Prestigious Scholarship for WAIMR Student

January 10th, 2012

One of Australia's brightest medical research students has received a scholarship from the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC), allowing her to complete her PhD at the Western Australian Institute for Medical Research (WAIMR).

Tara Richman was one of four Western Australian's, chosen from universities across Australia, to be granted a NHMRC scholarship, after a particularly competitive process.

She will receive some financial support through the Dora Lush Biomedical post graduate scholarship to continue studying at the University of Western Australia and at WAIMR's Laboratory for Mitochondrial Medicine and Biology, at its city campus.

"It's really exciting to be a part of the state's top adult medical research institute so early in my career," Ms Richman said.

The Dora Lush scholarship is awarded to a student with excellent university grades who also has proven research experience. Ms Richman has already had some of her research published, including a paper in the peer-reviewed scientific journal, Cell Cycle.

She will be working with a team headed by Professor Aleksandra Filipovska, who in 2011 won a Young Tall Poppy Science Award and WAIMR's Marshall medal. Professor Filipovska is also an Australian Research Council Future fellow and will supervise Ms Richman.

"It's great to work in such a supportive environment with such talented mentors," Ms Richman said. "I'll be studying the role of the cell's energy factories, mitochondria, in disease, which I think is a fascinating area in medical research that could have an enormous impact on the way therapies are designed to treat diseases in the future."

For more information please contact:
Carolyn Monaghan
Communications Manager
Mobile: 0448 021 932 (media enquiries only)
Office: (08) 9224 0377
Email: carolyn.monaghan@waimr.uwa.edu.au