Students collect Expo tickets

Flying to Shanghai (l-r): Li Ming Wen, Monica Cristina Robotin, Suat Dervish and Cheryl Pui-Yan Au.

Four Sydney medical students are travelling to Shanghai as guests of China Eastern Airlines to take part in the University's translational health symposium at the World Expo.

The students were chosen from a competitive selection process and will spend five days in Shanghai, also attending the third Sino-Australian Symposium on translational medicine at Shanghai Jiao Tong University.

The chosen students are Li Ming Wen, a PhD candidate at Sydney Medical School, who is researching obesity; Suat Dervish, also a PhD candidate at Sydney Medical School, studying immunology and rheumatoid arthritis; Cheryl Pui-Yan Au from Sydney School of Public Health, an honours student studying reproductive endocrinology; and Monica Cristina Robotin, a PhD candidate studying hepatitis-B related hepatocellular cancers.

They were presented with their tickets by Professor John Hearn, the Deputy Vice-Chancellor (International), and Ms Jeanet Gao from China Eastern Airlines.

Jeanet Gao and Professor John Hearn

Professor Hearn thanked the airline for its support and said: ''The visit will be of great benefit to the students personally, and will also enable the University to continue strengthening its links with China.''

The students will visit the Expo on 13 September for the translational health symposium in the Australian Pavilion, the fourth in the University's ongoing program of events. The University is a gold sponsor of the Australian Pavilion, which on Friday marked up five million visitors since the Expo opened in May.

China Eastern Airlines, based in Shanghai and operating in Australia for the past 15 years, is the official airline partner of the Expo.

Contact: Richard North

Phone: 02 9351 3191

Email: 3420215b000b1247080714061d27235657091409160c2e4c4c1b01