The final stage of the 10th International Biological Universiade was held at the end of November. 48 teams from 21 universities competed in the team and individual biology and biotechnology competitions. This included two teams of students from the NSU Department of Natural Sciences (NSD).
In the "Agricultural and Industrial Biotechnology, Microbiology" section, 1st year students Arseniy Moralev, Artemy Ivanov, Egor Ukladov, and Anna Skotnikova brought victory to NSU with a I Degree Diploma. The first three also won 1st Degree Diplomas in the individual competition with Skotnikova receiving a 3rd Degree Diploma.
In the "Ecology and Biodiversity, Biosystematics, Population Ecology, Nature Conservation” section, fourth-year student Andrei Krasnikov, third-year student Polina Karitskaya, and second-year student Anna Chesnokova were silver medalists (II Degree Diploma). Krasnikov also won a III Degree Diploma in the individual competition.
According to Arseniy Moralev, Captain of the first team, the qualifying stage was not difficult. The knowledge NSD undergraduate students gain was enough to pass and get to the final stage. The finals required solving problems in writing and preparing a project solution to an assigned topical scientific and biotechnological problem. The problem was to study the existing functions of the poorly studied protein in WSCP plants and determine its possible research and therapeutic applications.
Ukladov shared his impressions of the Competition,
Everyone’s success depended on the entire team. My friends, who had already participated in the Universiade, invited me to become a member of the team and I was happy to accept. Solving problems and collaborating on a project were exciting. It teaches you to trust team members, to share tasks. The victories in the team and individual championships were very motivating. This means that the level of NSU students is not inferior to the best Moscow universities. I would like to participate next year and recommend that other students develop teams and see how they do. If you manage to pass the qualifying round, during your free time at the final stage you can walk around Moscow and meet biology students from different cities in our country.