essay competition london

Essay  COMPETITION

2024 global essay prize, registrations are now open all essayists must register  here  before friday 31 may, 2024.

The John Locke Institute encourages young people to cultivate the characteristics that turn good students into great writers: independent thought, depth of knowledge, clear reasoning, critical analysis and persuasive style. Our Essay Competition invites students to explore a wide range of challenging and interesting questions beyond the confines of the school curriculum.

Entering an essay in our competition can build knowledge, and refine skills of argumentation. It also gives students the chance to have their work assessed by experts. All of our essay prizes are judged by a panel of senior academics drawn from leading universities including Oxford and Princeton, under the leadership of the Chairman of Examiners, former Cambridge philosopher, Dr Jamie Whyte.

The judges will choose their favourite essay from each of seven subject categories - Philosophy, Politics, Economics, History, Psychology, Theology and Law - and then select the winner of the Grand Prize for the best entry in any subject. There is also a separate prize awarded for the best essay in the junior category, for under 15s.

Q1. Do we have any good reasons to trust our moral intuition?

Q2. Do girls have a (moral) right to compete in sporting contests that exclude boys?

Q3. Should I be held responsible for what I believe?

Q1. Is there such a thing as too much democracy?

Q2. Is peace in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip possible?

Q3. When is compliance complicity?

Q1. What is the optimal global population?  

Q2. Accurate news reporting is a public good. Does it follow that news agencies should be funded from taxation?

Q3. Do successful business people benefit others when making their money, when spending it, both, or neither?

Q1. Why was sustained economic growth so rare before the later 18th century and why did this change?

Q2. Has music ever significantly changed the course of history?

Q3. Why do civilisations collapse? Is our civilisation in danger?

Q1. When, if ever, should a company be permitted to refuse to do business with a person because of that person’s public statements?

Q2. In the last five years British police have arrested several thousand people for things they posted on social media. Is the UK becoming a police state?

Q3. Your parents say that 11pm is your bedtime. But they don’t punish you if you don’t go to bed by 11pm. Is 11pm really your bedtime?

Q1. According to a study by researchers at four British universities, for each 15-point increase in IQ, the likelihood of getting married increases by around 35% for a man but decreases by around 58% for a woman. Why?

In the original version of this question we misstated a statistic. This was caused by reproducing an error that appeared in several media summaries of the study. We are grateful to one of our contestants, Xinyi Zhang, who helped us to see (with humility and courtesy) why we should take more care to check our sources. We corrected the text on 4 April. Happily, the correction does not in any way alter the thrust of the question.

Q2. There is an unprecedented epidemic of depression and anxiety among young people. Can we fix this? How?

Q3. What is the difference between a psychiatric illness and a character flaw?

Q1. “I am not religious, but I am spiritual.” What could the speaker mean by “spiritual”?

Q2. Is it reasonable to thank God for protection from some natural harm if He is responsible for causing the harm?

Q3. Does God reward those who believe in him? If so, why?

JUNIOR prize

Q1. Does winning a free and fair election automatically confer a mandate for governing?

Q2. Has the anti-racism movement reduced racism?

Q3. Is there life after death?

Q4. How did it happen that governments came to own and run most high schools, while leaving food production to private enterprise? 

Q5. When will advancing technology make most of us unemployable? What should we do about this?

Q6. Should we trust fourteen-year-olds to make decisions about their own bodies? 

ENTRY REQUIREMENTS & FURTHER DETAILS

Please read the following carefully.

Entry to the John Locke Institute Essay Competition 2024 is open to students from any country.

Registration  

Only candidates who registered before the registration deadline of Friday, 31 May 2024 may enter this year's competition. To register, click here .  

All entries must be submitted by 11.59 pm BST on  the submission deadline: Sunday, 30 June 2024 .  Candidates must be eighteen years old, or younger, on that date. (Candidates for the Junior Prize must be fourteen years old, or younger, on that date.)

Entry is free.

Each essay must address only one of the questions in your chosen subject category, and must not exceed 2000 words (not counting diagrams, tables of data, endnotes, bibliography or authorship declaration). 

The filename of your pdf must be in this format: FirstName-LastName-Category-QuestionNumber.pdf; so, for instance, Alexander Popham would submit his answer to question 2 in the Psychology category with the following file name:

Alexander-Popham-Psychology-2.pdf

Essays with filenames which are not in this format will be rejected.

The candidate's name should NOT appear within the document itself. 

Candidates should NOT add footnotes. They may, however, add endnotes and/or a Bibliography that is clearly titled as such.

Each candidate will be required to provide the email address of an academic referee who is familiar with the candidate's written academic work. This should be a school teacher, if possible, or another responsible adult who is not a relation of the candidate. The John Locke Institute will email referees to verify that the essays submitted are indeed the original work of the candidates.

Submissions may be made as soon as registration opens in April. We recommend that you submit your essay well in advance of th e deadline to avoid any last-minute complications.

Acceptance of your essay depends on your granting us permission to use your data for the purposes of receiving and processing your entry as well as communicating with you about the Awards Ceremony Dinner, the academic conference, and other events and programmes of the John Locke Institute and its associated entities.  

Late entries

If for any reason you miss the 30 June deadline you will have an opportunity to make a late entry, under two conditions:

a) A late entry fee of 20.00 USD must be paid by credit card within twenty-four hours of the original deadline; and

b) Your essay must be submitted  before 11.59 pm BST on Wednesday, 10 July 2024.

To pay for late entry, a registrant need only log into his or her account, select the relevant option and provide the requested payment information.

Our grading system is proprietary. Essayists may be asked to discuss their entry with a member of the John Locke Institute’s faculty. We use various means to identify plagiarism, contract cheating, the use of AI and other forms of fraud . Our determinations in all such matters are final.

Essays will be judged on knowledge and understanding of the relevant material, the competent use of evidence, quality of argumentation, originality, structure, writing style and persuasive force. The very best essays are likely to be those which would be capable of changing somebody's mind. Essays which ignore or fail to address the strongest objections and counter-arguments are unlikely to be successful .

Candidates are advised to answer the question as precisely and directly as possible.

The writers of the best essays will receive a commendation and be shortlisted for a prize. Writers of shortlisted essays will be notified by 11.59 pm BST on Wednesday, 31 July. They will also be invited to London for an invitation-only academic conference and awards dinner in September, where the prize-winners will be announced. Unlike the competition itself, the academic conference and awards dinner are not free. Please be aware that n obody is required to attend either the academic conference or the prize ceremony. You can win a prize without travelling to London.

All short-listed candidates, including prize-winners, will be able to download eCertificates that acknowledge their achievement. If you win First, Second or Third Prize, and you travel to London for the ceremony, you will receive a signed certificate. 

There is a prize for the best essay in each category. The prize for each winner of a subject category, and the winner of the Junior category, is a scholarship worth US$2000 towards the cost of attending any John Locke Institute programme, and the essays will be published on the Institute's website. Prize-giving ceremonies will take place in London, at which winners and runners-up will be able to meet some of the judges and other faculty members of the John Locke Institute. Family, friends, and teachers are also welcome.

The candidate who submits the best essay overall will be awarded an honorary John Locke Institute Junior Fellowship, which comes with a US$10,000 scholarship to attend one or more of our summer schools and/or visiting scholars programmes. 

The judges' decisions are final, and no correspondence will be entered into.

R egistration opens: 1 April, 2024.

Registration deadline: 31 May, 2024. (Registration is required by this date for subsequent submission.)

Submission deadline: 30 June, 2024.

Late entry deadline: 10 July, 2024. (Late entries are subject to a 20.00 USD charge, payable by 1 July.)

Notification of short-listed essayists: 31 July, 2024.

Academic conference: 20 - 22 September, 2024.

Awards dinner: 21 September, 2024.

Any queries regarding the essay competition should be sent to [email protected] . Please be aware that, due to the large volume of correspondence we receive, we cannot guarantee to answer every query. In particular, regrettably, we are unable to respond to questions whose answers can be found on our website.

If you would like to receive helpful tips  from our examiners about what makes for a winning essay or reminders of upcoming key dates for the 2024  essay competition, please provide your email here to be added to our contact list. .

Thanks for subscribing!

The John Locke Institute's Global Essay Prize is acknowledged as the world's most prestigious essay competition. 

We welcome tens of thousands of submissions from ambitious students in more than 150 countries, and our examiners - including distinguished philosophers, political scientists, economists, historians, psychologists, theologians, and legal scholars - read and carefully assess every entry. 

