A Medicinal Chemistry student from The University of Salford has secured a ‘once in a lifetime’ opportunity to work at Harvard.
Eva Rodger, 20, will be working on pioneering research for treatments of diseases such as Alzheimer’s and Motor Neurone Disease, at the Harvard Neuro Discovery Centre.
The internship forms part of Eva’s four year BSc (Hons) Medicinal Chemistry degree, which is a new course that is being offered by the School of Environmental and Life Sciences.
Eva, from Wigton, Cumbria said: “I am over the moon to be completing my placement year at Harvard. It is a once in a lifetime opportunity and I can’t wait to fly out to America and start. I have never done anything like this before and I am really lucky to have such supportive family, friends and lecturers who have done everything for me so that I can go”.
Eva, who has just completed the second year of her degree, secured the exceptional opportunity after her lecturer Dr James Wilkinson put her in touch with a Harvard researcher.
She will be based in The Laboratory for Drug Discovery in Neurodegeneration, in Massachusetts. The centre is affiliated with Harvard Medical School and Brigham and Women’s Hospital.
Eva said: “In a sense I’ve been lucky in that my lecturer was able to help me to get an interview for the placement. Working at Harvard is a big deal not just for me but for the course as well. I hope it paves the way for future students on the course to complete placements of this nature”.
Dr Patricia Ragazzon, Programme leader for the Medicinal Chemistry course said:
“Eva is an outstanding student who has always performed very well in the laboratories as well as the classroom. She avidly participates in class and in all projects. This placement will allow her to grow in her research ambitions. We wish her all the best in this fantastic endeavour and we are looking forward to this opportunity with such a prestigious university. This Harvard-Salford collaboration is unique and provides an exciting prospect for our Medicinal Chemistry students at Salford”.
