of a 47, and the 10 new positions would lift the ratio of women working at the Centre from 17 per cent to around one third.
She said Astronomy and Space as a field was particularly male dominated.
“Different perspectives, ethnic background, cultural origins, physical and mental abilities and gender diversity in the broader sense of the term would help us be more creative and successful in a different way,” the Deputy Director said.
“If we make this issue more visible and if we’re more ambitious and bold, it tells other people: ‘You can do this’,” she said.
“It’s all about positive leadership.”
Professor d’Orgeville said the current recruitment round ended on 18 September and additional monthly application deadlines would follow until all positions were filled.
