Holy cosmic cow

Only a few people have cause to thank swine flu for anything. Matthew Georgiades, 18, from western Sydney, is one of them.

"I was desperate to get into the International Science School but I was on the reserve list,” he says. “It was looking like I was going to miss out but then one of the other kids went down with the swine flu and I got the phone call. Great for me, not so great for the other kid, unfortunately."

Matthew was one of the lucky and talented few invited to participate in the Professor Harry Messel International Science School (ISS), the unique program that has inspired more than 4000 students directly and countless more through the books, telecast lectures and webcast lectures.

The ISS draws students from 10 countries across the world, selected in their home countries by institutions such as the Department of Energy in the United States and the Royal Institution and Association for Science Education in the United Kingdom. Students from Canada, China, India, Japan, Malaysia, New Zealand, Singapore and Thailand make up the 140 senior high school science students attending.

“I think it’s one of the most significant and special things I’ve ever done,” says Matthew. “I’ve always loved science and I’ve always been really serious about it. I’m notorious for asking questions in class and the ISS was a perfect place for someone like me.”

The Science School itself comprises two weeks of lectures, tours, and activities with the content selected to reflect the theme of the School. Last year’s was “Genes to Galaxies”, in honour of the International Year of Astronomy and 200 years of Charles Darwin’s On the Origin of Species.

A typical ISS day is “intense”, says Matthew. “There are 140 students and they just talk all day from the moment they get up. The place is abuzz. Walking from the Women’s College where we were staying we talked about everything from Paleolithic diets to cosmic evolution to DNA sequencing. Some of this stuff I didn’t even know I was interested in until I was there.”

Guest lecturers are drawn from the highest echelons of science, selected for their international research reputations and their ability to communicate with senior high school students – such luminaries as James Watson and Jerome Friedman (both Nobel Laureates), the late Hermann Bondi, Thomas Gold, Robert May, and Margaret Burbidge. Additional talks have been given by talented science communicators including Karl Kruszelnicki, currently the Julius Sumner Miller Fellow at the University of Sydney.

“I got to see some of the laboratories and talk to some of the staff at the University of Sydney and it absolutely confirmed for me that this is the place I want to study,” says Matthew, who plans to combine his interest in science with medicine. “The atmosphere there is amazing.”

Karen Palmer has driven south from Queensland each July for the past three years to help care for the ISS students, many of whom are away from home or overseas for the first time in their lives.

“When they arrive we put them into different teams and we mix up the kids from different countries so they get to meet different people,” she says. “It really helps to bring them out of their shells when they have to get to grips with people from different cultures and customs.”

Any reticence is quickly overcome. “In the end, they all have the same thing to talk about, they are all incredibly passionate about science and these are all extremely bright kids, all top of their class. Not many of them would have met many kids as bright as themselves before and sometimes that’s a challenge, but it often comes as a relief, too.”

Many of the students go on to make friends for life, Palmer says. “I’m a member of the Facebook group for the ISS and I can see that they are still talking to each other every day.”

This group is also a forum for The Cosmic Cow Club, formed by the 2009 students to raise funds for the ISS, which does not charge participants for their attendance, food and accommodation.

“The name comes from the opening address given by Chief Justice Robert French,” says Palmer. [French attended the ISS as a student, in 1964.] “He coined the term while talking about the origins of the moon and how to prove it was not made of cheese. The kids found it so entertaining the name stuck!”

The Cosmic Cow Club’s fundraising was kickstarted with paltry fines – levied by Palmer – for losing room keys. Students invented a game that involved rolling coins down the stairs and
into a cup. A few months on, the club now features on the list of the International Science School’s significant donors.

“We were all so grateful to be a part of the ISS and that’s why we’re happy to contribute money through the Cosmic Cow Club,” says Matthew. “We want students who go through the school in the future to experience the same amazing things that we did.”

Words: Jason Blake