I encourage you to register for this competition, not only for the hope of winning a prize or commendation, and not only for the chance to join the very best contestants at our academic conference and gala ceremony in London, but equally for the opportunity to engage in the serious scholarly enterprise of researching, reflecting on, writing about, and editing an answer to one of the important and provocative questions in this year's Global Essay Prize. 

We believe that the skills you will acquire in the process will make you a better thinker and a more effective advocate for the ideas that matter most to you.

I hope to see you in September!

Best wishes,

Jamie Whyte, Ph.D. (C ANTAB ) 

Chairman of Examiners

Q. I missed the registration deadline. May I still register or submit an essay?

A. No. Only candidates who registered before 31 May will be able to submit an essay. 

Q. Are footnote s, endnotes, a bibliography or references counted towards the word limit?

A. No. Only the body of the essay is counted. 

Q. Are in-text citations counted towards the word limit? ​

A. If you are using an in-text based referencing format, such as APA, your in-text citations are included in the word limit.

Q. Is it necessary to include foo tnotes or endnotes in an essay? ​

A. You  may not  include footnotes, but you may include in-text citations or endnotes. You should give your sources of any factual claims you make, and you should ackn owledge any other authors on whom you rely.​

Q. I am interested in a question that seems ambiguous. How should I interpret it?

A. You may interpret a question as you deem appropriate, clarifying your interpretation if necessary. Having done so, you must answer the question as directly as possible.

Q. How strict are  the age eligibility criteria?

A. Only students whose nineteenth birthday falls after 30 June 2024 will be eligible for a prize or a commendation. In the case of the Junior category, only students whose fifteenth birthday falls after 30 June 2024 will be eligible for a prize or a commendation. 

Q. May I submit more than one essay?

A. Yes, you may submit as many essays as you please in any or all categories.

Q. If I am eligible to compete in the Junior category, may I also (or instead) compete in another category?

A. Yes, you may.

Q. May I team up with someone else to write an essay?  

A. No. Each submitted essay must be entirely the work of a single individual.

Q. May I use AI, such as ChatGPT or the like, in writing my essay?

A. All essays will be checked for the use of AI. If we find that any content is generated by AI, your essay will be disqualified. We will also ask you, upon submission of your essay, whether you used AI for  any  purpose related to the writing of your essay, and if so, you will be required to provide details. In that case, if, in our judgement, you have not provided full and accurate details of your use of AI, your essay will be disqualified. 

Since any use of AI (that does not result in disqualification) can only negatively affect our assessment of your work relative to that of work that is done without using AI, your safest course of action is simply not to use it at all. If, however, you choose to use it for any purpose, we reserve the right to make relevant judgements on a case-by-case basis and we will not enter into any correspondence. 

Q. May I have someone else edit, or otherwise help me with, my essay?

A. You may of course discuss your essay with others, and it is perfectly acceptable for them to offer general advice and point out errors or weaknesses in your writing or content, leaving you to address them.

However, no part of your essay may be written by anyone else. This means that you must edit your own work and that while a proofreader may point out errors, you as the essayist must be the one to correct them. 

Q. Do I have to attend the awards ceremony to win a prize? ​

A. Nobody is required to attend the prize ceremony. You can win a prize without travelling to London. But if we invite you to London it is because your essay was good enough - in the opinion of the First Round judges - to be at least a contender for First, Second or Third Prize. Normally the Second Round judges will agree that the short-listed essays are worth at least a commendation.

Q. Is there an entry fee?

A. No. There is no charge to enter our global essay competition unless you submit your essay after the normal deadline, in which case there is a fee of 20.00 USD .

Q. Can I receive a certificate for my participation in your essay competition if I wasn't shortlisted? 

A. No. Certificates are awarded only for shortlisted essays. Short-listed contestants who attend the award ceremony in London will receive a paper certificate. If you cannot travel to London, you will be able to download your eCertificate.

Q. Can I receive feedba ck on my essay? 

A. We would love to be able to give individual feedback on essays but, unfortunately, we receive too many entries to be able to comment on particular essays.

Q. The deadline for publishing the names of short-listed essayists has passed but I did not receive an email to tell me whether I was short-listed.

A. Log into your account and check "Shortlist Status" for (each of) your essay(s).

Q. Why isn't the awards ceremony in Oxford this year?

A. Last year, many shortlisted finalists who applied to join our invitation-only academic conference missed the opportunity because of capacity constraints at Oxford's largest venues. This year, the conference will be held in central London and the gala awards dinner will take place in an iconic London ballroom. 

TECHNICAL FAQ s

Q. The system will not accept my essay. I have checked the filename and it has the correct format. What should I do?  

A. You have almost certainly added a space before or after one of your names in your profile. Edit it accordingly and try to submit again.

Q. The profile page shows my birth date to be wrong by a day, even after I edit it. What should I do?

A. Ignore it. The date that you typed has been correctly input to our database. ​ ​

Q. How can I be sure that my registration for the essay competition was successful? Will I receive a confirmation email?

A. You will not receive a confirmation email. Rather, you can at any time log in to the account that you created and see that your registration details are present and correct.

TROUBLESHOOTING YOUR SUBMISSION

If you are unable to submit your essay to the John Locke Institute’s global essay competition, your problem is almost certainly one of the following.

If so, please proceed as indicated.

1) PROBLEM: I receive the ‘registrations are now closed’ message when I enter my email and verification code. SOLUTION. You did not register for the essay competition and create your account. If you think you did, you probably only provided us with your email to receive updates from us about the competition or otherwise. You may not enter the competition this year.

2) PROBLEM I do not receive a login code after I enter my email to enter my account. SOLUTION. Enter your email address again, checking that you do so correctly. If this fails, restart your browser using an incognito window; clear your cache, and try again. Wait for a few minutes for the code. If this still fails, restart your machine and try one more time. If this still fails, send an email to [email protected] with “No verification code – [your name]” in the subject line.

SUBMITTING AN ESSAY

3) PROBLEM: The filename of my essay is in the correct format but it is rejected. SOLUTION: Use “Edit Profile” to check that you did not add a space before or after either of your names. If you did, delete it. Whether you did or did not, try again to submit your essay. If submission fails again, email [email protected] with “Filename format – [your name]” in the subject line.

4) PROBLEM: When trying to view my submitted essay, a .txt file is downloaded – not the .pdf file that I submitted. SOLUTION: Delete the essay. Logout of your account; log back in, and resubmit. If resubmission fails, email [email protected] with “File extension problem – [your name]” in the subject line.

5) PROBLEM: When I try to submit, the submission form just reloads without giving me an error message. SOLUTION. Log out of your account. Open a new browser; clear the cache; log back in, and resubmit. If resubmission fails, email [email protected] with “Submission form problem – [your name]” in the subject line.

6) PROBLEM: I receive an “Unexpected Error” when trying to submit. SOLUTION. Logout of your account; log back in, and resubmit. If this resubmission fails, email [email protected] with “Unexpected error – [your name]” in thesubject line. Your email must tell us e xactly where in the submission process you received this error.

7) PROBLEM: I have a problem with submitting and it is not addressed above on this list. SOLUTION: Restart your machine. Clear your browser’s cache. Try to submit again. If this fails, email [email protected] with “Unlisted problem – [your name]” in the subject line. Your email must tell us exactly the nature of your problem with relevant screen caps.

READ THIS BEFORE YOU EMAIL US.

Do not email us before you have tried the specified solutions to your problem.

Do not email us more than once about a single problem. We will respond to your email within 72 hours. Only if you have not heard from us in that time may you contact us again to ask for an update.

If you email us regarding a problem, you must include relevant screen-shots and information on both your operating system and your browser. You must also declare that you have tried the solutions presented above and had a good connection to the internet when you did so.

If you have tried the relevant solution to your problem outlined above, have emailed us, and are still unable to submit before the 30 June deadline on account of any fault of the John Locke Institute or our systems, please do not worry: we will have a way to accept your essay in that case. However, if there is no fault on our side, we will not accept your essay if it is not submitted on time – whatever your reason: we will not make exceptions for IT issues for which we are not responsible.

We reserve the right to disqualify the entries of essayists who do not follow all provided instructions, including those concerning technical matters.

LSESU Economics Society

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2022 Economics Essay Competition

02.07.2022 - 15.08.2022, deadline extension open until 15th august.

Please click here for this year’s prizes, the terms and conditions, and further information.

The London School of Economics Students’ Union Economics Society is honoured to collaborate once again with the Centre for Economic Performance, one of the leading economic research centres in Europe, to launch the 2022 Essay Competition. The essay competition will encourage pre-tertiary students to think critically on current social issues such as economic assimilation, diversity in the economics profession, and to explore important intellectual debates, such as the distribution of the burden of environmental policies.

