Indian highlight (Issue 14, 2009)
La Trobe international student Abhishek Awasthi
He has an impressive resume, he has undergraduate studies in engineering, a diploma in IT and work experience in both IT and biotechnology. He arrived at La Trobe in 2008 having been accepted for the Master of Biotechnology and Bioinformatics, a unique program that offers students the opportunity to do a year of research in the latest technology equipped labs.
Abhishek is from Mandi, an Indian town located at the foot of the Himalaya's. Because of that, he feels very comfortable and at home with the cool Melbourne winters. He also likes Melbourne because of the many opportunities that it opened for him.
'I really enjoy attending seminars and conferences and most of all the opportunity they give me to interact with lecturers and mentors from the industry. I like to turn every challenge into an opportunity.'
Abhishek is now in his year of research, writing a paper on the organelle EDV’s, a protein found in malaria, which he has been trying to isolate in his experiments. He will be presenting his final paper on this research in October. To make it all more impressive, he also wrote a book that can be used as a manual for bioseparation engineering.
Abhishek has been the president of the Biochemistry Society at La Trobe since March 2009 and he has proved to be a very active and very involved president, with one successful event already under his belt.
'My personal aim as the president of the Biochemistry Society is to narrow the gap between students and senior staff, researchers, experts from the sector, creating more opportunities for students to get employed.'
Abhishek recently became the president of the La Trobe University Indian Students' Club, and he is a member of and involved in research at the ARC Centre for Excellence for Coherent X-ray Science, where he works along Professor Leann Tilley and Dr Eric Hanssen.