Huge congratulations to Josephine Agyeman-Duah, well deserved winner of PhD Student of the Year award 2022!
Josephine works in our department's INTERGROWTH-21ST research group - An International Fetal and Newborn Growth Consortium dedicated to improving perinatal health through the development of new fetal and newborn growth standards, providing tools for the continuity of care from conception to 5 years of age. Her research focusses on neurodevelopmental assessment at age 2 for all children born preterm.
The award scheme is run by FindAUniversity and they received hundreds of nominations at a high standard which included many inspirational stories. The judges awarded Josephine PhD Student of the Year as they were impressed with her research and its meaningful contribution to improve care for preterm infants during the Covid-19 pandemic and beyond. She has already been recognised by The Family Larsson Rosenquist Foundation as a positive change agent for making global impact beyond her PhD studies. Alongside her impressive research, Josephine has spearheaded a number of initiatives to enrich the student experience at Oxford as the first Black Students' Representative at Green Templeton College. These have included starting a Black Mentorship Programme, curating the Maarifa Library Collection for self-education to address racism and microaggression and to celebrate Black writers and established the first Black Students' Society at her College. She also recently won a Race Equality award at the Oxford Student Union Awards 2022.
Josephine commented "Winning the award has both inspired and challenged me to do more for society. It tells me that all that we do in this life, people are watching and so we always have to put our best foot forward."
You can watch Josephine's acceptance speech here
You can view all the PostGrad Award 2022 Winners here
Well done from all of your colleagues at the Nuffield Department of Women's & Reproductive Health!