Recent Medical Sciences graduate Milani Sivapragasam, along with 11 Western colleagues, are joining dozens of the brightest minds from around the globe this week at the Undergraduate Awards Global Summit in Dublin, Ireland.
Through The Undergraduate Awards, a worldwide competition recognizing top undergraduate work, student work in 25 categories was judged against peers from 206 universities, across 27 countries. Winners were selected out of 4,792 submissions.
Sivapragasam’s paper, Exploring Myxoma Virus Oncolytic Virotherapy in Combination with Carboplatin for the treatment of epithelial ovarian cancer, was named the overall winner of the Medical Sciences Category. She completed her research paper working with supervisor Dr. Trevor Shepherd from Western’s Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry. She is now enrolled in the MD/PhD program at McGill University.
Eleven other Western students were recognized as ‘highly commended’ (among the top 10 per cent) in their fields including Rachel Bath, Philosophy and Women’s Studies; Noren Khamis, Literature; Jennifer Komorowski, Literature; Myles Maillet, Pyschology; Surer Mohamed, International Relations and Politics; Rowan Morris, Literature; Lauren Ouellette, Classical Studies; Taylor Rodrigues, Philosophy & Theology; Jamie Rooney, Literature; Shawn Therien, Law; and Mei Wen, Medical Sciences.
“Being named to the highly commended list or taking top prize in a category means our students rank among the world’s most creative thinkers and problem solvers,” said Janice Deakin, Western provost and vice-president (academic). “These extraordinary results in Western’s first year participating in the competition demonstrate that our students excel on a global academic stage, on par with those from highly ranked international institutions like Harvard, Princeton, and Cambridge.”
Only two other Canadian students – one from McGill, one from the University of British Columbia – received the top prize in their categories.
