York biology student wins prize for top oral presentation

A York biology student has won the award for top Physiology & Toxicology Oral Presentation at the 24th annual Ontario Biology Day (OBD) held at Wilfrid Laurier University in March.

Olimpia Del Duca, studying under York biology Professor Andrew Donini, presented her paper, “Carbonic Anhydrase in the Anal Papillae of the Larval Mosquito, Aedes aegypti”, to win the prize.

Olimpia Del Duca (left) and York biology Professor Andrew DoniniSuspects Right: Olimpia Del Duca (left) and York biology Professor Andrew DoniniSuspects 

In addition to Del Duca, 14 York students, representing 12 different biology labs, attended the event. The students, Leila Ashurov, Asma Ali, Alex Bicket, Jason Brennan, Cordy DuBois, Olga Egorova, Ruchi Liyanag, Phankhuri Malik, Fatima Panju, Priyanka Patwary, Nicholas Rapp, Mehwish Riaz, Tudor Saroiu and Kristina Wantola, presented their honours thesis work in either an oral or poster format.

All together, some 135 oral and 25 poster presentations were delivered from students across the province.

York’s Department of Biology helped to defray the students’ cost of attending the event. The 2012 Ontario Biology Day will be held at Laurentian University.