My passion for research in the life sciences was sparked in my first job as a graduate research assistant after completing my undergraduate degree. My supervisor was inspirational and showed me that research was stimulating and rewarding.<\/p>\n
Describe your area\/areas of research.<\/strong><\/p>\n The overarching theme of my research is the microbial ecology of environmental systems and covers the fields of mining biotechnology and mineral resource recovery, microbial induced corrosion and microbial fouling of water (particularly within mining systems) .<\/p>\n My research team investigates biotechnological processes for environmental and industrial applications and approaches to mitigate microbially caused problems such as biocorrosion, biofouling and bioclogging.<\/p>\n How long have you been at Curtin, and where did you work\/what did you do prior to joining the University?<\/strong><\/p>\n I commenced at Curtin in 2002 after completing two postdoctoral research fellowships – the first at CSIRO-Plant Industry in Canberra and the second at Murdoch University.<\/p>\n What have been your biggest challenges in your career, specifically as a woman in STEMM, and how did you overcome them?<\/strong><\/p>\n My biggest challenge has been balancing the conflicting demands of family and work.<\/p>\n What sparked your passion for science, and when did you decide you wanted to build a career in this area?<\/strong><\/p>\n My passion for research in the life sciences was sparked in my first job as a graduate research assistant after completing my undergraduate degree. My supervisor was inspirational and showed me that research was stimulating and rewarding.<\/p>\n Describe your area\/areas of research.<\/strong><\/p>\n The overarching theme of my research is the microbial ecology of environmental systems and covers the fields of mining biotechnology and mineral resource recovery, microbial induced corrosion and microbial fouling of water (particularly within mining systems) .<\/p>\n My research team investigates biotechnological processes for environmental and industrial applications and approaches to mitigate microbially caused problems such as biocorrosion, biofouling and bioclogging.<\/p>\n How long have you been at Curtin, and where did you work\/what did you do prior to joining the University?<\/strong><\/p>\n I commenced at Curtin in 2002 after completing two postdoctoral research fellowships – the first at CSIRO-Plant Industry in Canberra and the second at Murdoch University.<\/p>\n What have been your biggest challenges in your career, specifically as a woman in STEMM, and how did you overcome them?<\/strong><\/p>\n My biggest challenge has been balancing the conflicting demands of family and work.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" A series of stories on women undertaking significant research and development in Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics and Medicine (STEMM).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4224,"featured_media":6194,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_oasis_is_in_workflow":0,"_oasis_original":0,"_oasis_task_priority":"","_relevanssi_hide_post":"","_relevanssi_hide_content":"","_relevanssi_pin_for_all":"","_relevanssi_pin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_unpin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_include_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_exclude_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_no_append":"","_relevanssi_related_not_related":"","_relevanssi_related_posts":"","_relevanssi_noindex_reason":"","wds_primary_category":0,"wds_primary_research-areas":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"research-areas":[],"class_list":["post-6193","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-research"],"acf":{"post_options":{"":null,"additional_content":{"title":"","content":"","image":false},"related_courses":[{"title":"Molecular Genetics and Biotechnology","qualification":"Bachelor of Science (Molecular Genetics and Biotechnology)","link":"https:\/\/courses.curtin.edu.au\/course_overview\/undergraduate\/molecular-biotechnology","description":"In this course, you can develop the knowledge and technical skills you need to contribute to many applications of molecular genetics and biotechnology.","faculty":"Health Sciences"}],"credits":{"author":"","photographer":"","media":false},"display_author":true,"banner":{"image":false}}},"featured_image":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/pic-women-stemm-Elizabeth-Watkin-792x420-1.jpg","author_meta":{"first_name":"Arianne","last_name":"Chavez","display_name":"Arianne Chavez"},"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-14 06:51:41","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6193","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4224"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6193"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6193\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6194"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6193"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6193"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6193"},{"taxonomy":"research-areas","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/research-areas?post=6193"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Professor](\"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/pic-women-stemm-Elizabeth-Watkin2-792x420.jpg\")