ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR HANNAH POWER

Associate Professor, School of Environmental and Life Sciences, University of Newcastle Australia

What is your current field of research?

I’m a coastal and marine geoscientist and I study the environments and landforms that we see in our coastal and nearshore marine environments and I also look at the processes that drive change in these environments. This includes small and local changes like storms causing erosion on beaches to large changes like sea level rise. I also investigate hazards like tsunami and extreme wave runup.

What has your career path been like?

After high school, I enrolled in a Bachelor of Science specialising in marine science at the University of Sydney with a keen interest in coral reefs and biology and ecology. As part of the degree, all students were required to take a wide range of marine science subjects, including marine geoscience and oceanography and I found these two subjects incredibly interesting, so I kept studying in those fields. I did an honours year investigating how waves change after they break on sandy beaches and loved it so much that I wanted to keep doing research. After my undergraduate degree, I enrolled in a PhD at the University of Queensland and did more research on waves on sandy beaches as well as getting lots of experience teaching and tutoring. After my PhD, I stayed in academia aside from a one-year stint in Government. I held a few short term contract roles at several Australian universities before landing at Newcastle in 2014.

What’s the best advice anyone has ever given you?

I think the best advice I’ve been given is find a way to make something you love your job. It’s somewhat cliché but it makes life a whole lot more pleasant if you love the core of what you do for a job!

“I also really like the problem-solving aspect of science in all it’s forms……….”

What do you enjoy most about your job/research?

I love most aspects of my job, but fieldwork has to be the best bit. Whether it’s teaching undergraduate students, working with my postgrads, collaborating on colleagues’ projects, or leading an experiment of my own, I just love being outside and around the ocean! I think doing field-based projects for both my honours and my PhD convinced me that this was the subject for me. I also really like the problem-solving aspect of science in all it’s forms – from working out how to best deploy an instrument in the surf (hint: lots of cable ties and electrical tape are usually involved in the answer) to answering questions about coastal environments and processes that no-one has even answered before – it’s all exciting!

What does a typical day of work involve for you?

My year is often really varied and I don’t have a single typical day. When I’m in the field, it’s often an early start to make the most of the day but the activity for the day might be anything from deploying instruments in the water, to collecting survey data for ground-truthing remotely sensed satellite data, to explaining coastal landforms to students. When I’m on campus, my days vary from ones with lots of meetings with colleagues or research students, to teaching periods where I might have a few classes to teach, to quieter days where I’m able to investigate field data and what it can tell us.

What advice would you give someone starting out in the same field?

Take the opportunities that you are offered and seek them out for yourself, for example, volunteer to help out on field projects and look for opportunities to do things like go on research voyages. Scientists are often looking for a few extra sets of hands for their projects and are keen to share their knowledge. Read lots but read everything with a critical eye. And have fun!

How has the field you work in changed (particularly regarding women) since you have started working?

As much as I’d love to say that it doesn’t occur, women are still discriminated against for their gender; however, I think there has been a shift in terms of there now being more wide-spread recognition of these kinds of behaviours and that women are a minority in coastal geoscience and engineering. We still have a long way to go to achieve anything close gender parity, but I do think we’re taking steps in the right direction.

What do you see as the next steps forward in your field? Are there any new projects you would like to collaborate on in future?

There are so many exciting questions that are unanswered and different avenues to investigate in my field and that’s one of the best bits about being a scientist – letting your curiosity guide you! We’re facing enormous challenges with climate change and sea level rise and I hope that my research contributes to our understanding of what we’re facing and also adaptation to these challenges using science-based evidence.

You can find out more about Hannah’s work through LinkedIn and Twitter. Hannah is also one of the current Superstars of STEM with Science and Technology Australia!