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MAPS Faculty Postgraduate Prize Winners and Dean’s Commendations Announced

6 March 2019

Many congratulations to Alex Ganose and Guanjie He, joint winners of the 2018 Faculty Postgraduate Research Prize, and to Bede Frank, winner of the 2018 Faculty Postgraduate Taught Prize.

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Postgraduate Research Prize

Alex Ganose
The 2018 Postgraduate Research Prize was jointly awarded to Alex Ganose for his outstanding achievements in his PhD in Chemistry.

Alex’s research supervisor Prof. David Scanlon:

“Dr. Alex Ganose completed his EngD from the Centre for Doctoral Training in Molecular Modelling and Materials Science (M3S) at UCL in September 2018. In his 3-year EngD Alex published 23 papers in high impact peer reviewed journals including Journal of the American Chemistry Society, Chemistry of Materials (5), Journal of Physical Chemistry Letters, ACS Energy Letters, Journal of Materials Chemistry A (4), Chemical Communications (2), Physical Review B (2), and Inorganic Chemistry. Although metrics are probably quite meaningless for a graduate student, his research has thus far earned him an H-index of 14, with his work being cited over 620 times This is quite simply an astounding publication record for a PhD student. In addition, Alex published two pieces of open source software, SUMO and GALORE, in the Journal of Open Source Software, which are rapidly becoming very popular in his field. Alex won a prize of £3000 to fund a trip to the MRS Spring Meeting 2018 in Phoenix, for the best use of the ARCHER, the UK’s national supercomputer. Alex was awarded a Silver medal in the Graduate Student Award (GSA) competition at the MRS Fall Meeting 2017 in Boston, USA, and was awarded a Gold Medal in the GSA competition at the 2018 MRS Spring Meeting in Phoenix, USA. It is virtually unheard of to win consecutive medals at these large international conferences, and Alex was the only European student who made the finals on both occasions. Back in UCL, Alex was awarded the Catlow Prize for best computational final year PhD student in the Chemistry Department, and in October 2018 he was awarded the Scopus Early Career Researcher Award UK in the area of the Physical Sciences.”

In his response to being awarded the prize, Alex Ganose stated:

“I am incredibly thankful to receive this award from the Faculty of Mathematical and Physical Sciences. Climate change is currently the most pressing challenge faced by society. Working on renewable energy sources, such as photovoltaics and thermoelectrics, at such a critical time has been a stimulating and rewarding experience. I feel fortunate to have studied at UCL and for the opportunity to work with so many talented scientists in the UK and abroad. I am particularly grateful to my supervisor, Professor David Scanlon, for his encouragement and advice throughout, and my colleagues in the Scanlon Materials Theory Group. I owe additional thanks to EPSRC and Diamond Light Source for cosponsoring my EngD, and to the Legion, Grace, and ARCHER high-performance computing facilities where my research was performed.”

Guanjie He
Guanjie He was the other joint recipient of the 2018 Postgraduate Research Prize. He for his outstanding achievements in his PhD in Chemistry.

Guanjie’s research supervisor Prof. Ivan Parkin noted that:

“Guanjie He did his Ph.D. in the chemistry department and graduated in October 2018. He has in total 44 publications including 14 as first or corresponding author. He has worked on a variety of areas in relation to energy materials, especially around developing new electrode materials and for catalysts for oxygen and nitrogen evolution. Guanjie has a short secondment during his Ph.D. to Yale under the UCL-Yale scheme. He has also been awarded first prize in a number of poster presentations. He is currently still working at UCL but has transferred from chemistry to chemical engineering and now works for Professor Dan Brett.”

In his response to being awarded the prize, Guanjie He stated:

“I am very delighted and grateful to receive the Postgraduate Research Prize from the Faculty of Mathematical and Physical Sciences. I want to express my great gratitude and admiration for my supervisor, Prof. Ivan Parkin, for the PhD opportunity, all the academic guidance and life advice he gave me throughout my journey, as well as the most enjoyable, comfortable and life-work balance atmosphere in his research group. We tried to explore the energy storage and conversion materials together- a new research area in the group. The staffs and my colleagues in the chemistry department as well as the collaborators in UCL and from various institutes around the world, have been so supportive and added a lot to my enriching experience. The chemistry and materials science worlds are fantastic, and I am planning to pursue my research career in materials electrochemistry.”

Postgraduate Taught Prize 

Bede Frank
The 2018 Postgraduate Taught Prize was awarded to Bede Frank for his impressive work in his MSc Mathematical Modelling during the last academic session.

Dr Sergei Timoshin, MSc Mathematical Modelling Graduate Tutor, said:

“Bede Frank achieved one of the highest results in over 15 years of the MSc Mathematical Modelling programme. In the taught component, Bede far exceeded the requirements for a Distinction award, showing great academic strength across a broad spectrum of applied topics. Bede’s research project in Hydrodynamic Model of Collective Behaviour under the supervision of Dr Ewelina Zatorska demonstrates a unique combination of high-level modelling skills and the level of abstraction seen in pure mathematics. The academic ability and dedication shown in the course of the MSc make Bede Frank an excellent candidate for research at a PhD level or employment in any related field.”

Prof. Helen Wilson, Head of the Mathematics Department, said:

“Bede's project supervisor commented "In my opinion Bede is an outstanding student. He showed analytical talent, maturity and commitment at the level of a PhD student". He has performed well beyond what is expected at MSc level; indeed, his project has been described as the perfect base for a publication in a very good mathematical journal. This project work, at the interface between pure and applied mathematics, is truly exceptional and one of the reasons that Bede so deserves this prize."

In his response to being awarded the prize, Bede Frank stated:

“I'm hugely grateful to my girlfriend, friends and family for their support throughout my education to date. This prize marks the end of that journey - so far - and I am honoured to receive it. It is icing on the cake of a very positive experience at UCL and I am very grateful for the welcoming nature and excellent teaching of the department. For my final project, I studied the hydrodynamic model of collective behaviour; investigating the communal movement of many particles as a fluid rather than individuals. Under the supervision of Dr Ewelina Zatorska, I had the confidence to explore areas of maths that I had previously not studied. I'd like to take this opportunity to thank her for all of the support and guidance she gave me throughout the project and beyond; I could not have done it without her."

Dean’s Commendations

Dean’s Commendations were awarded to the following students:
Postgraduate Research students:

•    Harriet Lloyd (Science & Technology Studies (STS))