The University of Queensland's Advanced Study Program in Science (ASPinS) is celebrating a decade of a scheme designed to challenge and inspire the University’s brightest undergraduate science students.
Launched in 2002 thanks to seed funds from The Atlantic Philanthropies, ASPinS has become a benchmark program within the Faculty of Science for high-achieving students interested in pursuing a career in scientific research.
President of the Academic Board, Professor Susan Hamilton, was instrumental in the establishment of ASPinS when she was Director of Studies for the Faculty.
"We are very grateful to Atlantic Philanthropies and Mr Chuck Feeney for providing the funding that enabled us to establish the program at UQ as part of the Bright Minds for the New Biologies project (2002–2005)," Professor Hamilton said.
"The program has a reputation for producing excellent research graduates and we are looking forward to even more success in the years to come."
Over the past 10 years, the Advanced Study Program in Science has graduated more than 200 students.
ASPinS alumni are continuing their passion for research through postgraduate studies in such prestigious institutions as Yale, Cornell, Oxford and Cambridge, as well as UQ's world-class research laboratories.
The program continues to evolve and strengthen, aiming to solidify its place well into the future as the premier undergraduate science research training program at UQ.
From year one of the program, students are exposed to research environments through a series of research seminars facilitated by heads of institutes and other prominent UQ scientists.
In second semester of their first year, students enrol in a formal course which expands upon their scientific knowledge and develops the necessary skills they will need to pursue a research career.
These skills are further developed in years two and three, where each student is strategically seeded into a research laboratory or group to be personally mentored by an active research academic and undertake a project in an area of mutual interest.
In addition to the research component, students develop strong bonds with their peers through participation in camps, social activities and group work.
The culminating event each year is the ASPinS Undergraduate Research Conference where students present research findings before an audience of their peers, academic mentors, parents and friends.
This year, the conference featured 17 oral presentations and 33 poster presentations by students and was arguably the most successful conference to date.
One participating student, Ann Bui, is typical of the high-achieving students attracted to the program. Now in the third year of the program and a physics student, her parents migrated from Vietnam almost 30 years ago and she is the first member of her family to complete university studies.
In 2010, as a second-year student, she won the Best Oral presentation award at the annual ASPinS Undergraduate Research Conference. This year, she won the Best Poster award.
Details about the program are available online.
