Competition paves way for international career
 |
PhD candidate Nishen Naidoo in the lab. |
A Macquarie University PhD candidate's future career appears bright after he recently made the final of a prestigious competition.
Nishen Naidoo of the University's Department of Chemistry and Biomolecular Sciences, was among five students selected to compete in the final round of the highly competitive multi-institutional Thompson Prize, held last month. The award is given annually for the best presentation by a young local scientist in the field of protein structure and function.
The Thompson Prize, inaugurated in 1992, was named after an eminent local protein scientist, E.O.P. (Ted) Thompson. It is awarded by the Sydney Protein Group - an organisation within the Australian Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology in the Sydney region who come from academia, hospitals and industry. They meet together on a regular basis to discuss the latest developments in protein research.
On December 7 it was Macquarie's turn to host the event, says Professor Dr Tom Roberts, who with colleague Dr Louise Brown organised the Thompson Prize night. The competition targets postgraduate students or those who have completed their degree but have less than one year postdoctoral experience. Finalists are chosen based on their CV and an abstract of their proposed talk.
Best of the best
According to Roberts, the five finalists in the competition, who all came from major research institutes or universities, were so good it was hard to gauge who would eventually be judged the best one.
"There was no way you could judge who would win," he says.
Each gave a talk about their research in front of an audience of about 60 peers and colleagues including a committee of three eminent judges from the scientific community. The judges then followed up each finalist's presentation with a number of questions about their research.
Naidoo, who is a third-year PhD student, has already almost completed his thesis. His research has been on the molecular structure of the protein complexes that bind RNA. His thesis PhD supervisor is Associate Professor Bridget Mabbutt. Both thought it would be a good idea to enter the competition, Naidoo says.
"You can only enter the competition once, so generally you wait until your third year," he says.
A bright future
Apart from completing his thesis, Naidoo is already collaborating on protein research with postdoctoral researchers and professors at the University of NSW as well as the US's Scripps Research Institute in California. However, he says being one of the finalists for the Thompson Prize would help to ensure a potentially promising international career once he completes his PhD.
"It helps your CV obviously and it also makes you more competitive on a global scale," he says.
Roberts says the competition, while providing good practice and training for Naidoo in presenting his research, also provided a good opportunity for Macquarie's Department of Chemistry and Biomolecular Sciences, which was formed in January 2005, to showcase what has been happening in the Department.