The Global Undergraduate Awards

2023: Western scholars among the top in the world in international undergraduate competition

Six Western undergraduate student researchers were recently named among the best in the world in The Global Undergraduate Awards, including three global winners from the Faculty of Arts and Humanities – the faculty’s highest ever number of global winners in one year.

Probing a diverse range of research topics, including ancient literature and medieval studies, brain functionality testing, soil contaminants, ethics in pandemic health care and artificial intelligence, the Western scholars being recognized for their outstanding coursework are:

• James Kenneth, Global Winner in Classical Studies & Archaeology
• Liam Waterman, Global Winner in Literature
• Nathalie DiBerardino, Global Winner in Philosophy
• Lance Javier, Regional Winner in Earth & Environmental Sciences
• Rafeh Shahid, Regional Winner in Medical Sciences
• Kayla Gauthier, Regional Winner in Nursing, Midwifery & Allied Health Care

Read more

2022: Western student researchers selected for Global Undergraduate Awards

Seven honoured for work from diverse disciplines; 15 scholars receive prestigious highly commended rank

Tackling a wide range of research subjects, including cancer research, sports performance, efficient battery charging for high-speed transportation and epigenetics in neuromuscular disease, seven Western undergraduate student researchers were named among the best in the world in the 2022 Global Undergraduate Awards. Joining Western scholars who have been globally recognized for their outstanding research papers are:

• Bailey Thompson, BESc’22; Bruce Gillespie, BESc’22; Adam Kidd, BESc’22, and Parth Vachharajani, BESc’22, for their group project which was named the global winner in the engineering category;
• Leighton Schreyer, BSc’22, global winner in the medical sciences category;
• Rory Gilliland, BSc’22, regional winner in the medical sciences category and
• Riley Cousins, fourth-year science student, regional winner in the nursing, midwifery and allied care category.

Read more >>

Western scholars' research earn top spots in global competition

Tackling subjects like sustainability, contagious viruses and oppression, Western undergraduate researchers were named among the best in the world in four categories of this year’s Global Undergraduate Awards.

Regional Winners Akshi Chadha, Kaitlyn Charnetski and Stephanos Horvers (in categories Literature, Life Sciences and Engineering, respectively) and Global Winner in history, Hannah Kern-Change, joined the ranks of Western scholars who have been globally recognized for their outstanding research papers. 

Read more

In 2020, Western had four Global Winners, four Regional Winners and 35 highly commended submissions. Hailey Dall-Proud (Medical Sciences), Ishita Kumar (Economics), Catherine Li (Psychology) and Shawn Liu (Business) were the Global Gold Medal recipients. Read more about their award-winning work

In 2019, Western had two Global Winners, Cynthia Qi (Linguistics) and Madelaine Coelho (Sociology & Social Policy), and two Regional Winners. In total, 15 submissions were recognized as highly commended or top 10% in their fields. Read more about their award-winning work

In 2018, The Undergraduate Awards (UA) recognized 23 Western students as Highly Commended Entrants - or the top 10 per cent in their fields. Tiffany Ni won the Global Gold Medal in Medical Sciences. In addition, four students had papers selected as regional winners - best papers in US & Canada: Katherine Braun (Earth & Environmental Science), John Chmiel (Life Science), Wyatt Merkley (Literature) and Domonic MacDonald (Politicis & International Relations) 

Watch this video from The Undergraduate Awards Global Summit 2018, featuring some Western students.

In 2017, The Undergraduate Awards (UA) recognized 43 papers by 38 Western students as Highly Commended Entrants - or the top 10 per cent in their fields. Amy Lewis won the Global Gold Medal in Nursing, Midwifery and Allied Healthcare, and Bridget Murphy won the Global Gold Medal in Earth & Environmental Sciences. In addition, three students had papers selected as regional winners - best papers in US & Canada :  Emily Csiszar (Law), Hunster Yang (Psychology), Melanie Matthews - King's University College (Social Sciences: Sociology & Social Policy)

Watch this video from The Undergraduate Awards Global Summit 2017, featuring some Western students.

In 2016, The Undergraduate Awards (UA) recognized 33 papers by 29 Western students as Highly Commended Entrants - or the top 10 per cent in their fields. This is the second highest number of highly-commended papers in the world, out of 244 institutions and more than 5,500 submissions worldwide. Mary Wang was selected as a gold medal recipient in the category of Language and Linguistics. In addition, five others received regional awards for the top papers in all of the United States and Canada: Mallory Jackman, Rebecca Meharchand, Naciza Masikini, Jethro Kwong, and Michelle Bunton.

Watch this video from The Undergraduate Awards Global Summit 2016, featuring some Western students.

In 2015, 27 Western students were selected among the Highly Commended. Jane Hutchison and Michelle Harder were the only Canadian students to win top honours, receiving the winning medals in the categories of Education, and Literature (Pre 1710).

Watch this video from The Undergraduate Awards 2015, featuring Professor Joel Falfak, Director of Western's School for Advanced Studies in the Arts & Humanities (SASAH).

In 2014, 11 Western students were invited to attend the Global Summit in Dublin as their papers were selected among the "highly commended."  Milani Sivapragasam, a graduate of the Bachelor of Medical Sciences program, received the winning medal in the category of Medical Sciences.

Watch this video from The Undergraduate Awards 2014, featuring three Western students !, to hear about the experience.