An outstanding student at the University of Aberdeen will today (March 25) be the first postgraduate student in Scotland to be awarded The Robertson Medal, as the best applicant to The Carnegie Trust Scholarship Scheme.
The first Robertson Medallist will be PhD student Helen Zyw who will hold her Carnegie Scholarship in the French Department within the School of Language and Literature. Helen will be presented with the medal by Sir Lewis Robertson, retired Chairman of the Carnegie Trust for Scotland and the current Chairman Sir David Edward at a reception to be held at the University.
The Scholarship provides three years of funding and is awarded to 12 scholars a year across Scotland. Helen was judged as this year's best applicant. Helen is a mature student who first graduated MA from the University in 1983, and then converted this to an honours degree in 2002. Helen has returned to the University to undertake her PhD in Mediaeval French love poetry.
Welcoming the accolade, Carnegie Professor of French, Alison Saunders, French Department, whose own Chair was endowed by the Carnegie Trust in 1925, said: "Helen was an outstanding undergraduate. Her first class honours degree in French was made up of first class marks in every single course she took, which is an achievement I have never seen before. We are all very pleased to have her back doing postgraduate work at Aberdeen, and are delighted that the Carnegie Trust has honoured her achievement in this way."