Finn Messerli, who scooped the 2018 Prime Minister’s Future Scientist Prize, joins Catherine Pot, winner of the Prize in 2016, in the University’s Faculty of Science. Both Finn and Catherine won the top honour for projects they completed while in their final year at Onslow College.
Finn says the support he received from Catherine was fantastic.
“She provided a lot of advice during my project, and she really helped me stay on track for success,” Finn says. “She also provided me with a copy of her winning project as an exemplar, which helped me format my work and make sure nothing was missing.”
Finn chose to study Victoria University of Wellington this year because of the University’s capability in areas he is interested in—physics, mathematics, geophysics, and computer science.
He was also already familiar with the University, as several staff and students had helped with his award-winning project.
“I was so impressed by the culture here,” Finn says. “It’s an inclusive and diverse environment, and I feel like the University focuses on academia but also supports students in other ways.
“Studying at the University also gives me the chance to develop some of the connections I’ve already been able to make with the Wellington scientific community, including the scientists at the University and at other institutions in Wellington.”
Finn tackled a complex physics problem in the project that won him the Prime Minister’s Prize, working to understand the material properties of granular materials like corn and salt to help predict how they will behave under certain conditions.
“This has potential applications in many different areas,” Finn says. “You could use this information to help build more accurate models to predict landslides or avalanches (which involve granular materials like sand and snow), and it could also be useful anywhere you have granular materials and you want to predict how they are going to act—like when you’re building commercial processing equipment.”
The project involved extensive theoretical work and a range of practical experiments. To understand the theory behind the project, Finn worked with Professor Mark McGuinness from the University’s School of Mathematics and Statistics and Associate Professor Ben Ruck from the School of Chemical and Physical Sciences. Building on that theory, Finn was able to complete more complex experiments with the help of Electron Microscope Technician David Flynn, also from the School of Chemical and Physical Sciences, and Senior Technical Officer Jane Chewings from the School of Geography, Environment, and Earth Sciences, who gave Finn access to advanced equipment available to University researchers.
“David was able to help me get some amazing images of the grains I was studying, which really furthered my understanding of the project,” Finn says. “Jane spent hours helping me process salt samples for my experiments, which was extremely important to the project, and she was also generous enough to show me around the department.”
“I couldn’t have been more delighted for Finn when he won the Prize,” Jane says. “Method development projects like his require rigorous physical testing and theoretical modelling, and he had obviously undertaken a huge amount of detailed analytical work, problem solving, and research. I was particularly impressed with the diverse potential applications of his work, as were many of my academic colleagues.”
Professor David Harper, Acting Pro Vice-Chancellor for the Faculties of Science, Engineering , Architecture and Design, says it’s wonderful to have young scientists the calibre of Finn and Catherine coming to study at Victoria University of Wellington. “We look forward to seeing both of them, as well as New Zealand’s other talented young scientists, grow their skills, knowledge, and connections here at the University, helping New Zealand stay on the cutting-edge of science.”