Student awards need a saviour

The annual Student Excellence Awards, which support Australian students in bioscience research with reward and recognition, are in need of an industry sponsor if they are to go ahead this year.

AusBiotech holds the annual competition to encourage more students to pursue research and consider a career in biosciences. The state finalists win a trip to the annual AusBiotech conference to compete for the national prize, which seeks to reward young researchers striving to develop innovative solutions to health issues in the community and recognise their high achievement, unique work and innovations.

AusBiotech needs a sponsor to continue this work to recognise the valuable scientific contributions made by students across Australia, after the award’s previous supporter was unable to assist this year.

The calibre of entrants and finalists in previous years has been exemplary and a clear indication of the promising discoveries we can expect to see from young Australian researchers in the coming years.

For example, Connor O’Meara, from the Queensland University of Technology, was the winner of Australia’s 2012 Student Excellence Award for a novel vaccine design for chlamydia that disarms the bad properties of the disease transforming it into common bacteria.

The 2012 competition attracted entries from almost 50 talented Australian bioscience students, predominantly PhD candidates. The national winner was awarded a travel bursary to present his research at an international conference and a grant for his faculty.

AusBiotech is inviting companies interested in supporting the awards to contact Events Manager Kirsty Grimwade (kgrimwade@ausbiotech.org or 03 9828 1406) by 1 August.