Careers in science and engineering offer a “life of wonderment” and the potential to create medical miracles according to the New South Wales Governor, Professor Marie Bashir.
Around 50 of Australia’s best and brightest Year 12 science students heard from the Governor as part of a tour this week of the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation (ANSTO). The tour was organised by the National Youth Science Forum with the aim of sparking interest in a career in the sciences.
Speaking to the group, Professor Bashir said that Australia urgently needs 60,000 science and engineering graduates. “Young people thinking about careers in science should not be put off by the ‘nerd’ image that scientists have developed,” Professor Bashir told the audience, “you can still do science and enjoy rock and roll, and sport as well.
“In my lifetime, I have seen medical miracles, and many of these are discoveries that have come from physics. You are on the pathway to saving millions of lives…You can all be Leonardos. It’s not grandiose, it’s real. The possibilities are endless.”
The students toured the reactor facility, and the neutron Guide Hall where neutron scattering techniques are among some of the cutting edge research at ANSTO through its Bragg Institute.
The would-be young scientists were also given the opportunity to speak to some of ANSTO’s top scientists working with neutrons in the guide hall.
ANSTO CEO, Dr Adi Paterson escorted Governor Bashir and other special guests around the facility where he mentioned that a visit to a research reactor had been a transformational experience for him when he was a young man. The career path it seemed, had been set at that stage.
The National Youth Science Forum is a program supported by Rotary International that aims to expose high school students to a wide range of study and career opportunities in science, technology and engineering.
Published: 01/07/2010