Tamara Robertson is a chemical and biomolecular engineer. She is passionate about sharing her love of science and engineering, especially in ways that inspire young girls to pursue STEM. Tamara is the host of The Feeding Tube, a web video series bringing real facts behind popular food myths. She was also a finalist on the Science Channel’s “Mythbusters: The Search”, a series featuring the next generation of fearless contenders with killer build skills, science smarts and nerves of steel. Tamara earned her BS degree in Biomolecular and Chemical Engineering from North Carolina State University. Below she shares a little about her career and the inspiration behind it. What is your specific area of STEM? Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering How would you explain your STEM field to young girls? Engineers in my field get to work on lots of different cool items, designing new ways to make products. We work on fun household items, like toys for kids or lotions, life saving medicines like vaccines, and even future-focused technologies like biofuels. The sky is the limit when it comes to ways to utilize a Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering degree! :) What traits might a child possess that may indicate an interest or aptitude for your STEM field? STEM is all about imagination and curiosity. If you like to tinker with real life products and figure out how they work, or maybe even rebuild them in a cooler way, then you would love the STEM field! STEM is like an adventure with lots of different paths that lead to cool discoveries so if you enjoy learning new things, this is the place to be! What did you know about your STEM field when you were a child? When I was a child I had never heard about STEM. I didn't know any engineers outside of Scotty on Star Trek and he was very different from me. Yet from a young age I loved to tinker! I enjoyed working with tools and watching my dad build things and often times I got to help, which made me love it even more! Even in school I really liked my math and science classes but didn't know that people other than my teachers were in these fields. It wasn't until I was in college that a teacher talked to me about engineering and for the first time I felt challenged and excited about school work! Why did you choose your STEM field? Were you inspired by someone? My decision to pursue Chemical & Biomolecular engineering was spurred by a few items:
What are some really cool things that people in your profession work on? There are so many cool things you can do in this field. One of my first jobs was making biofuel that smelled like popcorn when used in a car engine! I got to set up a way for our local restaurants to donate their old oil to us so we could make fuel for our college’s farm equipment! :) Then when I graduated I got to help design and build a vaccines facility, and even work in conjunction with the WHO (World Health Organization) and CDC (Centers for Disease Control) on making vaccine for the Swine Flu pandemic that was making a lot of people sick around the world! After that I got to work with cool companies like Burts Bees, Nestle, Target, General Mills, 3M, McDonalds and so many more designing packaging for awesome products like cereal, toys, and candy. Other people in my field get to design awesome things like makeup, lotion, fuel for cars and rockets, and even yummy food like pizza! What inspirational message would you give young girls to inspire them to pursue STEM? Always remember that where your journey begins doesn't define where it ends - you do! You can be anything you want to be as long as you're willing to work for it. Also there's no such thing as failure in Science as long as you learn something. Thank you for contributing, Tamara!
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Ifigeneia Metaxa earned her doctorate and undergraduate degree in Chemical Engineering from Aristotle University of Thessaloniki in Greece. Here she shares a little about her career and the inspiration behind it. What is your specific area of STEM? Chemical Engineering How would you explain your STEM field to young girls? I coordinate everything that happens in research and development projects, factories, organise multi-national teams, work in a challenging and inspiring environment. What traits might a child possess that may indicate an interest or aptitude for your STEM field? Do you like construction toys? Did you enjoy looking through the microscope? Do you get that thrill when you got the right answer in math? What did you know about your STEM field when you were a child? My father encouraged me to play with "boy toys", so toys like Legos, Playmobil and other construction and battle toys. All of this alongside with more "girl toys". So, avoid labels! A teacher who loved chemistry inspired me to look into this poetic world (yes, chemistry). Also, everyone who told me that chemical engineering was not for girls, encouraged me to prove them wrong! Why did you choose your STEM field? Were you inspired by someone? I was inspired by teachers, I asked women of the field about their experiences (please do that!). I wanted to choose a profession that was versatile and would offer more job opportunities. What are some really cool things that people in your profession work on? Want to turn used cooking oil to fuel? How about playing with reaaaally small (nano) diamonds? Are you in to mobile app development? Do you want to work with cool technologies, such as Augmented Reality, Virtual Reality, Robots interacting with humans, voice to text, blockchain (behind bitcoin), decision support systems, semantics? It gets exciting! What inspirational message would you