Dianne Plummer paving a way for the next generation of women in STEM
ANSWERING THE call for more women in science, technology, engineering and math-ematics (STEM), Dianne Plummer is not only a trailblazer in the engineering realm. She is also making room for the next generation of technological innovators.
Plummer was only five years old when her mother gave her her first chemistry set. “My mom, she bought me my first toy chemistry set. I never used to get dolls.
I used to get books and, like, educa-tional stuff,” Plummer told Flair. “I was so inquisitive as a child. I used do some things that probably I shouldn’t have, like mixing up the chemicals in the bathroom and in the toilet because I was like, ‘I wonder what would happen?’ and one time saying, ‘I wonder what would happen if I put water on the bulb. I guess I always loved the sciences. I always knew I’d do something in the sciences.”
It was no surprise when Plummer began her pursuit of higher education, earning a Bachelor of Science in Chemical Engineering from the University of Technology (UTech) Jamaica.
She continued her education abroad with a master’s programmes in Sweden and Finland. That experience encouraged her to share what she learnt with her countrymen.
“When I graduated, I went back to UTech because I wanted to give back. I wanted to kind of bring in all of the concepts that I learned and all of the teaching methods and all of the things about energy. I wanted to give that to UTech, so I lectured at UTech for about five years,” she said.
Having designed a master’s course in bio-en-ergy, the experience was