ShareNew IIR Working Group on Careers in Refrigeration “CaRe”
The IIR is delighted to announce the new IIR Working Group on Careers in Refrigeration “CaRe”, chaired by Dr Catarina Marques.
At the 24th International Congress of Refrigeration in Yokohama (Japan), the IIR organized the second “Reception for Students and Young Researchers”, a student and senior researchers’ speed networking event and its first Women in Refrigeration networking workshop. Both events, which were extremely well received by attendees and acted as forums to increase awareness on these matters, inspired the initiative to create a “Careers in Refrigeration” working group, as well as a sub-working on “Woman in Refrigeration”.
Needs of a young diverse generation
The refrigeration industry plays a major and increasing role in today’s global economy, with significant contributions made in food, health, energy and environmental domains which policy makers need to better understand and take into account.
The need for engineering and technical staff is currently increasing due to the growing demand for refrigerating capacities. At the same time, there is a growing necessity to develop the unique skills required from refrigeration-related professions in the field of energy and environment. It is estimated that approximately 4 jobs out of 1000 are linked to the manufacturing, installation, maintenance and servicing of refrigeration equipment. Refrigeration is a thriving industry, which offers excellent career opportunities for people with all kinds of interests and skills. Opportunities range from working in a laboratory developing new kinds of refrigerants, designing the refrigeration systems of the future or out on the road as an engineer installing and repairing equipment. Today, there are career prospects for everyone.
In addition, women are still significantly and visibly under-represented in the refrigeration industry and diversity does matter; statiscs show that companies are 15% more likely to perform better if they are gender diverse.
Dr Catarina Marques: a young dynamic woman
Introduced into refrigeration during an internship at Bristol University, Dr Catarina Marques (see photo) has a degree in food science and completed an industrial CASE award PhD at London South Bank University (LSBU), where she was previously a research fellow. She is currently working at Adande as the Engineering Manager (Foodservice) and is a member of the IIR and IOR (UK Institute of Refrigeration).
Catarina led the first two IIR Receptions for Students and Young Researchers at IIR congresses in 2011 in Prague (Czech Republic) and in 2015 in Yokohama (Japan), and oversees many UK national events to promote the younger generation in the refrigeration industry.
Committed to the cause, Catarina presented a keynote speech at the 4th IIR Conference on Sustainability and the Cold Chain - ICCC2016 in Perth (Auckland) titled “Women in the Cold Chain Industry”. This paper demonstrated the current preliminary state-of-the-art of female representation in the refrigeration field based on data and statistics gathered by national refrigeration institutions and associations.
Your chance to participate
Don’t miss out on your chance to participate in the next IIR Careers in Refrigeration Working Group Meeting scheduled at the 12th IIR-Gustav Lorentzen Conference in Edinburgh (UK) on Tuesday 23rd August (17.00–18.00).
All IIR commissions are related to this working group.
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