Commitment to research pays off
Finnegan Messerli created a way of testing the properties of grains such as sand or salt without expensive equipment.
And that research which could help scientists better understand the risks of avalanches and slips, has won the 18-year-old the $50,000 Prime Minister’s Future science prize.
‘‘I tried to design the method I would have liked to have at my fingertips when I was working on the problem,’’ Messerli said.
With further development, the system of tests Messerli has created could be used to predict flows in a wide range of granular materials, with potential for applications in the food processing, mining, pharmaceutical and geotechnical industries.
His project began when, as captain of the New Zealand team participating in the International Young Physicists Tournament in Beijing, he was asked to explain why grains, such as sand or salt, form a cone-like pile when they are poured onto a surface.
While competing at the tournament sparked the idea, Finn did most of his winning research in New Zealand, in his bedroomturned-laboratory at home.
Onslow College head of science Kent Hogan said Messerli had a keen interest in seeing a project through to the end. ‘‘Finn would come in, ask me a question and then walk up to the whiteboard and start filling the board with all sorts of complicated things – which I would then try to understand.’’
Messerli will use the prize money for his tertiary education.