Sport and Exercise Science undergraduate student Kate Sansum and postgraduate student Jonathan Watkins have each won a Rob Clarke Award for the quality of their research projects, abstracts and posters.

The prizes were awarded at the Europhisiology Conference 2018 in London, where the participating students presented their research posters. The event was co-hosted by The Physiological Society, the Scandinavian Physiological Society, the Deutsche Physiologische Gesellschaft and the Federation of European Physiological Societies.

Kate Sansum is currently in her fourth year studying BSc (Hons) Sport and Exercise Science, having just returned from her placement as Research Assistant at the Children’s Health and Exercise Research Centre (CHERC), University of Exeter. Her winning research project Validity of the Supramaximal Test to Verify Maximal Oxygen Uptake in Children and Adolescents is based on her placement year and is currently going through revision after being peer-reviewed for publication.

Reflecting on her win, Kate said: “I was delighted and shocked to receive the Rob Clarke Award for my placement year project. To have the work I have completed this year recognised by The Physiological Society is incredible and to be given the opportunity to present the project at an international conference was a great experience.”

Student Jonathan Watkins’ award submission was in fact his MSci Sport and Exercise Science dissertation project investigating fat accumulation in response to galactose ingestion with a high fat meal. Jonathan found that here was greater fat concentration in the blood following galactose ingestion which provides a good foundation for future work on the role of galactose or milk sugar in health.

Having just finished his master’s course at the University of Bath, Jonathan is continuing onto a PhD at the University under the supervision of Dr Javier Gonzalez. He said: “I am very proud of my project and thoroughly enjoyed completing the study and finding some really interesting and novel results. I am delighted to have been shortlisted for such a great award and very thankful for the opportunity to present my work at such a prestigious conference.”

“I'm also very grateful for all the support provided by my supervisor Dr Javier Gonzalez and very excited to start a PhD with him in the near future.”

Also in attendance at the Europhysiology Conference was PhD student Aaron Hengist as well as Health Lecturer Javier Gonzalez who chaired the symposium Fructose in Physiology: Friend or Foe?