Author Archives: mathssciencechampions

A vision of success: Champion Dr Lisa Nivison-Smith awarded NHMRC grant

Written on Nov, 14, 2019 by

By UNSW Women in Maths and Science Champions Hot off the heels of winning the UNSW Staff Diversity award, the UNSW Women in Maths and Science Champions have seen more success with Champion Dr Lisa Nivison-Smith being awarded an NHMRC (National Health and…

Day in the Life of a SciX mentor

Written on Oct, 10, 2019 by

By Nicole Richardson From the 21-25th January 2020, UNSW Science will be hosting SciX – an outreach program which allows Year 12 NSW students to come and learn about research from one of sixteen amazing PhD student mentors. Almost 100 eager students looking…

A sight for sore eyes – Meet Zahra Tajbakhsh

Written on Oct, 03, 2019 by

By Mahjabeen Khan Are you brave enough to travel 10,000km away from home to pursue your dream? Zahra Tajbakhsh is! Growing up in Fars province, Iran, Zahra always excelled academically in science subjects, so much that her family nickname was Dr Zahra. Years…

Flying a long way to help the short-sighted – Ornella Mekountchou

Written on Sep, 12, 2019 by
Ornella

By Munkhshur Myekhlai Meet Ornella Mekountchou. Hailing all the way from Cameroon, Ornella has been interested in maths and science since her childhood. Her interests led her to India where she graduated as an optometrist from the Bausch and Lomb School of Optometry…

Microbes and Magnolias – Meet Mahjabeen Khan 

Written on Sep, 05, 2019 by

By Zahra Tajbakhsh  Microbiologist Mahjabeen Khan first became interested in bacteria when she realised these unseen organisms caused so much illness in the world. Her interests led her to a degree in microbiology at Hazara University, Pakistan then a job in poultry research organization…

Green, clean and making particles that can’t be seen – Meet Munkhshur Myekhlai

Written on Aug, 29, 2019 by
Munkhsur Myekhlai

By Koumbo Ornella Why is the sky blue? Why are leaves green? Why is the sun bright? These are typical questions we expect from children about the outside world. But not Munkhshur Myekhlai; she was wondering how she could protect the environment of her country…

Quantum Chemistry? Molecular Physics? She can do both! Meet Dr. Laura McKemmish

Written on Aug, 09, 2019 by
Dr Laura McKemmish

By Dr Ruth Thomas Dr Laura McKemmish is not just a chemist or a physicist – she’s both! Straddling the boundary of two scientific fields – Laura’s research uses computational methods and theory to tackle the complicated problems in chemistry and physics, looking…

How do we ensure the world has enough clean drinking water? Ask the Namib desert beetle! 

Written on Jul, 08, 2019 by

By Parisa Moazzam Approximately 2 billion people of the world’s population are living with the risk of reduced access to freshwater resources. As a result, three in ten people lack access to safely managed drinking water services and water scarcity affects more than…

Outreach at the Sydney Girls High School Science Conference

Written on Jul, 05, 2019 by

By Dr Yulian Cao On Thursday the 27th of June, five of our UNSW Women in Maths and Science Champions, Nicole Green, Raisa Rafique, Yulian Cao, Emily Vohralik and Sarah Topfer had the amazing opportunity to be judges for the Sydney Girls High School Science conference. The conference is an annual competition where Year 9 students present the outcomes of…

Band-aid for a Broken Heart: Kristina Fidanovski’s Adventures with Conjugated Polymers

Written on May, 29, 2019 by

By Raisa Rafique It was love at first sight for Kristina when she found her current research project at UNSW after multiple lab placement programs. Since then every day for her has been something like a wild quest into unlocking the secrets of the…