A LOCAL teenager has made it to the finals of the National Science and Engineering Competition, and will give a presentation at the Big Bang Fair in Birmingham in March.
17 year-old Jon Holden has been announced as a contender for UK Young Scientist of the Year, after his paper on ‘Knot Theory’ made it to the finals of the prestigious competition.
Jon said, “I’m absolutely chuffed to bits to have made it to the final; I never expected to get this far with the work I had done. I’m looking forward to the competition but I have no idea what I’ll be up against.”
Jon, who lives in Melksham, is currently taking his A-levels at Corsham School and hopes to continue his penchant for physics at university; he attended an interview at Oxford earlier this month.
“I produced the paper while on a Nuffield research placement at the University of Bristol in the summer,” he said. “I have done projects at school before, but not anything like this. I enjoyed maths until about year ten when my interest really turned to physics.”
Jon’s report ‘A Brief Study of Lissajous Figures in Knot Theory’ studies the mathematics behind knots formed in any given material.
The National Science and Engineering Competition is a contest run by the British Science Association. It is open to students aged 11-18 in full-time education in the UK.
Finalists will present their work to be judged at the Big Bang Fair in March, which is expected to be attended by over 75,000 people.
The best projects will be invited to showcase their work at prestigious international competitions, and the winners will represent the UK at events in London, Europe and the United States.
Find out more about the competition at www.nsecuk.org
