The search for the next generation scientist
Dr Alan Finkel
Co‐Founder and Chairman of Cosmos, Chancellor of Monash University, Director of the Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering.
19 August 2009
National Press Club
Canberra
"Ladies and gentlemen, some of you may have noticed as you entered the room that we have with us today in the audience a dozen or so highschool students. They might look ordinary, but these are no ordinary students, they are all exceptional performers in the area of the fundamental sciences: physics, chemistry and biology.
All have performed brilliantly in the Rio Tinto Big Science Competition. They achieved perfect scores - that is, 100%! - in this national competition that attracts tens of thousands of entrants from across Australia.
Students, please stand for a moment. You have done a fantastic job and you are living proof of what can be achieved by enthusiastic students and excellent teachers. Congratulations on your success so far - I hope it turns into bigger things! (Please be seated.)
If given the right encouragement, these students might be the ones to discover a cure for cancer, crack the nut of hydrogen fusion to give us limitless clean energy, or develop the sustainable agriculture we need to feed 9 billion people. Or they might be the founders of the high tech companies that will drive the economy in the 21st century.
Yesterday the Minister for Innovation, Industry, Science and Research, Senator Kim Carr, spoke at a special presentation ceremony at the Australian National University. Fifty-five outstanding students flew into Canberra from throughout Australia for this event.
As a Cabinet Minister with the capacity to influence the future course of billion dollar industries in Australia, why would Senator Carr take time off from his busy schedule to speak to just 55 students, not one of whom is eligible to vote?"
