Three St Paul’s Collegiate School students represented New Zealand at international science events across the globe in 2015. All three students were selected for the exclusive events from a pool of New Zealand’s very best young scientists.
Hugo Brown represented New Zealand at the 2015 International Chemistry Olympiad in Azerbaijan in July. He was one of only four New Zealand’s students chosen for the team after enduring an intense selection process with both practical and theoretical examinations.
Dr Jason McGrath, Brown’s chemistry teacher at St Paul’s, says it is impossible to overstate the significance of Brown’s selection: “It is by far the most rigorous and in-depth examination of a secondary school student’s abilities in chemistry. The four students selected are without question the very best in the country."
Brown and his three team mates competed against roughly 80 other countries and returned to New Zealand with a bronze medal.
Over in the UK, Bethany Langton was one of six New Zealand students to attend the London International Youth Science Forum in late July.
Each day Langton heard a variety of lectures from “the best scientific brains in the world.”
“My favourite lecture was by Huw James who is a self-proclaimed adventurer who combines his love for learning with his love for the outdoors,” Langton said.
“He taught me how important it is to teach others what we know and learn as scientists. All of our discoveries are nothing if we can’t better the lives of others.”
James has his own YouTube channel, Headsqueeze, which teaches basic science for people to use in their everyday lives.
Langton also visited a number of scientific establishments while attending the forum, including an inspirational trip to the Cambridge Cancer Research and Biomedical Research Centre.
“Speaking to pathologists and medical students at the research centre made the idea of studying or researching at Cambridge a possibility rather than a dream,” Langton said.
In the Asia Pacific region on the outskirts of Bangkok, Thailand, Non Seehamart was one of five New Zealand students to attend the Asian Science Camp which featured five Nobel Prize winning lecturers.
One of the most notable, was Professor Harald zur Hausen who won the Nobel Prize in 2008 for his research of the human papilloma virus. He discovered that the virus causes cervical cancer and his research directly resulted in the development of the HPV vaccine.
All three St Paul’s students were inspired by their experiences. Brown is going on to study a bachelor of engineering and science at the University of Auckland, possibly majoring in chemistry; Langton and Seehamart both plan to study medicine.
