Careers in Science

Last Friday, Year 10 was squeezed into the Smith Auditorium as the Science Department invited three Old Boys in to talk with us about their various careers and how the different fields of Science are involved in each.

The first Presenter was Dr A Prudence (’07), who explained to us how his love of science eventually led to him becoming a Specialist in gastroenterology (Working with your digestive system). After leaving school, he tried to gain entry into medicine but didn’t quite make it. Instead, he was led down the path of medical science in the hope of doing medicine afterwards. It was here he discovered his love of research and went on to publish a number of articles in top medical journals. After going on to do honours, he was accepted into the University of Wollongong to complete his medical training. His talk was mainly focused on life in university, his research, and the community of like-minded people his love of science allowed him to join. It was a really interesting insight into life at the frontier of medical science.

Next up was Mr T Allen (’08) – a civil engineer whose interest in physics and maths led him around the globe. Initially working with a Fortune 500 company in Sydney, he helped design part of Barker College before he moved to Canada on a work-holiday visa for two years and stayed in Vancouver, where he learnt about hybrid timber buildings. Once he returned to Australia, he brought that knowledge back and helped design the Atlassian Headquarters above Central Station – which will be the largest hybrid timber building in the world once work is finished. He explained to us how his degree in engineering makes for one of the most versatile and secure jobs in the world and encouraged us to have a look at it – it is apparently one of the easiest degrees to get a working holiday visa with, as there is demand around the globe and can let you apply your love of science to real-world problems.

Finally, Mr P Pearce (’75), who is a retired forensic scientist who worked on some of the major events of the past 50 years, such as the Bali Bombing, told us how all the fields of science are required to combine to help the crime lab’s analysis. After a brief outline of his career, he showed us how fields such as chemistry are vital in his work – for example, when they find unlicensed labs such as meth labs, they have to be extremely careful when entering it and collecting evidence – if not correctly managed by a qualified chemist, then there is a high risk of chemicals in poor conditions combining and exploding or forming toxic compounds. In the final part of his talk, he highlighted how identifying deceased persons after natural disasters, such as floods, is unreliable by solely visual recognition, and instead, they rely on things such as teeth, fillings, rings, pacemakers and tattoos to identity them, all only made possible by advances in science and technology.

Thank you to the Science Department for organising this and all the presenters for their fascinating and informative presentations – it was a great event.

Jono Loy
Year 10