International Women in Science Day 2025

Science helps avoid 'personality-driven' rabbit holes

Dr Nikki Turner knew she wanted to be a doctor when she was just six years old. Now, she’s an academic GP, is a founder of the Immunisation Advisory Centre and leads a university research team which focuses on respiratory disease.

No one in Nikki’s family is in medicine. But that didn’t stop a six-year-old Nikki from having big dreams. “I wanted to be a doctor since the age of six, when I decided to focus on people rather than wanting to rescue animals."

“Somewhat simplistically back then, it seemed a great job where I could be helpful and useful.”

All of which is true.

Nikki wears many hats – splitting her time between being an academic general practitioner and working in public health – all in the hope of empowering communities to help save lives.

It was the arrival of COVID-19 that really brought respiratory disease to the forefront.

“There is increased awareness, but there is still a large amount of severe illness, and – at times – death, that is preventable with better approaches across many areas from policy and systems to health literacy,” she says.

"We have excellent tools to improve health, but often our systems do not function the best to empower our communities to utilise them effectively, so we use research to help these gnarly complex issues."

Nikki views science as “a shared accumulation of knowledge to help make some sense and support rational thinking”.

“Science doesn’t offer answers, but it is a useful grounded tool in a complex difficult world, it helps to stop us going down personality-driven rabbit holes.”

A career in science allowed Nikki – as a woman – to have a voice and be respected, she says.

“It also has allowed me to work collegially with some other amazing women. I don’t want alone, and it is a joy to be part of a like-minded community.”

Santa's gift sparked love of science, led to career as paediatrician and clinical researcher

Poor grades didn’t stop Tasmin Barry – now Dr Tasmin Barry – from striving for the top. Her love of science began when the big man in red brought her a microscope kit one Christmas. This kickstarted her journey to become a paediatrician and a principal investigator for a world-leading study that could improve the lives of thousands of children living with asthma.

Tasmin says poor health in childhood spreads like the ripples on a pond, affecting your life going forward.

It’s something she is committed to addressing. She wants to give children living with asthma a better quality of life – and to keep them out of hospital.

Tasmin, who is the principal investigator for a world-leading asthma study called START CARE, is also simultaneously completing a PhD in Clinical Research. START CARE, a study led by the Medical Research Institute of New Zealand (MRINZ), is investigating the best way of treating asthma in tamariki aged 5 to 11 years.

"I was interested in promoting the health of children and young people, and working to ensure they had the best opportunity to live full lives going forward into adulthood - this is just one way I can do that."

Asthma is one of the most common chronic illnesses in tamariki globally, but Aotearoa New Zealand has particularly high rates.

In the year 2000, there were around 4000 hospital admissions for tamariki with asthma and wheeze –that was around 5 times the rate seen in adults.

Tasmin admits her journey to where she is now was a little “convoluted”.

"I had very poor grades on completing my final year of high school and did not apply for university; instead, I took a job cleaning at a local motel for a year.

"But, science has always been a strong interest (at least since Santa brought me a microscope kit for Christmas), so I knew I had to go back to school."

She re-sat her finaal year of high school, then went to university to gain a Bachelor of Science (biochemistry) degree. She put in the long hours in the library and eventually gained a graduate admission into medicine.

Once she finishes her PhD, she hopes to find a role where she can use both science and medicine to improve children's health, she says.