Carnegie PhD Scholar awarded Robertson Medal, 2020-21

On Wednesday 20^th January 2021, Lauren Evans, PhD Scholar in Biomedical Sciences at the University of Strathclyde received the Robertson Medal for academic year 2020-21. Due to the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic, this presentation was held virtually.

The silver medal is awarded each year to the Scholarship candidate judged to be the most outstanding for that year’ competition. The medal was introduced in 2003 to mark the contribution of the retiring Chairman of the Trust, Sir Lewis Robertson, who served the Trust for over 40 years.

About this year’s recipient:

Lauren grew up in Alexandria, West Dunbartonshire and attended Vale of Leven Academy. She graduated in June 2020 with a 1^st Class MChem Forensic and Analytical Chemistry degree from University of Strathclyde and was awarded the best MChem Forensic and Analytical student.

For her fourth year, she undertook an industrial placement at GlaxoSmithKline where she predominately worked as a bioanalytical scientist. Lauren absolutely loved the interdisciplinary nature of the job and seeing the real life impact she could make in the pharma industry. This was a real turning point for her and she knew she wanted to improve the lives of patients and pursue research in drug discovery and development.

Lauren sought out a PhD project within Dr Hoskins’ group due to their innovative research and real patient focus in their project design.

She began her PhD in Nanopharmaceutics for improved pancreatic cancer therapy in October under the supervision of Dr Clare Hoskins and she is enjoying developing her skills in this exciting, new field.