In your essay, please answer one of the six questions below:

• How can the lack of gender balance in Economics be explained? Does COVID-19 represent another set-back for efforts to achieve gender parity in the subject?
• African nations will be left poorer and more economically vulnerable as a result of the invasion of Ukraine. To what extent do you agree with this statement?
• Explain the economics behind Europe’s dependence on Russian Energy. How can policymakers reduce the impact of the transition away from these sources of energy?
• Higher inflation is the inevitable consequence of the large fiscal packages and monetary accommodations introduced by Western Governments over the last few years. Do you agree?
• What economic theories from the 19th century are most relevant to 21st century problems?
• How significant is a country’s geographic location in determining its long-term development?

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Department of Greek & Latin

Essay Competition

UCL Greek & Latin run an essay competition for secondary school students

2023 WINNERS HERE

To inspire students to explore the ancient world, the UCL Department of Greek and Latin is advertising an essay competition, for the 2022/23 academic year, with two categories:

• school students in years 10 and 11 in the UK (or equivalent)
• school students in years 12 and 13 in the UK (or equivalent)

Engaging with the essay topics and the suggested bibliography is a great way for students to get a taste of university-level research and to challenge their understanding of the ancient world.

The word limit is 2,000 words, including any footnotes, but not the bibliography. Each student can choose one of the five essay titles, posted below.

The essay competition is open to all school students in the respective years of study, and it does not require previous knowledge of the subject. Students from under-represented backgrounds are particularly encouraged to apply, and we invite students to let us know if they are applying from a 'Widening Participation' background as defined by the Access UCL scheme .

The winning students in each category will receive a prize of £50 for the purchase of books. Two runners-up in each category will receive a prize of £30 for the purchase of books. All participants will receive a certificate of achievement from the UCL Department of Greek and Latin.

We hope to announce winners by the end of October 2023. Due to the large number of submissions received, we will not be able to provide feedback on individual entries.

Students in their penultimate year of school who attend the outreach summer school and complete an essay to a satisfactory standard will be eligible for a lower-tariff contextual offer (ABB) for admission to our undergraduate degree programmes (Ancient World, Classics) under the terms of the Access UCL scheme .

A special free workshop, with useful advice about researching and writing your essay, will be held on 26 April at 15-16.00 on Zoom. Please register here if you would like to attend. 

Instructions

Essay Questions and Bibliography

Some bibliographical references can be found in the questions below. You can also rely on the resources of your local and school libraries. A lot of information can be found online: the website JSTOR in particular, which contains articles published in academic journals, gives you the right to download 100 items for free per month if you register .   You will also be able to ask your teachers for help with the research. (JSTOR has a useful introduction to basic research skills that you may find interesting. Websites containing texts and translations of classical sources are suggested below and there is a very useful list of Classical online resources from John Cabot University. The UCL Library webpage is always available and you may also find encyclopaedias like the Oxford Classical Dictionary useful; in fact, Wikipedia often has very useful reading lists.

The Poetics of Aristotle represents the first systematic philosophical theory of literature and drama and their genres in the history of Western culture, and it has profoundly influenced literary criticism and theory, especially from the Renaissance onward. For Aristotle, literary or ‘poetic’ genres constitute a system, which the philosopher justifies and explains with a psychology and an anthropology based around the central concept of mimesis or ‘imitation’. In fourth-century BCE Greece, you cannot construct a theory of poetry without reckoning with the seismic influence and authority of Homer’s epics, which for Classical Greeks formed one of the stable foundations of their culture. Aristotle’s theories are in many ways foreshadowed in the writings of the philosopher’s master, Plato, particularly in those famous passages of the Republic , Ion and Laws where he considers the power of mimetic poetry as a medium of social communication before, at least in principle, banishing it from the City. This essay topic calls on you to read some of the primary texts of early Greek aesthetic theory and to think about the relation, in particular, of tragic drama to Homeric epic: a relationship which, for both Plato and Aristotle, is rooted in central cultural facts about the making and consumption of poetry in ancient Greek society.

Primary sources (any translation; or, if you can, in Greek):   Plato’s Republic ( books 2-3 and 10) and Ion ; Aristotle’s Poetics .  Texts can easily be found online if you lack access to a library: I particularly recommend the Perseus Digital Library website ( http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/ ), which is easy to use and very rich.

Secondary sources:

1) Bibliographies: http://www.bunpeiris.org/greek-literature/ancient-literary-criticism/ and https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/plato-aesthetics/ (on Plato) and https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/aristotle/ and https://iep.utm.edu/aris-poe/ .

2) Some selected reading: Ford, A. The origins of criticism: Literary culture and poetic theory in classical Greece (Princeton, NJ, 2002). Grube, G. M. A. 1965.  The Greek and Roman critics . Toronto E. Havelock, Preface to Plato (Cambridge, MA: 1963): https://monoskop.org/images/0/0d/Havelock_Eric_A_Preface_to_Plato.pdf M. Heath, Greek Philosophical Poetics (Cambridge, 2012). R. Hunter, ‘Homer and Greek Literature’, in R. Fowler, ed . Cambridge Companion to Homer (Cambridge, 2004): 235-53. Kennedy, G. A., ed. 1989.  The Cambridge history of literary criticism . Vol. 1,  Classical criticism (Cambridge, 2000).

Over the last half-century, Classical scholarship has begun to recognise that the ancient world was in many ways nothing like the world in which we live today. If ours is what we can call a ‘literate civilisation’, in which ideas of truth, authority and law are centred on written texts, the society of ancient Greece and Rome was in many ways an ‘oral civilisation’. According to one influential estimate, in the democratic Athens of the fifth century BCE, perhaps only 10% of the total population could actually read; and the proportion may have been lower in the Roman Empire. In early Greece, poetry was ‘song’, and the vast majority of people interacted with it and with other forms of literature in performance, and since the fieldwork of Milman Parry and Albert Lord, who compared the songs of Homer to the living South Slavic Muslim tradition of oral epic song in the former Yugoslavia, it has been clear that the texts of ancient Greek epic poets, including Homer, originated in oral compositions that were later written down and transmitted in manuscript.

We recommend that you tackle this question in one of two ways: 1) you can evaluate the evidence for the Homeric songs as oral compositions; or 2) you can analyze what you think the effects of literacy were on ancient culture and society.  

Primary sources : Homer, Iliad or Odyssey (any translation).

1) Bibliographies: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orality ; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oral_tradition ; https://journal.oraltradition.org/ .

2) Some selected readings: K. Barber, The Anthropology of Texts, Persons and Publics (Cambridge, 2007). R. Finnegan Oral Poetry (Cambridge, 1977). J. Miles Foley, How to Read an Oral Poem (Urbana and Chicago: 2002). E. Havelock, Preface to Plato (Cambridge, MA: 1963): https://monoskop.org/images/0/0d/Havelock_Eric_A_Preface_to_Plato.pdf A.B. Lord, The Singer of Tales (Cambridge, MA: 1960): https://chs.harvard.edu/book/lord-albert-bates-the-singer-of-tales/ W.J. Ong, S.J. Orality and Literacy (New York, 1982): https://monoskop.org/images/d/db/Ong_Walter_J_Orality_and_Literacy_2nd_e... . R. Thomas, Literacy and Orality in Ancient Greece (Cambridge, 1993).

