Hello! I’m Rachael (with 2 a’s) Elder (not to be confused with
Rachel (with 1 a) Horn, Faculty Director for Learning and Teaching) and I am
your new Faculty Director for Women in Engineering. I took over from Elena as
FDWiE in the summer and have spent the last couple of months reviewing where
we’re at with our WiE activities. It’s exciting times as we have lots of fantastic
activities going on in and around the faculty. I’m also excited to say that for
the first time ever females outnumber males as Faculty Directors – Mike
Hounslow, Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Engineering, is also excited about this,
although he may be wishing there were fewer Rach(a)els to avoid confusion :). I
will be writing a monthly blog post and thought I’d take the opportunity of the
first one to introduce myself and tell you a bit about me and my plans for WiE
at Sheffield.
Where it all started…
 |
Rachael (centre) and her fellow Battlers at the Engineering Imagination
event held to celebrate Women in Engineering Day 2014. |
|
I grew up in Teesside, spent most of my time running around
the North York Moors and climbing trees. Between the other things I squeezed in
Maths, Physics, Chemistry and Further Maths at A-Level then an MEng in Chemical
Engineering at Cambridge. I made this choice due to the breadth of the first
year in Natural Sciences which allowed me to continue with my A level subjects
plus Materials Science. I loved the applied nature of Chemical Engineering and
knew I wanted to work in Chemical Engineering after only a few weeks on the course.
Before graduation I applied for lots of jobs in industry as a Chemical
Engineer, was offered some, and turned them down. Instead I chose to spend a
year living in Sweden working part-time as an orienteering teacher, learning
Swedish and concentrating on my second passion – orienteering. I started
orienteering as an 8 year old and my dad used to follow me round the forest to
ensure I didn’t get lost. 9 years later I was a member of the British team and
have since raced in 3 Junior World Champs, 5 World University Champs and 7
World Champs. I’ve collected a number of British titles, my proudest
achievements are two World Students Relay Gold medals and a top 20 placing at
the World Champs, however the most important things I’ve taken from my
orienteering career are determination, dedication, and an ability to push myself to
be the best. I’ve also gained an incredible number of friends all around the
world. During my year in Sweden I realised I couldn’t just be an orienteer and
decided to apply for a PhD as I’d really enjoyed my research in my MEng course.
I chose Sheffield…
Life in Academia…
My PhD was on thermochemical hydrogen production. I spent a
lot of time in the lab working with membranes as a separation technique, as
well as process system modelling, and of course a lot of running, orienteering
and other outdoor sports. I became Dr Elder in 2007 and then stayed in
Sheffield working as a post doc. During this time I did a lot of teaching and
started to think harder about a career in academia. About a year later someone
suggested I should apply for a lectureship being advertised. I thought my chance
of success was small but decided to go for it anyway - at least I'd find the holes
in my CV! To my delight I was offered the job! The first three years as a
probationary lecturer weren’t easy - juggling teaching, admin responsibilities,
ongoing research, paper writing and trying to bring in grants with my
orienteering career was a tough challenge. There were many times I questioned
if I was doing the right thing, but having come through those years I can
confidently say: Yes, I was! Two years ago I retired from international
orienteering, last year I was promoted to senior lecturer and now I have taken
on Women in Engineering…
Women in Engineering…
 |
Ioanna Dimitriou and Rachael with the Certificate
and Trophy for the CBE Silver Athena SWAN Award. |
Over the last few years I have become more involved in efforts
to increase the number of women in engineering. I led CBE’s successful Athena SWAN
Silver award submission and through this have been active in improving culture
in the department. I’m looking forward to bringing my experience and skills to
the faculty role. Four other departments in the faculty have bronze awards - It’s
been exciting to see the changes that have gone on in the Faculty over the last
few years, partly due to our Athena SWAN activities and partly due to increased
awareness of some of the issues we face. We have made excellent progress, but
still have some way to go. The primary goal is to make positive changes and improve
working culture; not just getting awards, but making them count. It is great to
see the efforts being made by all of the departments and very rewarding to see
them recognised.
The remit of FDWiE includes equality and diversity, as well
as gender – the most striking inequality in engineering. I have recently
reviewed our structure and am pleased to say that we are introducing a Faculty
Equality and Diversity Committee. I am recruiting members now and we hope to
have the first meeting before the end of the year.
Alongside my women in engineering activities, my research
investigates carbon dioxide utilisation to form fuels and I am of course still
running and orienteering, although there’s more coaching and less racing
creeping in. To add another ball to my already full juggling arms, I am 20
weeks pregnant so embarking on yet more challenges and unknowns. :) But
that’s the subject of a future blog post!
Rachael
