2024 Perse Rouse Award winners announced

The four winners of this year’s Perse Rouse Award have received praise for the undergraduate level of their research investigations.

The Rouse Award is an internally-assessed independent research programme for Lower Sixth students in which subject specialist teachers help guide their investigations.

A panel featuring renowned academics, including Dr Matthew Kenzie (OP 2005), Dr Alex Loktionov (OP 2011), Dr Jonathan Shanahan, Professor Clare Chambers, Dr Sue Brindley and Professor Ayse Zarakol, judged the 12 shortlisted entries before deciding upon the winners.

The 2024 winners are:
• Ella – How did tea shape British national identity and contribute to an imperialist society in Britain?
• Marcus – To what extent could a muometric positioning system be the best method of navigation in an underground environment? An experiment to determine the average positional refresh rate due to angular muon flux.
• Ellen – How do GLP-1 receptor agonist weight loss drugs work and will they be the solution to the obesity epidemic?
• Kyla – Why are more boys born than girls?

Perse Head of Research Hazel Knight said: “The panel was highly impressed with this year’s projects, noting similarities to undergraduate work and commenting on the ambitious choice of topics and approaches.

“They were pleased to report that the students interviewed very well, effectively defending their positions while demonstrating commendable flexibility when addressing challenges and new ideas.

“As always, we had a huge number of entries to the Rouse competition, so to be chosen as one of the 12 projects to reach the panel stage is a huge accomplishment. Congratulations to our winners, Marcus, Kyla, Ellen and Ella.”

Discover more about independent research opportunities at The Perse on our dedicated Perse Research website.