Congratulations to MACSYS PhD student Yong See (Elijah) Foo from The University of Melbourne, who has been awarded the TM Cherry Prize for the best student presentation at the recent ANZIAM Conference.

ANZIAM – the Australia and New Zealand Industrial and Applied Mathematics conference – was held this year in Canberra and brings together researchers working in applied mathematics, those applying mathematical methods in industry and business, and educators involved in teaching mathematics at the tertiary level.

The TM Cherry Prize is presented annually for the most outstanding student talk delivered at the conference.

“I was honoured to receive the TM Cherry Award, as it is uncommon for a piece of work in statistics to be recognised at an applied mathematics conference,” Elijah said.

Elijah’s winning paper examined statistical model selection, a common tool used by mathematical biologists to identify the most plausible mathematical explanations for a given biological system. Traditional model selection methods rely on the availability of large data sets.  But Elijah’s research highlights why these methods may fail in certain mathematical biology contexts.

“Biological experiments are often costly to perform, which means large data sets aren’t always available,” he explained. “My research explores a new alternative approach that works effectively with limited data and is computationally efficient.”

Beyond presenting his research, Elijah also participated in the conference’s Early Career Workshop, which featured sessions on scientific presentations, networking, grant writing, and careers beyond academia.

One piece of advice particularly resonated with him:

“The speaker noted that mathematicians can sometimes overload presentation slides with technical detail, as if the volume of equations reinforces our credibility, only to lose the audience,” he said. “It was a timely reminder that the impact of a presentation lies not in technical display, but in clear communication that respects the audience.”

Elijah is supervised at The University of Melbourne by MACSYS Deputy Director Professor Jennifer Flegg and MACSYS Associate Investigator Dr Alex Browning. Notably, Alex was also awarded the TM Cherry Prize in 2021.

“Elijah’s research is impressive in both its innovation and its technical depth,” noted Alex.

“It takes considerable skill to explain such complex ideas clearly and to engage an audience that may not be familiar with his area of study.”

Elijah credits much of his success at ANZIAM to the support of his PhD peers, who offered constructive feedback as he prepared his presentation.

Congratulations, Elijah, on this outstanding achievement!

Feature image:  Elijah (centre) with supervisors Prof Jen Flegg and Dr Alex Browning