'Rowena Ball is Associate Professor in the Mathematical Sciences Institute and the Research School of Chemistry at the Australian National University. From 2010 to 2014 she held an Australian Research Council Future Fellowship. She is an applied mathematician and physical chemist with broad research interests and achievements in nonlinear and complex dynamical systems, origins of life, primordial RNA replication, thermochemical instabilities, pH oscillators, decarbonation of fuels and flue gases, combustion theory and modelling, and thermodynamic analysis and optimization of processes.
Rowena is a founding participant in the National Indigenous Research and Knowledges Network, and a member of the Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies. She has a passionate interest in Indigenous scientific and engineering knowledge and heritage, and in encouraging young Indigenous people into STEM-based careers. She has published influential public policy papers on Indigenous engagement with STEM, and maintains a science blog with an Indigenous focus for students at remote Indigenous schools.
Rowena undertook a science degree part-time by distance education, while she had three young children and was working as breadwinner to support the family. After graduation in 1993 with First Class Honours and the University Medal she undertook a PhD, and graduated in 1997. After a postdoctoral stint in the UK she joined ANU in 1999, with an ARC Postdoctoral Fellowship. She currently has active research collaborations with labs in the UK and China.'
(Source : Women in STEMM Australia)
