Women as successful scientists and mentors - Dr Uta Wille
Dr Renee Smart
It is never too late to find a mentor. For women in science it is particularly important. Many women feel like it is still a men's profession, and that to be successful in scientific research one must give up having a family and play the men's game. But recently I was happy to speak with one of the many women in science who has a flourishing research career and family.
Dr Uta Wille in her office
(Photographer: Natalie Pestana)
Upon joining the ARC Centre of Excellence for Free Radical Chemistry and Biotechnology, I met Dr Uta Wille and was immediately inspired. Inspired not only to be a good scientist, but an honest, modest and successful person and it seems that I am not the only one. Her PhD student, Ms Duanne Sigmund, who is within months of completing her PhD told me recently that she would be sad to leave Uta's laboratory because they had become great friends. Those of us who have had experience with PhD study will know that this is of great credit to Uta, as the final months of a PhD can see even the most professional student-supervisor relationships strained.
Uta herself admitted to me that one of her goals was to be a mentor for young women who entered her lab, "It is very rewarding to see young women, such as Duanne, study in my laboratory and become confident, successful scientists in their own right".
Once I heard about her own experiences as a student in chemistry I came to understand her motivation to show women that science can be a great career choice.
It hasn't been a smooth scientific career path for Uta. In fact Uta started her chemistry degree with no background in chemistry. Before graduating the German equivalent of secondary school, she wanted to be a biologist. But because there was a quota on biology and her grades were lower than required, she enrolled in chemistry. Thinking that she would complete two semesters of chemistry and transfer into biology, she sits before me a successful chemist. 'I learnt that fundamental science is much more interesting than applied science', she comments.
Through hard work and determination she graduated in the upper 5% of her class. In her cool German way she recalls a secondary school professor telling her she would never make it as a chemist. 'Well I showed him', she laughs, 'this was my driving force- to prove him wrong'. That she did, now a Chief Investigator within the ARC Centre of Excellence for Free Radical Chemistry and Biotechnology, and a lecturer at the University of Melbourne with a research group of five. She has been a pioneer in combining physical and organic chemistry in the study of free radicals, and recently enjoyed media attention around the world for her work on the discovery that the atmospherically highly important nitrate radical, NO3l, could possibly play a role in certain respiratory diseases such as asthma.
After graduating she was invited to do her diploma in atmospheric chemistry (physical chemistry) by one of the top Professors at the Institut für Physikalische Chemie of the Christian-Albrechts-Universtät Kiel (CAU), a rare occurrence. She completed her diploma and stayed to study a PhD in the same laboratory. 'I was the only woman in the lab and I was scared of the big machine, a discharge-flow tube coupled to a mass spectrometer, I needed to use to determine rate constants of gas-phase radical reactions occurring in the atmosphere', Uta recalls. 'So I learnt to be tough in order to survive in a male environment. My Professor was stick and sugar, an old style professor, who regularly picked on the weakest link. Early on he thought that was me, until I marched into his office one day, locked the door and set him straight'.
This confidence is what she passes onto her students, and it shows. Uta says, 'I tell them, if you think you are being treated incorrectly, stand up for yourself no matter the level of the other person. If you have a problem with someone talk about it, solve it and start again. Don't compromise yourself by acting like the weak woman, you won't be respected for that'.
After gaining her PhD, she began a Habilitation, the highest academic qualification in Germany. She was awarded a unique position created by the government minister to encourage more women to study Chemistry. This time, she transferred from physical to organic chemistry, where she started to apply her radical and atmospheric chemistry knowledge to organic chemistry. 'Because I changed fields from physical to organic chemistry, which is a very risky thing to do, if you want to survive in academia and occurs therefore only very rarely, I was often not taken seriously in Germany. They have a very conservative research structure,' Uta comments.
After interrupting her Habilitation with a one year post-doc in Switzerland, she completed in 1999. 'I tried to find a Professorship in Germany which was very difficult. As a woman I got invited to a lot of interviews for appearances, but never got any of the positions', Uta recalls.
She then made the tough decision to leave Germany and take up a position at the University of Melbourne. 'When I left Germany and took up a position in Australia my Habilitation was not recognised so I have to start from the bottom again and work my way up to Professor level,' Uta tells me. For most this would be frustrating, but to Uta her position at the University of Melbourne has been a liberating experience, allowing her both to conduct her innovative brand of chemistry research and to start a family. 'The Australian research environment is more supportive than the German, the environment actually assists you with combining research and family,' says Uta. 'The University of Melbourne is fantastic,' she adds, 'they actually reward scientists who come up with new and unusual research ideas, combining different disciplines to answer research questions.'
What are your future goals? I ask. She replies, 'my future goals are somewhat unsexy. I want to be a Professor, even if it happens one day before I retire.' However Uta differs from many success driven scientists in that although she wants to reach the heights of Professor, she is determined to maintain a 'human face'. 'I want to be a good chemist', she comments, 'but mostly I want to be known as an approachable person, I don't want my students to be scared of me, as many of the students were of the old style German Professors'. I have no doubt that she will achieve this and build an empire of self-determined women who are also competent chemists.
As I walk out the door she looks at me and offers one more piece of valuable advice, 'Don't ever be intimidated, the men they are just cooking with water...'
Dr Renee Smart is the Community Awareness Programme Manager at the ARC Centre of Excellence for Free Radical Chemistry and Biotechnology.
