Geoff Hall Scholarships - winners and details of this year's contest
The Geoff Hall Scholarships are given in honour of a former President of EMWA. Geoff was a very special person, an extremely valued member of EMWA, and a very good friend to many EMWA members. He firmly believed that the future of EMWA lies in our new and potential members, and so it’s a very fitting legacy that we have the Scholarship Awards in his memory. The Scholarships are awarded annually on the basis of an essay competition, and the title of this year’s essay was ‘How would you go about identifying a predatory journal?’ This year’s scholarship winners were Adriana Rocha and Petal Smart.
Adriana Rocha has a degree in Biochemistry from Portugal, which was followed by a PhD in Medical Neurosciences in Germany. After a postdoc in the USA she decided to leave academic research and transition into industry. She is now a freelance medical writer.
Petal Smart is a veterinary surgeon by training. Over the past five years, she has been a medical/science editor serving primarily non-native English-speaking authors. She has a keen interest in regulatory affairs as they relate to medical devices, both those intended for human use and those intended for veterinary use.
Adriana’s and Petal’s winning essays are presented in the June issue of Medical Writing, and we wish them the very best at the start of their very promising medical writing careers.
For those of you inspired to pick up your laptop, and looking for something to fill your time during quarantine, this year’s essay title is ‘Do you have what it takes to be a Medical Writer? Discuss three attributes or skills that best qualify one to be a Medical Writer’.