Victoria University students off to US for space scholarship at Jet Propulsion Laboratory

Over the moon. Out of this world. The puns are spilling forth from a group of young PhD students who have flown to the US this week to work with some of the best and brightest in the space industry.

The Wellington students, three of seven around the country who have been awarded “space scholarships” to study for three months at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California, are T minus three days until they start their “once in a lifetime” internships.

“It was definitely a surreal feeling,” said 25-year-old Taran John of the moment he found out he was receiving the scholarship.

“The first thing I did was share it with my family. I’m the first person in my family to get a PhD and go into research. It was a validating moment for my parents and my siblings, it felt like an incredible family achievement.”

Mark Bishop, 27, said his first reaction was “disbelief”.

“I’m definitely, like, over the moon,” he said.

Sofie Claridge, Mark Bishop (centre) and Taran John, PhD students at Te Herenga Waka Victoria University of Wellington are heading to the USA for a space scholarship at JPL. Photo / Melissa Nightingale

Sofie Claridge, 22, said it finally felt like her “time”, and that her hard work was paying off.

The trio of PhD students at Te Herenga Waka Victoria University of Wellington spoke to the Herald ahead of their trips to the US.

Claridge, whose research is focused on monitoring super-conducting magnets for fusion reactors, will be spending her time at JPL using machine learning to detect anomalies with lunar rovers.

John’s PhD is focused on creating an AI assistant to help dermatologists detect and grade skin cancers, and at JPL will be using similar software to help with sampling on martian or lunar surfaces, working on enhancing the interactions between the astronauts and the equipment.

Meanwhile Bishop, who is studying astrophysics and how to best measure turbulence in astrophysical fluids from telescope data, will be researching the early universe and the Big Bang, “using the cosmic background microwave radiation”.

“I’m really excited to experience, like, the research culture there. Meeting people who helped design the telescopes whose data I use in research is going to be pretty cool,” he said.

“The whole place is, like, for space science research and development, whereas in New Zealand you’re kind of unlikely to get a handful of astrophysicists in a room together.”

Claridge was excited to be exposed to “such high-level research” and visiting another country “in terms of science”.

John said it would be fascinating to learn about solving problems in a completely new and harsh environment.

He always knew he wanted to be an engineer, and loved “putting things together”, but did not realise he would also fall in love with researching. Bishop, on the other hand, chose space study in university when someone else recommended it to him.

For Claridge, she became interested in technology in high school thanks to input from teachers and mentors. One teacher set up the “girls’ code club”, where they did tasks such as making light-up clothing.

One of the things that excites her most about her study is the narrow type of problem being solved.

“You’re doing a hard problem - if it was an easy problem you wouldn’t be doing a PhD - you really dedicate yourself to solving something which no one else in the world is looking at solving,” she said.

“This one problem in the world, I’m becoming an expert at this one hyper specific thing.”

John agreed, saying contributing to scientific understanding “feels like it’s a little bit larger than yourself”.

“You are the world expert on your thesis, which is pretty awesome.”

Bishop said the vastness of the universe interested him.

The students are doing their PhDs at Victoria University of Wellington.

“It’s amazing how big the universe is. I look at what’s called galaxy clusters, which are like objects in the universe that contain hundreds of thousands of gravitationally contained galaxies. All of these galaxies have hundreds of billions of stars.”

All three have expressed how much they owe to the people around them who supported them to get this far.

“I would just say the .... feeling I have is gratitude for basically being able to have an opportunity to do something like this,” John said.

“It’s once in a lifetime and it for sure will open up so many doors for me in the future and where I go and what kind of work that I want to look at.

“It will really kind of give you more of like a basis for doing more - I don’t want to say ‘out of this world’ research . . . for me, out there research for the purpose of science.”

The Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment’s deputy director of the New Zealand Space Agency, Andrew Johnson, said the scholarship programme prepares university students for future careers in the space and advanced aviation sectors.

“Working alongside scientists and engineers who are part of world-leading NASA missions is something most people can only dream of,” he said.

“It’s exciting and inspirational, and we’re pleased to be supporting the next generation of science and space innovators.”

Melissa Nightingale is a Wellington-based reporter who covers crime, justice and news in the capital. She joined the Herald in 2016 and has worked as a journalist for 10 years.