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Kupang citizen named youngest Indonesian to get PhD

Grandprix Thomryes Marth Kadja (Arya Dipa)Grandprix Thomryes Marth Kadja, 24, defended his dissertation at the Bandung Institute of Technology (ITB) on Friday and became the youngest Indonesian ever to earn a doctorate degree

Arya Dipa and Moses Ompusunggu (The Jakarta Post)
Bandung
Sat, September 23, 2017

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Kupang citizen named youngest Indonesian to get PhD

Grandprix Thomryes Marth Kadja (Arya Dipa)

Grandprix Thomryes Marth Kadja, 24, defended his dissertation at the Bandung Institute of Technology (ITB) on Friday and became the youngest Indonesian ever to earn a doctorate degree.

Grandprix, a citizen of Kupang in East Nusa Tenggara (NTT), received the cum laude predicate from his promoters with his dissertation on synthetic zeolites — minerals commonly used as petrochemical catalysts.

“In the future, [the synthetic zeolites] could be used not only as catalysts but also as a carbon dioxide absorber and for molecule separation,” Grandprix commented about his dissertation on Friday.

Entering elementary school at the age of 5, Grandprix was an acceleration system student at Giovanni Catholic senior high school in his hometown in Kupang. After graduating at 16, he then continued his education at University of Indonesia’s (UI) chemistry department.

Thanks to the government-sponsored master-to-doctor scholarship program, Grandprix continued his education at ITB, pursuing chemistry, which he called the “most challenging yet interesting” subject since he was a senior high school pupil.

“There is too much calculation in physics, while in biology you have to memorize a lot of things. Chemistry, meanwhile, has a balance,” Grandprix said.

Along the academic journey leading to his dissertation defense on Friday, Grandprix, who obtained his Bachelor’s degree from UI at the age of 19, also published nine scientific articles in both national and international journals.

“Don’t feel inferior just because you are young. Youths have to be examples for other people,” said Grandprix.

Grandprix’s father, Octovianus Kadja, 54, said he was proud of his son’s achievement, claiming it was partly because of the discipline he taught Grandprix from an early age.

“I taught him about discipline. He ironed his own clothes, never arrived late to school, went to school using public transportation,” said Octovianus.

Prior to Grandprix’s Friday defense, the Indonesian Museum of Records (MURI) had recorded at least two young doctors in accounting and environmental sciences.

In 2016, Elanda Fikri obtained a doctorate degree in environmental sciences at Diponegoro University in Semarang, Central Java, when he was 25 years old.

Earlier this year, Meiryani was awarded a doctorate degree in accounting at Padjajaran University in Bandung, West Java, when she was 28 years old.

There are also records of other Indonesians who obtained a doctorate degree at a young age.

In 2007, Cindy Priadi obtained a doctorate degree in environmental sciences from Paris-Sud 11 University in France at the age of 26, while in 2015, Arief Setiawan obtained his doctorate degree in intelligent structures and mechanics systems engineering from the University of Tokushima in Japan at the age of 25.

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