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Lisa Brocklebank
Lisa Brocklebank is a research scientist at the crown
research institute Industrial Research Limited. One of her
current jobs is to find out what plants were used in herbal
remedies produced by the Roman Catholic nun Suzanne Aubert
over 110 years ago. Sister Aubert based her recipes on Maori
knowledge and used New Zealand native plants to make a wide
range of remedies, nine of which she commercialised. The recipes
for the remedies were known only by Aubert who destroyed her
records in 1897 when she stopped production. Lisa is involved
with different stages of the analytical testing of the remedies,
from sample preparation to special analytical techniques looking
for specific fingerprints to give us some clues to the remedies
make up. Some of the science equipment and mode of analysis
that she uses is very advanced and exciting, ranging from
atomic absorption spectrometry for metals, ion chromatography
for carbohydrates and high performance liquid chromatography
for organics.
The best thing for Lisa about working on the Mother
Aubert project, is knowing that the project is worthwhile
and meaningful. It relates to a lost part of NZ history and
has an impact for today's current hapu who support this project.
The project has established a link between the staff involved
on the Mother Aubert project within IRL and several hapu who
are interested in the project and its findings.
According to Lisa, science jobs are exciting and fun
as they can involve a lot of bench work which gets you away
from a 9 to 5 traditional desk job. Working in science is
something different. You hope to be working for most of your
life, so choosing the right career is important. There are
science opportunities for new recruits at Industrial Research
Limited, which are advertised as they become available and
these normally require a minimum of a national certificate
from the NZQA. Other science positions are found in local
council laboratories, other government crown research institutes,
dairy laboratories and several private industries.
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