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 Sammie Buzzard, assistant professor in polar observation and modelling at Northumbria University, who is featured in Life’s in-house produced Earth Defenders planetarium show.
When I was younger, I didn’t realise that what I was interested in was science – I just knew I was interested in animals, nature, tornados, space, ice etc.
It wasn’t until I was at secondary school that I really started to think about science as a subject.
I didn’t really know any scientists growing up or that you could make a career out of it. Looking back this is odd as my best friend at primary school and I loved watching Twister, which has a female scientist lead, but I never really considered that could be something I could do.
I did enjoy science at school though I was discouraged from taking physics A level because it would be all boys, and now that’s probably the science I use the most!
I studied biology, chemistry and maths at A-level, before completing a maths degree, specialising in climate and then a PhD in climate.
Since then, I’ve had to move around a lot to find work, which can get really tiring, but I’m happy to be in the North East now!
Probably the best part of my job is that I get to go to the polar regions, as the Arctic and Antarctic are not places that many people are lucky enough to visit, although being somewhere really cold and living in a tent isn’t everyone’s idea of fun!
My goal for a long time was to go to Antarctica and I finally achieved that last year. So now I’m thinking about what the next exciting thing should be (other than finding a way to go back as it was the best thing I’ve ever done).
It’s so important to encourage more girls and women into science. I’m lucky I found this career, but I still don’t think people realise how varied careers in science can be, and that you also don’t need to be a scientist.
I came into this from a maths degree, but to tackle big problems like climate change we need people from all sorts of backgrounds.