Successes: Srimathy Vijayan
In November 2008, the Peter Earl Foundation Award Panel and Grants Committee both accepted the recommendation of the Board of Examiners that the inaugural Premier Award be given to Srimathy Vijayan, fifth year MED student, for her study into vascular parkinsonism as part of her intercalated MRes degree.
Srimathy (Srim) received her Award, along with a cheque for £4,000, at a presentation ceremony on 20th February 2009 hosted by the Acting Vice-Chancellor Professor Edward Acton, and attended by members of Srim’s family, along with representatives of the School of Medicine, Health Policy and Practice.
Srim began planning for her year-long clinical study into vascular parkinsonism with Dr Paul Worth and Dr Peter Bain in 2006 when she began the complex process of achieving ethical permissions for a multi-centred trial co-ordinated between the NNUH hospital in Norwich and the Charing Cross hospital in London.
During the summer of 2007 she undertook a successful sabbatical at the World Health Organization headquarters in Geneva and published “A world health organization primer”. She began the MRes course on her return, excelling at the taught units and she scored most highly of all the students in every unit, comfortably exceeding the distinction boundary overall.