Science, success and sex

Three award-winning women discuss their achievements and how they've risen in a male-dominated industry

Bringing sunshine to darkness

2014 has been a good year for Salinee Tavaranan. She not only made it to the final round of Cartier Women's Initiative Awards 2014, but was also in the BBC's prestigious list of 100 Women of 2014 — the only Thai who made the list.

Salinee is an engineer, a social entrepreneur, and the CEO of SunSawang Company Limited, a solar electricity service company whose mission is to provide solar products and services to rural villages in Thailand.

The 36-year-old has always enjoyed building things and fixing machines ever since she was a little girl, so it was only natural that she chose to study engineering.

After completing her bachelor's in mechanical engineering at Chulalongkorn University, she furthered her study in the US, focusing on solar energy engineering.

"I think that without energy, life would be impossible. I was aware of the importance of energy and how our country's resources were running low. I wanted to learn more about alternative energy resources, which was not a popular topic at the time," said Salinee.

Upon completing her studies, Salinee returned to Thailand to work for Border Green Energy Team (BGET), an NGO with experience training villagers in the installation and maintenance of renewable energy systems. Almost 300,000 of these systems were installed in remote areas. Due to a lack of maintenance, however, over 80% of the systems were no longer in use, just a few years later.

"When you give people something for free, sometimes they do not realise the value and take it for granted. If we collect money from them, we can use that money to employ someone to look after it, making it more sustainable," she said.

She spends most of her time in Chiang Rai, Tak and Mae Hong Son, at refugee camps or tribal villages where electricity is not available. Her company needs to raise funding to supply more households with energy. Meanwhile, her company has also developed smart ways to use solar energy, such as a solar lantern that doubles as a mobile phone charger, to encourage people to use energy more wisely.

"I think Thai people today do not pay much attention to how their energy consumption impacts the environment. It would be great if we can just stop and think about what we're doing. Do we really need many layers of plastic bags when we buy food? Do we really have to turn on all the lights the moment we get home? Sometimes, we do things habitually without realising how wasteful it is," she said.

She felt very thankful for the recognition she received this year, but more importantly, she felt thankful that she had not been discriminated against, even though she works in a supposedly male-dominated field.

"Many researchers have found that gender balance actually leads to better business, but I know that there's still gender discrimination in many offices. I've been blessed with nice colleagues and kind bosses who do not think my gender is an issue," she said.

By and large, however, Salinee admits that Thai society still has negative impressions about women.

"Misconceptions that women can't drive, women will take maternity leave and disrupt workflow, and things like that, are still present," said the scientist. "I think women are very strong and smart, especially my fellow finalists whom I met in France at the Cartier Women's Initiative Awards.

"Most of them are engineers, too, and they create amazing things from their personal needs. A mother of a disabled child developed something to make her child's life easier, which in turn helps other disabled children. A woman who loves running came up with a sportswear innovation that helps her run better. I believe that a woman can do anything if she puts her mind to it."

— Napamon Roongwitoo

A promise to end pain

Lourdes Cruz considered herself a born scientist. Raised in a family of eight, with a father who worked as a researcher, she was very familiar with experiments, the lab environment and the wonder of science.

"My father was a chemist and he became the research director in a private company. Sometimes, he would bring us to the lab and I started getting interested. The first time I took science in high school, I liked it very much," said Cruz, who received a master of science and PhD in biochemistry from the University of Iowa, before returning to the Philippines to teach biochemistry.

Cruz, who was elected chairperson of 12th L'Oreal Thailand "For Women In Science 2014", was a L'Oreal-Unesco Awards for Women in Science Laureate for Asia-Pacific in 2010. She was given the title of National Scientist, the highest honour conferred by the Philippines government for exemplary contributions to science in 2006.

The now retired biochemist is an internationally recognised expert in marine toxicology and a specialist of cone snails, a marine creature that can sting and inject venom to paralyse its prey. What that means is that the poison, which can be lethal, can also be beneficial as a painkiller.

Thanks to Cruz and her collaborators, scientists today can use conotoxins, the venom derived from the cone snails, to investigate the activity of the human brain and to develop drugs to treat severe pain, in particular among cancer patients. It is said to be 1,000 times more effective than morphine.

Cruz has published more than 100 articles, as well as a recent report entitled "Gender, Science, and Technology in the Philippines". Although Cruz herself says that she has never been discriminated against for being a woman, she knows that the problem does exist.

"It depends on your colleagues, the men you work with. I'm very lucky to be working with men who are very supportive. We have come a long way from the old days when there were few women in science. Now about 60% of the science graduates in the Philippines are women," she said.

