Professor Harry Messel International Science School

History

SCIENCE SCHOOLS 1958 - 2009

The ISS has been running since 1958 when the first four Science Schools were held for high school teachers. In 1962 Professor Messel changed the focus to honour excellence in senior high school science students and to encourage them to consider careers in science. Click here for past ISS details.

Go to the web site of ISS2009. Images from ISS2009 are here. Images from ISS2007 are here.

Prof Jill Tarter at ISS2009	Prof Lord Winston at ISS2007	Prof Harry Messel at ISS2005

An International Science School

Since one student from New Zealand attended the very first Science School, overseas students have been a feature of the ISS. In 1967, ten students from the USA joined the School; the following year they were joined by five from the United Kingdom and five from Japan. South-East Asia joined the ISS in 1985, when students attended from Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand and the Philippines – sadly, that was the only time the Philippines participated. China has sent five students to every ISS since 1999, except for 2003 when the SARS epidemic restricted travel in the region and they reluctantly withdrew. India joined the ISS for the first time in 2007 and Canada will send two students in 2009.

The Great Lecturers

Dr Margaret Burbidge at ISS1973	Prof Julius Sumner Miller at ISS1965	Prof Herman Bondi at ISS1979

One of the features of the International Schools is the lecture series. Past ISS lecturers include James Watson, who won a Nobel Prize for discovering the structure of DNA, and Jerome Friedman, also a Nobel laureate his for work on particle physics. Sir Hermann Bondi (physicist and astronomer at Cambridge University), Margaret Burbidge (astronomer with the Hubble Space Telescope), Carl Sagan (famous astronomer and science communicator) and Lord May (President of the Royal Society) have all given talks at the ISS.

And of course, who could forget the brilliant science demonstrations of Professor Julius 'Why is it so?' Sumner Miller? These days, Dr Karl Kruszelnicki – the Foundation's Julius Sumner Miller Fellow – entertains and enthuses the ISS Scholars with his famous Great Moments in Science.