Beaumont Awards 2021 winners announced

Winning research projects identify potential self-dosing oral COVID-19 medication and environmentally friendly alternatives to current energy intensive cooling systems.

Despite the incredibly difficult learning conditions for students in the past year, 11 students from the University of Leeds have been awarded a coveted Beaumont Award to acknowledge their outstanding research projects that have the potential to impact society and solve real-world problems. Sponsored by consistent innovator and technologist, Professor Adam Beaumont, the award scheme enables each winning student to take advantage of personal introductions to relevant contacts within industry and opportunities to work with world-class organisations to further progress their research.

“The COVID-19 pandemic has meant students had to overcome great difficulties and adapt the way their final year projects were conducted, creating more analysis based papers due to restrictions around physical research,” comments Professor Adam Beaumont. “This year’s award entries have shown the resilience of students at the University of Leeds to be able to continue with vital research in challenging times and create papers that demonstrate genuine interest in helping to solve real word problems. Supporting future generations is crucial in helping society move forward and drive the country to build back better.”

Stand out entries include research into a SARS-CoV-2 (the virus responsible for the COVID-19 outbreak) antiviral that could make the possibility of self dosing at home with an orally prescribed medicine a reality, potentially saving billions of lives. Other winning submissions looked at Passive Radiative Cooling (PRC), an environmentally friendly future alternative to current energy intensive cooling systems which requires no energy input, and an investigation into sociological issues and bias around social media algorithms.

Simone Buitendijk, Vice-Chancellor of the University of Leeds said; “Now in its fourth year, the quality and diversity of entries to the Beaumont Awards further demonstrates the University of Leeds’ commitment to research-led education and learning. The support that the Beaumont Awards gives our students is invaluable and supports them long after their graduation, to put them on a path to a truly successful career.”

“Our students have faced an extraordinarily unsettling time and to produce this high standard of research is testament to their determination to drive change in society. The Beaumont Awards offers both encouragement and inspiration to our students to confidently kick-start their careers and it’s this that we are continuously thankful for,” said Professor Peter Jimack, Interim Deputy Vice-Chancellor for Student Education, University of Leeds.

Each winning student is awarded a cash prize of £500 and the opportunity to take a place on Leeds University’s Enterprise Boot Camp run by SPARK, a programme designed to nurture entrepreneurial vision and offer advice to those interested in establishing a new business venture.