Chosen to be one of the characters in the "Sisters", a mini-documentary being screened in the Australian Pavilion for 2010 Shanghai World Expo, Erika Cretney, an Australian female scientist has recently shared her life story with her Chinese audience.

"I was very excited and fortunate that they chose me, especially as a woman inside. I feel really honored. And now, we are chosen to fly to China for the Expo, it is going to be an amazing experience for us, something I will remember forever." Erika told Xinhua with excitement.

Being a successful women in science and a mother to two young boys, how to balance life and career? Erika told her Chinese audience, "I think a successful woman is a woman who is doing everything she wants to do, and achieves everything she wants to achieve, no matter she wants to stay at home raising children, or to have a career, they can both be successful."

"I think success depends on what you want to achieve by each individual woman. I think women live to make themselves happy is the most important thing. " she added.

Erika is a L'Oreal Women in Science Fellowship winner which is a special fellowship for women in science and encourage women to fight for leadership position in science.

"The movie was shot in November last year. At that moment, I was just thinking about to take a maternity leave, then I received the email from the producer, just three or four days before the baby came. I thought I didn't have time but the producer said they could wait for several months, so I agreed to do it because I was also very much to take part."

"The filming took one whole day, and then we took two or three days doing the interviews over the phone and meeting with the producers," Erika said as she recalled the shooting experience.

Erika is now working on the field of the T cells which she'd like to think of them as the policemen of the whole immune system. "They help to make sure the other part of the immune system function correctly. This is a new area I've been working on the past couple of years, before that, I worked on cancer research for nearly ten years."

Erika has been to the World Expo before. "I have been to the world expo in Brisbane in 1988. I was a young child at that moment, but the World Expo left me a great impression."

"I think World Expo is a good opportunity to make more people to know more about each other." she said, "when I go to Shanghai World Expo, I'd like to make more people know about Australia, not only the great landscape, but also the cultural atmosphere, especially the fantastic education environment and facilities."

She said Australia is a friendly, exciting and open country. " We have different cultures here, we are very welcoming the people from other countries and their cultures, and we like to share all great things together."

Inspired by the sister relationship between Canberra-Beijing, and New South Wales- Guangdong, "Sisters" tells the stories of many inspiring Australian and Chinese women across a broad cross- section of professions, ages, ethnic backgrounds and geographical locations, including Her Excellency Ms Quentin Bryce who is Australia's 25th governor-general and the first woman to hold this office. Their stories combine to highlight the theme of the Expo, " Better City, Better Life."

Go to Forum >>0 Comments