The world-renowned smog of Los Angeles could be credited as the catalyst for Dr Jenny Fishing becoming an internationally renowned scientist.
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Dr Fisher knew from a young age she wanted to be a scientist, but it wasn’t until she was studying in Los Angeles that the smog, and how it sat on the hills near her home in Pasadena, that she narrowed her focus and a career trajectory was set.
Thinking big was nothing new for Dr Fisher, who has this week been awarded the $25,000 L'Oreal-UNESCO Women in Science Fellowship for her studies.
Early on she had wanted to work for NASA, but decided that “understanding my own planet was more important to me, so I made the change to researching the chemistry of our atmosphere,” Dr Fisher explained.
California born and raised, but well settled in Wollongong, Dr Fisher is a lecturer in the UoW School of Earth and Environmental Sciences, and a researcher in the university’s School of Atmospheric Chemistry.
She came to UoW for the quality of the research, not for the issues with air pollution heavy industry brings.
Her work concentrates on computer modelling of compounds in the atmosphere, and how they interact chemically with each other.
But the resolution of the global model she has been using has been limited, in studying Australia, to areas of about 5 million hectares – that is, there wouldn’t be distinctions visible between Wollongong and Orange.
The funding, Dr Fisher said, would enable her to develop an Australian atmospheric chemistry model. That would bring far greater accuracy to her study, enabling areas just 25km wide to be distinguished.
“That actually means we can have one unique spot over the middle of Sydney, and another spot over a Sydney suburb, and another spot over Wollongong, and the ocean is different, and the escarpment is different,” she told the Mercury.
“That means we can do the chemistry a lot better, and in particular it’s going to let us separate out the landscapes that are really different.
“We get different things coming out of cities, than we do coming out of the natural world … and the way they interact is very different.”
The fellowship recognises accomplished women researchers, aiming to encourage more young women to enter scientific fields.
Asked whether the award was somewhat curious given L’Oreal sells many products in aerosol cans, Dr Fisher said aerosols were no longer a major problem for atmospheric pollution – and this was a victory of science.
The banning of CFCs last century, and the coming ban on HFCs, showed the power of good scientific research into atmospheric pollutants, Dr Fisher said.