The Achaemenid Persian Empire, with its polyglot, multicultural state presided over by a Great King with almost godlike power and sway, was for the Greeks – from the late 6 th century onwards – the ultimate opposite, against which they could define their own emerging political and cultural identity as Hellenes; and a model of empire that they could compare with their own city-state culture. Their defeat of the second Persian invasion of Greece under Xerxes I in 480-479 BCE was a crucial stage in this process of cultural self-definition, by which the Greeks, until that time essentially a Western offshoot of the older, more sophisticated cultures of the Ancient Near East, defined themselves as Western and European. In the Greek poetry and prose literature of the fifth and fourth centuries BCE, we find an increasing focus on what constitutes ‘Hellenism’ or ‘Panhellenism’ in opposition to an East defined increasingly by Persia. The Orientalising stereotypes (to use a term pioneered by the Palestinian-American intellectual Edward Said) which emerged in the course of this process of exclusionary self-definition still exercise a harmful influence in the world today, as the basis of the theory according to which a unified ‘West’ faces non-Western cultures in a potentially-violent ‘clash of civilisations’. Of course, the ancient Achaemenid world was the cultural basis both of the Zoroastrian religion and the culture of modern Iran. In Persians (472 BCE), a rare example of an Attic tragedy on a real historical event, the Athenian playwright Aeschylus (525/4-456 BCE), who fought in the Battle of Marathon, presents a view of the disastrous Persian invasion of Greece from the Persian side, in a way that both emphasises the Hellenes’ courage in defence of their country and what they saw as its liberty, and shows a very deep understanding of the underlying common humanity and tragic loss that links them to their enemies. The Ionian Greek historian Herodotus (484-425 BCE), born more or less around the time of Xerxes I’s war in Greece in the Persian-dominated areas of the Anatolian coast, presents a complex and fascinating anthropological portrait of the Persians, which both makes them the Hellenes’ opposites in almost everything, but at the same time emphasises the common ground of civilised, urban culture shared between them that distinguishes both cultures, as cultures of the Mediterranean ‘centre’, from the more peripheral, nomadic cultures to the East, North and South. Writing in the fourth century BCE, Socrates’ Athenian pupil Xenophon (c. 430-354 BCE), an adventurer, soldier and political theorist of strikingly anti-democratic opinions, used his Cyropaedia , a fictionalised biography of the founder-king of the Persian Empire that is in many ways the first prose novel in the Western tradition, presents an idealised view of Persian culture and empire, as a kind of fictional textbook for the education and training of rulers. Finally, writing in the late first/early 2 nd century CE, Plutarch (46-119 CE), a scholar and antiquarian writing from the perspective of the Hellenised and then Romanised oikoumene which emerged in the aftermath of Alexander III of Macedon’s conquest of the Achaemenid Empire in the late fourth century BCE, presents a highly prejudiced account of the life and actions of the Persian King Artaxerxes II, producing one of Western culture’s great standard go-to anatomies of Oriental luxury, softness and despotism which influenced modern colonial powers’ interactions with the peoples of what we have learned to call the Middle East. In this assignment, you are asked to take one of these four sources, read it with whatever commentary or scholarship you can find online or in your available libraries, and analyse what the author’s view of Persian culture is and why and how he represents that attitude. The bibliography below is intended to give you a few basic and interesting readings on the reality, as opposed to the representation, of Achaemenid Persia.

Primary Sources: Aeschylus’ Persians , or Herodotus, Histories (esp. Books 1, 3 and 9), or Xenophon’s Cyropaedia , or Plutarch’s Life of Artaxerxes .

1) Bibliography: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Achaemenid_Empire .

2) Some selected readings: P. Briant , From Cyrus to Alexander: A History of the Persian Empire (University Park, PA, 2003). M. Brosius, The Persians: An Introduction (London, 2007). E. Hall, Inventing the Barbarian (Oxford, 1989). T. Harrison. ‘Herodotus’ Conception of Foreign Languages’, in Histos 2 (1998): 1-45. T. Harrison, Writing Ancient Persia. Classical Essays (London and New York, 2011). https://histos.org/documents/1998.01HarrisonHerodotusConceptionForeignLa... A. Kuhrt ,  The Persian Empire: A Corpus of Sources from the Achaemenid Period (Routledge, 2013).  C. Lenfant, ‘Ctesias and His Eunuchs: A Challenge for Modern Historians’, in Histos 6 (2012): 257-97 ( https://histos.org/documents/2012A12LenfantCtesiasandhisEunuchs.pdf ). C. Pelling, ‘East is East and West is West – Or Are They? National Stereotypes in Herodotus’, in Histos 1 (1997): 51-66 ( https://histos.org/documents/1997.04PellingEastIsEast5166.pdf ). J Curtis and St. John Simpson, eds. The World of Achaemenid Persia . History, Art and Society in Iran and the Ancient Near East (Bloomsbury, 2021). M. Waters, Ancient Persia. A Concise History of the Achaemenid Empire, 550-330 BCE (Cambridge and New York, 2014).

Podcast: https://historyofpersiapodcast.com/bibliography/

The perception of the ‘Body Beautiful’ in Western/Euro-American society is in many ways bound up with Classicist aesthetics and with the ways in which ancient canons of beauty, particularly as mediated through Greek and Roman sculpture, were perceived as models for artists and as standards for living women and men. Only over the past century, and – with the rise of feminism – particularly in recent decades, has it become completely clear for most people just how much these standards of beauty and body-image, like our very notions of humanity and civilisation, are culturally-constructed, and how dangerous and destructive these constructions can sometimes be. This essay asks you to think about Classical sculptures in these terms, historically and in relation to their cultural context and use, examining how they have influenced the modern beauty-ideal and where that ideal misinterprets them.

Primary sources: Greek sculpture collection in the British Museum (see the website: https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection ); https://www.theacropolismuseum.gr/en ; other Museum websites and Perseus website.

1) Bibliographies: ‘Beauty’ (article on philosophical theories of beauty from the online Stanford Encyclopaedia of Philosophy: https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/beauty ; on Greek sculpture: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ancient_Greek_sculpture .

2) Some selected reading: I. Jenkins, Defining Beauty: The Body in Ancient Greek Art (London, 2015). R. Neer, The Emergence of the Classical Style In Greek Sculpture (Chicago, 2010). J.J. Pollitt, The Ancient View of Greek Art: Criticism, History, and Terminology (New Haven, 1974). N.J. Spivey, Understanding Greek Sculpture: Ancient Meanings, Modern Readings (New York, 1996). Stewart, Andrew F.  Greek Sculpture: An Exploration (New Haven, 1990). Wolf, Naomi, The Beauty Myth: How Images of Beauty are Used Against Women (New York, 1990). 

Podcast: Melvyn Bragg on Beauty: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p003k9hf ; Ian Jenkins on ‘The Human Body in Ancient Greek Thought and Society (filmed lecture): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NfWd9QZfils .

You can compare ancient and modern works, or discuss one reception or use of a particular mythical figure or story, whether in a literary text, a work of art, a drama, a film or any other genre.

The assignment here is to investigate a myth of your choice, examining its ancient sources or its modern receptions. You are completely free to choose the subject of your analysis, and your methods and research question. You can focus on the scholarship, on a particular work, or on your own impressions of a mythical figure and why s/he was or is important. The resources below are intended to provide some general background; brief specific reading suggestions on three topics (Medea, Heracles and Iphigeneia) are given below.

Some recommended topics: Medea, Heracles, Iphigeneia.

Some resources to help your research: Beazley Archive (Oxford University Classical Art Resource Centre’s searchable database of ancient painted vases and art, with special focus on Archaic and Classical Athenian pottery): https://www.beazley.ox.ac.uk/index.htm British Museum website (searchable index of the collection: https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection ). National Gallery website (for a searchable index of the collection, go to ‘Search’ and click ‘Paintings’): https://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/ . The Perseus website: good for texts and images alike: http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/ The Oxford Classical Dictionary and Wikipedia will give you good bibliographies on particular myths and mythical figures.

3) Iphigeneia: K. Dowden, Death and the Maiden: Girls' Initiation Rites in Greek Mythology (Routledge: London and New York, 1989).  E. Hall, Adventures with Iphigenia in Tauris: A Cultural History of Euripides' Black Sea Tragedy (Onassis Series in Hellenic Culture: I.B. Tauris, 2012) . N. Loraux, Tragic Ways of Killing a Woman (Harvard University Press: Cambridge MA and London, 1987).

Some useful titles on myth and mythology: J.Bremmer, ed. Interpretations of Greek Mythology (London, 1987) W. Burkert, Homo Necans: The Anthropology of Ancient Greek Sacrificial Ritual and Myth (Berkeley, 1983) ---, Structure and History in Greek Mythology and Ritual (Berkeley, 1979) ---, Greek Religion (Harvard University Press, Cambridge MA and London, 1985) T.H. Carpenter, Art and Myth in Ancient Greece (London, 1991) E. Csapo, Theories of Mythology (Malden, 2003). L. E. Doherty, Gender and the Interpretation of Classical Myth . (London, 2001) K. Dowden and N. Livingstone, eds. A Companion to Greek Mythology (Wiley-Blackwell: Oxford, 2011). L. Edmunds, Approaches to Greek Myth . Baltimore (1990) T. Gantz, Early Greek Myth . (Baltimore, 1993 F. Graf, Greek Mythology: An Introduction (Baltimore, 1993). K. Kerényi, The Gods of the Greeks . (London, 1958) ---,  The Heroes of the Greeks . London (1959) S. Price and E. Kearns, The Oxford Dictionary of Classical Myth and Religion (Oxford: 2003). K. Schefold, Myth and Legend in Early Greek Art (London, 1966) ---, Gods and Heroes in Late Archaic Greek Art (Cambridge: 1992). A. Snodgrass, Homer and the Artists (Cambridge, 1998) H.A. Shapiro, Myth into Art: Poet and Painter in Classical Greece (London, 1994) J-P. Vernant., Myth and Society in Ancient Greece (Brighton, 1980) ---, Myth and Thought among the Greeks (London, 1983) J-P. Vernant and P. Vidal-Naquet, M yth and tragedy in Ancient Greece (New York, 1988) P. Veyne, Did the Greeks Believe their Myths? (Chicago, 1988) P. Vidal-Naquet, The Black Hunter: Forms of Thought and Forms of Society in the Greek World (Baltimore, 1986) R. D. Woodard, ed. The Cambridge Companion to Greek Mythology (Cambridge, 2007) S. Woodford, Images of Myths in Classical Antiquity (Cambridge, 2003)

