>MATHS+ENVIRONMENT<
The coastal route Joanna Aldridge has always loved maths but wasn’t clear what her future career might look like
learn your times tables is etting a parent to help you ge’s dad taught her how rid Ald one thing, but Joanna primary ations when she was in to solve differential equ d oye enj she s say a Joann school. Far from a chore, ts cep con the sp gra to e the challenge. “I was abl .” liked doing my homework straight away, so I even nce scie and ns itio pet Joanna got involved in com her , which only encouraged camps throughout school like is ths ma e it becaus to keep going. “I enjoyed says. she ge,” gua lan a ng rni lea e ool, Joanna wasn’t as sur sch h hig r However, afte jor ma to d ide She dec about her future studies. graphy, but says they in maths and physical geo at the time. However, didn’t really go together n meant the two areas soo advances in computing h. pat eer car g atin merged into a fascin
G
Joanna Aldridge, xxxxxxx xxxxxxxx xxxx xxxxx
Understanding risksin coastal geomorphology
rs After completing Honou r working as a research yea a ng – and then spendi rted her PhD, using maths statistician – Joanna sta risk in New South Wales. g to study coastal floodin lysing the risk of storms This landed her a job ana lia, building complex risk throughout eastern Austra ather charts from the we l ica models using histor well as wind, wave and Bureau of Meteorology as rainfall data. comes, might not represent all out “Historical climate data to ses ces pro ing erly d its und so we have to understan says. worst-case scenarios,” she capture the true range of the m fro nts eve e del extrem “For the risk analysis, I mo -10,000-year events.” -in one to up ar -ye -10 1-in (SIH) Sydney Informatics Hub Joanna now works with m tea nce scie a dat SIH . Her at the University of Sydney ng with alo cs lyti ana and ing uses advanced comput hout help researchers throug software engineering to . ges llen cha a dat n ir ow the university tackle the rested in pursuing a career Her advice for anyone inte get to keep an eye on job ads to with maths? “You should to always mit com and le, ilab ava s know the range of option iting y up-to-date with the exc learning; you’ll need to sta an Kh Jo – says. and fast-paced field,” she Bachelor of Advanced Science (Mathematics and Physical geography), University of Wollongong
i enjoyed maths because it was like learning a language”
Research Statistician
Environmental consultant
>CAREERSwithSTEM.com<
PhD, coastal geomorphology, University of Sydney
Research informatics manager, University of Sydney
16