Life communications
In recognition of International Women’s Day, Life throws the spotlight on women working in exciting STEM jobs in the North East. We caught up with Paula McMahon, a Civil Engineer at Sir Robert McAlpine and Honorary Professor at Teesside University.
I became interested in science at an early age as I always loved solving problems. At school I liked doing experiments and loved solving maths problems even more.
My mum always encouraged me and my sisters to work hard and do whatever we wanted as a job and there’s no better role model than that!
I studied Civil Engineering at university and although I did hit obstacles along the way, I’ve always believed that life is a journey and you just need to step over or around any bumps in the road.
In my job as a civil engineer, I use science in a very practical way everyday through calculations.
Any girl, or boy, can go into science and I would say my goal is to help more people understand that engineers and scientists can help to save the planet.