King's College London

Each year the King’s Doctoral College gives out a limited number of awards to celebrate truly outstanding research and theses completed by King’s doctoral students.

The prizes are nominated by the external examiners and are judged by a panel consisting of the College’s Director of Research Talent and the Chair of the Research Degrees Examinations Board. There are two rounds of awards. These are our winners from the first round in 2025.

Winners have been selected from across King's College London and are awarded for their research excellence in wide range of disciplines. 

The winners are: 

Faculty of Arts and Humanities

Dr Mary Ann Vargas
Thesis Title: Re-enacting home away from home.

Faculty of Dentistry, Oral and Craniofacial Sciences

Dr Claire McCarthy
Thesis title: A Comparative Analysis of Aerosol Mitigation and Operational Performance in Ultrasonic Devices using Modified Coolants.

Faculty of Life Sciences and Medicine

Dr Daniel Cromb
Thesis Title: Placental and early brain development in congenital heart disease.

Dr Lucy Durham
Thesis Title: Comparison of skin and joint inflammation in psoriatic arthritis.

Dr Daniel Youkee
Thesis Title: The Impact of Stroke in Sierra Leone: Stroke register methodology in a low-income country setting.

Dr Milou Pertronella Martina Van Poppel
Thesis Title: Antenatal diagnosis of coarctation of the aorta using fetal cardiovascular MRI.

Dr Alice Hurrell
Thesis Title: Placental growth factor-based repeat testing in suspected preterm preeclampsia.

Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience

Dr Qutba Al Ghafri
Thesis Title: Barriers and facilitators to accessing drug use treatment services for people who use drugs from the perspective of service users and service providers in the Muslim world: A focus on the Sultanate of Oman.

Dr Dina Farran
Thesis Title: Stroke prevention in patients with atrial fibrillation and co-morbid physical and mental health problems.

Dr Eileen Brobbin
Thesis Title: Harnessing wearable transdermal alcohol sensor devices for clinical use

The Dickson Poon School of Law

Dr Shunqi Yang
Thesis Title: The regulation of dual-class shares and weighted voting rights: examining the Chinese corporate practices in the context of global capital markets law reform.

Faculty of Natural, Mathematical and Engineering Sciences

Dr Alexander Vernon
Thesis Title: Electromagnetic field dark spots.

Dr Yaoyu Ding
Thesis Title: Advancing Synthetic Strategies for Non-Ribosomal Cyclic Peptides: An Exploration of Facile Methodologies in Macrocyclisation.

You can read winners profiles and find out more about their research on the King's Doctoral College Blog. 

Congratulations to all the King's Outstanding Thesis Prize winners.