Academic Success
(2012)
Dr John Slight: Junior Research Fellow-elect at St John's College, Cambridge
Dr John Slight has recently won a JRF at St John's College in one of the stiffest academic competitions open to young scholars in the world. He matriculated at Queens' in 2001, gaining a First Class BA Honours in 2004. On the way he earned a Foundation Scholarship, a College Prize, and the Henry Stanley Morgan Prize.
John returned to Queens' in 2007 for his PhD, which he completed in 2011. During this period he was elected to a Munro Studentship (2009-10),and he was awarded the Dajani Prize for academic distinction in promoting greater understanding and awareness of the relationship between Great Britain and the Arab world. He now plans to work on British converts to Islam, 1800-1960, and publish his doctoral research on the British Empire and the hajj, 1865-1956.
(2005 Philosophy)
Tom Stern, who read philosophy for a BA, an MPhil (where he shared the Matthew Buncombe Prize for the best performance of his year) and a PhD at Queens', has been appointed as Lecturer in Philosophy and as Director of European Social and Political Studies at University College London.
(2009, Engineering)
The College is delighted to announce that Arthur Tombs is the winner of the EADS Astrium prize. EADS Astrium, Europe’s leading space technology company, has awarded Arthur £200 for the most innovative solution to an exercise to simulate the dynamics of a space probe as it orbits and then attempts to land on Mars. The prize was hotly competed for by Engineers across the entire university. After successfully landing the probe manually, Arthur developed an autopilot.
His citation reads as follows:
First prize: Arthur Tombs (Queens' College)
Arthur solved almost all the extension problems to a consistently high standard. The graphics improvements included realistic terrain, lander and parachute work flawlessly. The autopilot is able to land with remarkable efficiency from all scenarios, and coping effortlessly with wind and planetary rotation.
Dr Baojiu Li. 2010 Royal Astronomical Society Michael Penston Prize.
The College is delighted to announce that one of our Junior Research Fellows, Dr Baojiu Li, has been awarded the 2010 Royal Astronomical Society Michael Penston Prize for the very best PhD thesis in astronomy and astrophysics submitted during the academical year 2009-10 within the United Kingdom. The title of his thesis title is 'Physical and Cosmological Implications of Modified Gravity Theories'.
Ssegawa-Ssekintu Kiwanuka: Institute of Chemical Engineering (IChemE) Awards for Innovation and Excellence 2010
The IChemE awards recognize and reward chemical engineering innovation and excellence. Now in their seventeenth year, they celebrate both individual and team achievement. Ssegawa-Ssekintu Kiwanuka, 23, is the youngest ever nominee in the history of the awards. He gained third place in the young engineer of the year award, sponsored by GSK. This award recognizes the individual under the age of 30 who best demonstrates his/her achievements and tangible application of chemical, biochemical and/or process engineering skills to address important economic, environmental or social issues.
The awards ceremony took place on Thursday, 4 November 2010, at the Palace Hotel in Manchester.
Ssegawa with Match of the Day Presenter and
BBC pundit Mark Lawrenson (co-host of the awards)
SSK with former Match of the Day Presenter
Ray Stubbs (co-host of the awards)
(2010, Medicine)
"Urmil Mehta (MVST 1B) was awarded a 2010 Evelyn Trust Summer
Studentship to work with Dr Owen Arthurs (Queens' Fellow & Director of
Studies for Clinical Medicine) at the Department of Radiology at
Addenbrooke's Hospital. Their work investigating children with rare
kidney and vomiting disorders on the basis of the anatomy of their blood
supply, suggests that previous work is flawed and requires more
investigation to reach an accurate diagnosis."