Nine international graduates announced as finalists in British Council’s Study UK Alumni Awards
Nine Newcastle University graduates across Africa, East and South Asia, Europe and the Middle East have made the finals of this year’s Study UK Alumni Awards, celebrating their impact and dedication in their respective fields. Congratulations all!
5 February 2024
Congratulations to the Newcastle University alumni who have been named finalists in the national Study UK Alumni Awards around the world.
Nine Newcastle University graduates across Africa, East and South Asia, Europe and the Middle East have made the finals of this year’s Study UK Alumni Awards, celebrating their impact and dedication in their respective fields.
The Alumni Awards celebrate the outstanding achievements of alumni and showcase the impact and value of a UK higher education. Award winners and finalists are leaders in their fields who have used their experience of studying at a UK university to make a positive contribution to their communities, professions, and countries.
Read on to meet our shortlisted alumni in the 2024 awards.
Dr Abdullah Alarifi Alkaldi (PhD Applied Linguistics, 2010) is a finalist in the Social Action category in his home nation of Saudi Arabia.
Abdullah applied the knowledge gained from his language degrees at Manchester and Newcastle Universities to upskill his colleagues when he returned to Saudi Arabia, using the modern communicative approach rather than the traditional grammar translation approach.
When Abdullah joined the Ministry of Education, he uncovered a shortfall in Saudi Arabian students applying to UK universities and zero PhD candidates from his home nation applying to UK institutions. Following his own positive experience in the UK, Abdullah campaigned with the Saudi Minister and the Riyadh British Council Director to establish a scholarship programme to make it easier for students from his home country to benefit from a UK education. Thanks to his efforts, the number of Saudi students in the UK increased from 3,000 in 2002 to 28,000 just a decade later!
Professor Ahmed El Naggar (PhD Chemical Engineering, 2012) has been shortlisted for the Science and Sustainability award in Egypt’s Study UK Alumni Awards.
Ahmed arrived in Newcastle in 2007, following successfully gaining a governmental scholarship with support from his workplace, the Egyptian Petroleum Research Institute. During his time in the UK, he gained insights into the field of green energy technologies and sustainable sources of energy production.
Upon returning to his home country in 2012, Ahmed put this learning into action to the benefit of his company and the wider engineering sector in Egypt. For example, he has supervised 23 postgraduate students and taught at summer schools, supporting more than 2,500 undergraduates from different universities. Ahmed has also been awarded 4 patents, including one in the UK, published over 65 research articles in internationally reputed journals and supported the Egyptian Petroleum Research Institute to successfully apply for research grants which have brought in new equipment to the benefit of hundreds of colleagues.
Aigul Nurkeyeva (MA Media and Journalism, 2017) is shortlisted in the Culture and Creativity category in the Kazakhstan awards.
Aigul began her journalism career in 1998, and quickly rose in the ranks to become editor-in-chief of the regional socio-political newspaper Aktubinskyi Vestnik at the age of 26.
To support her in this leadership role, Aigul embarked on a postgraduate degree at Newcastle University. Her experience here developed skills in multimedia and citizen journalism, skills Aigul shared with her workforce on returning to Kazakhstan. For example, Aigul trained colleagues on the use of Adobe InDesign and grew the social media presence of the newspaper to increase its readership.
In December 2022, Aigul was appointed Deputy Director of Aktobe Media and is now in charge of two newspapers – one in Russian and the other in Kazakh. She has also recently been elected a deputy of the regional maslikhat – or local parliament – where she applies the critical thinking and analytical skills gained in the UK to solve problems in her region.
Éverton Simões Van-Dal, who spent a year at Newcastle University studying Chemical Engineering as part of the Science Without Borders programme in 2012-13, is up for the Science and Sustainability award in his home nation of Brazil.
His time at Newcastle University helped Éverton shift his professional focus which led to a flagship project between his employer Braskem, a Brazilian petrochemical company, the American start-up Made In Space and NASA. This collaboration aimed to develop a renewable source material for zero-gravity 3D printing. The material was launched to the International Space Station (ISS) in 2016 and used by NASA astronauts for 3D printing.
Additionally, Éverton has been active in the field of bio-based chemicals and plastics for the past 10 years, working on the development of innovative technologies - catalytic or biotechnological - for the production of chemicals and plastics from renewable sources to replace fossil raw materials. Everton was a key stakeholder in the conception and implementation of the joint venture between Braskem and Sojitz, a company dedicated to technology and business development for the production of low-carbon, bio-based MEG from renewable sources.
Gulnara Zholzhanova (MA Media and Journalism, 2017) joins fellow Newcastle alumna Aigul in the national Kazakhstan awards, where she is also a finalist in the Culture and Creativity category.
