ASCEPT Student Prizes
There are several student prizes on offer at the ASCEPT Annual Scientific Meeting. Three of these (Percy, Whelan and ASCEPT Oral) are Society-wide prizes. The remaining prizes include the Special Interest Group (SIG) prizes. To be considered for prizes students must be financial members of ASCEPT before the abstract submission deadline.
ASCEPT Oral Prize
Eligibility criteria: The ASCEPT Oral Prize is awarded annually for the best oral communication by a Higher Degree student member of ASCEPT. A Higher Degree student constitutes anyone undertaking a Masters Degree or PhD in a relevant biomedical discipline. Clinicians in an accredited training program, or who have worked for less than seven years full-time since completing their undergraduate degree, are also eligible. To apply for this prize, students MUST tick the appropriate box on the abstract submission page. In addition to submitting a standard abstract, students wishing to be considered for the ASCEPT Oral Prize will be required to submit an 800-word project description.
For information on how to prepare this document please click here. Students are expected to prepare this project description with little (i.e. minor corrections of one draft) or no input from their supervisor and must submit a declaration from their supervisor attesting to this. The project description and declaration should be emailed directly to ascept@clems.com.au.
Judging process: Students will be shortlisted on the basis of the scientific quality, innovation and significance of their study (as described in the extended project plan) by an ASCEPT Oral Prize judging panel. The judging panel will be chaired by an Executive member of ASCEPT Council and will additionally be made up of at least five panellists from the general membership, with expertise covering a wide cross-section of the various sub-disciplines of research that make up the Society. Students who are shortlisted for the ASCEPT Oral Prize will present their research in a dedicated Oral Prize session at the Annual Scientific Meeting. Students will be judged by the ASCEPT Oral Prize judging panel, again according to the scientific quality, innovation and significance of their study, and also on the basis of their Oral communication skills, ability to field questions, and knowledge of their project and research field. The winner of the ASCEPT Oral Prize will be announced at the Annual General Meeting and will receive a certificate and a cash prize.
Note Higher Degree students who are shortlisted as ASCEPT Oral Prize finalists may still present their abstract in poster format so that they remain in contention for the Percy prize and any relevant SIG prizes. Students who apply for the ASCEPT Oral Prize but who are not shortlisted will automatically be included in the Poster program and thus eligible for the Percy Prize and any relevant SIG Prizes.
Percy Prize and Whelan Prize
Eligibility Criteria: All financial student members who submit their abstract prior to the submission closing date will automatically be included in the poster program and hence in the running for the Percy or Whelan Prizes. Students who indicate that they wish to present their work in oral format, will be considered for inclusion in the oral free communication program along with all other (non-student) submitted abstracts. Those students whose abstracts are selected as part of the oral free communication program may still present their research in poster format so that they can be considered for the Whelan and Percy Prizes and any relevant SIG Prizes.
Judging Process: The winners of the Whelan and Percy Prizes will be selected via a two-stage judging process.
1. All posters (i.e. Honours, Higher Degree and non- students) will first be presented in groupings according to their research field (i.e. Cardiovascular, Neuropharmacology, Clinical Pharmacology, etc) over days one and two of the Annual Scientific Meeting. Special Interest Group (SIG) -appointed judging panels will judge ALL student posters (Honours and Higher Degree) that fall under their research field. ASCEPT Council will appoint panels with appropriate expertise to judge any student posters that fall under research fields not currently covered by a SIG. Students will be interviewed by the appropriate panel and judged according to the scientific quality, innovation and significance of their studies and also on the basis of their communication skills and knowledge of their project and research field. Each judging panel will nominate the best Honours and Higher Degree student presentations in their research fields. These students will be notified accordingly and invited to present their posters again on day three of the conference in dedicated Percy and Whelan Prize poster sessions.
2. Shortlisted Honours and Higher Degree student presentations will be judged on the final day of the Annual Scientific Meeting by Council-appointed Whelan and Percy Prize judging panels, respectively. Judging panels will be chaired by members of ASCEPT Council and will be additionally made up of at least five panellists from the general membership of ASCEPT, with expertise covering a wide cross-section of the various sub-disciplines that make up the Society. Winners of the Whelan and Percy prizes will be announced at the Annual General Meeting and will receive a certificate and a cash prize.
Special Interest Group (SIG) Prizes
Eligibility criteria: All financial student members who submit their abstracts prior to the submission closing date will automatically be included in the poster program. Students whose research falls under an area of interest of one of ASCEPT’s Special Interest Groups (SIGs) will automatically be considered for the relevant SIG Prize. Note SIGs covering clinical research areas (i.e. the Clinical Pharmacology and Toxicology SIGs) may also consider registrants in an accredited training program and non-students who have worked for less than seven years full-time since completing their first undergraduate degree, for their prizes.
Judging Process: As outlined above, the first round of the judging process for the Percy and Whelan Prize will involve each SIG identifying the best Honours and Higher Degree student posters in their research field. During this process, SIGs will also identify the student who gave the best overall presentation in their specific research field. These students will be awarded the relevant SIG prize at the Annual General Meeting and will be issued with a certificate and a $500 cash prize. Currently, there are six SIGs in ASCEPT, each of which offer an SIG prize.
These include:
- Cardiovascular
- Clinical Pharmacology and Therapeutics
- Drug Disposition
- Education
- Pharmacogenomics
- Toxicology
- Drug Discovery
- Gastrointestinal-Urogenital