{"id":2671,"date":"2017-12-22T18:13:28","date_gmt":"2017-12-22T08:13:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wimr.org.au\/?post_type=wimr_news&#038;p=2671"},"modified":"2024-09-30T18:26:42","modified_gmt":"2024-09-30T08:26:42","slug":"westmead-students-win-prestigious-university-medal-for-outstanding-academic-performance","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/wimr.org.au\/news\/westmead-students-win-prestigious-university-medal-for-outstanding-academic-performance\/","title":{"rendered":"Westmead students win prestigious University Medal for outstanding academic performance"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"lead\">Two honours students at the Westmead Institute have been awarded the prestigious University Medal, acknowledging their outstanding academic performance at the University of Sydney.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"caption\">\n<p><figure style=\"width: 720px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"\" src=\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/Orion-and-Sing-Young.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"720\" height=\"500\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Orion Tong and Sing-Young Chen were awarded the University Medal for outstanding academic performance<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/figure>\n<p>Two honours students at the Westmead Institute have been awarded the prestigious University Medal, acknowledging their outstanding academic performance at the University of Sydney.<\/p>\n<p>Sing-Young Chen and Orion Tong completed their honours degree through a program delivered at Westmead, one of the world\u2019s largest health and medical research precincts.<\/p>\n<p>Sing-Young achieved an honours score above 90% and Orion scored 97%, the highest honours mark in the Faculty of Science at the University of Sydney.<\/p>\n<p>Orion\u2019s research investigates the role of innate immunity in HIV infection, particularly the effects of early antiviral responder cells on the main target cells of HIV.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOnce we understand how HIV beats the body\u2019s early immune response to get a foothold infection in the body,\u00a0we could interrupt this\u00a0and\u00a0after further research and testing this could lead to a vaccine,\u201d he explained.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019m very honoured to receive a\u00a0University Medal.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI would definitely like to thank my supervisors Dr Najla Nasr and Professor Tony Cunningham for all their guidance and support this year,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>Orion will continue with the project as a research assistant over the coming year, and is exploring opportunities to undertake his PhD.<\/p>\n<p>Sing-Young\u2019s research investigates how a high-fat diet affects beta-cell gene expression in vivo; an important step towards preventing and treating type 2 diabetes.<\/p>\n<p>Sing-Young said it was a privilege to receive the award.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt&#8217;s a huge honour to be awarded a University Medal and I am exceptionally grateful to all those who have taught and mentored me.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIn particular, I&#8217;m thankful towards my honours supervisors, Professor Jenny Gunton and Dr Michael Swarbrick, who have always been so generous with their time and wisdom,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<p>While Sing-Young is still undecided about the next steps in her career, she is incredibly grateful for her experiences at Westmead.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAs of now,\u00a0I&#8217;m not entirely sure of the path that my career will take. However, I\u00a0do know that I&#8217;m going to use the skills and knowledge\u00a0that I&#8217;ve gained here to do something meaningful for society.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis will probably involve\u00a0doing a PhD in medical research and continuing the search for better health.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMy time at Westmead has been an incredibly rewarding experience. I&#8217;ve learnt a lot here, more than I can describe,\u00a0and probably even\u00a0more than I realise.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cRegardless of where I go next,\u00a0I&#8217;m going to always try my best, find passion in what I do and hopefully do something good for this world,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<p>40 students completed the honours program in the Westmead precinct this year, which saw a high level of success with 90% of students achieving First Class Honours.<\/p>\n<p>Program coordinator, Associate Professor Andrew Harman said this is a fantastic result.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe are very proud of these talented, hardworking students.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cImportantly, this achievement is a testament not only to the students themselves, but to their supervisors and institutions.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe quality of the supervision, facilities and research opportunities provided at Westmead is on par with the best in the world,\u201d Associate Professor Harman concluded.<\/p>\n<p>Congratulations Orion and Sing-Young. \u00a0We are immensely proud of you and we wish you all the best with your future endeavours.\u00a0 We hope to see you back at Westmead one day.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Two honours students at the Westmead Institute have been awarded the prestigious University Medal, acknowledging their outstanding academic performance at the University of Sydney. Two honours students at the Westmead Institute have been awarded the prestigious University Medal, acknowledging their outstanding academic performance at the University of Sydney. Sing-Young Chen and Orion Tong completed their [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":2672,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"default","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"default","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"set","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}}},"categories":[19],"class_list":["post-2671","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cat-news"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wimr.org.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/2671","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wimr.org.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wimr.org.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wimr.org.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2672"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wimr.org.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2671"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wimr.org.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2671"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}