Ahead of International Women's Day on 8 March 2026, we meet the scientists asking fundamental questions about our changing planet
When Professor Anya Reading installs seismic instruments on Antarctic ice sheets, she's listening for something most of us will never hear: the sound of glaciers responding to warming oceans.
The instruments pick up vibrations as ice cracks and shifts. They reveal whether water is pooling between ice and bedrock, a detail that completely changes how glaciers behave.
"If you have ice on dry bedrock and it's all frozen, it's like a car with good tyres on a dry road," Professor Reading says.
"But if you have a layer of soft sediment containing melt water between the ice and rock, the ice can slide very easily."
The difference could be metres of sea level rise.
Professor Reading is an ARC Laureate Fellow in the School of Natural Sciences at the University of Tasmania, researching the Antarctic continent beneath its ice sheets. The geological structure kilometres underground affects how ice behaves on the surface.
"If we know more about those hidden landscapes, heat and subglacial meltwater, that will be a big step forward in preparing for, and mitigating, ice loss impacts," she says.
"The impacts include sea level rise, and climate disruption linked to slowing down of major ocean currents."
For Professor Reading, it started with simple curiosity about the Earth as the dynamic foundation for everything. Geophysics offered a way to combine outdoor fieldwork with physics, computing and mathematics.
"All of which are both fun, and provide the deep satisfaction that comes from solving difficult problems, once you get into them," she says.
While Professor Reading studies changes happening right now, Dr Sheree Armistead is working at the opposite end of the timeline.
She's piecing together how continents moved when they were locked in the supercontinent Gondwana, hundreds of millions of years ago. Her fieldwork takes her to places like Zambia, Madagascar and India, collecting rock samples from outcrops, creek beds and beaches.
Inside those rocks are tiny zircon grains that can be dated with lasers.
"I was fascinated by the idea of deep geological time and how the tectonic plates are constantly moving, and that the Earth is always changing," Dr Armistead says.
She's an ARC DECRA Fellow in the School of Natural Sciences at the University of Tasmania. By working out where different continents sat when they were joined together as a supercontinent, she's revealing how Earth's climate and geology have changed over billions of years.
"There's still so much we don't understand about how different parts of the Earth formed, how the climate on Earth has changed over millions and billions of years, and how different geological processes work to form things like critical metals and copper that we need for renewable energy," Dr Armistead says.
"That baseline understanding of the Earth system in deep time is crucial for finding the resources we need to build a more sustainable future."
Both researchers hold Australian Research Council fellowships. Both work in fields where there's room for more women.
In physics, Professor Reading's field, women make up 29 per cent of university graduates. In geoscience, the numbers are similar, and they drop further at senior levels.
But that's changing. The University of Tasmania's School of Natural Sciences has created an environment where women researchers like Professor Reading and Dr Armistead can pursue ambitious projects and build successful careers.
"Our planet and its people need keen minds and adventurous spirits," Professor Reading says. "If you're intrigued by the natural world, and its dynamic foundations, then there are many wonderful aspects to careers in geoscience."
Dr Armistead agrees.
"There are so many adventures and scientific discoveries out there to be had," she says.
"While there are many challenges ahead for our planet, it's a huge privilege to be a small part of solving some of those."
One scientist tracking how Antarctica responds to warming. Another reconstructing ancient continents. Different timescales, same goal: understanding how our planet works.
Right now, that understanding isn't optional.
