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Laidlaw Research and Leadership Programme 2022: scholars chosen

7 April 2022

After a competitive application process, 24 first-year undergraduates will take part in the 2022 Laidlaw Research and Scholarship Programme.

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Laidlaw Scholarships are awarded to undergraduate first year students through a competitive process where applicants submit a proposal to undertake their own research project, or request to work on an existing project with researchers from UCL departments. 

This year, a total of 270 first-year undergraduates competed for 24 places on UCL's branch of the prestigious programme, which runs at a number of overseas and UK universities including St. Andrew's and Durham.

Our scholars have real-world impact

The Laidlaw Programme is a brilliant opportunity for students to get involved in world leading research at an early stage of their academic career, and learn the skills that will make them into future leaders.

Past scholars have demonstrated the impact UCL undergraduate students can have on key research areas. An article from a 2020 Laidlaw Scholar, Nusayba Ali, on how pharmacists and pharmacy teams can address vaccine hesistancy, was published by the Pharmaceutical Journal at the height of the pandemic. 

UCL departments that offer opportunities for Laidlaw Scholars to join their research projects also benefit, because they get a fully funded and enthusiastic junior researcher, who is driven to make a positive contribution.  

A UCL education offers students the opportunity to carry out their own research, and the Laidlaw Research and Leadership Programme is a great example of this, enabling first year undergraduate students to contribute to our world-leading research output across all the disciplines. The programme, now in its third year has been extremely successful, providing a challenging, rewarding experience for the scholars and excellent contributions to projects for research supervisors. Dr Ruth Siddall, Academic Director of the Laidlaw Programme.

Competitive application process

Once again this year there was a large number of high quality applications so the judging panel had a difficult challenge. 

The panel, chaired by the Academic Director of the Programme, Dr Zachary Walker, considered each applicant's form alongside feedback from their project supervisors and an academic reference.  

The final group of 17 women and 7 men study a varied range of subjects including Psychology, History, Natural Sciences, Medicine, Bioscences and Economics.

Interested supervisors

If you have a project that would suit a high performing first year undergraduate, and would like to involve a Laidlaw scholar, we will start recruiting projects for summer 2023 in Term 1 of the 2022/23 academic year.

To find out more about how the scheme works, visit our Laidlaw Scholarship information page or email laidlaw.scholarships@ucl.ac.uk

The 2022 scholars

See below for the full list of this year's Laidlaw Scholars and their research projects. 

Name

Department

Project

Hannah WattonEnglish Language and LiteratureScholarly edition of letter exchanges
Grace FengSchool of Slavonic and East European StudiesWhat works and doesn't work in online economics education?
Riza Kamish MirzaSchool of Slavonic and East European StudiesThe Politics of Religion
Maia  DasturPhilosophyBusiness and water: Walking the talk?
Anna KungPhilosophyProxy Wars: Repeated Bargaining of Principals in Principal-Agent Relationships
George RobertsArts and Sciences BAScLaidlaw Scholars Celebration Brochure
Chor Ting Rachel  WanMedical Physics and Biomedical EngineeringDevelopment of a novel optical ultrasound
Ramit BagComputer ScienceDesigning an Immersive VR Avatar Animation Software
Princess  EmeanuwaEducation, Practice and SocietyLongitudinal case study analyses of young people following STEM trajectories
Hiu Ching ChangLawA comparison of duress in contract and unjust enrichment law
Natalie MagnessDivision of BiosciencesIs there a relationship between perception of genetic relatedness and altruism in humans?
Anatolii ZagorodniiNatural SciencesSelf-assembly and ion transport by stimuli-responsive ruthenium(II) complexes
Keyi XiongMathematicsWhere do our discarded diesel vehicles go?
Aleksandra CzyzakDivision of MedicineUnderstanding the fitness landscape of aging tissue
Elisyazaviera Muhamad FaizulCancer InstituteActionable alterations in cholangiocarcinoma
Emma LastCancer InstituteSelf-generated sounds in human neonates
Evdokia CrooijmansDivision of Surgery and Interventional ScienceMultiscale modelling of blood flow
Julia SpaczynskaUCL Medical SchoolMitochondrial function in health and disease
Laetisha WitoyoUCL Medical SchoolAuthor name memorability and citations
Yi Xi KangGeographyEffectiveness of biological pest control in Icelandic greenhouses
Keir ChauhanHistoryThe effects of neoliberalism and globalisation in shaping the strategies adopted by the conservation movement (with specific reference to the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, RSPB)
Marco PozziHistoryWritten and Visual Heritage of Medieval Africa
Nola  MakHistoryMedieval Magic in 50 Objects
Jani SantariusHistoryRural radicalism and its suppression in the First Czechoslovak Republic, 1918-1938

What happens next?

The scholars will immediately get stuck into eight days of leadership training activities during the 2022 summer holidays and undertake a bespoke research project under the guidance of UCL academics over a six-week period. A generous bursary is paid to cover their living expenses whilst undertaking the projects.

Congratulations to this year’s scholars!