Specific recommended readings:

1) Medea: J.J. Clauss and S. I. Johnston (eds),  Medea: Essays on Medea in Myth, Literature, Philosophy and Art . (Princeton University Press: Princeton, 1997).  E. Griffiths,  Medea (Routledge: London and New York, 2006. J. Mossman, Medea: Introduction, Translation and Commentary.  Aris & Phillips, Warminster 2011)

2) Heracles: W. Burkert, "Heracles and the Master of Animals." In  Structure and History in Greek Mythology and Ritual , 78–98. Sather Classical Lectures 47 (Berkeley: Univ. of California Press, 1982). M.W. Padilla, The Myths of Herakles in Ancient Greece: Survey and Profile (University Press of America: Lanham MA, 1998). E. Stafford, Herakles. Gods and Heroes of the Ancient World (Routledge, New York, 2011).

Essay Competition: Win a 100% Scholarship With Immerse Education

Take part in the Immerse Education Essay Competition for your chance to win a full or partial scholarship to our university and career preparation programmes

12th September 2024: Submission Deadline

Competition Open

full scholarships Awarded each year

entries each year

Share Your Success

Scholarship Award Certificate PDFs For Winners

What is the Essay Competition?

The Immerse Education Essay Competition provides the opportunity for students aged 13-18 to submit essay responses to a question of their choice relating to a subject of interest. There are over twenty questions to choose from which can be found in our full Essay Competition Guide. 10 winners will receive a 100% scholarship to study with us at a world-leading university of their choosing. Outstanding runners-up also receive partial scholarships.

23rd February 2024

Competition opens

12th September 2024

Competition closes

17th October 2024

Results announced

January, July & August 2025

Programme dates

Who Can Apply?

• The Immerse Education Essay Competition is open to students worldwide of all nationalities. You must be aged between 13-18 during your chosen programme.

10 winners will receive a 100% scholarship. Take a look at previous essay competition winners.

Runners Up will be awarded partial scholarships of up to 50% to study their chosen subject with Immerse. The number of runners-up will be determined by the number of entries received and the quality of the work submitted. The next category of entrants who are not runner-ups receive partial scholarships worth up to 20%.

Our Guest Judges

Arnold Longboy

Arnold Longboy has worked amongst the top business schools in the world, and is currently the Executive Director of the Recruitment & Admissions Team at London Business School.

Susmita Bhattacharya

Susmita won the Winchester Writer’s Festival Memoir Prize in 2016 and her novel, The Normal State of Mind was longlisted for the Words to Screen Prize at the Mumbai Association of Moving Images (MAMI) festival in India.

Amelia Suda-Gosch

Female Future Leaders Judge, Co-CEO of Female Founders

Tom Ireland

Tom Ireland is an editor at The Biologist, an award-winning magazine of the Royal Society of Biology. He is a regular contributor to the monthly magazine BBC Science Focus and has also written for The Guardian, New Scientist, and BBC News.

Programmes Our Scholarship Can be Redeemed Against

Reviews and winners, what do our alumni say.

I loved the little conversations we had when a question about the topic turned into explanations of the ethical, personal and economic issues that surround medicine. Overall, I found my lessons very beneficial. I know so much more about medicine and its different subsets, but also about what a career in medicine really looks like.

Immerse alumni, and scholarship winner

I could see that the essay competition was an incredible opportunity for international students to win a scholarship purely based on merit. More importantly, after doing some more research, I realised that the process for choosing winners was incredibly fair, that everyone would get an equal chance regardless of their socio-economic background, race, nationality, gender, etc.

100% Scholarship Winner

I enrolled because I wanted to expand my knowledge of physics and meet other people with the same interests as myself. Both of which I was successful in doing! My favourite aspect of the programme was the small class sizes – this helped both the tutor and students with learning and understanding the subject.

Immerse was very fun as well as useful. You were able to experience what it would be like if you studied here for university. The most beneficial part of the course was being able to see what International Relations is like, and it helped me decide what I want to study in the future.

My school invited everyone to participate, and the further I read about Immerse Education, the more motivated I was to enter the competition. Not only did I have the chance to study a subject I love, I would also be able to expand on my essay skills since writing has always been a passion of mine.

I really wanted to go to medicine summer school this year, and so I literally was searching for summer school opportunities and Immerse is one that came up. Through this, I found out about the essay competition and I decided to submit an answer. Immerse was very helpful whilst I was writing my essay, especially with things like the referencing guide.

I’m 16, so I’ve never written an academic essay before, so it was really important that I actually knew what I was doing in the first place and it definitely helped me with that. The programme so far has been very enriching. It’s helped me understand more about medicine and made me realise that this is what I want to do in life. Meeting new friends, tutors, and the mentors, they’re all amazing. My favourite things on the programme have been the evening activities, like murder mystery night. I am so happy to be able to have seen people that are like minded, and competitive as well. I really think that the tutors and the mentors have all been very supportive of me.

Academic Insights, Medicine

Hear From a Previous Scholarship Winner

The Immerse Education Essay Competition is open to entries from young people aged 13-18 interested in all subjects, from Architecture to Medicine, Creative Writing to Film Studies. However, students aged 18 should only submit an essay if they will still be 18 when the programmes the scholarships are valid for begin.

To confirm, if participants are successful, they should be aged between 13 and 18 at the start of their programme.

This current round of the essay competition is valid for 2025 Immerse Education programmes.

Immerse provides a full essay-writing guide which is sent to your email address once you register your interest in the competition. This guide includes a full list of essay questions, our essay specification, top tips for writing an academic essay, referencing guidance, our terms and conditions and guidance on plagiarism! Registering interest also ensures that you’re on track to submitting your essay on time, through a series of helpful reminder prompts. To support further you can register for our  webinars , which offer top tips and guidance with essay writing from our experts. You are also welcome to explore our  creative writing resources .

Funded scholarship to study abroad:  Our essay competition offers students like you the chance to win a full or partial scholarship to one of our Online Programmes or residential programmes in locations such as Oxford, Cambridge, Sydney, London and more.

Ongoing support from Immerse while you write:  Full support from our team as you write your essay, with free guides and top tips to help you along the way. Sign up to receive our full Essay competition Guide and free tips and tricks as you write. You can also follow us on Instagram and Tik Tok to get more useful essay writing tips.

Demonstrate what you know:  The competition is a chance for you to demonstrate your content knowledge by answering advanced university-style questions.

Build your skills and knowledge:  The opportunity to apply and advance your essay writing skills. You will likely learn something new in the process!

Develop your self-discipline:  A chance to strengthen your self-discipline as you commit to a challenging project and complete it from start to finish.

If you win a scholarship via the Essay Competition 2024/2025 you can use it toward any residential course in any of our locations. Use your scholarship to enrol on one of our renowned online programmes* or enriching in-person/residential summer school programmes in cultural melting pots such as Cambridge, Oxford, London or Sydney and more. * Essay competition schorlaships cannot be redeemed against online Intensive programmes.

No, there is no entry fee and you do not need to have already enrolled onto any of our programmes to take part in the essay competition.

The deadline for all essay entries for the last round of the competition is 4th January 2024. The next deadline will most likely be on 12th September 2024.

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Essay writing competition, site search, “we cannot tell the history of britain without including people of colour”. discuss..

Word count: 1,000 words Deadline: 16 April 2021

Eligibility: 15-18 year olds Prize: £100 Amazon Voucher and a certificate

Send submissions to: [email protected] & please include a short 50-word bio (name, age, school)

Explore Royal Holloway

Scholarships

Get help paying for your studies at Royal Holloway through a range of scholarships and bursaries.

Clubs and societies

There are lots of exciting ways to get involved at Royal Holloway. Discover new interests and enjoy existing ones.

Heading to university is exciting. Finding the right place to live will get you off to a good start.

Whether you need support with your health or practical advice on budgeting or finding part-time work, we can help.

Discover more about our 21 departments and schools.

Research Excellence Framework

Find out why Royal Holloway is in the top 25% of UK universities for research rated ‘world-leading’ or ‘internationally excellent’.

