More women scientists in the pipeline

LAST Sunday 11 February was the International Day of Women and Girls in Science, and Central Highlands Water staff, including environmental scientist Lisamaree Bottomley, marked the occasion.
Ms Bottomley works in the capital delivery and networks department of the water utility and aims to ensure the water and sewer services provided to the wider Ballarat community are safely flowing.
She also has a goal for “sustainable development and reversing the environmental damage” made along the way.
Projects the young professional is set to work on, preparing infrastructure for population growth in the decades to come, include the Ballarat Sewer Build, Daylesford Water Supply Pipeline, Beaufort Reuse for Recreation initiative, and Ballarat North Trunk Sewer.
Growing up outdoors, Ms Bottomley learnt of the presence of pollution in parks and waterways which encouraged her to move into science as an adult and study a Bachelor of Environmental Science at Deakin University.
She is one of many female graduates entering a career in science, with more women taking on these sorts of professional pathways than ever before, in typically male-dominated workforces.
Ms Bottomley said she expects there will be more girls considering entering the science, technology, engineering, and mathematics fields if they can see other women leading in these spaces.
CHW head of capital delivery, Alison Pitcher, has been appointed Ms Bottomley’s mentor and said there are diverse career pathways, and experiences to be had, in the water supply industry.