‘Best brains’ awarded postgraduate scholarships

Several young New Zealanders are able to complete their postgraduate study thanks to the William Georgetti Scholarships.

The scholarships were established by the late William Georgetti, a Hawke’s Bay farmer, who wanted to create opportunities for the “best brains” to benefit from his bequest. The scholarships encourage postgraduate study and research in a field that is important to New Zealand’s social, cultural or economic development.
This year’s recipients are:
• Harriet Farqhuar is an Assistant Crown Counsel in the Constitutional and Human Rights Team at Crown Law, the public service department that provides legal advice and representation to the New Zealand government. Harriet studied law at Victoria University of Wellington and is also currently Associate Editor of the New Zealand Women’s Law Journal - Te Aho Kawe Kaupapa Ture a ngā Wāhine. She has received funding towards a Master of Laws at New York University, focusing on human rights, constitutional and international law.

• Apriel Jolliffe Simpson, is currently a research assistant at the University of Waikato’s Institute for Security and Crime Science. Scholarship funding will help her progress her PhD at Waikato University, where she will study family violence.

• Hannah Lee-Harwood continues to work as a research assistant at Victoria University of Wellington, where she completed her First Class Honours degree in Biotechnology. She is receiving funding to support her PhD studies at VUW, where she aims to identify potential sources for antibiotic resistance in the environment and probe how these mechanisms may evolve into resistance in a clinical setting.

• Dr Jonny Stevenson, who studied medicine at Otago University and is currently a registrar at Capital and Coast DHB, will use his scholarship funding to support his MSc studies in Global Health Science and Epidemiology at Oxford University’s Department of Population Health.
Professor Peter Whiteford, Chair of Universities New Zealand’s Scholarship Committee who also chaired this Selection Panel, congratulated the successful scholars saying they will make a significant contribution to New Zealand’s development.

Universities New Zealand administers this scholarship in addition to 40 other undergraduate and postgraduate scholarships each year. Applications for the 2020 William Georgetti Scholarships close on 1 February 2010.

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