We were delighted when the results were announced: it would be a wonderfully talented RCS woman from Chemistry that topped the nominations for the prestigious 2024 ‘RCSA Prize‘.
At a brief ceremony in front of Queen Victoria’s statue on Commemoration Day, Professor Richard Craster, Dean of RCS (or Dean of FoNS if you want to be terribly modern), and Oscar Farrell, Secretary of the RCSA, shared the officiating duties and presented Kaat Lambrecht from Chemistry with her framed certificate and with a cheque for £300.
The occasion is captured in the photograph above and you can see our prize winner, Kaat Lambrecht, on the left, shaking hands with Professor Richard Craster, Dean of the RCS and watched over by the statue of our Royal patron, Queen Victoria.
Our members will recall that the RCSA Prize was instigated in 1997 and is awarded annually at Commemoration Day to a student “who has excelled academically and made a great all-round contribution to the College“ and Kaat certainly fits the requirements. To give you a flavour, here are a few extracts from her award citations…..
Kaat Lambrecht has been an exceptional undergraduate Chemistry student. Since joining the Chemistry MSci degree programme in October 2020 she has excelled in all aspects of her Chemistry studies.
Kaat was ranked 2nd in the MSci class of 2024 having been on the Dean’s List (in other words in the top ten percent of her class) for all four years of her course. She will continue her Chemistry studies through a PhD at Imperial beginning now, in October 2024, funded through one of the prestigious Dean’s PhD Scholarships. Her research is investigating the development of photocatalysts for the remediation of NOx pollutants.
From 2022 to 2024 Kaat acted as an Imperial College London Student Ambassador, and during the same period she served as a mentor on the College’s Sutton Trust Outreach activities. Of particular note is her participation as a Student Partner in one of Imperial’s pedagogy projects, Learning How to Learn, where her written output was taken as an exemplar of best practice. She is a regular campus tour guide and is an outstanding student representative of the Imperial Chemistry Department and the University more widely.
So many congratulations to Kaat Lambrecht, our exceedingly worthy 2024 winner of the RCSA Prize.
(if you like these prizes and the other forms of support we offer to our students, why not help us do more? Consider making a donation to the RCSA Trust here. With no staff and no building costs you can be assured that every penny of your donation will be gratefully received and faithfully applied to assist the students of the Royal College of Science).
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