Darren Banfield won the Dissertation Medal awarded annually for the best MSc dissertation as well as the Achievement Medal awarded for an outstanding performance in the taught modules.

Distanced walk in Windsor park

Last academic year was unusual in many respects and our MSc course was no different. We started with hybrid teaching that moved online in the second term and all the exams were online exams. Our MSc cohort adapted really well and formed a close-knit community supported by socially distanced walks at the beginning and later by WhatsApp and our group works sessions. Another reason our MSc programme was unusual last year was Darren Banfield who already has a DPhil in pure mathematics from Oxford University, and after a successful career in finance, decided that he wanted to learn about quantum computing and joined our MSc programme.

Darren not only mastered the material seemingly effortlessly but helped his fellow students (and lecturers by pointing out hick-ups that seem unavoidable when moving fully online).  Darren is now pursuing a second PhD at RHUL under the supervision of Alastair Kay. He is also the first PhD student in the mathematics department (at least in recent history) who is teaching one of our MSc modules this year.

Congratulations to Darren for his splendid performance during his MSc!