give young girls to inspire them to pursue STEM? Find what you are passionate about and go for it! STEM is not difficult, it is exciting and rewarding. You just need to learn the way to approach this wonderful world. Oh, and yes, it is cool! Thank you for contributing, Ifigeneia! Marissa Buck is pursuing her chemical engineering degree from the University of Florida. Here she shares a little about her career and the inspiration behind it. What is your specific area of STEM? Chemical Engineering How would you explain your STEM field to young girls? Chemical engineers use chemistry, math, and physics to make products that are used around the world. Chemicals are in everything - food, makeup, clothing, medicine, gasoline - and chemical engineers are needed to make a large amount of these products for all the people who use them. What traits might a child possess that may indicate an interest or aptitude for your STEM field? I really enjoyed puzzles, building things from legos, putting together furniture with my dad, and drawing/painting. The puzzles enhanced critical thinking skills that are important for engineering. The arts helped develop creativity that is important for finding innovative solutions to problems. The hands-on activities showed how I liked to know how things were made, and I liked being a part of that process. Engineers get to be a part of that creation process for many different things. What did you know about your STEM field when you were a child? I did not know what engineering was a child. I learned about STEM in the 6th grade when my science teacher told the girls about a STEM program at a local university. They took girls in for a day and did various science experiments at the university. It was a fun, engaging day and it made the girls interested in the science behind it all. In the 8th grade, a speaker at a Mathletes competition spoke about engineering. He gave out pamphlets and I read a little about it. Originally I looked into environmental engineering because I was all about being green. It wasn't until 11th grade when I fell in love with chemistry and heard about chemical engineering from college pamphlets. Why did you choose your STEM field? Were you inspired by someone? I really enjoyed chemistry and math, but I did not want to be in a lab all day. I wanted to see products being made, and I wanted to be a part of that process. Chemical engineering was the best fit. Entering a male dominant field made me feel proud to show that women can succeed in engineering. What are some really cool things that people in your profession work on? Chemical engineers make the foods and drinks that you love- Kraft macaroni and cheese, Lays potato chips, Tropicana orange juice, Hershey's chocolate, etc. Also, chemical engineers help make the plastic and packaging that the food has to go into. Almost all packaged food has a chemical engineer helping to make it. They help make the flavor and make sure it stays consistent so every bite tastes as good as the last. They also do customer surveys to find out the flavors people like the best and flavors they want to have in the future. The packaging is also impressive with many machines that can melt plastic into different shapes, sizes, and textures in order to fit the food or drinks going inside. What inspirational message would you give young girls to inspire them to pursue STEM? Don't be afraid to do what you enjoy. Science is not a boy subject; it is for everyone. Science is not a nerdy subject; it is essential to everyday life Thank you for contributing, Marissa! Allison Sellars is pursuing chemical engineering at Georgia Tech and expects to earn her degree in 2018. Here she shares a little about her career and the inspiration behind it. What is your specific area of STEM? Chemical Engineering How would you explain your STEM field to young girls? Chemical engineers use math and science, and combine pretty much all subjects and experiences, in order to solve all kinds of problems in the world. What traits might a child possess that may indicate an interest or aptitude for your STEM field? Legos, an active imagination, puzzles. What did you know about your STEM field when you were a child? I didn't know much as a child at all. It was probably not until I was a junior in high school when I learned about engineering and the term "STEM." I was always fairly good at the math and science classes through school and it was what I enjoyed doing. I think I learned about STEM from a combination of my parents and teachers and their encouragement. Why did you choose your STEM field? Were you inspired by someone? I didn't really know any engineers growing up at all. I was just encouraged to try it because it was a growing field and covered the subjects and topics I was interested in. What are some really cool things that people in your profession work on? Cool chemical experiments - making crystals, etc. I got to intern in a chemical plant where I saw all kinds of different equipment and even got to climb into some of the big machines. Chemical engineers work with a lot of cool equipment that do fancy things. What inspirational message would you give young girls to inspire them to pursue STEM? STEM can seem super intimidating and scary sometimes and it's super easy to say that "it's not for me" or "I won't be good at that," but you can do it. If I can do it, anyone can! You are never in it alone - people are always there to help you no matter what. It's the best decision that I made and I couldn't imagine myself doing anything else. It's amazing what you can do when you put your mind to it! Thank you for contributing, Allison! |
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