MBPhD Research Prize

Professor Woolf

Professor Woolf (1930-2019; qualified University of Cape Town, South Africa, 1951; FRCS (Eng), M Med (Path), PhD, FRCPath) played a significant role in establishing, developing and supporting the MBPhD Programme at the University College and Middlesex School of Medicine.

Professor Woolf was appointed as the Bland Sutton Professor of Histopathology at the Middlesex Hospital Medical School in 1974 and became Vice Dean and Faculty Tutor at the merged University College and Middlesex Medical School where he worked until he was 75.

He was passionate about his educational and pastoral roles, and many of his students have wonderful memories, not only of what he taught them but also of how he did so.

The UCL MBPhD Programme

The UCL MBPhD programme was founded in 1994 and is designed for students who aim at a career that embodies a substantial research component. It allows undergraduate medical students to integrate a PhD with their clinical education and provides an opportunity for them to work across traditional boundaries between academic studies and the clinic.

At the end of the research period, all students are required to submit a thesis in accordance with the UCL regulations. On completion of the thesis examination and award of the PhD, those who have submitted to UCL during the previous academic year are eligible to apply for the prize.

The IJEP Woolf Prize

The prize is funded by the International (formerly British) Journal of Educational Pathology (IJEP), which was founded by Sir Paul Fildes in 1919 to publish papers addressing mechanisms and models of disease, and promoting research in pathology.

Within this same remit, in the 1990s the late Prof. Sir Peter Lachmann and Prof. Woolf (on behalf of the IJEP Council) both strongly supported the MBPhD scheme and arranged for grants (now known as Lachmann Fellowships) to fund students who are participating in the programme.

• The IJEP Woolf Prize is awarded to MBPhD students for the best oral presentation of their research work at the annual MBPhD Symposium (one winner and two runners up)
• The prize for the best presentation will be £500 and two runners up will each be awarded £250. 
• MBPhD students are eligible to enter for this prize in the academic year following the submission of their PhD thesis. They are required to submit the title of their presentation and an abstract in advance, which will be given to the judging panel.
• MBPhD students in their final year of research are eligible to enter for the prize for the best 3MT (three minute thesis) presentation at the MBPhD Symposium.  The value of the prize will be £150.
• MBPhD students in their first and second year of research are eligible to compete for the prize for best poster presentation. The value of the prize will be £100.
• The awards will be accompanied by a certificate.
• The panel of judges will comprise basic and clinical scientists and there will be no fewer than three judges present.The decision of the panel will be transmitted to the MBPhD Management Committee and the winners will be announced shortly after the Symposium. , 
• The MBPhD Management Committee reserves the right to make no award. 

UCL reserves the right to vary these regulations should it become necessary to do so, subject to due notice (normally 30 days) being given to the IJEP Council.