The second ever ‘Girls into Geoscience Ireland’ will take place at NUI Galway next month to encourage young women to pursue Earth Sciences.
Girls into Geoscience Ireland introduces female secondary school and early university students to the Earth Sciences and the careers available to them.
Over the course of the day students will be brought through a series of workshops, talks, and one-on-one networking sessions.
These will give them the chance to speak with people in every stage of their career in Earth Sciences, from undergraduates right through to researchers at the top of their fields.
Leading the event is Dr. Aoife Blowick, a post-doctoral researcher in Earth and Ocean Sciences at NUI Galway and chair of the Irish Association for Women in Geosciences.
She is excited about the showing young women all the opportunities there are for them working in sciences through this one day event.
“The potential of job opportunities in Earth Sciences are limitless, and we want to show what an exciting and diverse career women can have, from engineering geologists who drive innovation, technology and infrastructure to hydrogeologists who ensure we have clean and sustainable sources of water.”
Over the course of the day students will hear about the forces of volcanoes and earthquakes, and dive into the depths of the world’s oceans.
In 2016 the Geoscience sector employed 25,000 people in Ireland and contributed an estimated €3.27 billion to the Irish economy.
Irish earth sciences graduates are employed at home and abroad looking for raw resources, studying the environment, coming up with new energy sources, and working to mitigate the dangers posed by nature in many sectors.
Dr Fergus McAuliffe from the Irish Centre for Research in Applied Geosciences (iCRAG), added that:
“Attendees will meet professional female geoscientists, hear their amazing career journeys that have taken them around the world, and get involved in hands on activities to show what being a geoscientist feels like.”
Catherine Jordan is a marine scientist at NUI Galway who uses satellite technology to study algae blooms in the Atlantic ocean.
Her work often takes her on expeditions aboard the Marine Institute’s Celtic Explorer and Voyager research ships.
Jesse Franklin is a PhD candidate in Earth and Ocean Sciences who prior to this worked searching for gold in eastern Canada.
And Megan Dolan is a geotechnical engineer who right this moment is working on a tunnel for the N6 Galway ring road.
This event is being led by NUI Galway and the Irish Centre for Research in Applied Geosciences, in collaboration with the discipline of Earth and Ocean Sciences at NUI Galway, the Irish Association for Women in Geosciences and the Geological Survey of Ireland.
It’s completely free and open to all female students, taking place at the Ryan Institute at NUI Galway on November 10 from 10am to 4pm.
To attend just register online here.
