Congratulations to the winners of the 2009 Avant/AMSA Student Research Fellowship:

- Flora Poon from Bond University
- Tran Nguyen from Flinders University
- Daryl Cheng from Monash University
- Jun Parker from James Cook University, Cairns
- Philip Scott from James Cook University, Townsville

Their proposal for a collaborative, cross-uni project Investigating Depression in Medical Students: Prevalence and Perception resonates with the Avant and AMSA values of looking after the interests of members. Depression is a significant issue in medical education, and for some doctors it can carry over into professional life after graduation. This project will help to reveal important data on the subject, and the proposal showed both innovation and commitment. A copy of the final paper will be published when the research is complete.

Submissions are judged on the merit and design of the proposal, with criteria assessed including the value and innovation of the intended research to the medical community, and the students' knowledge, approach and methodology.

In 2009 we had an exceptional standard of entries from all over the country - we commend you and are delighted to see the quality of work and dedication of our future doctors. The task of determining just one winner was certainly a difficult one, and as such there are also several honorary mentions to make. We congratulate the following students for their excellent proposals, and wish all of this year's applicants the very best for their research undertakings:

Honorary mentions

- Chris Wong of Adelaide University
- James Churchill of the University of Melbourne
- Jasmine Zhu of the University of Melbourne
- Yan Wang of Monash University
- Claire Lawley of the University of NSW
- Prasanti Kotagiri of Monash University
- Deshan Sebaratnam of the University of NSW

Student members of Avant can submit their entries for the 2010 fellowship using the new application form.

Source
AMSA