Young student shows himself future winner

By ANGELA GREGORY

University engineering and arts students usually mix as well as oil and water.

But for Rick Johnston, this unlikely combination of studies has been an obvious expression of broad-brush interests which have set him apart from many of his contemporaries.

And it is one of the factors which led to his selection as a Knowledge Wave Trust emerging leader. He will attend Knowledge Wave 2003 - The Leadership Forum, in Auckland, from February 19 to 21.

Having completed the final year of a joint degree in engineering and arts (majoring in history) at Auckland University last year, he is now contemplating continuing to master's-level studies.

But he is already in the business of engineering science, where mathematical concepts are applied to industry to slice away fat in the system.

Production, scheduling, transport and logistics - the words rattle off his tongue in conveyor-belt style.

But this is not just science, there is history to this. The concepts date back to World War I when the need to schedule troop movements evolved into the creation of mathematical fields to apply such planning.

Now the field of operations research is rapidly developing, harnessing the power of computers to hone systems and save businesses up to 20 per cent of their costs.

It has been applied to all sorts of industries, including airlines with complicated crew scheduling, and hospital services requiring the right combination of skilled staff at the right times.

Mr Johnston's final-year project was to help Auckland Hospital plan its radiotherapy treatment better, working out the best placement of staff.

This year he will graduate with first-class honours in his Bachelor of Engineering degree, and walk away with a history prize from his Bachelor of Arts.

But the results of a seeming annus mirabilis last year come from what was otherwise an annus horribilis.

For nine months he helped to care for his dying mother, who had brought him up alone from when he was 2.

It would have been hard to have found a prouder mother. Rick and two old schoolfriends already owned a publishing company which virtually now runs itself, producing popular study guides for art history and physics, which he edits.

The seventh-form swot guides have been snapped up by high schools.

With a maturity which belies his age, the 23-year-old has been tipped as a potential leader.

Tall and large framed, the former head boy of Pakuranga College has that indefinable "presence" which, combined with a quietly determined confidence, seems set to take him far.

He already has a swag of awards. In 2001 he won a Rotary Youth Leadership Award, and last year a Freemason Scholarship and the Engineers for Social Responsibility Prize.