To find solutions to the crisis traditional print media was facing in Kazakhstan at the time, Gulnara embarked on a Master’s programme at Newcastle University, researching how other countries were adapting to remain relevant and applying this to her knowledge of the media sphere in her home country.
Once back in Kazakhstan, Gulnara shared the knowledge gained in the UK with specialists working on the development of traditional media, including the Minister of Information and Social Development at the time, Dharkhan Kydyrali. Working with other scientific journalists like her, Gulnara participated in conferences and roundtables dedicated to print, television and radio, and published articles in the Republican newspaper Eqemen Qazaqstan.
The importance of traditional media outlets was further exemplified for Gulnara during the COVID-19 pandemic, when the population relied on information from these outlets to stay informed, especially those living in remote villages. In 2023, Gulnara returned to the UK to continue her research.
Hamad Ali (PhD, 2011) spent four years at Newcastle University, gaining both an MSc and PhD in Medical Genetics. Upon his return to Kuwait, he joined Kuwait University's Faculty of Medicine and quickly identified a pressing healthcare challenge in Kuwait: Autosomal Dominant Polycystic Kidney Disease (ADPKD), a genetic disorder that leads to kidney disease.
Hamad established Kuwait's first specialised laboratory dedicated exclusively to ADPKD genetics research and forged collaborations with academics in the UK, including from the renowned Mayo Clinic, to launch a global research network. Together, this group conducted a landmark study that unveiled the third most common gene responsible for ADPKD—an achievement of global significance.
Recognising the hereditary nature of ADPKD, Hamad then turned his attention to prevention. By merging the genetic insights with in vitro fertilization (IVF), Hamad and his team were able to offer families a groundbreaking avenue to prevent the transmission of ADPKD from one generation to the next.
Dr Jinwei Zhang (PhD Biotechnology, 2011) was shortlisted in the Science and Sustainability category in the national China Study UK Awards, which took place on 9 December 2023.
Having completed his undergraduate and Master’s degrees in his home country of China, Jinwei arrived in the UK in 2008 to embark on his PhD journey at Newcastle University, supported by the prestigious Dorothy Hodgkin Postgraduate Award.
Jinwei’s PhD was in the field of biotechnology, and during his time at Newcastle, he studied natural bioactive compounds and their applications in human health. This research laid the foundation for his later discovery of potent kinase inhibitors, a monumental step in combatting Parkinson’s disease, and a discovery which gained Jinwei international recognition.
Dr Rashmira Balasuriya (MBBS, 2015) is a finalist in the Sri Lanka national awards, in the Social Action category.
Rashmira studied medicine at Newcastle University Malaysia from 2010-2015, during which she volunteered with the Students for Kids International Project and spent a summer in Cambodia providing sexual and reproductive health education to students. This experience, along with a six-week placement at the Family Planning Association of Sri Lanka, cultivated Rashmira’s passion for sexual and reproductive health rights and shaped her future career trajectory.
While completing her local internship as a doctor back in Sri Lanka in 2018 (equivalent to F1/F2 in the UK), Rashmira volunteered with grassroots organisation, the Arka Initiative, to improve sexual and reproductive health in her home country. She is now a Director for the organisation and has campaigned extensively on the topic of period poverty – advocating for a tax reduction on menstrual products. Her work has seen the tax reduced from 101.5% to 26.5%. In addition, Rashmira hosts workshops in schools across Sri Lanka filling the gap in the national curriculum for sex education.
As a research enthusiast, she is now conducting research on cervical cancer screening uptake in Sri Lanka, in hopes of improving the screening campaign that exists in Sri Lanka – where the current uptake is poor.
Souhail Aboulfadile, a Moroccan national who came to Newcastle University’s School of Engineering as an Erasmus student in 2022, has been shortlisted for the Science and Sustainability award in France.
Souhail was awarded a two-year Erasmus Mundus scholarship to pursue a Master’s degree in hydro-informatics and water management. His second semester was spent at Newcastle University and was a “turning point” in his studies, bridging the gap between science and real-world issues and enriching his critical thinking skills.
Following his time at Newcastle, Souhail secured a highly competitive internship at prestigious insurance company AXA in Paris, during which he led a project modelling the flood risk for the entire city of Paris. Souhail’s work answered questions about the vulnerability of homes and the magnitude of potential hazards due to fluvial, pluvial, and climate change scenarios. Later, as an employee, Souhail worked on a project relating to water level drops for a hydroelectric dam in the United States which powers approximately 1.3 million homes.
Good luck to our finalists!
We would like to wish our graduate finalists the best of luck for their national Study UK Award ceremonies, which will be taking place in the coming months. Winners from each national ceremony will then be put forward for the Study UK Global Alumni Awards 2024.
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