It's commonly known as the "leaky pipeline", University of Newcastle lecturer Dr Renee Goreham said, where more women are taking up STEM subjects to study but once you look to the higher level, to working academics, there are very few females.

"The number of female students going into undergraduate degrees for STEM are becoming more equitable," Dr Goreham said.

"But once we get to the higher levels, about the stage of my career or even earlier, that's when the equality between females and males decreases quite sharply.

"We have a lot less female associate professors, professors and senior lecturers in our field.

"This gives us the knowledge that it's not lack of innate skill but more to do with social and environmental factors."

As for the reasons that have been given to this decline, Dr Goreham said some factors included women not receiving the correct support when they return to academia from maternity leave and the competitive nature of the field.

"It is changing but there is an old personality type that reach higher positions - they work 80-hour weeks, don't have much of a social life and are quite competitive," Dr Goreham said.

"Now that's changing a bit but we really need to support women, not by changing their personalities, but it's about supporting them to be themselves, that they are good enough and that they have the support before and after family life."

Dr Goreham, from Medowie, said days like International Day of Women and Girls in Science, which was February 11, and International Women's Day, to be observed March 8, highlight that work is still needed to be done to bridge the gender divide in STEM.

"International Day of Women and Girls in Science in particular shines a light on the fact there there are women in STEM and numbers are increasing but then also acknowledging that we still have a lot of work to do," she said.

Dr Goreham said she always had a passion for science but as a young girl, did not know she could have a career in it.

"I didn't really know anything about where it could take me. I didn't know what a doctorate was, or a PhD, anything like that. I just thought, 'I like science so I'll do that at university'. I was first in my big family of seven to go to uni. Then I just sort of never left," she said.

Dr Goreham graduated from Flinders University in Adelaide with a Bachelor of Science with honours in 2008.

The next year she started her PhD at the University of South Australia, which focused on nanoparticles. This area, and nanotechnology, remains Dr Goreham's passion.

"Nanoparticles has always been an area of interest. I find them really interesting. You can't see them but I have to prove to you that they're there," she said.

She wrote her thesis whilst on maternity leave in 2013 and graduated in 2014.

In 2016, Dr Goreham and family, husband Rich and children Ella and Evan, moved to New Zealand for her to start a postdoctoral fellow position at Victoria University of Wellington.

"That's where my career took off. From there I was able to develop my own research group," she said.

The family moved back to Australia in 2019 when Dr Goreham took up a lecturer position at UoN in the physics department.

She teaches physics to 200 students a year, runs research groups with her own PhD students plus finds time to complete her own research.

"I lecture in physics but my passion is my research on nanotechnology," Dr Goreham said.

"I like to make my own little nanoparticles. You can't see them with the naked eye because they're so small but they have these really cool properties.

"I also look at natural occurring nanoparticles. Our body makes nanoparticles and they're like little markers for the cells. For example, if one came from a diseased cell we could use that as our biomarker to identify that its come from a cancerous cell and make new modes of detection of disease.

"Just recently my group was able to find naturally occurring nanoparticles in our own breath. So, if we're trying to use these [nanoparticles] as biomarkers, imagine a disease breathalyzer. That's an area that I'm really interested in exploring. It might not ever work, but it also might work.

"These naturally occurring nanoparticles from the cells in our breath, think about COVID. The virus is a similar size to these nanoparticles so, could we potentially, instead of sticking a swab up our noses, use breath as our detection targets?"

In addition to teaching, Dr Goreham is a mentor through the Curious Minds program.

Aimed at "highly capable" girls in Years 9 and 10 who have an interest in STEM, they receive six months of hands-on mentoring.

"I did it last year and it was just fantastic," Dr Goreham said of her involvement. "I love meeting new and inspiring students. I wish I was that switched on at their age. They have so much drive and passion for the interests they have.

"I didn't really know where I could be take with science. If I had that support as a young girl I'm sure I would have gotten to where I am now faster or at least had more confidence in it.

"I got involved because I wanted to give back. I've had a lot of people support me through the years. And I find that is so crucial - having that support to being successful.

"Being involved in these mentorship programs gives young women that little confidence boost, helps with the self doubt, helps stop gender bias, to keep pushing through to say 'I am good enough to do this'.

"I think it's important for young girls to see women working in STEM. Representation matters and if these young girls see they can one day reach high levels in STEM fields, this will see even more girls go through the system and not go through this leaky pipeline."

Dr Goreham also supports UoN's HunterWiSE Outreach, a 10-week program that directly targets female high school students in Year 8. Students have the opportunity to work alongside STEM professionals.

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