To celebrate International Women in Engineering Day we're sharing individual stories of women engineers from across UKCRIC member institutions.
Tell us about your role and what you find most exciting about it.
I am a Lecturer in the Materials Section of the Civil and Environmental Engineering department at Imperial College London. My role mainly includes leading research in metallurgy, specifically on enabling a hydrogen infrastructure and other topics related to corrosion and degradation of metals, as well as teaching on the Advanced Materials for Sustainable Infrastructure MSc course. I find it very exciting to develop/test new research ideas and methodologies and to have the opportunity to start building a research group of students and researchers to work with me on them.
What inspired you to become an engineer/work in the engineering sector?
I liked many subjects at school and kept changing my mind about the university degree I wanted to do. What made me decide to become an engineer was my desire to learn maths in depth, the encouragement of the engineers I met and the influence of growing up in a city built by a steel company, where my parents worked for over 30 years.
How do you balance your professional and personal lives?
Not as well as I should sometimes! The passion for my work can often make me work longer hours. But I try to not compromise too much on my health habits (sleeping hours, sports, etc) and quality time with family and friends.
In your opinion is there more that can be done to encourage a greater diversity of people into engineering careers?
Although recognising that there has been a lot of advances in increasing diversity in engineering careers, there is always room for improvement. We should keep working to increase diversity at all levels of organisations, ensuring that there are role models to inspire all young person who wish to become engineers.
What advice would you give for anyone interested in pursuing an engineering career?
We have big challenges ahead of us, especially regarding the lack of natural resources and climate change. Engineering is the most optimistic and pragmatic way of facing them. It involves believing in human creativity and ability to develop new technologies to overcome challenges and improve our quality of life. Anyone interested in becoming an engineer should keep alive the desire for sustainable and equitable innovations as motivation for a rich career.
Dr. Livia Cupertino Malheiros is a Lecturer in Mechanics of Materials at Imperial College London