Celebrating STEM careers on International Day of Women and Girls in Science

On International Day of Women and Girls in Science we asked Claudia Martinez Pinon, corrosion engineer at CorrosionRADAR, to tell us about her career and what she enjoys about the science.

‘Chemistry was always one of my favourite subjects at school. I became a chemical engineer when I wasn’t exactly sure what I wanted to do but knew choosing engineering as a degree would open up many possibilities. In my final year, I was torn between specialising in materials or the environment – I opted for environment.

After my degree, I decided to travel and learn other languages. This is how I arrived in Cambridge and was pleased to begin an internship with CorrosionRADAR. It immediately gave me the chance to investigate corrosion and I was motivated to understand how big a problem and how closely related to the environment it is, causing waste of valuable resources, loss or contamination of products, reducing efficiency and more.

At CR I love being able to combine laboratory experiments with research and working in a dynamic environment that allows me to learn new skills, like data analysis. It’s funny that in the end I didn’t have to choose and ended up learning both fields, materials and the environment. Everything is related!’

Claudia works on a Corrosion Under Insulation Test rig designed by CorrosionRADAR and based on standards as ASTM G189. ‘Each week I measure the corrosion rate of coupons inside the capsule to be able to see their progression

.’