A MELKSHAM teenager who recently took part in the Young Scientist of the Year competition says that although he didn’t win, the experience reinforced his passion for physics.
18 year-old Jon Holden held a stand at the Big Bang Fair in Birmingham last month, after being selected as one of 200 competitors in the UK Young Scientist of the Year competition for his paper on knot theory.
“Only five people made it through from my category but I wasn’t at all disappointed; I was just happy to be there,” Jon said.
“It was the first time I’d ever done something like that and I really enjoyed it. I had to man my own stand and explain parts of my work to strangers and judges who came up to me.
“I wrote the paper last summer and hadn’t really touched it since, so I was nervous and it was tricky at first but got easier as the day went on.
“It was useful to me to explain it to a variety of people – some were the competition judges and some were children who just came to look at the pictures.
“When I finished on my stand I got the chance to look round the fair, which was brilliant. One stall had a Scalextric set that you controlled with your mind through probes attached to your temple – the calmer you stayed the faster the car went. It was a really good couple of days.”
Jon will be sitting his maths and physics A-levels at Corsham School this summer, and is planning to study for a degree in physics in September.
