Forty students and research supervisors from the Auckland region attended the Fifth Interscholastic Student HIV Research Symposium held at Massey University’s Auckland campus last month.
Eminent HIV researcher Professor Mark Henrickson from the School of Social work said the event served as an opportunity for postgraduate students undertaking research related to HIV to come together and share with their peers from other universities.
“It is a great way to share ideas, get research tips in a very complex area of research and build professional and research networks,” he says. “It is also a way to help students develop confidence in presenting and to get a public presentation on their research on their CVs”.
There were seven student presentations at the event from students undertaking research in Japan, Bangladesh, and Indonesia, as well as in New Zealand.
Massey University PhD candidate Jacek Kołodziej, who is studying pre-exposure prophylaxis in gay men, coordinated the event this year. Fellow doctoral student Konamik Kani Khan, who started at Massey last February, also presented. Other presentations were from students from AUT and the University of Auckland.
Cash awards were given to the top three presenters as selected by a panel of three supervisors and the executive director of the New Zealand AIDS Foundation Dr Jason Myers, with the foundation sponsoring the first prize of $250. Massey’s School of Social Work sponsored the second and third prizes and the event.