Emeritus Professor Carolyn Oldham, a South Fremantle engineering professor who has dedicated decades to environmental conservation and breaking the glass ceiling for women in STEM, has been honoured with a King's Birthday appointment as a Member of the Order of Australia in the General Division.
Three Decades of Service
Professor Oldham began her career at the University of Western Australia's School of Civil, Environmental and Mining Engineering 30 years ago. Over this period, she has led sustainability projects and water pollution research while teaching various engineering courses. When she started, she was the only woman among 84 male engineers, a stark imbalance that fueled her lifelong advocacy for better female representation and university support.
Upon receiving the news, she said: "I was shocked. I found it hard to believe that someone had nominated me and I was being recognised for the work I had done - I read the email and I thought it was spam. It's an amazing honour."
Environmental Research and Community Impact
Professor Oldham's research focuses on water pollution and contamination in environmentally degraded areas. She works to identify causes and prevention methods, often consulting with local communities to transform degraded sites into community assets, such as converting urban drainage networks into parklands or revegetating old mine sites.
"There's a theme running through both of those, which is looking at lands and waters that we contaminate through our modern life, and asking if we can transition those lands back to something the community can benefit from," she explained. "If you know where you want to go in the long-term, can we make changes now which keep that option open?"
Advocacy for Women in STEM
Beyond her environmental work, Professor Oldham takes great pride in advancing women's education and representation in male-dominated fields like engineering. "When I was first appointed as an academic at UWA, I was one woman with 84 men in engineering. The lack of women was unavoidable to see and feel. It was stark," she recalled. "Encouraging women to come into engineering specifically, but also STEM more broadly, was essential. I needed more women around me. Engineers are designing our world, and if there's no women designing that world, we're going to have a very skewed world."
She has held leadership roles including chairwoman of UWA's gender equity committee, where she developed pastoral care for students and progressed learning programs. Recently, she has implemented policies across the university to nurture women throughout their careers, from early childhood maths classes to workforce entry.
A Legacy of Diversity
Having retired from teaching three years ago, Professor Oldham is proud to see increased diversity in engineering classrooms. "It's the concept of life as service, and how can we contribute to our society without thinking about 'me, me, me' all the time. It's about what we can do for others," she said. "It's a different way of seeing the world - how do we use our energy to be as beneficial to the most number of people. Having this award is an opportunity to ask people to reflect on that."