Challenge-led research themes

Royal Holloway is a research intensive university and our academics collaborate across disciplines to achieve excellence.

Discover world-class research at Royal Holloway.

Discover more about who we are today, and our vision for the future.

Royal Holloway began as two pioneering colleges for the education of women in the 19th century, and their spirit lives on today.

We’ve played a role in thousands of careers, some of them particularly remarkable.

Find about our decision-making processes and the people who lead and manage Royal Holloway today.

Summer 2024 Admissions Open Now. Sign up for upcoming live information sessions here (featuring former and current Admission Officers at Havard and UPenn).

Discourse, debate, and analysis

Cambridge re:think essay competition 2024.

Competition Opens: 15th January, 2024

Essay Submission Deadline: 10th May, 2024 Result Announcement: 20th June, 2024 Award Ceremony and Dinner at the University of Cambridge: 30th July, 2024

We welcome talented high school students from diverse educational settings worldwide to contribute their unique perspectives to the competition.

Entry to the competition is free.

About the Competition

The spirit of the Re:think essay competition is to encourage critical thinking and exploration of a wide range of thought-provoking and often controversial topics. The competition covers a diverse array of subjects, from historical and present issues to speculative future scenarios. Participants are invited to engage deeply with these topics, critically analysing their various facets and implications. It promotes intellectual exploration and encourages participants to challenge established norms and beliefs, presenting opportunities to envision alternative futures, consider the consequences of new technologies, and reevaluate longstanding traditions. 

Ultimately, our aim is to create a platform for students and scholars to share their perspectives on pressing issues of the past and future, with the hope of broadening our collective understanding and generating innovative solutions to contemporary challenges. This year’s competition aims to underscore the importance of discourse, debate, and critical analysis in addressing complex societal issues in nine areas, including:

Religion and Politics

Political science and law, linguistics, environment, sociology and philosophy, business and investment, public health and sustainability, biotechonology.

Artificial Intelligence 

Neuroengineering

2024 essay prompts.

This year, the essay prompts are contributed by distinguished professors from Harvard, Brown, UC Berkeley, Cambridge, Oxford, and MIT.

Essay Guidelines and Judging Criteria

Review general guidelines, format guidelines, eligibility, judging criteria.

Awards and Award Ceremony

Award winners will be invited to attend the Award Ceremony and Dinner hosted at the King’s College, University of Cambridge. The Dinner is free of charge for select award recipients.

Registration and Submission

Register a participant account today and submit your essay before the deadline.

Advisory Committee and Judging Panel

The Cambridge Re:think Essay Competition is guided by an esteemed Advisory Committee comprising distinguished academics and experts from elite universities worldwide. These committee members, drawn from prestigious institutions, such as Harvard, Cambridge, Oxford, and MIT, bring diverse expertise in various disciplines.

They play a pivotal role in shaping the competition, contributing their insights to curate the themes and framework. Their collective knowledge and scholarly guidance ensure the competition’s relevance, academic rigour, and intellectual depth, setting the stage for aspiring minds to engage with thought-provoking topics and ideas.

We are honoured to invite the following distinguished professors to contribute to this year’s competition.

The judging panel of the competition comprises leading researchers and professors from Harvard, MIT, Stanford, Cambridge, and Oxford, engaging in a strictly double blind review process.

Keynote Speeches by 10 Nobel Laureates

We are beyond excited to announce that multiple Nobel laureates have confirmed to attend and speak at this year’s ceremony on 30th July, 2024 .

They will each be delivering a keynote speech to the attendees. Some of them distinguished speakers will speak virtually, while others will attend and present in person and attend the Reception at Cambridge.

Why has religion remained a force in a secular world? 

Professor Commentary:

Arguably, the developed world has become more secular in the last century or so. The influence of Christianity, e.g. has diminished and people’s life worlds are less shaped by faith and allegiance to Churches. Conversely, arguments have persisted that hold that we live in a post-secular world. After all, religion – be it in terms of faith, transcendence, or meaning – may be seen as an alternative to a disenchanted world ruled by entirely profane criteria such as economic rationality, progressivism, or science. Is the revival of religion a pale reminder of a by-gone past or does it provide sources of hope for the future?

‘Religion in the Public Sphere’ by Jürgen Habermas (European Journal of Philosophy, 2006)

In this paper, philosopher Jürgen Habermas discusses the limits of church-state separation, emphasizing the significant contribution of religion to public discourse when translated into publicly accessible reasons.

‘Public Religions in the Modern World’ by José Casanova (University Of Chicago Press, 1994)

Sociologist José Casanova explores the global emergence of public religion, analyzing case studies from Catholicism and Protestantism in Spain, Poland, Brazil, and the USA, challenging traditional theories of secularization.

‘The Power of Religion in the Public Sphere’ by Judith Butler, Jürgen Habermas, Charles Taylor, and Cornel West (Edited by Eduardo Mendieta and Jonathan VanAntwerpen, Columbia University Press, 2011)

This collection features dialogues by prominent intellectuals on the role of religion in the public sphere, examining various approaches and their impacts on cultural, social, and political debates.

‘Rethinking Secularism’ by Craig Calhoun, Mark Juergensmeyer, and Jonathan VanAntwerpen (Oxford University Press, 2011)

An interdisciplinary examination of secularism, this book challenges traditional views, highlighting the complex relationship between religion and secularism in contemporary global politics.

‘God is Back: How the Global Rise of Faith is Changing the World’ by John Micklethwait and Adrian Wooldridge (Penguin, 2010)

Micklethwait and Wooldridge argue for the coexistence of religion and modernity, suggesting that religious beliefs can contribute to a more open, tolerant, and peaceful modern world.

‘Multiculturalism’ by Tariq Modood (Polity Press, 2013)

Sociologist Tariq Modood emphasizes the importance of multiculturalism in integrating diverse identities, particularly in post-immigration contexts, and its role in shaping democratic citizenship.

‘God’s Agents: Biblical Publicity in Contemporary England’ by Matthew Engelke (University of California Press, 2013)

In this ethnographic study, Matthew Engelke explores how a group in England seeks to expand the role of religion in the public sphere, challenging perceptions of religion in post-secular England.

Gene therapy is a medical approach that treats or prevents disease by correcting the underlying genetic problem. Is gene therapy better than traditional medicines? What are the pros and cons of using gene therapy as a medicine? Is gene therapy justifiable?

Especially after Covid-19 mRNA vaccines, gene therapy is getting more and more interesting approach to cure. That’s why that could be interesting to think about. I believe that students will enjoy and learn a lot while they are investigating this topic.

The Hall at King’s College, Cambridge

The Hall was designed by William Wilkins in the 1820s and is considered one of the most magnificent halls of its era. The first High Table dinner in the Hall was held in February 1828, and ever since then, the splendid Hall has been where members of the college eat and where formal dinners have been held for centuries.

The Award Ceremony and Dinner will be held in the Hall in the evening of  30th July, 2024.

Stretching out down to the River Cam, the Back Lawn has one of the most iconic backdrop of King’s College Chapel. 

The early evening reception will be hosted on the Back Lawn with the iconic Chapel in the background (weather permitting). 

King’s College Chapel

With construction started in 1446 by Henry VI and took over a century to build, King’s College Chapel is one of the most iconic buildings in the world, and is a splendid example of late Gothic architecture. 

Attendees are also granted complimentary access to the King’s College Chapel before and during the event. 

Confirmed Nobel Laureates

Dr Thomas R. Cech

The nobel prize in chemistry 1989 , for the discovery of catalytic properties of rna.

Thomas Robert Cech is an American chemist who shared the 1989 Nobel Prize in Chemistry with Sidney Altman, for their discovery of the catalytic properties of RNA. Cech discovered that RNA could itself cut strands of RNA, suggesting that life might have started as RNA. He found that RNA can not only transmit instructions, but also that it can speed up the necessary reactions.

He also studied telomeres, and his lab discovered an enzyme, TERT (telomerase reverse transcriptase), which is part of the process of restoring telomeres after they are shortened during cell division.

As president of Howard Hughes Medical Institute, he promoted science education, and he teaches an undergraduate chemistry course at the University of Colorado

Sir Richard J. Roberts

The nobel prize in medicine 1993 .

F or the discovery of split genes

During 1969–1972, Sir Richard J. Roberts did postdoctoral research at Harvard University before moving to Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, where he was hired by James Dewey Watson, a co-discoverer of the structure of DNA and a fellow Nobel laureate. In this period he also visited the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology for the first time, working alongside Fred Sanger. In 1977, he published his discovery of RNA splicing. In 1992, he moved to New England Biolabs. The following year, he shared a Nobel Prize with his former colleague at Cold Spring Harbor Phillip Allen Sharp.

