Arthur Fonville Award

An annual award for a stroke research dissertation by a medical student in Edinburgh or Amsterdam.

This is an award for a 1,500-3,000 word dissertation summarising a research project into any aspect of stroke, conducted by a medical student in year 3 to 6 at the University of Edinburgh or the University of Amsterdam .

There is a prize of £100 for the best entry from each country, plus the opportunity of a further award of up to ~£750 to support dissemination of the research at a conference, in a journal, or in further work in the two years after the award

This posthumous award was established in memory of Arthur Fonville, a medical student from the University of Amsterdam, who worked with the Research to Understand Stroke due to Haemorrhage (RUSH) team in Edinburgh 2011-2013, and died in September 2014.

How to apply

The 2023 competition details will be confirmed shortly.   The winner will  be announced in mid-October and presentation of the Arthur Fonville award will take place in November 2022.  Dissertations should be sent to rosemary.anderson@ed.ac.uk. The best dissertation is chosen by a panel of members of the RUSH group.

This year's winners

2022:  Mohshin Syed and Serena Baker (both Edinburgh)

• Mohshin Syed for his project “Selective outcome reporting in randomised controlled trials including participants with stroke or transient ischaemic attack: a systematic review”
• Serena Baker for her project “Are There Sex Differences in Thrombectomy Utilisation in Treatment of Acute Ischaemic Stroke? A Systematic Review”.   Amazing Serena also won the 2021 “Great British Sewing Bee”, as if she didn’t have enough on with medical training and various other clinical projects.

Previous winners

2021: Yawen Xiang (Edinburgh) & Noa van den Bos (Amsterdam)

• Yawen Xiang is a year 6 medical student at University of Edinburgh.  Her dissertation was entitled 'Which pathologies contribute to pre-existing dementia in adults with spontaneous (non-traumatic) intracerebral haemorrhage'
• Noa van den Bos is a medical student from the Amsterdam University Medical Centres, University of Amsterdam.  Her dissertation was entitled 'Patient and proxies’ attitudes towards Deferred Consent in randomised trials of acute treatment for stroke: Qualitative survey' 

2020: Maritta van Stigt and Brendan Sargent.

• Maritta van Stigt is a PhD candidate at Academisch Medisch Centrum, University of Amsterdam. Her dissertation was entitled “Identification of large vessel occlusions in patients with suspected stroke using ambulant electroencephalography”.
• Brendan Sargent is a medical student at the University of Edinburgh. He wrote his dissertation on “A cohort study of the effects of perihaematomal oedema on long-term outcomes of intracerebral haemorrhage.”

2019: Laura Cunningham & Leon Rinkel. For more information see Winners of the Arthur Fonville Award 2019

2018: Edward Christopher & Kit van der Eng. For more information see Winners of the Arthur Fonville Award 2018

2017: Arina Tamborska & Jason Chan. For more information see: Arthur Fonville Award winners 2017

2016: Vhinoth Sivakumaran & Henry Millar. For more information see: Arthur Fonville Award winners 2016

2015: The three winners of the inaugural competition were:

• Francesca Wright, for “Psychological associations of post-stroke anxiety: A systematic review and meta-analysis”
• Scott Osborne, for “Confirmation and Sub-classification of Stroke Cases in UK Biobank”
• Pheng Toh, for, “Radiographic features of intracerebral haemorrhage associated with pathologically-proven cerebral amyloid angiopathy: systematic review and meta-analysis”

Contribute to the Arthur Fonville fund

Arthur Fonville was a medical student who worked with the Research to Understand Stroke due to Haemorrhage (RUSH) Team in Edinburgh from 2011 to 2013. A medical student from the University of Amsterdam; he made a great impact on his colleagues with his diligence, intellect, and amazing work ethic. Arthur sadly died in September 2014 and is greatly missed.

Your donation to the Arthur Fonville Fund will help to give our researchers a better understanding of the causes and effects of intracerebral haemorrhage. This will ultimately help improve the prognosis for stroke survivors. Thank you.

There are a few different ways to get your donation to the Arthur Fonville Fund. No matter what option you choose, the University of Edinburgh Development Trust will administer your donation and ensure 100% gets to the RUSH team in Edinburgh.