University of Waikato student Sam McCormack, who is researching potentially commercial pharmaceutical properties of the Bay of Plenty's sea sponges, won the Research-in-3 session held as part of the university's Treasuring the Bay Coastal Economic Symposium in Tauranga.
"Students are taking part in a diverse range of valuable research in and around the Bay of Plenty marine environment and this forum gives them an excellent opportunity to present their projects to an engaged audience," said symposium organiser Dr Nigel Calder.
Mr McCormack was a masters student whose research involves classifying and categorising different species based on their chemical makeup, which would help form part of a marine organism inventory for the Bay of Plenty.
Dr Calder said the Research-in-3 session was always a highlight of the day-long research event. Science students have three minutes to outline their summer research projects as part of their Masters and PhD programmes. As well as University of Waikato students, the Research-in-3 session included students from Bay of Plenty Polytechnic and Te Whare Wananga o Awanuiarangi.
More than 100 people attended the event, held last Friday, and Dr Calder said the symposium was a great opportunity for people to engage with and learn from top-class scientists and economists.