Elsevier Outstanding PhD Thesis Prize
Jacqueline Sin, a Visiting Research Fellow, has received the Graduate School Elsevier Prize for Outstanding Doctoral Thesis focusing on siblings of people with psychosis.
Jacqueline’s thesis ‘Development and preliminary evaluation of an online multi-component psychoeducational intervention for siblings of individuals with first episode psychosis’ was highly regarded by her examiners.
Jacqueline was supervised by the Faculty’s Professor Ian Norman and Dr Claire Henderson, Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience.
Her research, also known as the E Sibling Project, was fully-funded by a NIHR doctoral research fellowship from 2012 to 2014. The E Sibling Project covered a series of studies staged within the MRC Complex Interventions Framework to develop and evaluate an online education and support interventions for siblings of people with first episode psychosis, the first intervention trial worldwide of its kind which ran online. Jacqueline managed to submit her thesis two months early and was awarded her PhD in early February this year.
Her viva examiners, Professor Peter Jones, University of Cambridge and Professor Alan Simpson, City University nominated Jacqueline for the Outstanding Thesis Prize along with recommending her the award of a PhD with no corrections. The viva examiners commented on Jacqueline’s thesis:
“This is a very well-structured and succinctly written thesis describing development work and a series of studies culminating in an exploratory RCT with process evaluation…We found this to be an impressive and clearly written thesis. Jacqueline should be commended for undertaking such a complex study in an under-researched yet important area of mental healthcare.”
The Graduate School already recognises exceptional supervisors through the Supervisory Excellence Awards but also rewards outstanding PhD theses as well. The scientific publisher Elsevier funds 15, £100 prizes per year for the best theses submitted in each faculty.
External examiners are asked to nominate theses they feel are of appropriate quality and these recommendations are then supported by a further letter from supervisors. A Graduate School panel then assesses the various nominations and makes the awards.
Winners of the Elsevier PhD prizes receive a certificate and an e-subscription to one of their journals for a year. Jacqueline will receive her prize at this month's Graduation ceremony.
To find out more about the E Sibling project, please visit: http://siblingpsychosis.org/