Friday 16 December 2016 1:45pm
Congratulations to Papi Gustafson who has had her doctoral thesis placed on the Health Sciences Divisional List of Exceptional Theses.
The list comprises only those doctoral candidates whose research is assessed by examiners as being of an exceptional standard in every respect—research content, originality, quality of expression and accuracy of presentation—and amongst the top 10% of theses examined.
Papi successfully defended her thesis at a recent oral examination. The Convenors of Examiners both commented on the level of knowledge displayed by Papi, and her ability to defend and critique her own work.
Papi's thesis, The role of prolactin in suppressing the maternal stress axis, looks at how the anterior pituitary hormone prolactin acts within the maternal brain to suppress stress-regulatory neurons and thus limit activation of the maternal stress response. The examiners were impressed with the high standard of Papi's thesis and her level of dialogue throughout the oral exam. One examiner made a comment that “the thesis presents a major piece of original research which represents a significant and valuable contribution to knowledge in the field”. The Convenor of Examiners was also impressed, and noted that Papi demonstrated a depth of understanding of the topic rarely found in a PhD student.
Papi received the New Zealand Society of Endocrinology MediRay student speaker prize at the Queenstown Research Week conference held in 2015.
Her research was supervised by: