"It's crucial for diverse people from all walks of life to be part of this industry. The industry's changed more in the last 10 years than it did in the 100 years before that. We're trying to fly an airplane while changing its parts out midair and to succeed, we'll need diverse thinkers to develop the multifaceted and complex solutions our industry requires."
Who am I
I'm a senior engineer in the Operational Distributed Energy Resources (DER) Management team at AEMO, leading investigations on the impact of DER on the power system and designing integration solutions. My path to engineering started because of an inspiring math teacher I had in Year 12. I'd been planning to do an economics degree, but she made maths so elegantly easy to understand I decided to study engineering instead. Shoutout to Ms Amanda Martin from Shenton College, if you're reading this - thank you, you're a legend!
Why I chose a career in power
Australia's power system is at the bleeding edge of change. We need people with technical skills to guide us through this world-leading transformation, and we also need communication, finance and legal know-how (to name just a few!) If you want to be part of the change, there's absolutely something in the power sector for everyone.
Where it all started
Once I’d decided to study engineering, specialising in sustainable energy was a natural next step. We’re building the world of the future, and we’ll need power for that transition.
Chemical (or process) engineering is really about systems thinking. Even though the power industry is a bit different to process engineering, that training to think about whole-of-process impacts set me up really well for my current role.
My work experience.
What's next?
The endless possibility of it all! We’re still discovering the types of problems we need solutions to. Right now, we’re designing the future.