Hard work and dedication do not go unnoticed at the School of Science: the success of seven high achievers was celebrated at the Best Student Award Ceremony.

Family members were among the audience of students and staff, beaming with pride.

Steward of the environment and best student for Honours degree in Environmental Science, Chin Li Jin, said the honours degree was definitely an unexpected challenge.

“I spent four months in the field working with delicate pitcher plants, running my experiments in Sabah and Sarawak. The weather being so hot made it quite a challenge for me because my samples withered and died!” she said.

However, a bigger challenge was adjusting the transition from her undergraduate degree to the Honours program.

“In Honours, you get more freedom and that does not make things easier as you will have to be more decisive and really study your options. You're pretty much on your own most of the time,” said the independent young scientist from Sabah.

Sarah Basir Ahmad, seen here receiving
her certificate from Head of School Prof
Song Keang Peng, is working on
publishing her research findings.

“When you feel the stress building up, put your work aside for a few hours and go relax and unwind with friends or learn to play the guitar,” she said.

Sarah Basir Ahmad joined the other two at the top three spots as she won the Best Student Award for Honours degree in Biomedical Science, with her unique research project.

For Sarah, who enjoys hiking and outdoor activities, working with Nepenthicolous spiders that only live in pitcher plants, was a dream come true.

“I never wanted to succeed so badly in my life. I worked so hard for the whole year during my Honours,” said the Penang lass.

“Not much research has been done on these spiders and I hope that my findings can provide more information on them,” said Sarah who is now working on publishing her findings.

Head of the School of Science, Prof Song Keang Peng congratulated the successful students, and welcomed them to join the research team at the School.

“We are definitely becoming even more active in research, especially with the recent MyMAP grant from the government. Our findings will definitely benefit the country in the future as we aim to upgrade the current quality of education,” Prof Song said.

The MyMAP Accelerator is a specialist development centre located within Monash University Sunway campus that will carry out multi-disciplinary research, provide technical assistance in product development and quality control, and enable an exchange of knowledge among experts in the region.

The initiative is a tripartite collaboration between Monash University Sunway Campus, the Special Innovation Unit (UNIK) under the Prime Minister’s Department, and the Indian Government’s Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR).

At the School of Science, Prof Song explained that changes were in place to improve their already advanced facilities and that more professors would be joining the teaching and research team.

“We don't have time to be complacent, as we are keen and serious to be able to provide more opportunities for students to pursue their postgraduate degrees here at the Sunway campus,” Prof Song said of the expanding School of Science.

The seven outstanding Science students.