I always found myself questioning the world around me and simply wanted to know why things were the way they were. As a child, I was particularly interested in stars and planets and obsessed with animals. Why were birds able to fly, and more importantly why could I NOT fly?

I have always enjoyed school and as I got older, I just found that I loved learning in general, so university was the next step. Being in a place with the specific purpose of just learning was a dream.

My family has always been my biggest influence, by always answering the thousands of (sometimes annoying) questions and crazy theories child-me had for them. Also there have been a few science teachers who have extended and fostered my science interests. In particular, when I was in Year 10, there was one teacher who had worked in science and who was able to share their experinces with the class. For me, that had a huge impact.

While I’m studying for my science degree at the University of Tasmania, I also volunteer in the Chemistry department. The objective of the project I work on is to extract chemicals from plants and see how the chemicals can be used or transformed for better use. I have also done some previous work in chemistry with metals, constructing a metal complex and testing its use for speeding up reactions or increasing the amount of product made when it is used in reactions.

I’m studying chemistry, phyics and mathematics, but I don’t have specific area of interest at the moment. My plan is simply to learn science, apply the science I have learnt, and then eventually teach science in schools, and pass on the baton to the next generation.

Science is constantly changing so it never gets boring. Just when we think we know everything about a topic, something new comes up. And science involves many different types of people with different interests and expertise. Like anything; sure it can be fun working by yourself, however it’s much more fun with more people involved. Working together to uncover facts about the world around us, supporting each other and sharing ideas, that’s my idea of a dream job!

 

Find out more: www.utas.edu.au/science-engineering-technology