2024 BNA Scholars announced

15th Mar 2024

We are thrilled to announce the fourth cohort of students accepted on to the BNA Scholars Programme. 

This month, the BNA Scholars Programme welcomed seven new talented young scientists. Yet again, this year's applications consisted of an exceptional standard of submissions from across neuroscience. 

The Programme was developed in 2020 in consultation with BNA members and other world-leading organisations interested in improving equity, diversity and inclusion in neuroscience. The aim is to support the careers of young scientists from currently under-represented ethnic groups and build a supportive community within the discipline and the BNA. 

Entering into its fourth year, the Programme has expanded in response to feedback from existing cohorts, and now offers students a mentoring scheme, a range of bespoke career development and networking opportunities from academia and industry, attendance at national and international conferences, and membership to both the BNA and FENS. 

We’d like to offer huge thanks to our valued Supporters who continue to provide diverse career development opportunities as well as critical funding.  

Congratulations to all the selected applicants! We look forward to working with this new cohort of BNA Scholars.

Please join us in welcoming our new BNA Scholars: 

Portraits below, left to right: 

Qiming (Simon) Yuan – PhD student, University of Oxford 

Sahar Uppal – BSc student, University of Warwick 

Anna Verghese – PhD student, University of Oxford 

Amina Begum – BSc student, University of Westminster 

Dr Yasir Widatalla – Research Assistant, Dementia Platform UK, University of Cambridge 

Misbah Fayaz – BSc student, University of Bristol 

Spatika Jayaram – PhD student, University of Cambridge 

You can read more about each of these Scholars and their neuroscience careers so far here.

As always, we are very grateful for the ongoing commitment from our Founding Supporters as well as supporters who have joined us since then, with whom the BNA has been able to continue to offer this unique scheme: The Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry (ABPI), Alzheimer's Research UK (ARUK), Beckley Psytech, Bristol Neuroscience, COMPASS Pathways, DeepMind, Dementia Researcher, Gatsby Foundation, Guarantors of Brain, HelloBio, the Department of Brain Sciences at Imperial College London, International Brain Research Organization (IBRO), the School of Neuroscience at King's College London, London Metropolitan University, MSD, the UK Dementia Research Institute (UK DRI), University of Sussex/Sussex Neuroscience and Wellcome. We are incredibly thankful for their collected dedication to the BNA Scholars Programme and its associated EDI activities. 

Visit the Programme's hub on our website to find out more about the BNA Scholars and this exciting Programme.