Savant Thakur Memorial Scholarship
A new graduate research scholarship for candidates who uphold the qualities Savant epitomised.
The Savant Thakur Memorial Scholarship will honour the legacy of the School of Biomedical Sciences PhD candidate, who died from Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy (DMD) in June 2019.
The School of Biomedical Sciences in the Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry and Health Sciences has established and funded a new PhD Scholarship to support PhD candidates within the School who demonstrate the qualities Savant exemplified – academic excellence, resilience in the face of adversity and leadership in the community.
We are now seeking to provide a second scholarship in memory of Savant.
Help Honour Savant Thakur
Over time, with your support, a second scholarship will benefit an additional student in their quest to uncover new treatments and cures for conditions we must learn more about.
DONATE TOWARDS THE SCHOLARSHIP
*Donations of $2 or more to the University of Melbourne initiatives in Australia are tax-deductible for Australian tax payers. ABN 84 002 705 224. Funds will be held in the University’s short-term investment account while it is expended for the purpose described here.
About Savant Thakur
“Strive towards your goals, just push on and never give up. Anyone who has a dream and wants to achieve something can and the disability should be no barrier.”
That was the life motto of Savant Thakur – a man with a single-minded determination to improve the lives of others with DMD.
Sadly, Savant fell short of time in his quest to find a cure, but he made incredible inroads with his award-winning studies into muscle wasting disorders at the University of Melbourne’s Centre for Muscle Research in the Department of Physiology.
The 27-year-old leaves a legacy of research that will contribute, as he hoped, to quality of life for those with muscular dystrophy across the globe.
It was Savant’s curiosity about how the disease affected his body that piqued an interest in biomedical sciences. After pursuing a Bachelor of Biomedicine at the University of Melbourne, he quickly established a reputation as a diligent student.
A stellar academic transcript of first-class honours led to a PhD under Professor Lynch in 2015. In April 2019, Savant completed his experiments after four years of planning and conducting cell culture and animal experiments and was well into his data analysis and thesis writing when he passed. READ MORE
About The Scholarships
The scholarships will assist with students’ quest – like Savant’s – of advancing human health. The successful candidates must:
- Demonstrate academic excellence in a branch of Biomedical Sciences (academic record and one referee report)
- Demonstrate resilience in the face of adversity (written submission by applicant and one referee report)
- Demonstrate leadership in the community (written submission by applicant and one referee report