BSc (Hons 1 and University Medal) majoring in Applied Maths
Year Graduated: 1999
Currently: PhD in Mathematics focusing on Oceanography and Climatology

Full time PhD (Sydney, 2000)
Part time position (6 months into PhD) Weather presenter on Weather Channel on Austar (now also on Foxtel)
Moved to Hobart, Tasmania, to continue PhD at CSIRO.
Part time position (Jan 2003) as Weather Presenter on ABC news.

In high school I really had no idea what I wanted to do for a career, how can you know with so little experience of the real world and what jobs involve? I knew from my mindless after school jobs that I didn’t want something that was mundane and routine. I really liked maths at school but I didn’t know of any job you could get doing maths besides being a maths teacher until I went to a maths seminar. There I discovered that maths could actually be a career. People employ you to solve problems for them. I decided to do a science degree and major in maths. In my first year of Uni I took maths subjects and, due to the degree’s flexibility, I was also able to study computing, physics, chemistry and philosophy. That was great as it kept my options open.

PhD – I study mathematical models of the ocean to improve current forecasts of climate such as El Nino. PhDs are like full time jobs but without a boss! You need to be very self motivated to go into work each day and actually do something productive. The most exciting aspect is working with world leading scientists and learning about cutting edge ideas on science and their views on issues like Greenhouse Warming. Weather Presenting – Each weeknight I go to the Bureau of Meteorology to discuss the weather with the meteorologists. We look at what happened during the day and compare model output for the forecast. I then write up a script for the weather segment. I feel my role is to be the link between the meteorologists and the public. I take the scientific data and determine the information that is important for the viewers and put it in an easily digestible format. The weather is presented live in the news bulletin.

Make sure you choose your career based on what you enjoy. Don’t base it on - how much money you will earn, - how prestigious the job is, - what your parents expect you to do, - how high your UAI was, all these factors become irrelevant in time.

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