Isabel Broderick

Kia ora, my name is Isabel Broderick and I’m a year 13 student at Marist College in Auckland.

How has attending ISS excited you to pursue a career in STEM? Can you elaborate on what you’d like to pursue and what has inspired this?

Both before and after the ISS, I have wanted to pursue a career in computer science and mathematics. For this reason, I found the math activity and the lectures about quantum computing the most inspiring. The quantum computing sessions were especially interesting. I had previously associated quantum computing only with cryptography and as a threat to banking systems. However, the lectures at ISS introduced me to its broader, more constructive potential. I was fascinated to learn about how quantum computers have the potential to be used for drug discovery and to model molecules, as well as much more.

The other thing that excited me about pursuing a career in STEM was the people I met on this programme. I think this was summed up by one of the alumni at the gala who said, "I realised that science people were my people”. Throughout this experience, I didn't meet a single person who I struggled to talk to; everybody was kind and had similar interests to me, which made making friends really easy. I'm excited to be surrounded by people like this in the future.

What’s the most interesting thing you learned at ISS?

I really enjoyed the second lecture by Professor Katie Mack on the death of the universe. It was interesting to learn about all the different theories for the universe's collapse, some of which could occur at any time! She also covered a bit on the formation of the universe and the ways we can know the Big Bang happened, such as the presence of cosmic microwave background radiation.

Did you learn or experience something unexpected at ISS?

One thing that I surprisingly enjoyed was the vet science activity. I'm normally not the biggest fan of biology – or chemistry for that matter, but I found the hands-on aspect of this activity really enjoyable. We learnt about the transmission of diseases within a sheep population and how the vets find and stop the infections. To do this, we looked at samples under the microscopes, so we were able to see the parasites infecting the sheep.

How can you use the knowledge you’ve gained at ISS to contribute to your wider community in the future? 

The biggest thing I will take back is the knowledge I gained at the ISS. I’ve already shared my experience with several year 11 students at my school, encouraging them to consider applying in the future. As well as this, I will take back a broader understanding of how collaboration between different parts of STEM can solve complex problems by merging different perspectives. Moving forward, I hope to be part of projects or research that involve this kind of interdisciplinary teamwork so I can help contribute to meaningful scientific progress.