PhD research student Gopika Kottantharayil Bhasi, from Thrissur in the southern state of Kerala, was chosen from more than 800 Indian women and received the four-year scholarship to La Trobe University at a ceremony in Mumbai attended by La Trobe Chancellor, The Honourable John Brumby AO.
The La Trobe-funded PhD scholarship and La Trobe’s relationship with Mr Khan were made possible by La Trobe’s ten year partnership with the Indian Film Festival of Melbourne.
Gopika will be joining La Trobe’s research team who are discovering new techniques to protect the world’s honey bee population from viruses, pollutants and declining diversity in flora. Gopika will research a field-deployable diagnostic test for honey bee viruses and with the aim of developing therapies to aid honey bee health.
Mr Khan praised Gopika for her passion to find scientific solutions to challenges facing the world.
“I admire Gopika’s dedication and determination. This scholarship will enable her to travel to La Trobe in Melbourne, Australia, where she will pursue her dreams of helping to improve India’s agriculture sector. I wish her well,” Mr Khan said.
A graduate from the University of Calicut, Gopika has a passion for animal health, having grown up in a farming family and researched the management of Asian elephants in Kerala. For the past year she has been managing her family’s poultry farm, while her father recovered from heart by-pass surgery. During this time Gopika researched the impacts of feed, water, diseases and climate on livestock for food production.
The Shah Rukh Khan La Trobe University PhD Scholarship – Awarded added by Indian newspaper Sydney on
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