Biography:Helen Maynard-Casely

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Short description: Australian instrument scientist

Helen Maynard-Casely is an instrument scientist at the Australian Centre for Neutron Scattering at the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation (ANSTO) in Sydney, Australia .[1] She has won numerous prizes and is an advocate for the participation of women in STEM.

Education

Maynard-Casely obtained her MSc in Planetary Science from University College London in 2005. She received a Doctor of Philosophy in High Pressure Physics from the University of Edinburgh in 2009 for her thesis titled "The new mineralogy of the outer solar system and the high-pressure behaviour of methane".[2][3]

Career

After completing her studies, Maynard-Casely held a postdoctoral research position at the University of Edinburgh until 2010.[4] She took a position as a Christmas Lecturer's researcher for the Royal Institution of Great Britain before moving to Australia in 2011 to take up a postdoctoral Research Fellowship at the Powder Diffraction Beamline at the Australian Synchrotron.[4][5] (As of October 2022), she is an Instrument Scientist at the Australian Centre for Neutron Scattering.[1]

Her research expertise is in using neutron scattering techniques to investigate the crystal structure of composite molecules commonly detected in planetary ices such as methane, ammonia and water, in order to better understand the composition of icy moons such as Jupiter's Galilean moon Europa and Saturn's largest moon Titan.[5]

Maynard-Casely regularly contributes to various online blogs and news outlets including Cosmos magazine and not-for-profit news publisher The Conversation where she is frequently an advocate for the improved participation of women in STEM fields.[6][7][4][8] She is an editor for the peer-reviewed journal Crystallography Reviews.[9] Her writing was featured in The Best Australian Science Writing 2012 for her piece "Life in Lake Vostok: The link between Antarctica and extraterrestrials".[10] She is also a co-author of children's book "I Heart Pluto" with Chris Ferrie.[11]

Achievements

  • 2019 – Australian Institute of Physics (AIP) Women in Physics Lecturer[12]
  • 2018 – ANSTO Nuclear Science and Technology Award – Excellence in Science Communication and Outreach[13]
  • 2011 – Guinness World record for the longest glow stick necklace, at 326.44m length[14]
  • 2010 – Malvern PANalytical Thesis Prize for Physical Crystallography[15]

References

  1. 1.0 1.1 "Dr Helen Maynard-Casely". https://www.ansto.gov.au/people/dr-helen-maynard-casely. 
  2. "May 2010 - PANalytical Thesis Prize for Dr. Helen Maynard-Casely | CSEC". https://www.csec.ed.ac.uk/news/may-2010-panalytical-thesis-prize-dr-helen-maynard-casely. 
  3. Maynard-Casely, Helen E. (2009) (in en). New mineralogy of the outer solar system and the high-pressure behaviour of methane. Bibcode2009PhDT.......375M. https://era.ed.ac.uk/handle/1842/4304. 
  4. 4.0 4.1 4.2 "Helen Maynard-Casely" (in en). 14 October 2011. https://theconversation.com/profiles/helen-maynard-casely-4931. 
  5. 5.0 5.1 "Helen Maynard-Casely". https://nmi3.eu/news-and-media/women-in-science/helen-maynard-casely.html. 
  6. "AMplify episode 27: Live at the AM with Dr Helen Maynard-Casely" (in en). https://australian.museum/blog/museullaneous/amplify-ep-27/australian.museum/blog/museullaneous/amplify-ep-27/. 
  7. "Making alien worlds on Earth" (in en-AU). 2017-07-27. https://cosmosmagazine.com/science/physics/making-alien-worlds-on-earth/. 
  8. Tatton, Fiona (2017-02-22). "Scientific careers are about the possibilities and we can't allow outdated ideas about women's role in society to slip back into being the norm - Dr. Helen Maynard-Casely, Instrument Scientist at the Australian Centre for Neutron Scattering - Womanthology" (in en-US). https://www.womanthology.co.uk/scientific-careers-possibilities-cant-allow-outdated-ideas-womens-role-society-slip-back-norm-dr-helen-maynard-casely-instrument/. 
  9. "Crystallography Reviews" (in en). https://www.tandfonline.com/action/journalInformation?show=editorialBoard&journalCode=gcry20&. 
  10. Finkel, Elizabeth (2012). The best Australian science writing 2012 (International ed.). Sydney: NewSouth Pub. ISBN 978-1-74224-129-6. OCLC 828150510. https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/828150510. 
  11. Ferrie, Chris; Maynard-Casely, Helen; Doyle, Elizabeth (2020). I [heart Pluto]. Naperville. ISBN 978-1-7282-0524-3. OCLC 1129395186. https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/1129395186. 
  12. "The Australian Institute of Physics - Women in Physics Lecturer". https://aip.org.au/women-in-physics-lecturer. 
  13. "Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation Annual Report 2018–19: Dr Helen Maynard-Casely". https://www.transparency.gov.au/annual-reports/australian-nuclear-science-and-technology-organisation/reporting-year/2018-2019-54. 
  14. "Longest glow stick necklace." (in en-gb). https://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/world-records/longest-glow-in-the-dark-(chemiluminescent)-necklace. 
  15. "Prizes - PCGSCMP". http://www.pcg-scmp.org/Prizes. 

External links