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Two of Western Australia’s young scientists have been spreading word of their work across Australia via ABC Radio National’s The Science Show .

In early May, Science Show host Robyn Williams interviewed WA’s 2008 Science Student of the Year Jacinta Delhaize and 2008 Young Scientist Dr Ben Corry about their past and future research.

Jacinta received a scholarship to travel to Chile and use an eight-metre-diameter telescope at the Gemini South Observatory in the Andes mountain range, and received her Premier’s Award for talking to high school students about her experience.

She told Williams she thought astronomy was one of the few sciences that could really captivate the imagination and the interest of the general public. As a child she wanted to be an astronaut, but her interest in science broadened out during her high school years.

“I've always known that it was what I wanted to study, so I worked hard in physics and maths,” Jacinta said. “Maths is not my strong point but I worked hard at it because I knew that that's something that you need, it's the language that you speak in in physics. It's all been worthwhile to come out the end and to be able to study the most fascinating things in the universe.”

Jacinta has begun the next stage of her research, a PhD, in which she will study the evolution of hydrogen gas in galaxies.

Dr Corry told Williams how his body of research focused on ion channels and the similarities between nerve cells and water desalination membranes.

“…Most of the signalling that goes on between cells, for example, when you're sending a nerve signal from your brain to your hand or something like that, it's all controlled by the operation of these ion channels controlling the flow of electrical charges in and out of cells,” Dr Corry said.

“Ion channels are really there to control the flow of water and salts, sodium, potassium, chloride, in and out of a cell, controlling their flow across a membrane. And if you're trying to desalinate or de-salt water to drink, that's exactly what you need to do there as well.

“One of the aspects I've been looking at is how you can use the strategies used in the body in a synthetic membrane to desalinate water, allow water to pass across the membrane with much less resistance than a traditional desalination membrane while still blocking the salts.”

In January 2009, researchers, teachers and students at The University of Western Australia – including Jacinta and Dr Corry – won every available award in the 2008 WA Premier's Science Awards.

In the categories applying to universities – Scientist of the Year, Young Scientist of the Year, Excellence in Science Communication Outside the Classroom; and Science Student of the Year: University – all 11 finalists were from UWA.

• WA's Science Student of the Year on ABC Radio National's The Science Show
• WA's Young Scientist of the Year on ABC Radio National's The Science Show