News
SET Awards Winners Announced
21st September 2007
The World Leadership Forum is pleased to announce the winners of the 2007 Science, Engineering & Technology Student of the Year Awards which took place last night at Alexandra Palace, London.
LIVERPOOL UNDERGRADUATE WINS STUDENT OF THE YEAR AWARD FOR RESEARCH INTO HIV
LONDON: 21st September 2007. A Liverpool University student has been named Science, Engineering & Technology Student of the Year, for important research into the human immune system and its role in fighting HIV infection.
Craig Benson, who has completed a degree in pharmacology, showed that the success of anti-HIV therapy is governed not only by the drug concentrations which are achieved within the patient, but also by a balance between the virus and the immune system. He found that a human protein, which carries the grim name "Programmed Death Receptor 1", plays a key role in the immune response to HIV. The amount of this protein made within human cells varies from one patient to another and these genetic differences contribute to the recovery of the immune system after patients begin receiving therapy.
Craig's work so impressed the judges of the SET Awards that they not only gave him the Pharmacology Prize, they also declared him the GKN Science, Engineering & Technology Student of the Year for 2007. His lecturer, Dr Andrew Owen, was declared the 2007 SAGE Lecturer of the Year.
His double win was announced at a ceremony attended by more than 500 students, academics and business leaders at London's Alexandra Palace. Record numbers of entries were received from every major university in the United Kingdom and Ireland and judges paid tribute to the exceptional quality of this year's work. 45 students were shortlisted in fifteen different categories.
The Department of Pharmacology in Liverpool has a consistent track record of excellence in both research and teaching, and was this year ranked number 1 in the Guardian league tables.
The SET Awards are organised by the World Leadership Forum and sponsored by Airbus, AstraZeneca, AWE, Balfour Beatty, Bentley Motors, Cadbury Schweppes, e2v Technologies, GKN, GlaxoSmithKline, The Institution of Engineering & Technology, Laing O'Rourke, Lloyd's Register Educational Trust, Microsoft Research, Morgan Crucible, The National Physical Laboratory and SAGE.
They are supported and judged by The British Computer Society, The British Pharmacological Society, The Institute of Biology, The Institute of Food Research, The Institute of Marine Engineering, Science and Technology, The Institute of Materials, Minerals & Mining, The Institute of Physics, The Institution of Chemical Engineers, The Institution of Civil Engineers, The Institution of Engineering & Technology, The Institution of Mathematics and its Applications, The Institution of Mechanical Engineers, The London Mathematical Society, The Royal Aeronautical Society, The Royal Institution of Naval Architects and The Royal Society of Chemistry.
The 2007 winners are:
The Airbus Award for the Best Aeronautical Engineering Student
Judged by the Royal Aeronautical Society
Edward Spalton from the University of Sheffield for Effect of Turbine Manufacture Quality on Aerodynamic Performance
The AstraZeneca Award for the Best Biology or Biotechnology Student
Judged by the Institute of Biology
Catherine Pink from the University of Bath for Gender and the Origin of New Mutations
The AWE Award for the Best Chemical Engineering Student
Judged by the Institution of Chemical Engineers
Jennifer Wilson from the University of Edinburgh for Crossing the Barriers: Towards Computer Assisted Design of Peptide Vectors for Targeted Drug Delivery
The World Leadership Forum Award for the Best Chemistry Student
Judged by the Royal Society of Chemistry
Franziska Bell from the University of York for A Rational Design of Novel Photosensitisers for Cancer Therapy Using Computational Chemistry Methods
The Balfour Beatty Award for the Best Civil Engineering Student
Judged by the Institution of Civil Engineers
Ross McAdam from the University of Oxford for The Design, Build and Test of a Horizontal Axis Marine Turbine
The Microsoft Research Award for the Best Computational Science Student
Judged by the British Computer Society
Richard Hayden from Imperial College London for Fluid-Flow Solutions to the State Space Explosion Problem
The e2v Technologies Award for the Best Electronic Engineering Student
Judged by the Institution of Engineering and Technology
Stephen Motley from Imperial College London for A Portable Endoscopy Training Simulator
The Cadbury Schweppes Award for the Best Food, Nutrition & Health Student
Judged by the Institute of Food Research
Helen Davies from the University of Nottingham for Assessing Microflora Diversity of a Raw Ewes' Milk Cheese Throughout Production
The IET Award for the Best Information Technology Student
Judged by the Institution of Engineering and Technology
Mark Read from the University of York for Explicable Boolean Functions
The Lloyd's Register Educational Trust Award for the Best Maritime Technology Student
Judged by the Institute of Marine Engineering, Science & Technology and the Royal Institution of Naval Architects
Ewan Porteous from Loughborough University for Wave-Like Propulsion of Small Marine Craft
The Morgan Crucible Award for the Best Materials Student
Judged by the Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining
Thomas Connolly from the University of Surrey for Field Emission Characterisation of Carbon Nanotube Polymer Composites
The Laing O'Rourke Award for the Best Mathematics Student
Judged by the Institute of Mathematics & its Applications and The London Mathematical Society
Claire Fairbairn from Durham University for Class Field Theory for Local Fields of Positive Characteristic
The Bentley Motors Award for the Best Mechanical Engineering Student
Judged by the Institution of Mechanical Engineers
Christopher Lamming from the University of Bath for Analysis and Computation of Regularly-Spaced Localised Buckles in Pipelines
The GlaxoSmithKline Award for the Best Pharmacology Student
Judged by the British Pharmacological Society
Craig Benson of the University of Liverpool for Do Genetic Variants of the Programmed Death Receptor 1 (PD-1) Influence Treatment Response to Antiretroviral Drugs?
The National Physical Laboratory Award for the Best Physics Student
Judged by the Institute of Physics
Paul Skrzypczyk of the University of Sussex for One-Dimensional Coulomb Scattering
The GKN Award for the 2007 Science, Engineering & Technology Student of the Year
Craig Benson
University of Liverpool
The SAGE Award for the 2007 Lecturer of the Year
Dr Andrew Owen
University of Liverpool
Notes to editors:
The SET Awards are Britain's and Ireland's most important awards for science, engineering and technology undergraduates.
The Awards are presented at a magnificent ceremony before an audience comprising hundreds of technology students, academics, senior industry executives; as well as senior figures from government, scientific and technical institutions and the media.
The highest scoring student overall is declared the GKN Science, Engineering and Technology Student of the Year.
The lecturer who taught and nominated the overall winning student is declared the SAGE Lecturer of the Year.
The 2007 Science, Engineering and Technology Student of the Year Awards Gala Dinner and Presentation Ceremony took place on the evening of Thursday, 20th September at Alexandra Palace, London.
The Awards are multidisciplinary, to reflect the wide range of degrees that British and Irish universities offer.
For further information please contact:
World Leadership Forum: Tel: 44 (0)20 7374 8581 Fax: 44 (0)20 7374 8582
E-mail: info@World-Leadership-Forum.org
Website: www.setawards.org