Funding success for drug abuse research
Congratulations to School of Psychology PhD candidate Dane Aronsen, who has received funding through the 2015 Todd Foundation Awards for Excellence for his research on drug abuse.
Dane Aronsen is one of two Victoria University of Wellington PhD students who received 2015 Todd Foundation Awards for Excellence.
The awards, administered by Universities New Zealand, aim to support projects that promote excellence and encourage the development of new concepts, technology or research that will be of benefit to New Zealand.
Dane has been awarded $9,500 to investigate the effects of the common drugs of abuse, cocaine and MDMA, on brain systems that underlie drug addiction.
Harmful drug use is estimated to cost New Zealand $6.5 billion annually, in the forms of healthcare, crime, lost productivity, and other diverted resources, not to mention the loss of quality of life. Dane’s PhD is supervised by Professor Susan Schenk.
Abigail Sharrock, from Victoria's School of Biology, received funding for her research on new cancer therapies.
Among the other award winners from around the country were research projects on alleviating pressure on stormwater networks, improving the performance of seismic energy dissipation mechanisms during earthquakes and developing a real-time cardiac MRI tracking technique. Applications for the 2016 Todd Foundation Awards for Excellence close on 1 March next year.