From Particles to People: From Physics to Public Health

Dr Jennifer Randle, whose team won gold medals at the 2010 International Young Physicists’ Tournament (IYPT) in Austria, sees the event as a “sped up version of the scientific method.”

“You try to solve a problem and then it is criticised by other members of the scientific community with a joint aim to get closer to the truth,” Jennifer explains. She relishes this intense back-and-forth examination, which she says is essential to her current profession as a public health physician.

“We use this same process in medicine and public health,” says Jennifer, a Principal Public Health Practitioner focusing on substance use prevention and treatment at Cwm Taf Morgannwg University Health Board in Wales.

She moved to the UK following a series of roles in the New Zealand public health sector, including as a junior doctor across the Wellington Region, and then a public health registrar in the Wellington public health service and at Te Rūnanga o To Rangatira.

“I am a doctor who has specialised in caring for populations or communities rather than specific individuals. In my last role I mostly did work on national infectious disease control,” says Jennifer, who was public health physician in the Protection Clinical team for the NZ National Public Health Service prior to moving overseas.

Jennifer – Jen to friends and family – says her interest in healthcare predated her involvement with IYPT. “But I gained a lot of interest in the crossover between medicine and physics, and the physics that govern our bodies.”

Moreover, “the tournament equipped me with many skills that have allowed me to be successful in my career. It gave me confidence in my ability to solve problems and stand up for my work under criticism.”

She ably demonstrated this in Austria. An incident she still talks about with IYPT colleagues was when she opposed Australia’s presentation of a problem called Ice. “I had highlighted an assumption the presenter had made about his experimental set-up, where he stated that the surface area under a wire passing through a block of ice was constant.

“He disagreed that he was wrong, so I asked him to draw what happened to the wire on the blackboard. He drew a diagram that very clearly supported my argument for everyone including the judges. There’s a pretty funny picture my teacher took of the look on my face as he did that. One of the judges gave me a 10!”

Jennifer lists more skills that she honed further and applies in public health.

“One was a set of skills in understanding, working with and analysing data and using programmes like Excel that I use daily in my job, and I have been able to use them to teach others, and make their work easier and more efficient.”

Sharpening her presentation skills is another. “I can make a mean PowerPoint, and being able to present to a high standard has allowed me to share my work with others and teach effectively.”

“My participation in physics and IYPT was the foundation of my understanding that for work to become better, it has to be criticised and picked apart and put back together,” she states. “Public health has broadened my understanding of what that looks like and the need for diverse perspectives, but I first learnt this from physics.

“I really would love everyone to understand that when people come from different perspectives with criticisms of your work, to be open to them in order for your work to become better, more accurate and more robust.”

“I led work in the national health protection team developing new chapters for the NZ Communicable Disease Control Manual,” she states. “Although I led the writing of these chapters, I needed a team of experts from across the country to make sure I produced the best work possible. That meant being open to many rounds of critique, new ideas and sometimes starting again from the beginning to get things right. I’m really proud of what was produced at the end from everyone’s input.”

Championing Equality and a More Inclusive Future

Jennifer’s personal advocacies underscore her strong commitment to public health. As a member of the rainbow/LGBTQIA+ community, “I have a great passion for advocating for better care and support for members of my community in medical spaces.”

In 2022, she helped set up a non-profit called Pride in Medicine Australia and Aotearoa NZ (PiM). “PiM is a group of doctors and medical students from Australia and Aotearoa working toward equity, visibility and inclusion in healthcare for our rainbow patients and colleagues.”

In health spaces, she has also presented at conferences, met with medical colleges, developed a LGBTQIA+ service improvement framework, and delivered educational sessions for her colleagues on LGBTQIA+ topics. “I hope to continue building on my work in LGBTQIA+ advocacy during my time in the UK.”

With STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) Jennifer is receptive to diverse and interdisciplinary perspectives in these fields, understanding how they can lead to innovative and unexpectedly rewarding careers.

“There are so many different pathways to be involved in STEM,” she says. “I didn’t think that public health was where I would end up but I love what I do.”

“You should try lots of different subjects, experiences and challenges out, read widely and chase down anything that makes you want to do/know more. If you are wanting to talk to people about what you’ve learnt, read more, or have more questions to answer, follow that feeling. As you get further on, you can narrow down more and more into what you are really interested in – it only gets better!”

As told to, and written by, Divina Paredes