Scholarship to honour 100 year old New Zealand natural health innovator

Founder of Comvita, a natural health product company, Claude Stratford marked his 100th birthday recently and as part of the celebrations a scholarship has been created in his honour.
The Claude Alexander Stratford Research Scholarship is sponsored by Comvita and established in association with The University of Auckland.
The ongoing scholarship will provide a three year stipend for a PhD student studying a topic related to natural health products, based at The University of Auckland.
Comvita chief technology officer, Dr. Ralf Schlothauer said the scholarship was created to honour Claude’.s lifelong achievement in natural health. 
“We’re very proud to announce the establishment of this scholarship and to provide an opportunity for a student to contribute to the growing body of credible scientific research around natural health products.”
The inaugural recipient of the Claude Alexander Stratford Research Scholarship is Swapna Gannabathula who will conduct her three year PhD on immune stimulation from honey.
Most recently working as a research assistant at the NZ Institute for Plant & Food Research, from January 2011 Swapna will be based at The University of Auckland’s Institute for Innovation in Biotechnology (IIB) where Comvita is a co-locator.
Director of the IIB, Prof. Joerg Kistler says the scholarship is a vital part of the Comvita and University of Auckland partnership. It demonstrates the commitment of Comvita to the development of innovative natural health products backed by credible scientific research.
The sponsorship of the scholarship will be further expanded by a generous contribution from Comvita’s Chinese Distributors. Mr and Mrs Zhu, who are currently visiting NZ, and an anonymous donor.
Claude is a great example of someone who has lived well, for longer, says Dr. Schlothauer.
“Our aim is to contribute to research that might help people get to 100 and remain healthy in the process.”