His discovery of the alternative splicing of genes, in particular, has had a profound impact on the study and applications of molecular biology. The realisation that individual genes could exist as separate, disconnected segments within longer strands of DNA first arose in his 1977 study of adenovirus, one of the viruses responsible for causing the common cold. Robert’s research in this field resulted in a fundamental shift in our understanding of genetics, and has led to the discovery of split genes in higher organisms, including human beings.

Dr Aaron Ciechanover

The nobel prize in chemistry 2004 .

F or the discovery of ubiquitin-mediated protein degradation

Aaron Ciechanover is one of Israel’s first Nobel Laureates in science, earning his Nobel Prize in 2004 for his work in ubiquitination. He is honored for playing a central role in the history of Israel and in the history of the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology.

Dr Ciechanover is currently a Technion Distinguished Research Professor in the Ruth and Bruce Rappaport Faculty of Medicine and Research Institute at the Technion. He is a member of the Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities, the Pontifical Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, the Russian Academy of Sciences and is a foreign associate of the United States National Academy of Sciences. In 2008, he was a visiting Distinguished Chair Professor at NCKU, Taiwan. As part of Shenzhen’s 13th Five-Year Plan funding research in emerging technologies and opening “Nobel laureate research labs”, in 2018 he opened the Ciechanover Institute of Precision and Regenerative Medicine at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shenzhen campus.

Dr Robert Lefkowitz

The nobel prize in chemistry 2012 .

F or the discovery of G protein-coupled receptors

Robert Joseph Lefkowitz is an American physician (internist and cardiologist) and biochemist. He is best known for his discoveries that reveal the inner workings of an important family G protein-coupled receptors, for which he was awarded the 2012 Nobel Prize for Chemistry with Brian Kobilka. He is currently an Investigator with the Howard Hughes Medical Institute as well as a James B. Duke Professor of Medicine and Professor of Biochemistry and Chemistry at Duke University.

Dr Lefkowitz made a remarkable contribution in the mid-1980s when he and his colleagues cloned the gene first for the β-adrenergic receptor, and then rapidly thereafter, for a total of 8 adrenergic receptors (receptors for adrenaline and noradrenaline). This led to the seminal discovery that all GPCRs (which include the β-adrenergic receptor) have a very similar molecular structure. The structure is defined by an amino acid sequence which weaves its way back and forth across the plasma membrane seven times. Today we know that about 1,000 receptors in the human body belong to this same family. The importance of this is that all of these receptors use the same basic mechanisms so that pharmaceutical researchers now understand how to effectively target the largest receptor family in the human body. Today, as many as 30 to 50 percent of all prescription drugs are designed to “fit” like keys into the similarly structured locks of Dr Lefkowitz’ receptors—everything from anti-histamines to ulcer drugs to beta blockers that help relieve hypertension, angina and coronary disease.

Dr Lefkowitz is among the most highly cited researchers in the fields of biology, biochemistry, pharmacology, toxicology, and clinical medicine according to Thomson-ISI.

Dr Joachim Frank

The nobel prize in chemistry 2017 .

F or developing cryo-electron microscopy

Joachim Frank is a German-American biophysicist at Columbia University and a Nobel laureate. He is regarded as the founder of single-particle cryo-electron microscopy (cryo-EM), for which he shared the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2017 with Jacques Dubochet and Richard Henderson. He also made significant contributions to structure and function of the ribosome from bacteria and eukaryotes.

In 1975, Dr Frank was offered a position of senior research scientist in the Division of Laboratories and Research (now Wadsworth Center), New York State Department of Health,where he started working on single-particle approaches in electron microscopy. In 1985 he was appointed associate and then (1986) full professor at the newly formed Department of Biomedical Sciences of the University at Albany, State University of New York. In 1987 and 1994, he went on sabbaticals in Europe, one to work with Richard Henderson, Laboratory of Molecular Biology Medical Research Council in Cambridge and the other as a Humboldt Research Award winner with Kenneth C. Holmes, Max Planck Institute for Medical Research in Heidelberg. In 1998, Dr Frank was appointed investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI). Since 2003 he was also lecturer at Columbia University, and he joined Columbia University in 2008 as professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biophysics and of biological sciences.

Dr Barry C. Barish

The nobel prize in physics 2017 .

For the decisive contributions to the detection of gravitational waves

Dr Barry Clark Barish is an American experimental physicist and Nobel Laureate. He is a Linde Professor of Physics, emeritus at California Institute of Technology and a leading expert on gravitational waves.

In 2017, Barish was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics along with Rainer Weiss and Kip Thorne “for decisive contributions to the LIGO detector and the observation of gravitational waves”. He said, “I didn’t know if I would succeed. I was afraid I would fail, but because I tried, I had a breakthrough.”

In 2018, he joined the faculty at University of California, Riverside, becoming the university’s second Nobel Prize winner on the faculty.

In the fall of 2023, he joined Stony Brook University as the inaugural President’s Distinguished Endowed Chair in Physics.

In 2023, Dr Barish was awarded the National Medal of Science by President Biden in a White House ceremony.

Dr Harvey J. Alter

The nobel prize in medicine 2020 .

For the discovery of Hepatitis C virus

Dr Harvey J. Alter is an American medical researcher, virologist, physician and Nobel Prize laureate, who is best known for his work that led to the discovery of the hepatitis C virus. Alter is the former chief of the infectious disease section and the associate director for research of the Department of Transfusion Medicine at the Warren Grant Magnuson Clinical Center in the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in Bethesda, Maryland. In the mid-1970s, Alter and his research team demonstrated that most post-transfusion hepatitis cases were not due to hepatitis A or hepatitis B viruses. Working independently, Alter and Edward Tabor, a scientist at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, proved through transmission studies in chimpanzees that a new form of hepatitis, initially called “non-A, non-B hepatitis” caused the infections, and that the causative agent was probably a virus. This work eventually led to the discovery of the hepatitis C virus in 1988, for which he shared the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 2020 along with Michael Houghton and Charles M. Rice.

Dr Alter has received recognition for the research leading to the discovery of the virus that causes hepatitis C. He was awarded the Distinguished Service Medal, the highest award conferred to civilians in United States government public health service, and the 2000 Albert Lasker Award for Clinical Medical Research.

Dr Ardem Patapoutian

The nobel prize in medicine 2021 .

For discovering how pressure is translated into nerve impulses

Dr Ardem Patapoutian is an Lebanese-American molecular biologist, neuroscientist, and Nobel Prize laureate of Armenian descent. He is known for his work in characterising the PIEZO1, PIEZO2, and TRPM8 receptors that detect pressure, menthol, and temperature. Dr Patapoutian is a neuroscience professor and Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator at Scripps Research in La Jolla, California. In 2021, he won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine jointly with David Julius.

Frequently Asked Questions

Why should I participate in the Re:think essay competition? 

The Re:think Essay competition is meant to serve as fertile ground for honing writing skills, fostering critical thinking, and refining communication abilities. Winning or participating in reputable contests can lead to recognition, awards, scholarships, or even publication opportunities, elevating your academic profile for college applications and future endeavours. Moreover, these competitions facilitate intellectual growth by encouraging exploration of diverse topics, while also providing networking opportunities and exposure to peers, educators, and professionals. Beyond accolades, they instil confidence, prepare for higher education demands, and often allow you to contribute meaningfully to societal conversations or causes, making an impact with your ideas.

Who is eligible to enter the Re:think essay competition?  

As long as you’re currently attending high school, regardless of your location or background, you’re eligible to participate. We welcome students from diverse educational settings worldwide to contribute their unique perspectives to the competition.

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There is no entry fee for the competition. Waiving the entry fee for our essay competition demonstrates CCIR’s dedication to equity. CCIR believes everyone should have an equal chance to participate and showcase their talents, regardless of financial circumstances. Removing this barrier ensures a diverse pool of participants and emphasises merit and creativity over economic capacity, fostering a fair and inclusive environment for all contributors.

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The RCSU Science Challenge

The Science Challenge is back for another year of giving young scientists the opportunity to show off their science communication skills! Keep reading to find out how to enter!

The Science Challenge is the Royal College of Science Union's annual science communication competition. It gives young scientists the opportunity to develop the skills to talk about science in a way that is engaging and fun to people who don’t necessarily have a science background.

The competition involves producing a short piece of science communication, in answer to one the questions set by our guest judges. With exciting prizes and a wide range of interesting questions, perfect for showing off your skills, this year’s Science Challenge promises to be a very exciting competition!

