Realising their Dream
In December LENScience hosted the 20 high achieving high school students selected for this year’s Realise the Dream event organised by the Royal Society of New Zealand. During the weeklong event, students visited leading science organisations throughout the North Island, ahead of a prize-giving at Government House in Wellington.
The students won places in the event as a result of outstanding pieces of research or technological development they have undertaken during the year. Amongst them were winners of the 2012 Prime Minister’s Future Science Prize Hannah Ng and Timothy Harker who have both been part of the LENScience Students as Researchers science mentorship programme over the last four years.
A highlight of the visit was a panel discussion on “The role of Science in New Zealand’s future”, when the students put questions to three scientists at different stages of their careers: former Liggins student Graeme Fielder, a previous participant of Realise the Dream, now a Business Development Manager at Plant and Food Research Limited; Dr Anna Ponnampalam and Professor Christine Winterbourn (University of Otago). Topics included the importance of ethics in future research; the impact of lifetstyle on future health and the environment; and whether future research in New Zealand is likely to target local rather than global problems.
