LUMEN Summer 2019 - Flipbook - Page 23
The University of Adelaide is a long-term
partner of DST, with collaborations ranging
from human aspects of cyber security to
advanced defence communications.
For Tanya, before there was science there
was, and still is, music.
Her husband and all three of their children
are ‘musicians on the side’, and as a family
they enjoy attending concerts regularly and
play an impressive number of instruments
including piano, cello, viola, trumpet, oboe,
cor anglais and harp. Tanya also sings.
“In fact, if it hadn’t been for music,
I wouldn’t be a physicist,” Tanya said.
“I started learning the piano at age four and
a half and started playing cello at age six.
“I just loved music and found it really
absorbing. There's nothing else you can
think about when you're trying to master
and climb the mountain of something
challenging and really push yourself.”
As a child, Tanya won a music scholarship to
a top private school in Sydney. After arriving
at the school, any ambitions to become a
professional musician changed quickly when
she discovered a new way to be creative,
thanks to an amazing physics teacher.
“I went from thinking I wanted to be a cellist
in the symphony orchestra to realising
that actually science was a deeply creative
endeavour,” said Tanya.
“What excites me about physics, or about
science in general, is that it's about pushing
forward the boundary of knowledge, being an
explorer in a way you could say.
“But you can also do that in a way that
solves really significant problems and creates
new solutions – for me, it’s an intoxicating
mix of creation and solution.”
ALUMNI MAGAZINE - SUMMER 2019
21
