Usha Aryal, a Nepali student pursuing her PhD at the University of Leicester, UK has won a prestigious national award in London.

Aryal, originally from Sirseni-5, Gulmi and brought up in Kathmandu, has won the 2014 UK Biotechnology Young Entrepreneurs Scheme (YES) Competition. Aryal´s team comprised four other students from the same University.

The award was a grand prize of £2,500 (GBP) and an opportunity to showcase UK entrepreneurial skills in the international RICE business plan competition in Texas, United States in mid-April 2015, among representatives from 40 other countries.

"For the UK to continue to punch above its weight globally in science, we will need exactly the sort of scientists who take part in these competitions; intelligent, confident and enterprising. The skills the entrants learn across the YES schemes will help them translate research from the laboratory to deliver economic growth, jobs and innovations to change lives for the better in the UK and across the world," UK Minister for Universities, Science and Cities Greg Clark said of the winners.Aryal, a PhD student of Genetics, has excelled in her studies. She had started her school from Riyadh, Saudi Arabia and continued in Rhododendron International Boarding School (RIBS) in Kathmandu, St. Johns International School in Brussels, Belgium, Little Angels´ School, Lalitpur, Nepal from where she passed her SLC exams with distinction.

She joined A-Levels at Holland Park School in Central London and graduated with 3As and further pursued her education at the University College London (UCL), one of the top three universities in the UK. She stood out as one of the top ten graduates in BSc Human Genetics with a Deans´ Award in the University. Her excellent academic record propelled her to secure a place for PhD in Genetics at Leicester University with full-fledged scholarship even without a Master´s Degree at the age of 21.

source: republica, jan 2015