Katikati's Nathalie Saurat has won a scholarship to study at one of the world's most prestigious universities.
She was awarded the 2009 Woolf Fisher Scholarship, which enables her to carry out her doctoral studies at the University of Cambridge next year.
Nine scholars were short listed for the prestigious Woolf Fisher Scholarship programme, which was established seven years ago.

Nathalie Saurat.

The Woolf Fisher Trust offers up to three scholarships each year to study at the University of Cambridge or the University of Oxford for three or four years of post graduate research leading to a doctoral degree or equivalent.
Nathalie is an Otago University Bachelor of Science honours student and plans to gain her PhD from Cambridge University's biochemistry department, where she will research micro RNAs or strands of molecules which regulate gene expression.
She says it is her hope that a greater understanding of micro RNA action will one day aid in developing new cancer therapies.
The 22 year old Nathalie says she's driven by the desire to understand the ‘why' as opposed to memorising a collection of facts.