Smart Women Smart State Award Winner

3 Sep 2008

Former Australian Brain Bee Challenge finalist Sophie Hill continues to make an impressive start to what looks like being a long and successful science career.

In September, Sophie won the Secondary School Students category of the Queensland Government's Smart Women Smart State Awards.

At the State Library of Queensland on 2 September, Queensland Premier Anna Bligh and the Minister for Women, Ms Margaret Keech, congratulated 15 Smart Women Smart State Award winners, which included 17-year-old Sophie Hill from Brisbane’s Kelvin Grove State College.

The awards shine the spotlight on women who are leading the way in science, engineering and information and communication technology (ICT).

Sophie Hill’s entry “Nuclear Factor One A and Nuclear Factor B Gene Expression in the Adult Mouse Hippocampus” resulted from her recent work experience in the laboratory of QBI’s Associate Professor Linda Richards.

Research into the neural regenerative capacities in adult mice is assisting to better understand how the human brain works in relation to disorders such as dementia and Alzheimer’s disease.

As well as being a finalist in the 2007 Australian Brain Bee Challenge, Sophie is a school captain, plays in the Kelvin Grove State College school band and has already been involved in several school science fairs.

Her ambition is to study either medicine or biomedical science.

Sophie was one of three UQ women to receive a Smart Women Smart State Award this year.

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