STEM Careers | Rachel Mate - Human Systems Scientist

At school, Rachel enjoyed both the sciences and humanities, being equally at home solving differential equations, dissecting rats or discussing philosophy. However, as she discovered, her diverse interests made it difficult to decide upon a career path. She considered a number of options; Olympic basketballer, lawyer, and engineer, before settling on becoming a clinical psychologist.

As she progressed through her psychology degree at universIty, she found she was more interested in the research side of psychology than its clinical application – which is how she ended up becoming a Human Systems Scientist with Defence.

Rachel’s role is to understand the performance and effectiveness of the most important operating system within the military – the human. She is part of a team working to optimise tactical decision-making for the commanders of Australia’s naval warships.

‘We look at how people interact with the technology on the ships and how we can streamline those processes to ensure good decision making under pressure.’

The role draws directly on Rachel’s psychology background; her understanding of how people think, feel, behave and learn.

For Rachel, the best thing about her job is the interaction with the Navy.

‘Being able to interact with often quite senior members of the Navy and see quite obviously the impact of our work and how our research informs what they do is really interesting and satisfying.’