Figuring out how things work is something Elizabeth New has always been interested in.

She was still in primary school when she first took a radio apart to understand how it worked.

The exploration led to her offering to repair her teacher’s faulty radio – and Elizabeth was thrilled when her teacher ‘paid’ her with a new notebook, to say ‘thank you’.

In her family, science was something that was valued and respected, thanks to parents who worked in the field.

With a dad who approached every aspect of his life in a scientific way, Elizabeth was always encouraged to experiment with materials around the house to discover more about the world around her.

Even with those opportunities, though, Elizabeth still remembers feeling that, back then, science was not a career that was particularly celebrated in the same way some people promote being a doctor, or a lawyer.

Her excitement about science has not changed as she has grown.

One of the best parts of being a scientist, she says, is discovering things that have never been discovered before.

What fascinates her is the way that using microscopes to explore deep inside human bodies give scientists the opportunity to understand changes that turn healthy bodies into diseased bodies.

But many of the questions scientists and medical researchers have now about how cells work are about the chemistry of the cells – and those questions can’t be properly explored with the existing tools and equipment.

To help solve that issue, Elizabeth and her colleagues make new tools that can examine the chemistry deep inside our cells. By using chemicals that light up with fluorescence to reveal different aspects of disease within the cells, the scientific innovation means that medical researchers can now understand the chemistry that underpins disease in the human body and figure out how to treat the disease.

When she was a little girl, reading about amazing female scientists from history, such as Marie Curie, showed Elizabeth that women could succeed in STEM – even before she had a proper understanding of what STEM was.

Reading helped her gain a clearer understanding of the world around her, but it also helped her understand how to write well – and that’s something that Elizabeth says is a very important part of life as a professional scientist. Writing about the research she is involved in helps share the discoveries that her and her team make to help other scientists around the world make even more discoveries.

The idea that boys are better at STEM subjects is old-fashioned thinking that Elizabeth hopes today’s generation of budding female scientists don’t listen to. With so many parts of society relying on science to move forward., Elizabeth believes that diversity in the scientific community – including scientists of different genders and cultural backgrounds – is a positive way to generate and share fresh ideas.

Her top tip for girls wanting to pursue a career in STEM is a simple one. Go for it!

By talking to people about what different opportunities there are, observing the world around you, asking lots of questions and exploring your own scientific discoveries, you could be taking the first important steps to your own successful career in science.

Professor Elizabeth New is an Australian chemist and Professor of the School of Chemistry, University of Sydney. She won the 2018 Australian Museum 3M Eureka Prize.