2015 Ranald Macdonald Postgraduate Research Award

Deadline for applications: 15 September 2015

This will be awarded to the best UK Postgraduate thesis/dissertation/project (MSc, MRes, MPhil, Professional Doctorate, DPhil or PhD) using mathematics, statistics or computing in an interesting and/or novel way to investigate an aspect of Psychology. The work and qualification upon which the award is assessed must have been awarded between the 1st of January 2014 and the 31st of December 2014.

The award consists of £150 and expenses up to £200 to attend the section's Annual Scientific Meeting. A condition of accepting the award is the presentation of the winning work at that meeting (scheduled for Saturday 12^th of December 2015) and (in the unusual case that the winner is not a member) to join the Mathematical, Statistical & Computing (MSC) Psychology Section.

Details about eligibility and the (simple) application process can be found below, or by contacting the Section Secretary Dr Gerry Markopoulos.

Please note the deadline for submissions will be the 15^th of September 2015 at 5pm.

How to apply:

Please email the following to the MSC section secretary Dr Gerry Markopoulos, at g.markopoulos at bathspa.ac.uk

1.   Your full contact details including Name, Institution, Degree Title and Date the qualification was awarded, Address, Email, Telephone number and Supervisor Name(s).

2.   The extended abstract from your thesis outlining the findings of your work.

3.   A supporting statement from one of your supervisory team briefly describing the importance and contribution of your thesis work and its suitability for the award (no more than 300 words) and listing any peer-reviewed publications associated with the work.

Procedure

Your application will be considered by a panel of Mathematical, Statistical and Computing Section Committee members, and the panel’s decision will be final. One or more submissions will be short-listed and their authors may be invited to submit the complete thesis to the panel for final consideration via PDF. The panel reserves the right not to short-list any candidates if the panel does not deem the quality of submissions to be sufficiently high. From time to time the panel may also seek the views of expert reviewers on the quality of a submission prior to short-listing or to making an award. The panel may, in exceptional circumstances, make a split award between two equally deserving candidates.

Criteria for making the award:

Emphasis will be placed on the following criteria:

·     use of novel mathematics, statistics or computing

·     reference to substantive issues in psychology or related disciplines

·     clarity of exposition of the mathematical or statistical concepts

·     potential or actual contribution to the field, via peer-reviewed publication

Some previous award winners:

Dr Ron McDowell (An examination of mood and anxiety disorders across the adult lifespan using multiple group methods: the EU-WMH project.)

Dr Colette Corry (Suicide through the lifespan: a cumulative proportional odds model of life stage risk.)

Dr Gareth Hager Johnson (Latent variable modelling of personality-health associations: measures, models and extensions.)