I grew up in Broken Hill, outback NSW. I am first generation Australian of immigrant Italian parents. Being at home with my mum prior to starting school my first speaking language was Italian. I only learnt English when I started school. I was always good at Maths and really enjoyed it at school, because I think it was the “language,-through symbols”, that I understood.
My parents were always supportive and encouraged me, and my siblings to study and get an education, mainly because they didn’t have this opportunity when they were growing up. They also wanted us to have a better life compared to what they had growing up.
As I was growing up I didn’t really know what I wanted to do career wise. However, it was in year 8, high school, which was the defining moment for me when I decided that I wanted to get into a STEM career. In year 8, I had an enthusiastic and inspiring female science teacher and male maths teacher, which both inspired me to consider a science and maths career, in particular I wanted to be a science and maths high school teacher. I continued doing maths and science subjects throughout high school, along with other subjects, as they were mandatory. I really enjoyed maths and science, and was good at it. There were challenges but I always worked hard to overcome these challenges and I always had the determination to achieve my goal.
When I completed year 12 I was planning to go to Teachers College to do my science and maths teaching, but my older sister, who was already at University, advised me that instead of going to teachers college to consider going to University, get a Bachelor of Science and then do a diploma in education.
So I took my sister’s advice and I went to Flinders University to do my BSc, majoring in Experimental Physics with a minor in Mathematics. After completing my BSc I was about to enrol to do a Diploma of Education, but needed a reference from one of my Physics lecturers. When I went to my Physics lecturer to ask for a reference he was surprised that I wasn’t considering enrolling to do Honours, given my above than average grades in my degree. He did advise me that after doing Honours I could always do a diploma of education and get into teaching, and it would also open other STEM job opportunities. So with this advice and encouragement I did Honours where I achieved first class. Then at the completion of my honours I was approached and encouraged again by my Physics lecturers to consider doing a PhD, which I did, and where I was also successful in obtaining a PhD scholarship.
After completing my PhD I took a short break, which is when I had my son. I then got into the workforce where I worked in private industry as a Physical Sciences R&D sales consultant. Then in 2000 I commenced at DST Group, as a research scientist and now, at my substantiative level, I am a senior research scientist. Currently, I am in the position of Acting Group leader.