Cathy Foley: I'm a wife, I'm a mother, I am a scientist, I'm a manager, I'm a scout leader
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Dr
Cathy Foley is a Chief Research Scientist with CSIRO Materials Science and
Engineering. She has a world-class reputation in her field being a Fellow of the
Institute of Physics in the UK, Immediate past President of the Australian
Institute of Physics and Fellow of the Academy of Technological Sciences and
Engineering (ASTE). Cathy is well known for her interests in physics, science
education, women in science (Cathy is a WISENet member), and science in the
media. She was a regular weekly guest on ABC radio 2BL for 5 years. Cathy was
awarded a Public Service Medal on the 2003 Australia Day; won the 2003 Eureka
Prize for the promotion of Science; and was most recently awarded the 2009
National Telstra Business Women of the Year for Innovation.
***
I have a lot of different hats! I guess first of all I’m a wife, I’m a mother, I
am a scientist, I’m a manager, I’m a scout leader… It’s a busy life.
I don’t come from a traditional science background family wise. I’m one of seven
children, I was dyslexic, and when I was in primary school my spelling and
handwriting were atrocious. When I was in high school, the teacher who inspired
me picked up the fact I was strong at science because I was so weak in other
subjects. I think science teachers are probably the most important
people in making and encouraging any young child to consider science as a
career. And I’ve always had this passion for science. I wanted to be a
science teacher because I didn’t dream of being a scientist. I always thought
you had to be sort of Einstein’s relative if you were going to be a physicist.
But I still had that secret desire.
I’ve been working at CSIRO for nearly 23 years and I couldn’t dream of working
anywhere else. I’ve always thought I won the lottery when I got the job here.
Most recently I’ve been working in superconductivity as my main research field.
A superconductor is just a material that has some special properties which are
observable only when you cool it below a certain temperature which can allow
electricity to pass through without any resistance. If you get two super
conducting electrodes and try to pass current between one and the other, if you
bring them closer and closer together an electrical current will tunnel from one
side to the other and that tunnelling current allows us to detect very small
magnetic fields. Our most successful application of our superconducting devices
has been in mineral exploration. What we’ve been doing is making a device and
filling it up with liquid nitrogen which is at minus two hundred degrees. We’re
able to take this out into the field to do measurements looking for minerals
deep under the earth’s crust.
I had the most wonderful recognition by the Australian science physics community
by my election to President of the Australian Institute of Physics.
Being the first woman in this role has been very exciting and given me
an opportunity to project my passion for physics in a whole range of different
ways which I really enjoy.
My motivation for being a Joey leader (Scouts) is to connect with the community
and being able to inject a lot of science is I guess a secondary issue. I just
love their spontaneity [of the scouts]. It’s so engaging and so relaxing and so
different from anything else I do. I guess it’s my ‘me time’, where I go and do
something which gives me a recharge every week.
***
So children and a career in science DO go together… lovely. Thanks Cathy, Ed.