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BSCB PhD Award – Raff Medal

The Raff PhD Medal recognises BSCB PhD students who have made outstanding contributions to UK/Ireland cell biology. The medal was established in 2019, developed by our then BSCB PhD rep Joyce Yu.

 

The Raff Medal has been named after Professor Martin Raff, who was the president of the BSCB from 1992 – 1995. With MRC support, Martin was instrumental in setting up and running the first 4-year PhD graduate programme in Molecular Cell Biology at the MRC Laboratory for Molecular Cell Biology (LMCB) at UCL. When started in 1993, this was a unique programme: It offered students the opportunity to rotate through labs, receive expert tutorials and, importantly, attend the annual BSCB meeting. It still continues today having trained over 100 career cell biologists. Martin has been a great mentor and supporter of many PhD students both from the LMCB programme and more widely in the UK.

Candidates for the Raff Medal will be assessed on their research excellence, based on a project summary, and community engagement such as conferences, public engagement, community outreach or scientific advocacy. A publication is not required for the award, but work should be close to completion.

The awardee will receive free registration, accommodation and UK/Ireland travel for the upcoming BSCB annual meeting at which they will be presented with a medal and will give a short talk. The scheme is open to all BSCB PhD student members who have submitted their thesis in the previous 12 months.  Candidates must be nominated by one of their PhD supervisors or a collaborator. The nominator does not have to be a BSCB member.

Nomination:

  • The nomination should contain:
    • 1-page cover letter
    • Supporting 1-page letter from a PhD supervisor or collaborator (must include the date of thesis submission)
    • 2-page project summary (including figures but excluding references)
    • CV including list of publications, abstracts, posters and meetings attended

Nominations and supporting letters should be sent to the BSCB Secretary by 1st November and will be judged by the BSCB committee. Results will be announced after the autumn committee meeting in time for the awardee to register for BSCB annual meeting the following spring.

The winner of the Raff Medal 2025 is Pei Yee Tey

Previous medal winners can be viewed here.