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NEW IN THE RANKS
The OGA welcomes two familiar faces to the rank of WGGS alumnae.
Rather than putting her feet up and drinking lots of tea, Dame Helen Hyde
is continuing on her ‘life-long learning journey to help make a difference’,
and is currently involved in the following:
Co Director of RtoR, Refugees to Recovery
- “In this capacity I
support Refugee families arriving in Hertfordshire and in Watford in
particular. I run education conferences on the refugee issue and I work with
a number of other organisations such as the Refugee Council and Watford
and Three Rivers Partnership”.
Patron of the Rwandan Sisterhood
- “In this capacity I visit schools
talking about the genocide and the work we do in Rwanda. We are
now sending Mama Packs to a number of other countries e.g. Cameroon,
South Africa and hopefully soon Maputo. The schools I have visited have
collected a great deal for the Mama Packs”.
Trustee of a number of Holocaust Organisations -
“I run the
Holocaust Conference , the next taking place at Radley College, Oxford
and I take educational trips to Germany and Eastern Europe”.
Mr Johnson will soon be seen skiing on the slopes of M
é
ribel and Courchevel
in the French Alps!
Cambridge University student and WGGS
Alumnae, Claire Restarick visited us recently
to present her inspiring iGEM project. Read
Charlotte Waygood’s (12B) report below:
On 21st September 2016, Old Grammarian Claire
Restarick, a second-year engineering student at
Cambridge, gave a talk on a project she has been
involved in at university. The project was iGEM, a
competition in which over 275 teams, from secondary
school students to post-graduates, compete globally
to create new biological parts or hardware to solve
real-world problems. These can include genetically
engineering bacteria, so that they light up when they
come into contact with toxins, or using algae to produce
electricity.
Claire and her team aimed to improve the process
of chloroplast engineering, so that it would take less
than 2-3 months to achieve homoplasmy, the stage
when all copies of chloroplast DNA are transformed.
This has many real-life uses, for example, genetically
engineered chloroplasts can produce oils for biofuels.
At a time when renewable energy is so important, this
has the potential to make a real difference to the world.
One of the many challenges facing teams trying to
investigate chloroplast engineering is the high cost
of equipment, and this is where Claire’s role as an
engineer came in. She researched ways to make the
equipment, which usually costs tens of thousands of
pounds, accessible to
labs everywhere.
Claire built an algae
growth box, with which
the user can customise
light conditions, control
temperature
and
humidity, and ventilate
the algae’s surroundings.
Personally, my favourite thing about it was the disco lights
setting! However, the creation that she was most proud
of was the gene gun, which usually costs £25,000 and
which Claire engineered for a tenth of the commercial
cost. This was built with cheap, easily accessible
materials, including a bike pump. She researched the
methods herself on the internet, looking at attempts that
others had made, and has even written instructions so
that other labs can try it in future.
One of the most inspiring things about the talk was that
she was in our situation just a few years ago (two, in
my case), and she is already doing experiments and
investigations that seem to be on the forefront of
scientific research. By making it also seem so accessible,
she made us believe that we could achieve what she
has; maybe in a few years we could be involved in life-
changing experiments of our own.
Further information on the project can be found at
Alumnae News in Brief
Thank you to alumnae Catrin Haberfield for her advice
and discussion with Yr10-13 on English A level and
beyond
.
BA Hons Humanities: What Next?
Thank you to the alumnae and friends
of the school who helped to make this
month’s careers event a success!
Alumnae Emily Spary has begun her
work on the WGGS archives. Emily
is currently taking a Masters in Museum
studies and we are delighted that this project
will prove mutually beneficial.
Look out in the next issue for Sofie Gajendra’s interview with
Paralypian Gold Medallist Emma Wiggs.
Refreshments available
Tours: 6.15-8.30
Clare Wagner will address
alumnae at 7pm
RSVP
or via
Mrs Clare Wagner
Invites the
Old Grammarians
to join her
the staff of WGGS
at the
OGA Reunion
and our
1
st Anniversary
Celebration
of our website
on
Thurs 2nd Feb 2017
6-9pm
