Celebrating Excellence in Neuroscience: WiNUK Awards 2024

13th Dec 2024

The British Neuroscience Association (BNA) was proud to partner with Women in Neuroscience UK (WiNUK) for the inaugural WiNUK Awards 2024, on 29th November in Cambridge. The inspirational evening celebrated the achievements of female-identifying neuroscientists, highlighted groundbreaking sex and gender research, and championed efforts to build a more inclusive and equitable neuroscience community - a goal shared by WiNUK and the BNA.

Recognising Talent and Promoting Inclusion

As part of our commitment to building an inclusive and equitable neuroscience community, the BNA was proud to sponsor two awards: the WiNUK Rising Star of the Year Awards and the WiNUK Neuroscience Communicator of the Year Award. These awards spotlighted exceptional contributions to neuroscience made by women in the field.

Charlotte Shepherd, Head of Partnerships and Development at the BNA, represented the BNA Executive Team at the event. Charlotte said “presenting the awards and meting the nominees and winners was an honour. The WiNUK Awards are a wonderful example of how we can build a more inclusive community and demonstrates once again how much representation matters.”

WiNUK Rising Star of the Year Awards

The Rising Star of the Year Awards recognised emerging talent at various career stages, with winners receiving a year’s free BNA membership. The winners were:

• Undergraduate: Shloka Dhareshwar, Integrated Master’s student at Cardiff University
• Postgraduate: Dr Katie McKinnon, neonatal subspeciality trainee in the London School of Paediatrics and PhD candidate in the Institute of Regeneration and Repair at the University of Edinburgh.
• Postdoctoral: Dr Coco Newton, Independent Postdoctoral Research Fellow at UCL, Delft University of Technology, and Cambridge
• Early Group Leader: Dr Maura Malpetti, Senior Research Associate at the University of Cambridge, Bye-Fellow at Sidney Sussex College, and Emerging Leader at the UK Dementia Research Institute (UKDRI).

WiNUK Neuroscience Communicator of the Year Award

Rebecca William, a PhD student at the MRC Cognition & Brain Sciences Unit, University of Cambridge, was honored with the Neuroscience Communicator of the Year Award. Rebecca’s dedication to making neuroscience accessible to diverse audiences, including  impactful talks for organisations such as The Zimbabwean Ndinewe Foundation, reflects the importance of engaging the public in science. Her award includes the opportunity to publish her research in BNA Journal: Brain and Neuroscience Advances.

Special Recognition

We were delighted that the BNA’s own President, Professor Tara Spires-Jones was presented with the Leading Researcher of the Year Award in Neuropathology and Ageing.

Professor Spires-Jones’ exemplary leadership and contributions to neuroscience embody the values celebrated at the WiNUK Awards.

The evening’s program included a keynote presentation from Dr Flaminia Ronca on Sport and the Female Brain, a fascinating talk reinforcing the importance of diverse perspectives in advancing scientific understanding.

The BNA is honoured to support WiNUK’s mission to tackle gender bias in neuroscience and offers our congratulations to all nominees and winners, whose achievements inspire the next generation of neuroscientists.