Scholarships

Barrie Edwards & Rod Kennedy Scholarship

The Barrie Edwards & Rod Kennedy scholarship is one of the most significant awards offered by the NZIMLS. The award provides support for attendance at an international or national scientific meeting up to a maximum value of $7,500.00.


Applications for this prestigious scholarship are invited from Fellows, Members and Associate Members of the NZIMLS. Applicants must be current financial members of the NZIMLS and have been a financial member for at least two concurrent years prior to application. To be eligible applicants must make an oral or poster presentation as 1st author at their nominated scientific meeting.

All applications will be considered by panel consisting of senior medical laboratory scientists (who are ineligible to apply for the scholarships). All applications will be judged on professional and academic merit and the authors participation in the profession in NZ. The panel's decision is final and no correspondence will be entered into.


Barry Edwards

Barry worked at Canterbury Health Laboratories for 46 years. He was Charge Technologist, Haematology from 1969 and then as Service/Development Manager from 1993 until his sudden death in September 2008. He was elected on Council in 1972 and was Secretary from 1975 to 1990. He was also on the Medical Laboratory Technologists Board from 1979 to 1991 (Deputy-Chair from 1986 to1991.


Rod Kennedy

Rod started his laboratory training at Auckland Hospital Laboratories in 1951 and became Principal Technologist there until his retirement there in 1998. He was also Senior Tutor at the Auckland School of Medical Laboratory Technology for many years. Rod was elected to Council in1963 and was its Secretary from 1969 to 1975.


One scholarship prize is awarded in each calendar year and the closing date is and December 20th in any given year.

Year Previous Recipients To Attend
2025 Savannah Young, NZ Blood Service, Palmerston North HSNZ Blood Annual Conference in Perth, 26 � 20 October 2025
2023 Sunny Jamati, Waikato Hospital, Hamilton International Society on Thrombosis and Haemostasis�(ISTH)�
2022 Rob Siebers, Research Associate Professor, Wellington School of Medicine & Health Sciences Ninth International Congress on Peer Review and Scientific Publication, Chicago, USA
2019 Pippa Dryland LabPLUS, Auckland CSLI DDC Committee meeting, USA
2018 Jacquie Wright ESR, Upper Hutt VTEC Meeting, Florence, Italy 2018
2017 Rebecca O'Toole Wellington SCL, Haematology 3rd European Congress on Thrombosis and Haemostasis, Glasgow, United Kingdom 2-4 October 2019
2015 Maxine Reed Aotea Pathology Oral Presentation at the AACC Conference, Atlanta, Georgia, USA July 2015
2014 Julie Creighton Microbiology Canterbury Health Laboratories Poster Presentation at the ICAAC 2014 Washington DC, USA
2013 Mary Stevens Canterbury Health Laboratories Poster Presentation at the American Society of Microbiology Conference, Denver, Colorado, USA 18-21 May 2013
2012 Holly Perry Programme Leader BMLSc, School of Applied Science AUT University, Auckland Oral Presentation at the American Association of Blood Banks Conference, Boston USA 2012
2011 Bernard Chambers Haematology Department Middlemore Hospital, Auckland Poster Presentation at the IBMS Biomedical Science Congress 2011 United Kingdom
2010 Sandy Woods Canterbury Health Laboratories Christchurch Oral Presentation at the NZIMLS / AIMS South Pacific Congress 2011 Gold Coast, Australia