Student prizes awarded

02/03/2011

The Department of Biochemistry is pleased to announce that Hyon-Xhi Tan, Emma Nolan, Caillan Crowe-McAuliffe, Sam Walsh, and Laura Haycock are the winners of the following student prizes for 2010.

George Petersen Prize in Biochemistry for the student in the 400-level Honours class who is judged to have shown the greatest promise for original research in biochemistry.

Awarded to Hyon-Xhi Tan. Hyon-Xhi grew up at Klang, Malaysia, he attended Tengku Ampuan Rahimah High School before coming to the University of Otago. Hyon-Xhi developed an inquisitive character as a child, and was exposed to lots of amazing books on general science when he was young. Amusingly, watching television shows such as 'Bill Nye the Science Guy' attracted him to science even more. As far as he can remember, his first actual fascination with science was on field of Astronomy. When high school came around, exposure to matters of Biology struck a chord and progressively led him to this study field of choice.

Mervyn Smith Prize in Biochemistry for the student in the 300-level Honours class who is judged to have reached the highest level of attainment in biochemistry.

Awarded to Emma Nolan. Emma grew up in Auckland and attended Diocesan School for Girls, she decided to do science at University because she was heavily involved in sciences at secondary school, taking Physics, Chemistry and Biology in both sixth and seventh form.

Edson Prize in Biochemistry – BSc(Hons) for the student(s) in the 400-level Honours class who are judged to have reached the highest level of attainment in biochemistry.
This prize was shared in 2010

Awarded to Caillan Crowe-McAuliffe. Caillan was born in Dunedin and grew up in North East Valley, he attended Logan Park High School. At university, Caillan’s first year was spent studying both music and science. Caillan ultimately chose biochemistry as his major, as he was fascinated by biology at the molecular scale.

Awarded to Sam Walsh. Sam’s primary school years were spent on the outer edge of the Manukau Habour in Awhitu, after which his family moved to Southland, he completed secondary school at Central Southland College in Winton. At secondary school Sam developed a fascination with the potential of ‘nanotechnology’, which encouraged him to begin an undergraduate degree in Biochemistry. Currently Sam’s interests are focused on spectroscopic techniques enabling analyses of single protein molecules. Outside the lab Sam is an avid outdoor enthusiast and enjoys playing the guitar.

Edson Prize in Biochemistry BSc for the student in the 300-level class who is judged to have reached the highest level of attainment in biochemistry.

Awarded to Laura Haycock. Laura attended St Cuthbert's College in Auckland (2007 graduate), and moved down to Dunedin to study Science and Business. After a short time, the only subject that really stood out for her was Biochemistry so she decided to concentrate on this, changing her degree to a BSc and Biochemistry her major. Since making that decision Laura has become more confident that she would like to pursue a future in Biochemistry. In 2011 Laura will commence a two year Masters degree at Auckland University.