Jade Moxey of Numbugga has been awarded the 2017 Young Scientific Investigator of the Year at the BHP Billiton Science and Engineering awards.

“It feels pretty surreal,” she said on Monday.

“When you start a project like mine it’s not what you expect or what you’re aiming for, but you never know what’s going to happen.” 

She has received a prize of $4000 as well as “lots of media attention”, which gives the 16-year-old the chance to talk about what she is passionate about – the project that won her the award.

In a project that took over eight months to research, Jade assessed the relationship between sheep and fireweed.

The Sapphire Coast Anglican College student found sheep are more than capable of spreading the weed through their manure and it had minimal impacts on their health when they ate it.

Also, she found very small levels of alkaloids in tissue samples taken from sheep that had ingested fireweed – 0.0005 per cent - so while it was present more testing was needed to determine if meat from such a sheep was safe for human consumption.  

Jade chose this subject to build on an experiment she conducted to see if fireweed seeds survived the digestive system of cows and because she thought the results would be significant to a large range of fields.

“If people are aware of the potential of the trial’s different aspects, it can change grazing management systems as well as recommendations regarding food safety,” she said.  

The recent award is a continuation of Jade’s prowess in science, as last year she came third in the Science Teachers’ Association of NSW Young Scientist Awards. As a result, she will travel to the US in May to compete in the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair. 

Jade thanked the Department of Primary Industries which supplied $6000 to allow her trial to take place, the Sapphire Foundation Scholarship and her parents for all their support.