KUALA LUMPUR: The Yang di-Pertuan Agong Al-Sultan Abdullah Ri'ayatuddin Al-Mustafa Billah Shah today conferred the Yang di-Pertuan Agong Scholarship to 12 recipients at Istana Negara here.

Eight of the recipients were awarded the scholarship to pursue doctorate studies (Phd), while the remaining for Master's degree programmes

Two of the recipients will pursue their studies abroad, while the other ten to continue their studies at research universities in the country this year.

The recipients of the scholarship for doctorate studies included RK. Tharini, 24, who is pursuing her studies in Genetic Science at the University of Cambridge in the United Kingdom and Nur Dini Fatini Mohammad Faizal, 23, in Pharmaceutical Science Research at Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM).

The others are Muhammad Mohamed Amin, 27, (Manufacturing Engineering, UKM); Nurfatihah Zulkifli, 25, (Biochemistry, Universiti Malaya); Syed Muhammad Iqbal Syed Othman, 26, (Plant Biotechnology, UKM); Nur Alia Afifah Zakaria, 24, (Chemistry, Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM); Chai Jian Yi, 26, (Medical Science, UKM) and Soon Wan Chi, 24, (Chemical Engineering, USM).

The recipients for the Master's degree programmes are Omar Akbar Khan, 27, (Economy, London School of Economics); Toh Liang Su, 25, (Plant Science, Universiti Putra Malaysia); Ain Nur Afifah Azman, 22, (Genetic Science, UKM); Nursyamimi Ramli, 26, (Medical Science, UKM).

Since its introduction in 2006, a total of 187 individuals have received the Yang di-Pertuan Agong Scholarship to pursue their studies in the fields of Science and Technology, Economics, Law and Islamic Finance.

Also present at the event were Director-General of the Public Serve Department Datuk Seri Mohd Shafiq Abdullah and Public Service Deputy Director-General (Development) Datuk Dr Zulkapli Mohamed.

-- BERNAMA