Details of the award
Instituted in 2014, the annual Sir William Wakeham award recognises early career researchers (no more than 5 years of postdoctoral research experience, excluding career breaks) who have made a significant contribution to their research field and have advanced their professional development. There is a £2000 prize associated with the award and the winner is also invited give a presentation at the annual postdoctoral symposium.
Sir William Wakeham is a visiting professor at the Department of Chemical Engineering at Imperial College London. He first joined the Department as a lecturer in 1971, and was Head of the Department from 1988 until 1996, when he became Deputy Rector of the College. From 2001 to 2009 he was Vice-Chancellor of the University of Southampton. He was knighted in 2009 for services to Chemical Engineering and to Higher Education.
Past winners
2023
Winner: Dr Gunjan Tyagi
Highly commended: Dr Semra Bakkaloglu
Highly commended: Dr Amir Al Ghatta
2022
Winner: Dr Heather Au
Highly commended: Dr Pavani Cherukupally
Highly commended: Dr Gan Huang
2021
Symposium not held.
2020
Winners: Dr Yu Huang
Highly commended: Dr Maja Rucker
Highly commended: Dr Ignacio Moya
2019
Winners: Dr Ruijao Dong and Dr Antonio Del Rio Chanona
2018
Winners: Dr Tao Li and Dr Lisa Joss
2017
Winners: Dr Petr Yatsyshin and Dr Robert Woodward
Highly comended: Dr Anna Hankin
Read an interview with the 2017 winners: Recognising outstanding early career researchers
2016
Winners: Dr Agi Talbot-Brandt and Dr Patrizia Marchetti
Highly commended: Dr Sheila Samsatli
Read an interview with the 2016 winners: Sir William Wakeham Award 2016 winners Patrizia Marchetti and Agi Brandt-Talbot.
2015
Winner: Dr James Kimber (Read an interview with Dr James Kimber)
Highly commended: Dr Patrizia Marchetti
2014
Winners: Dr Natasha Shirshova and Dr Ivan Zadrazil
Special commendation: Dr Ludmila Peeva, Dr Andrew Haslam and Dr Zhentao Wu
(*Note the 2014 award was not limited to postdocs with under 5 years' postdoc experience.)
