Sophia news

Issue 4 published

Issue 4 is now available for download. Due to funding limitations, there will be fewer paper copies available than previous issues, but we hope to get a small number out soon.

Craig Patterson writing prize: results

UCL Grand Challenges and Sophia magazine are pleased to announce the results of the Craig Patterson writing competition on the theme of The challenge of sustainable city living & the scale of community.

The preferences of all the Sophia editors and the Grand Challenges directors was quite varied but, taking into account the rankings of all involved in the judging process, we are pleased to announce the winner and runner up:

First prize:
Olivia Hamlyn, Sustainable Cities

Runner up:
Ilan Adler, A Call for a New Paradigm

An anthology of all the entries to the competition can be downloaded by clicking here.

The competition was dedicated to the memory of Craig Patterson, Founding Director of UCL Grand Challenges, who died in September 2008. The many members of the UCL community who had met him will have been struck by his energy, enthusiasm and pragmatic idealism. He regarded student engagement as essential to the success of the UCL Grand Challenges.

About Sophia

Sophia is a new volunteer-run magazine aiming to showcase talent in research, writing and art from current UCL staff and graduate students.

By publishing academic content written for a general readership, Sophia hopes to encourage the sharing of ideas and an appreciation of the advances being made in areas of research other than our own; and to act as a forum for the discussion of academic issues and current affairs.

We aim to provide content that combines academic rigour, a strong and readable narrative and high standards of design, not typically found in university publications. Articles will include literature reviews, journal-style articles written for a popular audience, opinion on current affairs, conference summaries and academic book reviews.

In creating Sophia we hope to provide opportunities for graduate students to begin writing about their work and for established researchers to write more creatively and for a broader audience than in a specialist journal. We believe that providing this platform will help contributors to develop as writers as well as giving readers an insight into the diverse spectrum of research taking place at the university.