“Accurately Admiring the World” with Future Science Leaders

Science World’s after-school program Future Science Leaders presented by Acuitas Therapeutics connects teens to science-enthusiastic peers and STEAM experts. Our partners make FSL possible: Acuitas Therapeutics; Boeing; RBC Foundation; AMGEN; STEMCELL Technologies; and NumerixS Quant. 

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She Does the Math

Katie, a PhD student in mathematical biology and a Future Science Leaders instructor, always knew she was good at math.

But, when it came time to choose a specialization in university, she initially selected Animal Behavior, an interdisciplinary degree between biology and psychology.

“That program was almost 75% women,” Katie says. “So, it was very easy to just be like, ‘Of course I’ll do life sciences. This makes sense to me.’”

Still, she found herself gravitating toward math classes. One day, a professor asked why she didn’t major in the subject.

“I think math attitudes are deeply wrapped up in gender,” Katie reflects. “The fact that it didn't occur to me to try until someone said, ‘Hey, maybe you should do this,’ says a lot.”

She's proud of what she's accomplished since making the switch.

Last year, she co-authored a paper published in Nature Communications, the world’s leading interdisciplinary science journal, on the mechanistic role of insulin signaling in beta-cells.

For her part, Katie worked with different mathematical models and statistics of insulin resistance and glucose tolerance. The paper, now widely cited, has challenged ideas entrenched in literature for decades.

“Basically,” she says, “many hormones in our body will start down-regulating their own production based on high numbers. But this failsafe mechanism had never been proven with insulin.”

Until now.

“It was amazing to be involved in such high-impact research and collaboration. And these are the kinds of advanced skills that students get introduced to in Future Science Leaders.”

Katie believes that if she’d had access to a program like FSL, it would have made her pathway toward a career in math much clearer.

“I can’t emphasize enough how much fun we have at FSL,” she says. “We get to explore different types of problem-solving that you don't get to in high school. It’s so hands-on and interactive. And the students are so motivated and curious.”

Despite the advanced subjects they cover in their math sessions—one of Katie’s favourites involves modular arithmetic and cryptography—she says, “You don’t need to be an expert to join FSL. You just need to be excited about trying something new.”

Things of Beauty

“Science plays a crucial role in shaping our understanding of the world,” says Dr. Vincent Wong. He holds a PhD in particle physics and has been an FSL instructor for eight years.  

“When we really understand how things work in the universe, it allows us to more accurately admire the beauty of nature."

Vincent has been pursuing this deeper understanding since he was a youth growing up in Hong Kong.  

From designing and building an automatic braking system that improved safety in recreational cycling as a teenager, to self-learning quantum computing and contributing to its opensource programming as an adult, his curiosity for physics knows no bounds.  

It’s also the main reason he leads physics session in FSL, to pass on this curiosity and knowledge to the next generation of scientists.  

“As a particle physicist, I see it as my responsibility to make complex physics concepts accessible. To spark wonder and show how creative and fun the subject is. When I see FSL students engaged with cutting edge physics research, it feels very rewarding.” 

The recipient of an ATLAS Outstanding Achievement Award, Vincent introduces his FSL students to concepts they otherwise might not hear about until university—including his contribution to the upgrade of the particle tracking detector that allowed the experiment at CERN to efficiently record the collision events of hundreds of billions of protons at forty million times per second.  

Translating these complex breakthroughs to high school students has changed the way Vincent thinks about science communication.  

“I remember this moment when I was using an analogy about general relativity to explain black holes, and I saw this FSL student, his jaw dropped down to the floor, and I knew he really got it.”  

He says if you’re a teen who has an interest in meeting many different scientists from all different STEM fields, then FSL is a program for you.  

“What I love about FSL is how much time the students have to work with different disciplines and different complex ideas that may seem challenging at first, but as they work through the experiments, the energy and collaboration brings these concepts to life."

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