Friday 16 December, 2011
Year 13 Diocesan student Nina Huang credited Diocesan’s pastoral care and teaching excellence when John Key awarded her the 2011 Prime Minister’s Future Scientist prize in Auckland on December 16.
Nina received the coveted award, which comes with a $50,000 tertiary study scholarship, for her outstanding research into a possible link between the early onset of short sightedness and mental concentration.
The PM’s Future Scientist Award is one of five Prime Minister’s Science Prizes that have been awarded annually since 2009 and are worth a total of $1million.
"I would like to say a huge thank you to everyone who has helped me ‘realise my dream’ and made receiving this award possible for me," said Nina at the awards ceremony which was attended by guests including principal Ms Heather McRae, Head of Science Ms Sarah Boasman and members of Nina’s proud family.
"I would like to thank Diocesan School for Girls - the BEST school of all and which has been like a second home for me. My teachers have continuously supported me and that has helped me get through all of my hardships. Without my teachers, I wouldn’t be the person that I am today," said Nina.
Nina also thanked the University of Auckland and Professor John Philips of the Department of Optometry and Vision Science who supervised her research as well as her family and her mother who she said had worked so hard "to give her the best education possible".
"This award is a huge honour and I will continue to do my best so that I can inspire and help a new generation of scientists myself."
Nina’s "Eye Think" project was the basis of a 4000-word extended essay she had to write for the CAS (Creativity, Action, Service) component of the two-year International Baccalaureate Diploma she has completed at Diocesan this year.
Her research compared how the pupil sizes of 46 Year 7 students changed when they performed cognitive tasks, such as solving maths equations, with when they performed non- cognitive ones, such as reading a simple sentence.
Nina photographed the students’ pupils while they performed the tasks then measured them to investigate a possible link between optical power required to focus on a task and short sightedness.
A presentation at school assembly last year on cataract research by Diocesan Old Girl and scientist Dr Julie Lim from Auckland University’s Department of Optometry and Vision Science inspired Nina to do her IB research in an area involving vision.
Diocesan’s Head of Science Mrs Sarah Boasman encouraged Nina to enter her research project into the NIWA Auckland Regional Science Fair in September where she placed second and was nominated for the Realise the Dream Awards.
Diocesan Principal Heather McRae said Nina’s commitment to excellence, combined with a desire to learn more about whatever subject she was studying, meant she achieved highly.
"Nina models the high expectations we set for all our students at Diocesan and she has benefited from working among like-minded girls."
On December 9, Nina received the Supreme Award of the Genesis Energy Realise the Dream awards which is run by The Royal Society to acknowledge finest examples of science research or technological development undertaken by New Zealand secondary school students.
Nina says although her results were too scattered to be conclusive, they helped her to determine how she could refine future experiments, which could include using MRI scans to monitor brain activity and filming pupil reactions to measure them more accurately.
"If we can isolate external reasons, such as prolonged periods of concentration, for the onset of short sightedness in young people, it may help researchers identify other causes such as genetics, environmental conditions and signalling pathways to the brain and treat the condition."
Nina says she has always been fascinated with how the human body works and now loves everything to do with science.
"Having excellent science teachers at Diocesan who have made problems easy to understand, are hands on, inclusive and who build on our learning has also really helped me."
Nina said she had no idea her research would take her so far. She plans to study Biomedical Science at Auckland University next year and wants to specialise in genetics and molecular biology.
"I think it would be more fun to be a research scientist than a doctor. I’m also interested in stem cell research. It has the ability to turn to the medical world around because of its ability to replace anything in the human body."
A team of scientists from the National Institute of Water & Atmospheric Research and Otago University received the top award at the Prime Minister’s Science Prizes - earning them $500,000 for their study into how oceans might be manipulated to reoved carbon dioxide emissions from the air.
The MacDiarmid Emerging Scientist Prize went to Dr Rob McKay of Victoria University’s Antarctic Research Centre. Dr McKay uses marine sedimentary records and glacial deposits to reconstruct episodes of melting and cooling in Antarctica over the past 13 million years and show how they influenced global sea levels and climate.
The Science Teacher Prize went to Dr Angela Sharples, head of biology at Rotorua Boy’s High School who has rewritten senior biology courses and reversed a decline in the number of students studying biology over the past three years.
The Science Media Communication Prize went to Dr Mark Quigley, a Senior Lecturer at the University of Canterbury who has been at the forefront of communication about the causes and effects of the Canterbury earthquakes.