WATCH: Manchester students win ‘junior Nobel Prize’
15 Nov 2016
Two students win and 11 are highly commended at The Undergraduate Awards
Two of our students are celebrating, after they both scooped a global award often referred to as the ‘junior Nobel Prize’.
The Undergraduate Awards are the world’s largest international academic awards programme, which recognise excellent research and original work across the sciences, humanities, business and creative arts. They are the ultimate champion of high-potential undergraduates.
This year, the awards had over 5000 entries from undergraduates in 244 institutions and 121 nations – which is a record number of submissions. The ‘Global Winner’ is the highest-performing paper within its category.
Jamie Hargreaves won the Mathematics and Physics prize for his paper, which sought to investigate the biomechanical properties of the skin and understand how to accurately replicate its behaviour – this will give insights into a range of areas, from reconstructive surgery and wound healing, to the ageing process and computer graphics.
“There was an extremely diverse range of modules available at every stage of my degree, and having that exposure puts you in a great position to be able to apply what you've learned to new kinds of problems and work across disciplines” said Jamie. “I think this is a testament to the level of expertise that can be found amongst the staff within the School of Mathematics.”
Here Jamie tells us his story:
Natalia won the Politics and International Relations prize for her paper about power structures, which used feminist theory to outline why establishing empathy for others makes it more difficult to commit violence against them.
“I came to Manchester because my grandmother is an alumna - she studied medicine there in the 1940s, and I wanted to have the privilege to say we studied at the same institution,” said Natalia. “I really enjoyed my time at Manchester, and am hugely grateful for the opportunities I had there.”
“This is a huge achievement for The University of Manchester and its students,” said Louise Hodgson, CEO of The Undergraduate Awards. “We received the highest number of submissions to date, with only the best papers making it through the judging process - the competition was extremely tough, and the judges were astounded at the high quality of undergraduate research this year. Congratulations to this year’s successful entrants.”
11 other entrants from the University were also Highly Commended, putting them in the top 10% of submissions. They were:
- Ryan George - Business category
- Esther Olarewaju - Business category
- Veneta Haralampieva - Computer Sciences category
- Robert McCall - Economics category
- Rosie Nolan - Economics category
- Bethany Ryan - Education category
- Utkarsh Jain - Mathematics & Physics category
- Robin Trenbath - Politics & International Relations category
- Ryan Fox - Psychology category
- Ria Basu - Social Sciences: Social Policy category
- Sammy Madhi - Engineering category
“Though Learning through Research aims to change the way every student approaches knowledge - rather than focusing specifically on the outcome - if we do it right, it should also result in some excellent undergraduate research. The outcome of the Undergraduate Awards shows that this is indeed the case,” said Louise Walmsley, the university’s Director of Teaching and Learning Support.
“We are thrilled not just with the excellent outcomes of our global winners and highly commended students, but also with the increase in students submitting to the awards.”