Celebrating student success with the Schools of Bioscience and Medical Education

Staff, students and their families and friends were ushered into the Greenwood Lecture Theatre on Guy’s Campus, where more than 160 prizes were awarded to acknowledge both academic and non-academic successes.

The Dr Abbas Khan Award was established in 2015 as a lasting tribute to the extraordinary humanitarian contribution of King’s alumnus Dr Abbas Khan, who was unlawfully killed in Syria in 2013 while undertaking humanitarian work. The award is offered to an individual who has shown courage in humanitarian work and can ensure that the work will be sustained beyond their student years.

This year, the award was given to Gabrielle Hakim for her work in founding digital health company, VacTrack. VacTrack’s goal is to improve vaccination access and adherence advancing data driven research into vaccine preventable diseases.

The Nicola Claire Hood Memorial Prize for Outstanding Achievement is given to a top five performing student in the “Student Selected Component” module in the second year of the Medicine MBBS. There were joint winners this time around: Elif Nur Vural for her presentation, ‘Representing pain through art’, and Ayesha Unadkat, for her presentation describing how each individual patient’s story influences their experience of illness.

The Shepley Parkin Empathy Award was created to acknowledge the vital role which empathy can play in increasing the confidence of patients and therefore increasing their chances of effective healing. This was awarded to Ana Parish, who demonstrated an outstanding understanding of what it means to be empathetic, using an example of a distressed stranger at Victoria Station.

The Jelf Medal is awarded to an undergraduate student who has made a significant contribution to the College Community. Zara Nelson claimed the prize this year.

Finally, the Layton Science Research Award goes to students with the best promise of aptitude and genius for original scientific work, for conducting investigations and solving practical problems. There were three joint winners: Hafsa Kaja Moinudeen, Rachel Brady and Bjorn Olaisen.

Congratulations to all the student who won awards, and to those that did not, for their continued distinction and hard work. They consistently set the bar for excellence and embody the King’s ethos.