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Latest comment: 5 days ago5 comments3 people in discussion
@ChocMilk03 the only source that refers to her as such is the Spinoff. I'm inclined to go with what the far more reliable sources, such as the Antarctic Society, state on this. She is evidently a technician not a scientist based on what details are provided. Traumnovelle (talk) 22:36, 29 July 2024 (UTC)Reply
@Traumnovelle:The Spinoff and Newshub are both reliable sources; the latter article opens with "Three pioneering female scientists" so does refer to her as a scientist. There's also the Bay of Plenty Times: "To acknowledge the role that women like Thelma play in making Antarctic scientific advancements, the New Zealand Antarctic Programme has named three science laboratories at the newly-refurbished Hillary Field Centre in Antarctica after pioneering female scientists." And in The New Zealand Herald: "trail-blazing women scientists like Thelma Rodgers, Pamela Young and Margaret Bradshaw".
On that basis I think it's fine to put her in the relevant categories, although agree 'science technician' is most accurate for the lead.
Online news sources have always been the least reliable when it comes to reliable sources. I'm much more inclined to believe that these sources have sensationalised/made mistakes/unaware of the differences compared to the Antartic Society for some reason downplaying her. Traumnovelle (talk) 00:27, 30 July 2024 (UTC)Reply
I was planning to ping @Traumnovelle to revert “technician” back to “scientist” but was trying to do some research first. “Technician” is often a job title that refers to a role that more focused on operating instrumentation or running protocols. In my career I’d always considered colleagues with a science technician title to still be scientists as they too were developing hypotheses and devising experiments to answer key questions. Nnev66 (talk) 02:21, 30 July 2024 (UTC)Reply
In my career I consider a technician a technician, which is how she is described by the Antarctic Society and not pop culture journalism. Traumnovelle (talk) 02:56, 30 July 2024 (UTC)Reply
