Congratulations to this year’s PhD thesis prize winners

Recognising the outstanding research of our PhD students.

The School awards annual prizes to postgraduate research students who have produced outstanding PhD theses in each of the research areas. Each prize comes with a cash award of £1,000. These prizes recognise research successfully defended in 2025.

The winners are:

Higgs Prize for the best PhD thesis in Theoretical Physics

Kostas Tzanavaris

Thesis title: Path Integrals and Black Mirrors

Institute for Astronomy PhD thesis prize winner

Pengyu Liu

Thesis title: Surveying Young Substellar Objects: Formation Pathways and Atmospheres

Institute for Condensed Matter and Complex Systems PhD thesis prize winner

Max Huisman

Thesis title: Diffusion-limited evaporation of polymer solutions

Institute for Particle and Nuclear Physics PhD thesis prize winner

Mary Richardson-Slipper

Thesis title: From Inauguration to Upgrade: Studying Charmless Beauty at LHCb

Many congratulations to all recipients.