Students awarded at first annual Graduate Research Symposium

Ten students from King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) have received awards for research presentations made at the institution's first annual Graduate Research Symposium (GRS).

The symposium showcased research endeavors of Master's and Ph.D. students from the University's three divisions: Physical Science and Engineering (PSE), Chemical and Life Science Engineering (CLSE), and Computer, Electrical and Mathematical Sciences and Engineering.

The ten winners by category are:

Master's Science Oral Presentations

  • Arturo M. Mora, CEMSE
  • Salsabil Al-Daas, CLSE
  • Miguel Ángel Galicia Martinez, PSE
Ph.D. Oral Presentations
  • Grant Hill –Cawthorne, CLSE
  • Justine Mink, CLSE
  • Georgio Alanis-Lobato, CEMSE
  • Hossain Fahad, PSE
Posters
  • Abhinay Ramaprasad, CLSE
  • Farania Rangkuti, CEMSE
  • Yasser Khan, PSE

The awards were presented by KAUST Associate Provost, Professor James Calvin, who described the symposium as a "seminal event" in the development of KAUST.

He said: "Whenever an institution wants to establish a culture of research excellence, it all has to start at home. Enabling students to establish expectations of scholarly products and giving the ability to share those with the world is what academics is all about.

"Academics should be recognized not only for the accomplishments of their science but for the vision of sharing the knowledge with the world and with themselves. This is a great step forward for us and years from now we will look back at this as a seminal event in KAUST's development."

Harris Mavromatis, chair of the GRS organizing committee and CLSE Ph.D. student, echoed Professor Calvin's sentiments.

He said: "It is very good to see the first KAUST symposium of this kind come together and especially fascinating to see our students, faculty and keynote speakers come together and interact. You could see that our students really got a lot out of it."

"A lot of effort and hard work was put into this student-driven initiative and hopefully it will grow to become an annual event, with greater participation as KAUST develops over the coming years."

He added: "The GRS provides a strong platform for students to present their work to peers, faculty, keynote speakers and, to develop new interdisciplinary explorations within the University."

All students involved received feedback from University faculty and symposium keynote speakers.

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