Students rewarded for their engagement support

The School of Physics and Astronomy is committed to reaching out to the wider community to promote our research and our courses with a range of activities throughout the year. These events take place during the week, at weekends, and sometimes in the evenings, and rely upon the voluntary efforts of a large number of people, including students. In recognition of the voluntary activities of our students we award Community Engagement Awards and Prizes, which come with a modest financial sum, as an expression of our gratitude for their dedication. The prize giving takes place at the annual Chaos Society Ball which is attended by both students and staff of the department.

There are two special prizes for outstanding contributions to outreach, the Marconi and Josephson prizes. These two special prizes are awarded to two individuals, one undergraduate and one postgraduate, selected by the outreach and recruitment teams.

Marconi Prize for outstanding contribution to community engagement by an undergraduate student

This prize is named after Italian inventor Guglielmo Marconi who carried out the World's first radio transmission across water in South Wales, receiving radio sent across the Bristol Channel to a receiver at Lavernock Point, between Penarth and Barry.

The winner this year has been hugely engaged with our outreach and engagement activities. In particular, he has explained outreach experiments to visitors at Open Days, Offer Holder Days and at Museum events, and even developed his own demonstrations which are now a stable feature of our outreach provision.

The winner of the Marconi Prize 2019 is awarded to Jaspa Stritt.

Josephson Prize for outstanding contribution to community engagement by a postgraduate student

This prize is named after the Cardiff-born Nobel prize-winning physicist who discovered what we now call the Josephson Effect: whereby an electrical current can flow between two superconductors (materials with zero electrical resistance) even when an insulator is placed between them.

The winner this year has dedicated a lot of time to outreach and engagement over the years. She can frequently be found chatting with students and parents at Open Days and Offer Holder Days, bringing her enthusiasm for physics and astronomy to the visitors. Elsewhere, she has helped present astronomy research at events both inside and outside the department. In addition, she has been leading widening participation workshops for school students.

The winner of the Josephson Prize 2019 is awarded to Eve North.

There are four other prizes awarded to students for their contributions. The full list of winners for each of the categories appears below:

Georges Lemaitre award for 'Contribution to Community Engagement'

Amin Boumerdassi, Holly Davies,Anujan Ganeshalingam, Pavel Loktionov, Jess Mabin, Kyle Netherwood, Paradeisa O'Dowd Phanis. Joe Penning, Cameron Rose, Sam Small, Jorge De Andres Tamargo, Robert Ward.

Vera Rubin award for 'Consistent Contribution to Community Engagement'

Waleed Ahmed, Michael Anderson, Vicki Ayley, Lille Borresen, Joseph Cannon,Sushmitha Dachepalli, Celt Griffith, Eleanor Hamilton, Callon Handy, Lydia Jarvis,Thomas Laws, Alex Loader, Charlotte Pincher, Iwan Pullen, Vasileios Skliris, Anna Thomas, Niki Tsvetanov, Tom Williams, Nikki Zabel.

C V Raman Award for 'Significant Contribution to Community Engagement'

Jack Avery, Arjen van den Berg, Oisín Boyle, Calum Dear, Tilly Evans, Rachel Ferguson, Polly Gill, Will Griffiths, Beni Hofmann, Beth Lisles, Lewis Prole, Lucy Shields, Martyna Wezyk.

Marie Curie award for 'Outstanding Contribution to Community Engagement'

Robert Daley, Tom Hyett, Cameron Mills, Mihaela Raischi, Barbara Wawrzynek, Noor Zaidi.

A special thanks also goes to the following students for their outreach and engagement work: Isabelle Boreham, Lille Borrensen, Daniel Gomez Sanchez, Christopher Hoare, Amber Hornsby, Jenifer Millard, Aqil Rizwan, and Connor Smith.