The Present
Re-Entry Research Fellowship
A Wise Move for the University Doreen Thomas
Sally Male
Doreen Thomas had been away from research for twelve years when she saw an
advertisement in the university newspaper and thought, “that’s for me”. She
had had a break from her academic career to look after her children. During
this time she was a casual tutor, giving a couple of hours of tutorials a week
at The University of Melbourne. The advertisement promoted re-entry research
fellowships for people who had been out of research for a minimum of three
years, due to family responsibilities.
Doreen said, “It changed my whole academic career.” She would not otherwise have returned to research. She had arrived at The University of Melbourne with a D.Phil in Mathematics, from the University of Oxford and had been doing casual teaching at level A for many years. “I was never encouraged to do research. There was no mentoring. I was young. I didn’t know how to go about that myself. I didn’t have any role model.”
Doreen was awarded a two year part-time fellowship. “It was terribly difficult at first.” Doreen had to find a professor to supervise her and her D.Phil had been in a research area that was not a key area at the University. Professor Hyam Rubinstein and Doreen began working together on Optimal Network Design.
When she first returned to research, Doreen’s youngest child was three years old and attended the university’s childcare centre. Her two older children were school-aged. Doreen worked in research part-time for four years before beginning full-time. “It’s always a juggling act. The children come first. It’s not easy… Women learn to manage their time and some things just have to go.”
The research team has grown to include six people and has provided research for a number of postgraduate students. The team is the only one worldwide to be using gradient constrained network optimisation techniques for mining projects. In 2001 and 2004 Doreen was successful in obtaining collaborative industry research funding. She has been awarded a total of $1.618m to support research on Optimal Network Design and she has contributed to the successful application for the ARC Special Research Centre, the Centre for Ultra-broadband Information Networks, totalling $5m over 6 years. Doreen has numerous international refereed journal publications and book chapters in her research area.
The benefits to the University, resulting from the re-entry fellowship, have extended beyond research. Doreen has received teaching grants and awards. She has publications in Engineering Education, Diversity in Engineering, and Women in Mathematics. She participated in the University’s Women in Management and Leadership Program, became Head of the Mathematics for Engineers Program and since 2001 she has been Associate Professor and Head of the Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering. “I try to mentor students now. We try to think about the career paths of our postgrads.”
Doreen has recently been instrumental in obtaining support for research fellowships for women. In addition to research skills, applicants were required to have teaching experience and good communication skills, because it is hoped that they will eventually become academic staff. Applicants were selected on merit, irrespective of their engineering discipline. Two fellowships have been awarded in Electrical and Electronic Engineering, one in Chemical Engineering and one in Civil Engineering.
When I spoke with Doreen in order to write her inspiring story, she concluded by offering the tempering observation, that women still need to be resilient.