Students recognised for excellence

Undergraduate students at Oriel College have been awarded prizes by faculties within the University of Oxford for their performance over the last academic year. This follows on from the good news last month that 83% of this year’s undergraduate finalists achieved Upper Second Class degrees or higher. College extends its congratulations to all students who are celebrating their achievements.

Jack Olsburgh (2020, PPE) is “delighted” to have been awarded both the John Hicks Foundation Prize for the best performance in Final Honour School of Macroeconomics as well as Oriel College’s Sir Derek Morris Prize for Economics.

Jack said that he was “only able to achieve this success thanks to the incredible economics teaching provided at Oriel and, in particular, Chris Bowdler, whose guidance and dedication to his students goes above and beyond.” Dr Bowdler has been a fellow and a tutor in Economics at Oriel College since 2006.

Yutong Chen, soon to be entering their final year studying mathematics at Oriel, described receiving a Gibbs Prize as a “great reward,” but added that learning about mathematics has been an even greater one.

“Most mathematical structures are extremely elegant, and for me understanding these structures is just like viewing beautiful landscapes,” Yutong said.

Jiaqi Cao is a joint recipient of the Department of Statistics Prize for the best overall performance in the Final Honour School Mathematics and Statistics Part A. He said that winning a prize was “completely beyond my expectations”, and added that it has motivated him to “go further” and make the most out of his time studying mathematics at Oriel College.

Millan George (2020, Philosophy and Theology), who has been awarded a Gibbs Prize for the best performance in Philosophy papers, said the fellows, tutors and staff at Oriel College have “been brilliant and stretching”.

“Thinking with them for these past three years, often about my own Christian faith, has been a real privilege and blessing,” Millan added.

A total of nine prizes have been awarded to Oriel undergraduate students by faculties belonging to the University of Oxford. The awardees are as follows:

• Marcus Fforde — Gibbs Fund Book Prize for outstanding performance in Chemistry Part IB examinations.
• Junyu Ren — Gibbs Prize for the best performance in the Final Honour School of Mathematics and Philosophy Part B.
• Yutong Chen — Gibbs Prize for the best performance in the Final Honour School of Mathematics Part A.
• Jiaqi Cao — Department of Statistics Prize for the best overall performance in the Final Honour School Mathematics and Statistics Part A (joint recipient).
• Abigail Macnay — Turbutt Prize in Practical Chemistry (joint recipient).
• Millan George — Gibbs Prize for the best performance in Philosophy papers in the Final Honour School of Philosophy and Theology.
• Pia Regensberger — Senior Pusey and Ellerton Prize for best performance in Biblical Hebrew in the Final Honour School of Theology.
• Jasper Manzini — David McLintock Prize for best performance in Germanic Philology Vi or XII (joint recipient)
• Jack Olsburgh — John Hicks Foundation Prize for the best performance in Final Honour School of Macroeconomics (joint recipient).

Oriel College has awarded an additional nine prizes to students. These prizes are possible because of the generous contributions of donors.

• Olivia Sandhu — Eugene Lee-Hamilton Sonnet Prize.
• Katie Osagwu Rodriguez — Hammick Progress in Chemistry Prize
• Ben Gilmore — HB Robinson Prize for academic and sporting excellence.
• Jack Olsburgh — Sir Derek Morris Prize for Economics.
• Dowon Jung — Gower Creative Arts Memorial Prize (joint recipient).
• Roland Fischer-Vousden — Gower Creative Arts Memorial Prize (joint recipient).
• Srishti Kochar — John Shannon Prize in History.
• Samuel Grace — Macdonald Prize in Engineering (First Year).
• Amelia-Anne Carse — Macdonald Prize in Engineering (Third Year).