ANU Students Receive Top Undergraduate Research Awards

Alex Qin and Oliver Hervir from The Australian National University were honoured at an awards ceremony hosted by The Global Undergraduate Awards in Dublin last Tuesday, 8 November.

Each year thousands of students from around the world submit their undergraduate research projects to The Global Undergraduate Awards (GUA), the world's leading pan-discipline, undergraduate research awards programme. More than 600 academics volunteer as judges for the programme, assessing entries for their academic originality and rigor, and must pick the single best entry from each of the 25 categories. The GUA sponsors each of these 25 Global Winners to attend the annual Global Summit in Dublin.

Qin and Hervir were both named Global Winners. Qin won the Life Sciences category for his work titled "Molecular mechanisms of Ku70 during colorectal cancer". Hervir won the Chemical & Pharmaceutical Sciences category for his work titled "Fabricating and Testing Dual-Carbon Batteries to Investigate their Electrochemical Properties and Performance Characteristics". With that honour, they presented their research to the 150 academics and other winners in attendance at the Global Summit and received the Thomas Clarkson gold medal at the black-tie Gala Dinner and Awards Ceremony on 8 November.

Long-time GUA Chairman Jim Barry, who presented the 25 Global Winners with their medals, said the honour was all his. "Being in the same room as these incredibly bright and ambitious young minds, you really have a sense that the world is heading in the right direction. It is my hope that by recognizing their outstanding research and rewarding them for their ingenuity, they are inspired to take that work out into the world to change it," said Barry.

The Global Undergraduate Awards begins its programme every January. Final-year undergraduate students who complete their research in English can submit their projects to one of 25 broad-ranging categories. After the deadline to submit in June, the entries are reviewed by more than 600 academics who volunteer in the intense judging process over the summer. They select the Highly Commended entrants, which are the top 7% in each category, and the 25 Global Winners. While all Highly Commended entrants are invited to the attend the Global Summit, GUA sponsors the flights and accommodation of all 25 Global Winners, in order to ensure they can present their research and receive their awards in-person.