By JESSE GRAHAM
A FERNTREE Gully university student will be setting off for Tokyo next year, after winning a prestigious scholarship from the Federal Government.
Richard Garrett, 21, was last week announced as a winner of the Federal Government’s New Colombo Plan scholarship program.
Mr Garrett is studying a Bachelor of Science Honours degree at La Trobe, along with a Masters of Nanotechnology and an Advanced Diploma of Language in Japanese.
The scholarship, which aims to improve academic relationships between Australia and Asia-Pacific countries, will see him heading to Japan to work with the National Institute of Molecular Science (NIMS).
Speaking to the Mail after returning from a trip to Canberra’s Parliament House, where he met Prime Minister Tony Abbott, Mr Garrett said he was excited about where the scholarship would take him.
He said that NIMS was currently working on a drug delivery method for cancer treatment, and that he would be working on that project, unless another arises before he left Australia in January.
The delivery method involved electro-spinning of a nano-fibre mesh that can be stitched into the body for cancer treatment – the mesh would provide a method for drug delivery.
“It’s definitely going to be a new experience,” he said.
Mr Garrett said the scholarship was awarded based on multiple criteria, not just academic merit, and acknowledged some of the work he did with other students through the Physics Society at La Trobe and sporting groups.
“It was nice to have some recognition for those of us who work really hard in everything we do – not just academically,” he said.
Mr Garrett is one of two La Trobe students and 41 students around the country awarded the scholarship, which provides funding up to $67,000 for its recipients to study and work abroad.
