Volunteering at CSIRO led Flinders University nutrition and dietetics graduate Dr Jane Bowen into a challenging career path – and a poster girl for science and technology.

She is one of seven of the organisation’s brightest young scientists from around Australia selected as the CSIROseven who will be used to recruit “future thinkers, innovators, scientists and entrepreneurs” to STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) careers.

“We hope that by sharing our stories and our research we will inspire others to start thinking about working in science and technology, with these careers growing 1.5 times faster than any other,” Jane says.

The CSIROseven work across a portfolio of research areas from advanced materials, computational linguistics, wearable technology, nutrition, ecology and oceanography.

Dr Bowen says the campaign is highlighting some of the “big problems and big ideas” of our time. As a research dietitian based at CSIRO Food and Nutrition at Adelaide’s new SAHMRI facility in Adelaide, she has worked on family nutrition and written the CSIRO Wellbeing Plan for Kids.

“We are fortunate to be able to create a mobile phone app and website that takes our research findings and translates them into accessible tools that support weight loss,” she says.

“With our ageing population and obesity is on the rise, we’re working on sensors for remote patient care and diets that are individually tailored to your unique needs.

“We’re exploring the potential for one day assessing people’s DNA to see if we can tailor nutritional requirements and dietary programs specifically to them.”