Research Frontiers

Research Frontiers

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UCL Research Frontiers contest winners

To mark the beginning of UCL Research Frontiers, the Office of the UCL Vice-Provost (Research) sought to recognise and celebrate the fact that curiosity-driven discovery and analysis has been a feature of UCL from its foundation.

We invited UCL staff, students and alumni to submit works to a competition – UCL Research Frontiers since 1826 – reflecting on individuals, groups or units associated with UCL from 1826 to the present day that have exemplified the curiosity-driven, cross-disciplinary, pioneering nature of the activity we seek to generate through UCL Research Frontiers.

This contest wished to celebrate research pioneers who, for example:

• adopted methods or analogies from disciplines outside their own
• determined their own research direction, based on their own curiosity about and commitment to their chosen subject area
• possessed the imagination and insight to address questions whose significance was not yet clear to any other human being, or to provide new answers to questions that had frustrated all others.

Our congratulations and thanks to those who submitted prize-winning entries, which can be downloaded below:

• Stephen Cox (UCL Chemistry) and Prof Angelo Michaelides (London Centre for Nanotechnology) – Discovering the Noble Gases: a story of a chemistry superhero
• Dr Pok Lam Fung (UCL Eastman Dental Institute) – Phosphorus necrosis unravelled and phossyjaw.wordpress.com
• Sara Wingate Gray (UCL Information Studies) – The Unsung Librarian: Ronald Staveley at UCL
• Prof Gerta Vrbova (UCL Biosciences) – A.V. Hill's contribution to UCL's standing in science and society
• Prof Roger Wotton (UCL Genetics, Evolution & Environment) – An imaginary interview between a New Academic and E Ray Lankester, Professor of Zoology and Comparative Anatomy at UCL from 1875-1890.