Grant Scott FIEAust is Chair of Engineers Australia’s Chemical College and shares his insights on volunteering with technical societies and colleges. Scott is currently Company Director of KiResources, KiStrategies and Venture Capital Institute Australasia.
“I volunteer to make a difference. Engineers Australia is a great vehicle for making a difference – it’s a large church and covers many disciplines.
Volunteering helps engineers build great awareness around their area of speciality, as they learn so much from others.
Within the Chemical College we’ve been engaged in climate-smart and environmental engineering. We’re making a pragmatic difference to how engineers provide information, support, expertise and skills to the community and the government.
Engineers can bring practical understanding – including full-lifecycle evaluations of the impacts of certain technologies such as solar roads, electric cars, green hydrogen, etc. – because we look at things on a logical and agnostic basis.
I’m also involved in venture capital. I work with entrepreneurs and look at how they might move forward, or not, with development and commercialisation of an idea.
Engineers are entrepreneurs and applied scientists. Whenever there is an issue to be solved, science develops a solution. But engineers make that solution real.”
Read more about Engineers Australia’s volunteers here.