The winner of the first Ex Aula prize, for the best article submitted to the Teddy Hall MCR online journal, has been announced as Elizabeth Raine (2014, DPhil in Zoology). Elizabeth receives the £500 prize for her intriguingly-titled article, ‘Dung Beetles: We Should All Talk More About Poo’, in which she discusses the fascinating and often underestimated role played by dung beetles in reusing waste.
Ex Aula was started by the MCR (Middle Common Room, the College’s postgraduate student body) in January this year, as a new initiative to share and publicise more of the research being carried out by its members, in a wide variety of different subject areas. All the journal articles are aimed at non-specialist readers, and give a quick introduction to some aspect of the writer’s research area.
DPhil students Tim Donnison (photo: left) and Trent Taylor (photo: right) are the founders and editors of Ex Aula, and are already looking forward to encouraging more submissions in the next academic year and continuing to build the readership of the journal. “We both feel that the inaugural year for Ex Aula went tremendously well,” said Tim, “with all the published articles being accessible, interesting and covering a range of subject areas.”