Student of the Year Award: Lucas Cahill (Engineering Physics)

Lucas is an ideal candidate who exhibits all the qualities of an outstanding Co-op student. During his time as a Co-op student, he has achieved many impressive accomplishments in his workplace, contributing much to advance the research projects that he was a part of. His supervisors described him as "an exceptionally gifted student" and he was consistently rated as the top-tiered student amongst many others they have encountered. Additionally, Lucas has a stellar academic record and is well respected amongst his peers.

Lucas is in his last year of Engineering Physics at UBC, where he takes a heavy course load in Math, Physics and Electrical Engineering. International co-op experience at Laser Zentrum,Germany, microscope development at the Brain Research Centre, UBC, and biomedical imaging at BC Cancer Research Centre has given him the opportunity to directly contribute to his intended career field (research professor in biomedical optics and medical imaging) through multiple research papers and conference presentations. This year he will be attending SPIE Photonics West, one of the largest Biomedical optics and Biophotonics conference in the world, to give an oral presentation on his research at BC Cancer. His co-op experiences have enhanced his understanding and promoted his involvement in his undergraduate courses and confirmed his desire to pursue graduate school in Biomedical Imaging.

We have no doubt that Lucas will continue to succeed in his future studies and career. It is an honor to have a student like Lucas in our UBC Science Co-op Program.