Dr Ram Bhusal

Congratulations to Ram for successfully passing his PhD oral examination with minor corrections!

Ram’s PhD consisted of two parts. The first part was on the green chemical synthesis of nitrogen-containing heterocycles from itaconic acid as a renewable source. This was done with his main supervisor A/Prof. Jon Sperry. The second part of his PhD was on the structural and biochemical studies of Mycobacterium tuberculosis enzyme isocitrate lyase. This work was conducted in collaboration with Dr Ghader Bashiri. To date, Ram got three papers as first author from his PhD work, with one more manuscript currently under submission.

Ram has been working as a postdoc in the group of A/Prof. Martin Stone at Monash University since he left Auckland – and he is making good progress in his new project(s) and learning new skills over in Australia. Ram’s PhD is well deserved and we all would like to take this opportunity to wish him very best of luck for his future in academia!

We would also like to thank Professor Antony Fairbanks (University of Canterbury) and Professor Joel Mackay (The University of Sydney) as examiners, and Dr Viji Sarojini as the HoD nominee.