UCL science and computing students triumph in national awards

Two UCL graduates took home top prizes in the World Leadership Forum's prestigious annual SET Awards.

Vijay Chudasama was named Best Chemistry Student for his research project, Novel Modular Approach to the Synthesis of Functionalised Oxazoles, Imidazoles and Thiazoles, supported by Jon Wilden of the UCL Department of Organic Chemistry and Chemical Biology. The prize was awarded by the Royal Society of Chemistry.

Chudasama is now undertaking a PhD on the C-H Activation of Aldehydes.

"The award has little to do with me and more to do with the great people who have guided me throughout the early part of my academic career," said Chudasama. "In particular, I would like to thank Dr Richard Fitzmaurice and Dr Jon Wilden for all their help and support during my final year research project."

Also recognised was James Beattie, who won the 2008 Science, Engineering and Technology Student of the Year award, judged by the British Computer Society and sponsored by Microsoft.

The award committee judged James' final year MEng project on Transforming Data between Bioinformatics Resources, supervised by Professor of Software Systems Engineering Anthony Finkelstein, as the best in the computational science category.

The awards are the UK and Ireland's major awards for science, engineering and technology graduates.

This year's competition attracted a record number of entries from every major university in the UK and Ireland. Judges paid tribute to the exceptional quality of the 45 students who were shortlisted in fifteen categories.

The awards were presented at a gala dinner on Friday 26 September at the Royal Lancaster, London.