The Ranald Macdonald Postgraduate Research Award is presented annually to the best UK Postgraduate thesis, dissertation or project (MSc, MRes, MPhil, Professional Doctorate, DPhil or PhD) using mathematics, statistics or computing in an interesting, or novel, way to investigate an aspect of Psychology. The award consists of £150 and expenses up to £200 to attend the section’s Annual Scientific Meeting.
Previous 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.
The 2015 Award
Applications are now invited for the 2015 award.
To apply, please email the section secretary, Dr Gerry Markopoulos, with the following information:
1. Your full contact details including name, institution, degree title, 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.
The deadline for submissions is the 15th of September 2015 at 5pm.
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.
A condition of accepting the award is the presentation of the winning work at the section’s Annual Scientific meeting (scheduled for Saturday 12th of December 2015) and (in the unusual case that the winner is not a member) joining the Mathematical, Statistical & Computing (MSC) Psychology Section.
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
The use of novel mathematics, statistics or computing methods.
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.
The Mathematical, Statistical & Computing Psychology Section of the B.P.S. 