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St Hugh’s MBiol student wins award for the best research project dissertation

Congratulations to St Hugh’s alumna, Eloise Elkington (Mbiol Biology, 2020), who was awarded the Southern Field Studies Prize for 2024. The prize is awarded to the best research project dissertation in the field of Ecosystems, Conversation and Sustainable Development in the final (4th) year of the MBiol, in memory of Dr H N Southern, and is awarded to the candidate who has shown the greatest aptitude for Zoological field studies in independent project work.

Commenting on Eloise’s project, entitled: “Automated Insights: Exploring the benthic diversity of reefs in the Chagos Archiplago”, the Examiner said,’ This dissertation is communicated extremely well. The candidate writes at the level seen in published articles (both language and formatting), and the problems addressed by the research are timely and make a substantial contribution’.

Eloise was fortunate enough to receive a St Hugh’s Travel grant which allowed her to attend the Bertarelli Foundation Conference in the Maldives, the experience of which significantly contributed to the success of her dissertation. Commenting on her trip and research, Eloise said, ‘The conference was a meeting of researchers, based all over the world, who are connected by their work on a remote Archipelago in the Central Indian Ocean, the Chagos Archipelago. The Archipelago is one of the world’s largest and most remote marine protected areas, meaning that study of its terrestrial and marine environment offers crucial insights into an ecosystem spared of direct anthropogenic influence. I had the opportunity to study images of the reefs of the Chagos Archipelago for my master’s project. I examined these images to assess the health and condition of reefs around one of the islands.

‘By attending this conference, I also had the opportunity to present my research aims and early findings. Most importantly however, I had the chance to listen to state-of-the-art ongoing marine research carried out in the Chagos archipelago. Not only was this incredibly inspiring, but also gave me an understanding of where my own work contributed and fitted into the broader research aims in the region. Understanding this has allowed me to tailor my work to contribute and support ongoing projects. By meeting these researchers, with such diverse research interests and approaches, I was able to network with potential academic collaborators and supervisors, a unique chance to explore studies outside of Oxford and my current research project.

‘In summary, this trip has not only deepened my understanding of local conservation, a topic vital for my masters project, but also inspired me to pursue a career working to contribute to conserving the Chagos Archipelago and other globally important ecosystems. I now understand the diverse range of research efforts and also challenges faced in this field but have hope that we are moving towards a world where we appreciate and respect the fantastic biodiversity around us and invest in its protection. I am extremely grateful for this opportunity, which was made possible by the generosity of the St Hugh’s Travel Grant,’

Eloise’s Tutor, Professor Rachel Tanner, said, ‘We are very proud of Eloise’s well-deserved award – it has been a pleasure to follow the progress of her project from conception through to successful execution, and the inevitable hurdles she overcame along the way. Biology at St Hugh’s is going from strength to strength and Eloise has played an integral role in forming such a coherent and supportive community among the students’.