The department extends a big congratulations to Microbiology and Immunology graduate Clare Burn, who has received a Fulbright Science and Innovation Graduate Award.
Fulbright awards are presented to promising New Zealand graduate students to allow them to undertake postgraduate study or research at US institutions in fields that support growth and innovation in New Zealand.
Clare will head to New York at the end of July to begin a PhD in Biomedical Sciences at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University, specializing in infectious disease immunology.
“Having grown up in South Africa before coming to Otago, I’m especially interested in infectious diseases that are important in the developing world - I've witnessed the effects of HIV and TB in poor communities, and that experience is one of the main reasons that I chose to study Microbiology and Immunology.”
Clare completed an Honours degree in 2011, supervised by Merilyn Hibma in the VRU. After graduating she continued in the department, working in Jo Kirman’s lab at both the Malaghan Institute and at Otago University.
Every year approximately 14 Science and Innovation awards are offered, each valued at up to US$33,000. A total of 88 students were honoured as 2014 Fulbright grantees across all categories, making this year’s cohort a record.
