Biochemistry researcher Tracy Josephs (26) was "absolutely ecstatic" to gain the generous fellowship, amounting to about $15,000.
She leaves Dunedin next month and will spend three months in the United States, including at two major laboratories, where she will study a cellular protein, called "cytochrome c ".
This protein can act as part of the body's protective mechanisms, by triggering the programmed self-destruction of abnormal cells, in a process called apoptosis.
Miss Josephs has been analysing the first reported naturally occurring mutation of cytochrome c in a New Zealand family.
The mutation enhances the process of programmed cell death, and analysing the mutation's form and function could help shed new light on where and how the normal cytochrome c protein triggered cell death, she said.
She will also give a paper on her research at the International Cell Death Conference, at the Cold Spring Harbour Laboratory, New York, and will learn more about X-ray crystallography.
The overall research could eventually contribute to developing better treatments against diseases characterised by reduced protective cell death such as cancer, and against other diseases, such as Alzheimer's disease, in which cell death was excessively increased.
Miss Scott (27), of the School of Physical Education, was "really excited" to gain the travelling fellowship, in her case also providing about $15,000.
This was a "fabulous opportunity" to travel abroad and to experience other research facilities.
She hopes to travel to the Netherlands early next year to undertake further research involving a mysterious motor-control problem which occurs in people diagnosed with Conversion Disorder (CD).
Individuals with CD - which affects up to 0.3% of the general population - have no structural brain damage but do have difficulties generating voluntary movement because of limb paralysis.
During the trip, she would work with Dr Karin Roelofs, an international authority on motor dysfunction in CD, and gain more insight into the use of neuro-imaging techniques.
• The travel scholarship, first awarded in 2005, is provided by Dr Poole and the university.
Born in Invercargill in 1925, Dr Poole graduated with MB ChB medical qualifications from Otago University in 1950, later becoming a neurologist.
He now lives in Oxford, England, after retiring from the Radcliffe Infirmary.
