My Account
An essay on the topic Can a researcher be an island? has won University of Auckland student Zoe Wilson, 24, an invitation to attend the 39th St. Gallen Symposium in St. Gallen, Switzerland, this month. The St. Gallen Symposium, held at the University of St Gallen, aims to stimulate thought and action for the sustained success of companies and societies in a globalised world. The topic for the 39th symposium is The revival of political and economic boundaries”. She will meet with 600 prominent international decision-makers in business, academia, politics and society as well as 199 other invited students selected from the around 1000 student applications worldwide. Zoe takes us on her journey into the global world of scientific research…
I’m the only scientist in my family. My journey into science and the fascinating world of chemistry began with an inspirational teacher from Mahurangi College, Bill Speed, though I had always had a hankering for chemistry, starting with helping mum with the cooking. Even now I sometimes call my plans for the reactions I carry out in the lab my “recipes”. In my final year at Mahurangi College, Mr Speed returned from retirement to teach our class and he was an awesome teacher. His enthusiasm, clear explanations and practical demonstrations helped me to become fascinated with the subject. I had chosen an academic course of study at school with a bias towards the sciences, but I also enjoyed English and writing. My mother Sally is a midwife and co-manages the Warkworth Birthing Centre and my father Bruce is a local lawyer. A large number of my family on my father’s side are lawyers and at university I nearly ended up doing a science/law conjoint degree but was convinced by my now PhD supervisor, Professor Margaret Brimble to switch to doing a BSc in medicinal chemistry, the science of turning molecules into drugs to cure disease.
I went on to complete a one-year honours degree, also majoring in medicinal chemistry, carrying out research under the supervision of Professor Brimble. During this time, I developed a strong interest in “total synthesis” – taking a molecule from nature and rebuilding it from the simplest pieces. The molecule I am working on is called berkelic acid, which is produced by a fungus from the Berkeley Pit Lake in Butte, Montana, USA. This is a very interesting source, as the Berkeley Pit Lake formed when an abandoned copper mine filled with ground water, resulting in a soup of acidic, metal-laden water in which you would think nothing could live. Screening of berkelic acid has shown that it could be effective against ovarian cancer but only a very small amount of this compound is naturally available (they would like to clean up Berkeley Pit Lake, which may eliminate the source entirely) so we need to be able to make it synthetically. Its activity may then be “fine tuned” to turn it into a suitable drug. By combining simple starting materials I am trying to build up the structure of berkelic acid in as few steps as possible – which is proving to be no easy feat! I have just started the third year of my PhD and am nearly ready to publish a paper on making a portion of the molecule. From there I hope to use the chemistry we have developed so far to work towards making the entire molecule.
My family has lived in Warkworth since I was one year old. I, along with my identical twin sister Gabrielle and elder sister Amelia, went to Warkworth Primary School and Mahurangi College. Gabrielle went on to be a veterinarian and is now practising in Kohimarama, Auckland. I also have a half brother, Ethan. While I was at school I was involved in many extra-curricular activities – horse riding, hockey, music and outdoor activities. At 14, I started learning ballroom dancing and by the time I was in Year 13, I was learning ballroom, latin, jazz and ballet. I still learn ballet. It requires a lot of discipline and focus and I have found these skills help me a lot with my work, which requires you to be extremely focused and dedicated. The confidence ballet brings has also been invaluable when I need to get up and present my work at conferences and within the university. However, I have to suppress the urge to courtesy at the end – that could be quite embarrassing!
Research is very exacting, needing perseverance and a certain personality. I like knowing why things work – or, which is often more informative, why they don’t work. I am also a very practical person and like to have things ordered so I am not wasting time. In chemistry you are not asked how many hours you spend in the laboratory – they only want to see the progress you are making. This means that you have to be sufficiently self motivated to keep working and moving forward. Since I was a child I have been very stubborn but this characteristic is just what you need in the laboratory. I usually get to work about 7.30 am and work through until about 6 pm each weekday, before rushing off to my ballet classes. These help keep my life balanced and keep me sane! At night I write up my lab book or read journal articles and I try to get in on weekends to put on a few reactions to give me a headstart for the next week… there is never nothing to do!
I have seen many very clever people struggling in the laboratory. Research can “fall over” suddenly and you find yourself starting over again – other people’s mistakes can cost you dearly. This happened to me and my co-workers recently when one of the solvents we routinely use was contaminated with another substance by mistake. I tried for two weeks to undo the damage but in the end I had to throw away that material and start again. Some people can’t handle situations like that. The essential thing is to keep focused on the goal you are aiming for, no matter what happens. Sometimes you get to the point where you ask: “Why won’t it just work?” You can spend months working on a reaction and still not get the results you want, while the researcher next to you gets a good result on his first attempt at his reaction. The academic world is very competitive but it is often impossible to make direct comparisons between work – even in the same field.
Funding is a major issue in research. I am lucky enough to be funded by a University of Auckland doctoral scholarship and while there are definitely PhD scholarships available, getting them is not always easy. St. Gallen will be interesting for me because a lot of the people who make the decisions about science funding are not scientists at all – they can be business people or even politicians and often have no real comprehension of how the funding will be used. Often it is the best sales person who ends up with the funding, whether their research is the most valuable or not. Being able to talk to important people who are involved in making such decisions, as well as students who have had different educational experiences, will be invaluable for me when I complete my PhD and move to the United Kingdom where I hope to work as a researcher at a university.
