Teresa Wang completed her Bachelor of Science Medical Physics in 2001.

I found it really hard to choose a university course when I was in year 12 because I had no idea what I wanted to do. There are so many options! I was tossing up between commerce, engineering, maths or physics. In the end I decided to focus on physics because I think physics knowledge is the most technical and difficult to acquire. Commerce and engineering skills can be gained relatively easily in the work force and there was always the option of doing a postgraduate degree if necessary.

I was a ‘professional student’ until I completed my science degree in medical physics. I spent lots of time in the third year laboratory – it’s a really hands-on subject and I think it’s the subject that got me my job! I found a job as a manufacturing technician at JDS Uniphase, then got into research and development as a development technician. I was recently upgraded to development engineer. I assist in improving the manufacturing processes for fibre Bragg gratings by carrying out experimental studies of the current or new processes. I also spend a lot of time setting up and maintaining the current production system for production trials.

As for my future career, I haven’t planned it at all, but so far so good! For example, if I want to travel, there are so many well paid jobs overseas in the photonics industry and a physics degree is usually one of the pre-requisites. Whatever opportunities come up I have satisfied the academic requirements for it.

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