UCLA team wins APRU poster contest award

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MAKKAR RISHI

Biochemistry undergraduate student Rishi Makkar was part of the UCLA team whose poster placed 3rd in the 2018 APRU Undergraduate Student Poster Contest.

Rishi was one of five UCLA undergraduates whose poster, “A Holistic Approach to Healthcare in Maclovio Rojas, Mexico”, placed 3rd in the 2018 Association of Pacific Rim Universities (APRU) Undergraduate Student Poster Contest. 

His co-authors are UCLA undergraduates Megan Ren (molecular, cell, and developmental biology major; global health minor), Jason Zhang (neuroscience major), Nicolas Gonzalez (physiological science major), and Mili Patel (human biology and society major; public health minor).

Rishi, a fourth year undergraduate majoring in biochemistry, hails from Boston, Massachusetts. He is interested pursuing a career in medicine, specifically using technology to improve healthcare in underserved communities. Rishi received the award for a global health research poster he presented as part of a UCLA student-run organization Fellowship for International Service and Health.  He is working on projects with a neuroimaging lab at UCLA School of Medicine and recently spent a summer as a cancer epidemiology intern at the NIH.

The UCLA International Institute will provide travel funding for the group to travel to the APRU Global Health Conference  at the University of Malaya in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia in October 2018, to present their winning poster. 

The Global Health Program of the APRU holds an annual poster competition open to undergraduate and graduate students of its member universities. Posters can be on any global health topic, but must represent original research.

UCLA is a founding member of APRU, which was established in 1997. UCLA Chancellor Gene Block currently serves as chairman of the organization’s Steering Committee and Vice Provost Cindy Fan, as co-chair of the APRU International Policy Advisory Committee.