Congratulations Lauren Barrett award winning PhD student

9 Sep 2026

Congratulations to Ms. Lauren Barrett, final year PhD student, and  UCC BSc Neuroscience graduate, working in the Department of Anatomy and Neuroscience and Department of Pharmacology and Therapeutics UCC with Professor Gerard O’Keeffe, Professor Aideen Sullivan, Dr Louise Collins, and Professor Kieran McDermott, School of Medicine, University of Limerick., who has had a very busy and successful academic year to date.

Lauren was awarded First prize for Best Oral Presentation at the European Student Symposium on Anatomical Research in the University of Salamanca, Spain on September 2^nd 2025 hosted by the European Federation for Experimental Morphology.

The event included 18 student research presentations representing 10 Anatomical societies across Europe. Lauren represented the UK Anatomical Society and was delighted to be awarded best oral presentation.  

This was followed on June 15^th, 2026 when Lauren was awarded the Highly Commended Postgraduate Researcher of the Year Award at the 2026 College of Medicine and Health Postgraduate Research Student Awards, in recognition of her excellence in research, dissemination of research, and her communication with and contribution to, the scientific community.  This award recognises the outstanding achievements and contributions of Postgraduate Research (PGR) students (Doctoral or MSc Research) within their research field.

The highlight of the year to date for Lauren was winning the prestigious Dr. Sophie Miller Memorial Prize at the 2026 Anatomical Society Summer Meeting at the University of Bristol in July.

The Dr Sophie Miller Memorial Prize Lecture is an annual event which provides a career development platform dedicated to young researchers through supported attendance at the Annual Anatomical Science meeting and early experience in academic presentation.  Entrants present their own promising unpublished or early published anatomical research at the summer scientific meeting of the Society.

The 2026 Dr Sophie Miller Memorial Prize was awarded to Lauren where she gave a 30-minute presentation on her PhD work describing her work exploring the potential of SKOR1 as a novel therapeutic treatment target using models of Parkinson’s Disease.

Lauren said that she was delighted to have had this exceptional opportunity to present her work at the Annual Anatomical Society meeting and to have been awarded the prestigious Sophie Miller Award, and to have the honour of speaking to the family of Dr Sophie Miller about her research.

Link: Dr Sophie Miller Award 2026