The Journey So Far: Looking Back on Two Years of UoA Scientific
Special Article | UoA Scientific Executive Team
A common debate amongst scientists is whether the execution of an idea is more important than the idea itself.
Whichever you believe in, the success of this publication is the epitome of the former. With the help of more people than we could list on these pages, the simple idea of creating a scientific publication came to fruition through many hours of dedication by countless people. As we close out 2022 with this last issue, we would like to reflect on the past two years of this publication, tell a little bit about its history, and thank the people who have supported it along its way.
UoA Scientific is an evolution of a monthly science magazine produced by the Science Students' Association in 2020 called Moonshot, which was led by Struan Caughey and written by Nina de Jong, Caleb Todd, and Louisa Ren, all founders of UoA Scientific. We realised the potential a high-quality publication could have, and in 2021 we founded UoA Scientific – to promote open science communication and give students an avenue to share their research and passion.
We began the club with little to no knowledge of how to produce a publication, and our execs wrote all the articles in our first edition. The first issue was designed in Canva as opposed to the much more sophisticated Adobe Illustrator we use now, and we stayed up to 4 am to complete the initial design. It was truly exciting to print out the first test copy of the Scientific the following day (see photos below), and we had a feeling that we were onto something special (If you have a copy of the first edition, hold onto it as it will become a coveted collector's item in the future!). After much debate on which type of paper to use, how to lay out the articles, and finally securing funding from the Faculty of Science, we published our first issue in May 2021 with eight articles.
First ever printed copies of Scientific.
The aim of the publication has always been to bridge the gap between research/thought-provoking scientific topics and students. Specifically, our goal is to give students an avenue to showcase their research to a broader audience and facilitate discussions on complex issues in science. The level of praise and excitement we received from our first issue from students and staff was surprising and encouraging. It is a testament to the passion and willingness to share ideas in the science community, something we want to empower through our publication. Many copies disappeared into student and staff offices that day.
We had always envisioned growing the club to more than five executives, and by the time we had published our first edition, our team had grown to nine. Shortly after the publishing of our first ever issue, we expanded, bringing on board Jasmine Gunton, Gene Tang and Stella Huggins. With a larger team and new execs that brought about much-needed skills, the quality of our publication improved immensely. The rest of 2021 saw some fantastic issues, exciting recognition, and a realisation that we needed more hands on deck yet again. At the end of 2021, we recruited Aimee Lew, Celina Turner and Sarah Moir.
In 2022, we continued to make leaps and bounds. Creative Director Gene, and Marketing Coordinator Aimee, both made strides in the visual design of our publication, providing original art for all of our covers this year. Our writing coordination team for 2022 (Louisa, Nina and Sarah) has also made enormous contributions in refining our guest writer process, and are continuing to refine it right up until we hand over to 2023’s executive team. Our quote-on-quote leadership section (we’re a flat-structured club in reality!) consisting of: Alex, our treasurer, Jasmine, our secretary, and Stella, our president — have worked to coordinate with external, and internal partners, as well as the rest of the team, to make our shared vision for Scientific a cohesive reality. We’ve just finished up the recruitment process for the future of 2023, and our recurring theme of growth continues. We can’t wait to announce the team of a hefty 14 team members.
Looking back at the first issue, it pales in comparison to the quality of the publications we produce today.
This publication would not be a reality if it weren't for the countless people that have supported us over the last two years. We would like to take these last few pages of the year to thank each and every one. The publication is nothing without its writers. We firstly thank all the guest writers who have written for us about their research or passion: You-Rong F. Wang, Toby Elliot, John Bailie, Hazel Watson-Smith, Emelina Glavaš, Sophie Piesse, Liam Quinn, Kevin Stitely, Maira Fessardi, Alicia Anderson, Ella Speers, Max Dang Vu, Anne Newmarch, Lucas Tan, Sheeta Mo, Eugene In, Nargiss Taleb, Isla Christensen, Katherine McLean, Steph Claridge, Angeline Xiao, Jae Min Seo, Danielle Lucas, and Milly Darragh.
This publication would also not be possible without the help and funding from the Faculty of Science and the University of Auckland staff. In no particular order, we would like to thank:
The Faculty of Science, in particular:
John Hosking, Linda Thompson, Glenda Haines, Hana Mata'u, Duncan McGillivray, Douglas Elliffe, Grace Manabat, Holly Honeysett, Joel McGeorge, Tatiane Jacobs, Yue Zhang, and Irene van Schalkwyk.
Staff members and students of UoA, and experts who gave up their time to speak with us for interview articles:
Geoff Willmott, Cristian Calude, Rochelle Constantine, Brad Coombes, Ariel-Michaiah Heswell, and Rosie Bosworth.
Members of the UoA Library staff who aided us on our copyright journey:
Suzanne Acharya, and Berit Anderson.
The Science Students' Association for the generous and routine use of their facilities for our launch events, in particular, 2022 President Dania Shafiq.
Staff at The Auckland War Memorial Museum, Tāmaki Paenga Hira, for their mentorship and advice on developing the vision of Scientific:
Charlotte Milne, Ainslie Dewe, Bhakti Patel and Sarah Knowles.
We would also like to thank the outgoing execs, Struan Caughey, Stella Huggins, Nina de Jong, Louisa Ren, Celina Turner, Alex Chapple, and Caleb Todd. All have been here since the early days and have been instrumental in making this publication a reality. We are looking forward to having you back as guest writers in the future.
Finally, we want to thank you, the readers, for picking this publication up. We hope you've enjoyed reading this issue, and consider writing for us in the future!
We can't wait to see you again next year.
Sincerely, UoA Scientific Executive Team 2021-2022