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Summer Student Award 2026

The 277th Scientific Meeting of OMSRS, the 2026 Pat Cragg Summer Student Awards, were held on 16th April at the Barnett Lecture Theatre. Ten students presented the findings from their recent summer research studentship, including two presenters online. The standard of presentations was very high, with the 10 presenters being successfully selected by the Editorial Panel from 13 high-quality abstract submissions.

The meeting was convened by Dr Natasha Flack, Vice-President of OMSRS. Emeritus Professor Pat Cragg was in attendance and provided the closing remarks and presented the winner and runner-up with their awards. The judges for the meeting were Michelle Munro (Department of Physiology), Ivan Sammut (Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology) and Jisha Antony (Department of Pathology and Molecular Medicine). The event was generously sponsored by the Otago Medical Research Foundation and the Faculty of Biomedical Sciences.

Summer student speakers

 

The winner was Nadia Zhou from the Department of Physiology (Neuronal hyper-excitability leading to seizures in Alzheimer’s disease). Nadia received a certificate and $500 prize money.

Winner Nadia Zhou pictured with Professor Pat Cragg

 

The runner-up was Juno Meyburg from the School of Pharmacy and Pharmacology ( Bridging the species gap: Pharmacological characterisation of the rat AMY1 receptor and its implications for translation). Juno received a certificate and $250 in prize money.

Runner-up Juno Meyberg from the School of Pharmacy and Pharmacology pictured with Professor Pat Cragg

 

Congratulations to Nadia and Juno, and to all the student speakers!