Scholarships

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Richard Stewart Scholarship 2020
The 2020 Scholarship was awarded jointly to Dr Michael O’Grady and Dr Gregory Turner, both of Christchurch. Their year-long research project is entitled ‘Diverticulitis and the Role of the Gastrointestinal Microbiome’.

No Richard Stewart Scholarship was awarded for 2021 due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

The scholarship, which is normally held for one year, was established by the trust in memory of the late A/Prof Richard Stewart FRACS, Postgraduate Dean, Wellington School of Medicine, and is currently valued at $25,000.

Applications for 2022 are closed.

The following conditions apply:

1. The scholarship is open to medical graduates holding a degree registrable in NZ.
2. A candidate will be either a SET TRAINEE of the RACS, or a surgeon who is a fellow of the RACS. In the latter situation, a candidate will normally have held the FRACS diploma for not more than 5 years.
3. The scholarship will be held in a surgical department at any campus of the Otago Medical School. The candidate will usually be in a surgical research post.
4. A budget is to be submitted with the Scholarship application.
5. The monies may be used to purchase materials and equipment related to research. At the discretion of the Head of Department, they may also be used to supplement the candidate’s stipend, to fund travel related to the candidate’s research, or to present his/her research at an approved Meeting, or attend a Postgraduate Course.
6. The successful Scholarship recipient will be given 80% of the Scholarship funds at the commencement of their project and the remaining 20% on receipt of an adequate research report. The Trust requires a report from the successful candidate on activities undertaken on completion of the Scholarship.

Application for this scholarship should be made directly to Chairman of the Trust, Office of the Dunedin Basic Medical Sciences Course Trust, c/o Department of General Practice & Rural Health, 55 Hanover Street, Dunedin School of Medicine, PO Box 56, Dunedin 9054.  Alternative may be sent electronically to bse.course@otago.ac.nz

The application should be relatively brief (not more than 2 A4 pages (excluding CV) and in a nutshell should say what you want to do and why you want to do it, and when you are going to do it, and how much it is going to cost.  It should therefore cover the following:

1. Aims and/or objectives for use of Scholarship funds
2. If for a research project, outline the proposal, how it will be achieved (ie methodology), provide a timeline, and a budget.  If appropriate, ethics approval must be obtained.
   This can occur following the award of the Scholarship, but funding handover for such cannot occur before approval is granted.
3.  If the Scholarship is to be used for other purposes – eg stipend, conference travel, attendance at a Postgraduate Course, etc, then the specific purpose must be stated, and a budget provided.
4. A CV of the applicant must be provided.

The names and email addresses of two referees should be provided.

 

Richard Stewart – Photo from Wellington School of Medicine Archives.

Richard Stewart’s career reminds us that in spite of all the advances in medical sciences the lives of the most dedicated doctors can still be cut short by disabling disease.

In 1974, after training in the UK, he was appointed Senior Lecturer at the Christchurch Medical School and consultant surgeon to the Hospital.

He soon acquired the FRACS and the ChM. In 1980 he moved to the Wellington School of Medicine where he became Associate Professor and had important opportunities for research. He was particularly interested in fine needle aspiration of the acute abdomen and he won the Jacksonian Prize of the College for an essay on this subject.

Tragically Richard suffered from motor neurone disease, the progress of which compelled him to give up surgery in 1989. He continued to work as Associate Postgraduate Dean and embarked on a degree course in philosophy, but he died of his disease on 1 January 1991.

The Dunedin Basic Medical Sciences Course created this Scholarship in his memory.
MB ChB (Otago) 1965, FRCS (Eng) 1970, FRACS 1974, ChM (Otago) 1978

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Sandy Smith Scholarship 2021
Arpita Roy (Department of Microbiology & Immunology, Dunedin) and Xihua Lian (Department of Pathology, Christchurch) have both been awarded $10,000 as a grant-in-aid towards their research activities.

Applications for 2022 will be advertised in February 2022
The scholarship, has been established by the trust in memory of the late Professor Sandy Smith and is currently valued at up to $20,000. The Scholarship will be administered by the Trust which will undertake the selection process.

The following conditions apply:

1. The scholarship is open to medical and science graduates holding a degree recognised in NZ.
2. A candidate will normally not have held his/her degree for more than five years.
3. The successful candidate will usually hold a post in one of the Schools of Medicine or Health Sciences of the University of Otago.
4. The scholarship is to be used in a way approved by the Trust and must have application to microbiology or immunology in relation to medicine. Examples include attendance at an appropriate meeting, seeding funding for a research proposal, or to supplement the successful applicant’s stipend. Other uses may apply.
5. A proposed budget should be included as part of the application.
6. Applicants are to ensure that if applying for Conference/Meeting travel that they are in fact available to travel during the dates applied for.
7. The successful Scholarship recipient will be given 80% of the Scholarship funds at the commencement of their project and the remaining 20% on receipt of an adequate research report. On completion of the scholarship, the recipient must submit to the Trust, within two months, a report of activities undertaken.

Application for this scholarship should be made directly to Chairman of the Trust, Office of the Dunedin Basic Medical Sciences Course Trust,
Department of General Practice and Rural Health, Dunedin School of Medicine, P O Box 56, Dunedin, 9054. Email: bse.course@otago.ac.nz

There is no specific application form, but the information supplied to the Trust should include the candidate’s curriculum vitae, a brief description of the intended use of the scholarship (maximum 500 words), and the names of 2 referees.

2021 Barbara & John Memorial Prize
Dr Morgan Lingard of Christchurch has been awarded the Barbara & John Heslop Memorial Prize 2021 for the candidate gaining the highest marks in the Australasian June GSSE exams and who attended the recent GSSE course in Dunedin. Morgan was also awarded the Gordon Gordon-Taylor Medal by the RACS.