Physics postgraduate student Jodi Walsh was awarded 2nd place in the first Leif Bjørnø Award for 'Best Student Presentation', at the 2017 Underwater Acoustics Conference (UAC) in Skiathos. Launched in 2013, the conference is hosted in different parts of Greece and is already one of the premier international events in its field.
Following her first class MPhys (Hons) degree at Bath, Jodi became a PhD student on the NERC-GW4+ DTP course, based here but jointly led with Exeter under the supervision of Exeter tutors Dr Philipp Thies and Dr Lars Johanning, and Physics Senior Lecturer Dr Philippe Blondel.
It isn't her first award. In 2014 she won the Bath BP Centurion Award for academic excellence and contribution to the life, academic reputation and general work of the University.
This new one was for a presentation called 'Acoustic Lifecycle Assessment of Offshore Renewables - Implications from a Wave-energy Convertor Deployment in Falmouth Bay, UK'. Named in honour of Professor Leif Bjørnø, a pioneer in underwater acoustics and co-organiser of the UAC until his death in 2015, the prize recognises students who have performed excellently in science, and conveyed their findings well at an international level.
Jodi said: "Participating enabled me to meet scientists from all over the world, and appreciate the wide diversity of the applications of underwater acoustics as well as the complexities of the underlying physics. I'm very proud to have received one of the first Leif Bjørnø Awards, especially after having read so many of his articles when starting out."
"I am, of course, extremely proud, although not surprised," said Philippe. "The judging committee was very impressed with Jodi's performance, and she has since been invited to publish the next stages of this work by one of the leading publications in this arena."