{credit}Credit: Nicola Evans, WSP {/credit}
Naturejobs is celebrating Women in Science. Every day this week we’re interviewing an inspirational woman in science. Yesterday, we spoke to Professor Frances Ashcroft.
Today, Naturejobs talks to Roma Agrawal, a physicist turned engineer, now working as a structural engineer at WSP Group. I went to visit her at the WSP Group offices, London, to find out more about her adventures in engineering and supporting young people in science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM) studies.
Roma decided to study physics because she loved maths and physics, there was nothing else to it. With some encouragement from teachers at school, she went off to university to study for a degree in physics. “It was really clear to me at the time that you could do a huge range of careers with physics, so it didn’t feel like I was limiting myself.”
But what to do after graduation took some thought. Roma didn’t find much inspiration at the university careers fairs, “you only had accountant, investment banks, and all these financial institutions coming in to these careers days. And I really wasn’t very interested by any of that.” After studying physics for such a long time, Roma wanted to use her degree skills in a practical way, rather than just head for the financial district. So she tried her hand in engineering by doing some work experience. “My role was very boring… however, I was surrounded by very, very inspirational engineers, and they gave me little bits and pieces to do, and I saw how it was all about problem solving. And that’s when the light bulb went off.”