The problem is not that women are bad at science — it's just that sometimes they choose to sacrifice their career for their family, because they are usually not given a choice to do both. According to Cruz, from the 60% female science graduates, the number reduces to around 40% after graduation as many women drop out to be with their children. Further up the career ladder, only about 33% of science academics are women.

"The Philippines lacks scientists. We need many more. We have only about 100 researchers per million. If we can encourage more women to continue, that number will be increased. It's a waste, really, for highly trained women to drop out entirely," Cruz said.  

To solve that problem the Philippines is offering scholarships and looking at ways to encourage women who have taken leave from science to take care of their children to return to science. Cruz said that offering part time positions would help keep many women in the career that they love.

"I think it's very important, because that way, their talent won't go wasted. Some women may be able to work part-time. That can be an option for them, and one day, they can go back to full-time. They won't go too far from science," she said.

But of course, everything has to start at home. Parents also play an important role in raising children who are passionate about science. She gave an example of her childhood. The freedom to play in nature was what she considered the best gift her parents had ever given her.

"My father gave us a lot of freedom to roam around," she recalled. "My sisters and I were always playing in the woods. There are many interesting things about nature. Science then became a part of our lives."

— Napamon Roongwitoo

Solar power success

Patchanita Thamyongkit says that today's international conflicts are fights over oil, for energy security and for power. One day, the wars could be something different, as new technology in energy must be sustainable.

The 38-year-old assistant professor explains her research on the chemical synthesis of materials for the development of solar cells. "If you can't picture what I do, think about the LED screen of your phone. It converts electricity into light. Solar cells convert light energy into electricity. It's based on a similar principle and it requires expertise in every matter from chemists to product designers."

At the Department of Chemistry of Chulalongkorn University, she lectures, conducts research, is part of the management team, is a guidance counsellor, and also presents academic findings to the public and the media.

Last year, Patchanita was the first Thai to be awarded the International Centre for Theoretical Physics prize. Between 2009 and 2010, she was granted the Marie Curie International Incoming Fellowship, during which she researched light-harvesting materials for solar cells development.

Patchanita hadn't known she loved science until she entered college. No one in her family works in this field.

"I wanted to do something useful. I think it has to do with my upbringing. I could never sleep in, even on Sundays. My parents would say, 'Are you just going to sleep? Aren't you going to do something for others?'.

"As I studied, I began realising how science is the basis for building infinitely more knowledge," she said. "At first, I wanted to study petro-chemistry, since our country produces oil. But I learned the vast possibilities as a chemist."

Patchanita later went to Germany to attain her PhD, where she worked on a team researching light emitting substances. "It simply provided a solution to the fact that light bulbs used up a lot of energy and LED consumed less," she said. "When I completed my PhD, I started thinking about what Thailand needed. Thinking about LED led to me thinking about solar cells. I had the background knowledge to build from."

"How do you collect solar energy? Picture chlorophyll in leaves which absorbs light and converts it into food, into sugar and oxygen. We use this as a model in our studies. Chlorophyll disintegrates. We need to synthesise a substance that is long lasting and works the same way," she explained.

"There's no biological process we could imitate. Our cellphones can't make food. All we can do is transform light energy into electrons which are used to create electrical energy."

She recalled asking an investor, when she returned home, about the cheapest resource for energy at the time. His reply was "burning trash". She knew something had to be done. She had just returned from Europe where solar energy was cheap and governments were subsidising it, reducing tax, and buying back the energy.

Patchanita has grown up believing people should contribute more to the world in their lifetime. She talks of the roots of Thai expectations that a good woman must be a good wife. "If I sat around at home, I'm sure my house would be clean," she joked.

She saw the positive aspects in every situation. 

She points out that students in Thailand are much more adaptive and creative in the way they deal with the shortage of tools and equipment and even chemicals, than researchers in other countries who have access to anything they need. 

"Sure, I've experienced some biases but I've never viewed it as an obstacle.

"People have explained my accomplishment as coming from my personality and looks. But I've never heard a man whose success is credited to good looks.

"It's a small detail but not something to overlook. It's about perspective. I don't complain; they are praising me, but I can feel it. It's my capabilities. When I send in applications, they don't see what I look like."

Her works have received great recognition, including her participation in the L'Oreal-Unesco Women In Science Programme. She is even more excited, however, that they are creating a "Girls In Science" programme.

"To increase interest in science, to increase the number of female scientists, we must begin by cultivating knowledge. I myself didn't know I loved science until I accidentally discovered it. If I had gotten into a different department, I could be doing that right now."

— Pimrapee Thungkasemvathana