Matt Tam awaded VC's Scholarship top-up

Matthew Tam from the School of Mathematical and Physical Sciences has been awarded a 2013 Vice-Chancellor’s Award for Outstanding Research Candidates and will receive a $10,000 top up per annum to his existing scholarship entitlements

All commencing domestic RHD students were considered for this award with the recipients judged on the best combination of undergraduate GPA, relevant postgraduate study, publication history and research work experience.

Matt worked as a research assistant during his undergraduate studies in a combined Mathematics and Science degree with Dr Rob Atkin and Professor Natashia Boland.

At the beginning of 2012 he was also awarded an Australian Mathematical Sciences Institute Vacation Scholarship and was supervised by Laureate Professor Jon Borwein, exposing Matt to his current research area.

These outstanding achievements have reassured Matt that he made the right choice pursuing further studies.

“At the beginning of the year I was undecided as to whether I really wanted to come back to university. I feel that being awarded this top-up confirms that I made the right choice,” he said.

“There is something satisfying in untangling something to discover how it works. Studying mathematics gives you this satisfaction, most of the time,” he added.

Matt will be visiting the University of Göttingen in Germany later this year and said the top-up will help facilitate the trip.