Masters and PhD graduates gathered at Queen Mary’s People’s Palace and were greeted by Principal Professor Colin Bailey in the iconic Great Hall before receiving their degree certificates. Family, friends and staff from the School joined the celebrations afterwards in the university’s historic old library, the Octagon.
Masters graduate Hazel Wilson completed the Integrated Mangement of Freshwater Environments (IMFE) MSc and is one of the recipients of the Humanities and Social Sciences Drapers Company Prize – a postgraduate prize for outstanding academic achievement. She said: "I chose to study at Queen Mary because I really liked the School of Geography and the course on offer. The School was interested in me as a person and the course had loads of opportunities, and the social atmosphere within Geography - and especially my course - was fantastic."
"I've started a PhD at the University of Nottingham researching the influence of litter on river hydromorphology and ecology. This builds on ideas I had during my masters, from lectures and meetings with external opportunities. I learnt a lot of skills during my masters such as networking skills through organising my dissertation and working efficiently. I also met lots of external speakers and had been involved in events and workshops outside of my course," she added.
"Hazel’s academic performance on this year’s IMFE programme has been outstanding and the award of the Drapers Company Prize is richly deserved," said Dr Alex Henshaw, Senior Lecturer in Physical Geography and IMFE MSc programme convenor. "She achieved distinction grades in all of her taught modules and produced a fantastic thesis on the morphological and ecological impacts of large wood restoration in the River Whitewater, Hampshire. In collaboration with several other ex-IMFE graduates, Hazel is currently writing up her research on the Whitewater for publication and we wish her all the best as she embarks on her PhD in Nottingham," he added.
Theo Barry Born is also recipient of the Drapers Company Prize. He completed an MRes in Geography and is now a PhD student in the School of Geography at Queen Mary, researching interfaces of housing informality, assembling housing infrastructures, markets, and rights in London.
Eilidh Reid, Victoria Pickering, Hayley Peacock and Giuditta Trinci were awarded their PhD degrees during this year's graduation ceremony. Eilidh's research focused on masculine emotional geographies and the meaning and experience of home over the life course for 21 retired men living alone in London. Victoria's AHRC-funded PhD in collaboration with the Natural History Museum was entitled "Putting Nature in a Box: Hans Sloane's 'Vegetable Substances' Collection" – she is currently a postdoctoral researcher on a Leverhulme-funded project at the British Museum in London. Hayley's innovative thesis and its focus on the role of colour in urban repair impressed her examiners earlier this year – she also trains, plays and coaches football in her spare time. Giuditta, whose research focused on fluvial processes and how flow dynamics influence the behaviour of fish in a riverine environments, is now a lecturer in the School of Geography.
As the celebrations concluded, Head of School Professor Alison Blunt said: "My colleagues and I are delighted to celebrate with our masters and PhD students. They have been a pleasure to work with and we wish them every success for the future."
The School of Geography at QMUL has an excellent reputation for teaching and research across human and physical geography as well as environmental science. Students and researchers come to study from all over the world to work side-by-side in a strong, supportive and forward-thinking School with some of the most prominent researchers in the field.