Hayley Foy-Stones, a Medical Science student at GMIT, has won top national international awards for research project into HPV and its links to cancer.
Her research, titled “The association of the Human Papillomavirus (HPV) with P16ink4a in Head and Neck Cancer” was the top undergraduate entry at a conference of the Academy of Clinical Science & Laboratory Medicine in Dublin earlier this year.
At that conference she also won the President’s Prize for her exceptional research and the paper that came of it.
In October she went on to represent Ireland at the European Association for Professionals in Biomedical Science (EPBS) in Portugal.
There she won the Martin Nicholson overall award, given to the student with the best scientific presentation in all of Europe.
To top it all of Hayley went on to win Student Research Project of the Year 2018 at the Irish Healthcare Awards which took place that same month.
Dr Seamus Lennon, Head of the GMIT Department of Biopharmaceutical & Medical Science, paid tribute to Hayley for her hard work and talent, saying:
“Hayley’s great work ethic paid off and she deserves the several accolades which she has obtained for her research work.”
Student of the Medical Science course are required to complete a seven month placement at a clinical hospital.
Hayley performed hers at Tullamore Regional Hospital, then returned to complete her final year project.
“Staff in the School of Science here are delighted with her achievements, first in Europe for one of our students,” said Dr Lennon.
“This is the third time in nine years that a GMIT student has won the Europe-wide competition.”
“All this success is a testament to the students, the applied nature of the course, and the lecturers on the Medical Science programme.”
