Nicolas Jackson says the first thing you need to study science is passion. “You need passion and then some really good study habits.”
Nic decided to study physics after being introduced to the subject in year ten science. He then went on to study the Bachelor of Science (BSc) with a major in pure mathematics before beginning his Masters, specialising in particle physics, earlier this year.
“I like particle colliders,” he says. “There’s something so primitive about making things go extremely fast and smashing them into each other to see what happens. Yet particle physics is such a high level of study with a lot of interesting math and many unanswered questions.”
When studying his BSc, Nic did as much mathematics and physics as he could. “One of my favourite moments of studying science at university was learning electrodynamics and multivariable calculus,” he says. “They were kind of a struggle to start with, but by the end of the semester, everything just fell into place. You probably don’t get that answer too often”, he jokes.
For Nic, the meaning of Reconciliation is hard to describe. “Words are great and all, but the damage has been done. You can’t really fix those, but you can make reparations. I don’t have statistics off the top of my head, but a lot of quality of life measures for Indigenous people are a lot worse than the average.”
“I think the biggest thing we can do for National Reconciliation Week is to work to bring those measures up to the rest of Australia. It comes down to fairness and equality. Reconciliation in nature is two-sided, and the ability to forgive has to be there - after the reparations have been done.”
“The best way to inspire the younger generation to consider science is for me to achieve what I can in higher education and to continue to wear the Indigenous badge with pride. So other young Indigenous kids can see that, ‘he’s done it, maybe I can too’.”