The Knowledge Review The 20 Most Innovative STEM College and Universiti | Page 25

Making History in
Australian Mining
Sagacious Educat s of
Curtin University
Curtin's academic staff have made
significant contributions to e university
and wider community, such as botanist
Profess Kingsley Dixon and novelist
Profess Kim Scott.
Curtin engineering alumna Alex Atkins exemplifies the
University’s long-held commitment to STEM education
through her pioneering career in Australia’s mining industry.
Atkins graduated Curtin with a Bachelor in Engineering
(Mineral Exploration and Mining Geology) in 1990 and was
the first female District Inspector of Mines at the Western
Australia Department of Mines and Petroleum, and the first
female mining engineer to work at an underground mine in
Papua New Guinea. She has played an instrumental role in
helping to promote gender equality in Australia’s mining
industry and the wider community. “Women were not legally
permitted in Western Australia and Queensland underground
mines until 1986 and were still not legally permitted to work
underground in Papua New Guinea in the mid 90s, so there
were a lot of concrete obstacles and superstitious attitudes to
overcome when I worked underground in these locations. I
basically never gave up,” asserts Atkins.
Atkins is now Chief Operating Officer of PETRA Data
Science Pty Ltd, and is regularly invited by prominent
industry bodies to speak at events to inspire young women to
pursue non-traditional careers. T R
• Curtin engages primary and
secondary education students
with STEM learning through
its Science and Engineering
Outreach program, which
provides opportunities for
school students and their
teachers to learn new skills,
meet like-minded people and
discover science and
engineering through
workshops, camps,
excursions, trips to Curtin
and competitions.
• Fireballs in the Sky is
Curtin’s multi-award-
winning citizen science
initiative and an important
outreach opportunity.
Founded by Professor Phil
Bland, an ARC Laureate
Fellow in Curtin’s
Department of Applied
Geology, it invites families,
students and teachers to
learn about planetary
geology by contributing
meteor sightings via a free
mobile app.
Dixon is an eminent botanist who
discovered e specific chemical in smoke
at causes s ds to germinate. He was
named WA Scientist of e Year at e
2016 Premier's Science Awards, where he
was recognised f his eff ts in
conservation science, rest ation ecology
and plant science.
Kim Scott is a multi-award-winning
novelist and descendant of e Wirlomin
Noongar people. His published w ks have
positioned Noongar culture bef e e
wider Australian and international
communities. Scott is e first Indigenous
iter to have won e coveted Miles
Franklin award twice – first in 1999 f
his novel Benang: From e Heart and
again in 2011 f That Deadman Dance.
Past prominent academics include e
post-modernist Nia Lucy, iter
Elizabe Jo ey and journalist Robert
Duffield.
• The University’s
Indigenous Pre-Medicine
and Health Science
Enabling course is
designed to provide
Aboriginal and Torres
Strait Islander students
with the skills and
confidence to pursue
university education in the
fields of health sciences
and medicine.
• Curtin’s Science,
Technology and
Mathematics Bursary is
available to female
students studying a
STEM course in Western
Australia at a year 12,
TAFE or university level.
It aims to recognize
academic excellence and
the extent to which
studies can benefit
women, families and the
wider community.
October | 2017
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N O W L E D Education.
G E R Innovation.
E V I Success
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