AS university students around the world cram for final exams, one deadline students will not want to miss is the Alltech Young Scientist competition, with registration and paper submission closing on December 31st, 2014.

“Last year there was unprecedented interest in the competition, with more than 8,500 registrants, representing the future generation of animal, human and plant health scientists,” said Dr Inge Russell, director of the Alltech Young Scientist. “The competition, now in its 10th year, attracts the brightest scientific thinkers from colleges and universities around the world, awarding students for their scientific discoveries.”

Regional winners will receive cash prizes, and eight finalists will be invited to compete for top honors during Alltech’s annual conference May 16th-22nd, 2015 in Lexington, Kentucky, USA. The graduate grand prize is US$10,000 and the undergraduate grand prize is US$5,000.

Irish student Gillian Johnson, from the University of Limerick, won the undergraduate category for 2013-2014. Johnson’s research work focused on comparative genomic identification and characterisation of a Novel ß-Defensing Gene Cluster in the Equine Genome. She is now pursuing her PhD and the money that she won is helping to further her research aspirations.

Registration and paper submission for the 2014-2015 Alltech Young Scientist competition is available online now at www.alltech.com/ays?.