Girls in Physics Day

On the 22nd of July, a group of Year 10 Physics students travelled to the University of Melbourne to partake in the Girls in Physics Day, which ran for the first time since 2019. The day began with a talk by Dr Elizabeth Hinde about the physical architecture of biology and an interview with Dr Suzie Sheehy about her new novel, The Matter of Everything, which was moderated by Innes Bigaran.

Following morning tea, we participated in a session where we learnt about elementary particles and dark matter, where we heard from Jackie Bondell, an Education and Outreach Coordinator for both the ARC Centre of Excellence for Gravitational Wave Discovery and for the ARC Centre of Excellence for Dark Matter Particle Physics. We learnt about the innovative technology being developed to further study dark matter and the future of dark mater study. We also had the opportunity to ask questions about the research and her career.

After enjoying lunch in the sun, we returned inside to see some practical demonstrations of magnetic fields and Faraday’s cage with the host of the day, Jacinta den Besten, including seeing an aluminium ring almost hit the roof of the lecture hall! 

Finally, to end the day, there was a panel session with Dr Isobel Aloisio, a former medical doctor, and current quantum computing PhD student, Victoria Streeton-Cook, an undergraduate student in physics and Dr Catherine de Burgh-Day, who is a research scientist at the Bureau of Meteorology and was moderated by Innes Bigaran. The session was highly informative and showed us where a career in physics can take you. Furthermore, two MGC alumni, Ella Walsh (2015), who is now doing a PhD in the field of solar cells and Ashely Monaghan (2020) a second-year physics student were helping out during the day.

We all enjoyed the day and are grateful for the opportunity to gain further insight into the various pathways that physics can take you. 

Nandini Vyas,

Year 10