A local scientist is in the running to become Queensland’s Australian of the Year after being told as a child she would never learn to read.
Shailer Park-based chemist Dr Katrina Wruck has three degrees, owns a business, is an expert in her field, and volunteers her time to inspire children.
The 30-year-old said it had not been an easy journey.
“When I first went to school, in Year Two, I was struggling to read like the other children, and they told my parents I would never learn to read,” Dr Wruck said.
“I went to a different school, and I had issues there as well.”
In high school, Dr Wruck wanted to take the harder maths class, but the school refused “for no reason other than they didn’t think I could do it.”
“If someone tells me I can’t do it, I will do it anyway, and it makes me want to do it more,” she said.
Eventually, she was accepted into the class and achieved highly, before graduating and starting her first degree at the Queensland University of Technology.
Last year, she completed her PhD – her third degree – and has used her five years of award-winning research to create a company, called Nguki Kula Green Labs.
The company, still in development, is set to deliver the first “truly sustainable” laundry product.
Currently, wastewater systems are unable to remove all the chemicals from laundry detergent, so they end up being “discharged” into the environment.
Dr Wruck’s product is comprised of fewer chemicals and features a reusable water softener to prevent pollution and save consumers money.
“Someone told me my PhD research would never be a viable product because the market is flooded, but here I am with a brand and a company doing it,” Dr Wruck said.
Dr Wruck has been nominated for the Australian of the Year award for her devotion to science, but also for her devotion to people.
“Along the way, I became a strong advocate for Indigenous people, which is my family and connection to country,” she said.
“I have been involved in a few different outreach programs.
“More recently, I have been taking speaker fees and using that money to fund outreach in a very remote place in Queensland that some people might not have heard of.
“It’s called Mabuiag Island in the Torres Strait Islands, and that is where my grandmother is from.”
Through these outreach programs, Dr Wruck talks to students about science and university and how to get there.
Students on multiple occasions have told Dr Wruck she is the first Indigenous scientist they’ve met.
“To me, it says that we need more of me,” she said.
“I try to encourage, inspire, and be a role model for these students who might have doubts about what they can achieve.
“My message to them is that you can do it, it is possible, you can do anything.”
Dr Wruck said it was a nice surprise to be nominated to be Queensland’s Australian of the Year.
“It is so validating,” she said.
Dr Wruck’s postdoctoral research examines how to break down dangerous ‘forever chemicals’ into benign ones.
Combined with her method for removing contaminants from water that cause hardness, her work is seen as a possible foundation for reducing global contamination.
