Outstanding photonics student wins prestigious scholar award

Photonics PhD student, Wanvisa Talataisong, has been selected winner of the 2016-2017 Professor Sir David Payne Student Scholar Award.

This annual Award recognises outstanding achievement by students in the first year of their PhD at the Optoelectronics Research Centre (ORC), University of Southampton. The competition was established following a generous donation by Dr KV Reddy (Pritel Ltd), a long-standing friend of the ORC, on the occasion of Director Professor Sir David’s 70th birthday and 50 years at the University. Sir David began his pioneering career in photonics studying for a PhD at Southampton and the fund creates a legacy that awards excellence among ORC students for many years to come.

Wanvisa, who receives a £3,000 cash prize, was nominated by her PhD supervisor Dr Rand Ismaeel, and chosen by the award panel for her truly outstanding academic achievements.

The panel recognised Wanvisa for ‘demonstrating exceptional skills in scientific research and consistently accomplished excellence in her academic assignments, across the board’. In addition to her exemplary coursework marks, Wanvisa achieved an impressive five publications in her first year, including at the prestigious CLEO Europe conference.

Following the announcement of her win Wanvisa commented: "A positive working atmosphere within the ORC has made a huge contribution to how much I enjoy my research. I greatly appreciate the excellent opportunities and support provided by my supervisor and supervisory team and I am immensely proud to have won this award."

On presenting her with the award at a reception to welcome the new intake of PhD students to the ORC, Professor Sir David Payne said: “Wanvisa is without doubt an exceptionally capable student and her first year performance is an excellent foundation on which to build a highly-successful research career.

“I look forward to seeing Wanvisa develop even further over the course of her PhD, making an impact not only in the academic community but also through outreach initiatives so that an even wider audience can benefit from her competence, high-standards and ambition.â€?