Brendan Howe, Geophysicist at Barrick Gold Corporation.

My work takes me all over the country and the world, often camping under the stars. I graduated from Science Honours in Geology, completing part of my Honours year in South Africa. Soon after graduating I started working as a geophysicist at Barrick Gold, searching the world for gold deposits.

The skills I developed at the ANU have been paramount throughout my career to date. Probably most importantly, studying science at the ANU taught me about critical thinking and problem solving. Our lecturers taught us to never take things on face value, and ask questions like “What assumptions are being made”.

We were encouraged to think outside of the box and come up with creative solutions to problems. I believe the combination of these skills have been equally important as the actual subject matter that was studied. It may sound like a cliché, but I do believe that at the ANU we were taught how to think rather than just what to think.

I now travel the world, having done extensive explorations in the jungles of Papua New Guinea and the desert of Nevada, USA. This year I am looking forward to my work assignment in the Andes of South America.