“Junior Nobel Prize” for DCU Students

DCU students, Cleo Harvey and Giulia Luzi, have been presented with Undergraduate Awards at a special ceremony honouring the 2015 winners .

Cited as the ultimate champion of high-potential undergraduates, and often referred to as a “junior Nobel Prize”, The Undergraduate Awards is the world’s largest academic awards programme, recognising excellent research and original work across the sciences, humanities, business and creative arts.

The Undergraduate Awards 2015 programme received 5,117 submissions from undergraduates in 255 universities across 39 countries. Winners are the top performers in each of the 25 category.

• Giulia (BA Applied Languages & Intercultural Studies) won the Media & Journalism category for her paper 'Hugo Chávez and the Media:' How was the Media Used to Influence Public Opinion on Chávez and his Government?’.

• Cleo (BSc Applied Physics) won the Mathematics & Physics category for her paper ‘Characterisation of Metal Nanoparticles for Surface-Enhanced Raman Spectroscopy (SERS)’.

“This is a fantastic achievement for DCU and its undergraduates,” commended UA’s Executive Director Louise Hodgson. “Only the very top students from each university can submit their coursework, and The Undergraduate Awards identifies the very best of the best. With over 5,000 submissions from so many universities this year, the competition was extremely tough. Congratulations to all our 2015 Winners and Highly Commended Entrants!”

The students met meet their fellow awardees at the annual UA Global Summit,which took place in Dublin, Ireland on November 10th-13th. The Summit was addressed by philosopher AC Grayling, physicist Dame Jocelyn Bell Burnell, photographer Giles Dudley, human genome sequencer Craig Venter, and the world’s youngest professor Dr. Alia Sabur, among many others.

About The Undergraduate Awards

The Undergraduate Awards is the world's largest academic awards programme, recognising innovation and excellence at undergraduate level. Cited as the ultimate champion for high-potential undergraduates, UA identifies leading creative thinkers through their undergraduate coursework and provides top-performing students with the support, network and opportunities they require to raise their profiles and further their career paths.