UWA engineering professor Carolyn Oldham awarded King’s Birthday Honour for 30 years of environmental service
A South Fremantle engineering professor who has spent decades researching protecting the environment and breaking the glass ceiling for women in STEM subjects has been awarded a King’s Birthday honour.
Emeritus Professor Carolyn Oldham began working at the University of Western Australia’s School of Civil, Environmental and Mining Engineering 30 years ago; He led sustainability projects and water pollution research while teaching various engineering courses.
She began her academic career as the only woman among 84 male engineers and has been advocating for better representation of women and university support ever since.
His efforts and achievements were recognized by his appointment as a Member of the Order of Australia in the General Division for his significant service to higher education and environmental and aquatic sciences.
“I was shocked. I had a hard time believing that someone had nominated me and that I was being recognized for the work I did. I read the email and thought it was spam,” he said. “This is an incredible honor.”
Professor Oldham’s research focuses on water pollution and contamination, often in environmentally degraded areas, to identify its causes and how it can be prevented. It also consults with local communities to transform degraded areas into community assets, such as converting urban drainage networks into parkland or revegetating former mine sites.
“There’s a theme in both of them, looking at the lands and waters we’ve polluted throughout our modern lives and asking if we can recycle those lands into something that society can benefit from,” he said.
“If you know where you want to go long term, can we make changes that will keep that option open?”
Apart from her service to the environment, Professor Oldham is proud of her commitment to improving the education and representation of women in male-dominated fields such as engineering.
“When I was first appointed as an academic at UWA, I was a woman with 84 men in engineering. It was inevitable to see and feel the lack of women. It was very clear,” she said.
“It was crucial to encourage women to go into engineering specifically, but also into the STEM field more broadly. I needed more women around me.
“Engineers design our world, and if we don’t have women designing that world, we would have a very distorted world.”
She has held a variety of leadership roles, including chairing UWA’s gender equality committee, developing pastoral care for students and advancing UWA learning programmes.
Recently, she has been implementing university-wide policies and programs to educate women and support them throughout their careers, from early childhood math classes to entering the workforce.
Professor Oldham, who retired from teaching three years ago, was proud to see increased diversity in engineering classes during her 30 years at UWA, which are now filled with more women and people from different backgrounds and cultures.
He is determined to inspire younger generations to help others and build a brighter future.
“It’s the concept of life as service and how we can contribute to our society without constantly thinking about ‘me, me, me.’ It’s about what we can do for others,” he said.
“It’s a different way of seeing the world; how we use our energy in a way that benefits a lot of people. Having this award is an opportunity to ask people to think about that.”
