APPEARING on the ABC television show The Einstein Factor was just one memorable experience for Ami Bebbington.
The intelligent, former Collie woman has just flown home from Paris where she made four presentations on Rett Syndrome, which is a development disability for which she has been doing statistics at the Telethon Institute for Child Health Research.
Ami attended Fairview Primary School and then Collie Senior High School before going on a one-year Rotary Youth Exchange to Switzerland.
She stayed with three different families and also learnt German, which she still speaks today.
Last year she went back to visit her host families.
When she returned to Australia she attended Curtin University and completed a Bachelor in Mathematical Science with an honours in maths.
Doing her honours gave Ami the opportunity to do half her work at the institute and half at the university.
Ami now works for the institute full time doing statistics.
“We only know of about 300 cases of Rett Syndrome in Australia,” she said.
“We study the cases and send out questionnaires to the families and then do a follow-up after two years.”
Ami said the institute was now trying to compare cases in Australia to international cases so they could have a broader comparison.
A comparison paper Ami wrote earlier this year comparing different mutations of Rett Syndrome even made it into an official Neurology Journal.
“When we give presentations we aim to get them published in a journal,” she said.
“We work hard to be internationally recognised.”
The paper provided an insight into what sufferers and their families could expect in the future, and was what Ami’s presentation in Paris was based on.
She said the trip to Paris was beneficial because she got to interact first hand with families affected by Rett Syndrome.
“Families asked questions and it was good to see them get feedback,” she said.
Ami said she now wanted to finish the surveys she did while she was in Paris and continue working on statistics for Rett Syndrome.
Next year she will enrol in a Masters Degree of Biostatistics for three years so she will have the qualifications and training she needs to continue her work.
“I want to find out more about it all,” she said.
Ami said when she finished her degree she did not intentionally seek out work with Rett Syndrome.
“They needed a statistician and I wanted to work with statistics,” she said.
“Statistics is an area of maths that is important and I am really interested in it.”
Ami said she could go anywhere after her training.
“There is more and more health information being released and they need people behind that information,” she said.
Ami said growing up in Collie meant she had a different background to the people she worked with, who were almost all from Perth.
“It is good to bring a different perspective to the team,” she said.
She said the work was sometimes intensive and you needed good attention to detail to make sure no small mistakes were made.
“It is interesting – it is like being a detective,” she said.
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