Key Information

Competition Opens: Friday 1 March 2024 Submission Deadline: Friday 26 April at 17.00 Awards Ceremony: Friday 21 June

How to enter:

This is an individual competition so we will not be accepting team entries this year. Entries are short pieces of science communication, written entries: 1000 words, video entries: maximum 3 minutes 30 seconds. 

Enter the competition now!

Eligibility:

The Science Challenge consists of two categories: School Students and Imperial College Students. We're proud to announce that this year the competition will be opened to all Imperial undergraduates and Master's students. We would love to receive an entry from you if you are

• A school student in your last four years of secondary education (Equivalent to UK year 10 - 13).
• Currently enrolled as an Imperial College undergraduate student or Master's student.

Entries are welcome from schools in the UK and internationally. Imperial undergraduates will answer the same prompts as the school students but will be judged separately. While multiple entries will be accepted from each school, only one winner/runner up will be allowed per school per question.

Note: This is an individual competition so we will not be accepting team entries this year

In our RCSU Science Challenge 2024 eligibility document , you can find out accepted entry formats as well as terms and conditions.

"Science does not exist in a vacuum and science communication allows the translating of knowledge to different fields in order for it to be applicable in our daily lives." - Science Challenge Participant 2021/22 

What will I have to do?

That is a great question, we're glad you asked! The competition involves producing a short piece of fun and engaging science communication that someone without a scientific background can not only understand but enjoy!

Some of the prompts will specify a type of communication (i.e. written, video, etc..) and others will leave it up to you. An indication of what typically constitutes a 'short' piece of science communication is:

• Written entries: 1000 words max.
• Video entries: 3 minutes 30 seconds max.

It's often the case that the best (and most fun to make) pieces of science communication are ones that are outside of the box, so we hope this inspires you to get creative!

Why do we do this?

Science is part of everyone's lives in some way or another, but for many people just hearing the word is enough to spark an intense combination of anxiety, anger and nausea. 

A common sentiment is that science is only for scientists to understand; not everyone needs to or even can understand it, but that couldn't be further from the truth. In reality, science is just the window that lets us see into how all the things around us work and why they work that way. The problem is, with the way that science is presented in popular media, that window gets covered in dust and dirt for most people; making it impossible to see through. The job of science communicators is to clean that window; making what initially seemed distant and unattainable, into something interesting, exciting, approachable and fun.

We hope to inspire those who take part in the Science Challenge to explore, develop and use their scientific skills along with their passion for their corner of science to help others see what all the excitement is about.

Why should I enter?

We think there are too many great reasons to enter the Science Challenge to even begin to count, but here are some of the best ones:

• You will have the opportunity to discover where the science you've learned from textbooks sits in both science more widely and in society.
• You will get the chance to develop the skills to communicate science in concise, engaging, and creative ways; a crucial skill for all careers in STEM.
• Prizes include publication of written work, a trip to the House of Lords and free tickets to the Cheltenham Science Festival*.
• You will have the opportunity to discuss the areas of science you're most interested in with more freedom (and fun) than an exam question or presentation.

Further information

Judges and questions.

Find out more about our guest judges for this year's competition, including the questions they are setting for entrants.

Find out more

Past winners

Discover past winners of the competition, including questions asked by our guest judges.

2024 Essay Scholarship Competition Winners Announced!

We have officially announced the winners of our seventh annual essay scholarship competition. To see the winners and read their essay submissions, click here .

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Bruce Drysdale 5th-grade student advances to national finals in DAR's essay contest

Bruce Drysdale fifth grader Lia Martinonis has advanced to the national finals in the Daughters of the American Revolution 2024 Essay Contest, and each time her essay has advanced, her family has celebrated with a cake.

She is anxiously hoping for more cake. Martinonis is one of eight fifth-grade finalists in the nation, and so far, she's won three awards for her essay — one at the local level, one at the state level and the latest for the Southeastern Division.

"I am unbelievably proud. I have felt both shocked and pleased each time I learned that I had won," she said.

And there's prize money involved: $1,000 for first place, $500 for second place and $250 for third place. The winners will be recognized at the National Society Daughters of the American Revolution Continental Congress, which is being held June 26-30 in Washington, D.C.

The topic for the contest was “Stars and Stripes Forever.” Essay writers were asked to imagine they were a newspaper reporter for The Philadelphia Times on May 14, 1897, and the newspaper's editor asked them to attend and report on the first public performance of John Philip Sousa’s new march, “The Stars and Stripes Forever.” The students were to tell about Sousa’s life and the story behind the song.

Lia was with her family on April 20 in Durham to receive the state award, her mother, Andrea, said.

"This essay contest has been an incredible experience for Lia. My daughter aspires to be a writer when she grows up," Andrea Martinonis said. "This opportunity has given her the confidence to pursue that dream. Lia researched the essay subject, learned about American history, honed her writing skills, and read her speech to a large audience at the initial award ceremony. 

"As an educator, I couldn't be more pleased that DAR sponsors this contest, encouraging students to write essays and learn about our nation's past. As a parent, I am thrilled that my daughter chooses to spend her free time reading and writing and that her interests and skills are being recognized."

More: North Henderson student one of four grand prize winners in national essay contest

Lia said her teacher, April Summey, assigned the essay contest to her class.

"I remember being frustrated when drafting my essay, but now I am so glad my hard work paid off. I still cannot believe this is all happening," Lia Martinonis said.  

This part of her essay describes Sousa talking about composing his new march:

"...Sousa said that he composed the song in his head on his return to America as he grieved the death of his beloved band manager, David Blakely. Sousa said, “In a kind of dreamy way, I used to think over old days at Washington when I was leader of the Marine Band…when we played at all public functions, and I could see the Stars and Stripes flying from the flagstaff.” He also stated, “And that flag of ours became glorified… And to my imagination it seemed to be the biggest, grandest flag in the world, and I could not get back under it quick enough.”

More: Apple Valley Middle student one of four grand prize winners in national contest

Summey called Lia a phenomenal, gifted student who "always goes above and beyond."

"She thrives on a challenge and is an avid learner. Her contagious curiosity shines brightly as she lights up upon acquiring new knowledge," Summey said. "Every year, my fifth grade students work on the DAR essay. They are given a prompt and required to read multiple primary and secondary sources about the topic in order to prepare. I am very passionate about the contest, because it helps students learn history and get excited about it." 

Dean Hensley is the news editor for the Hendersonville Times-News. Email him with tips, questions and comments at [email protected]. Please help support this kind of local journalism with a subscription to the Hendersonville Times-News.

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General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology

Title: universality of the thermodynamics of a quantum-mechanically radiating black hole departing from thermality.

Abstract: Mathur and Mehta won the third prize in the 2023 Gravity Research Foundation Essay Competition for proving the universality of black hole (BH) thermodynamics. Specifically, they demonstrated that any Extremely Compact Object (ECO) must have the same BH thermodynamic properties regardless of whether or not the ECO possesses an event horizon. The result is remarkable, but it was obtained under the approximation according to which the BH emission spectrum has an exactly thermal character. In fact, strong arguments based on energy conservation and BH back reaction imply that the spectrum of the Hawking radiation cannot be exactly thermal. In this work the result of Mathur and Mehta will be extended to the case where the radiation spectrum is not exactly thermal using the concept of BH dynamical state.

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Friends From the Old Neighborhood Turn Rivals in Big Tech’s A.I. Race

Demis Hassabis and Mustafa Suleyman, who both grew up in London, feared a corporate rush to build artificial intelligence. Now they’re driving that competition at Google and Microsoft.

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By Cade Metz and Nico Grant

Reporting from San Francisco

Mustafa Suleyman grew up in subsidized housing in one of London’s roughest areas. His father, a Syrian immigrant, drove a taxi. His mother was a nurse with the National Health Service. When the prestigious Queen Elizabeth’s School accepted him at the age of 11, the family moved into a safer, leafier neighborhood a few miles north.

There, he met 20-year-old Demis Hassabis, after becoming friends with his younger brother. Demis was a chess prodigy and video game designer whose parents — one a Greek Cypriot, the other a Singaporean — ran a London toy store.

Today, they are two of the most powerful executives in the tech industry’s race to build artificial intelligence . Dr. Hassabis, 47, is the chief executive of Google DeepMind, the tech giant’s central research lab for artificial intelligence. Mr. Suleyman, 39, was recently named chief executive of Microsoft AI, charged with overseeing the company’s push into A.I. consumer products.

Their path from London to the executive suites of Big Tech is one of the most unusual — and personal — stories in an industry full of colorful personalities and cutting rivalries. In 2010, they were two of the three founders of DeepMind, a seminal A.I. research lab that was supposed to prevent the very thing they are now deeply involved in : an escalating race by profit-driven companies to build and deploy A.I.

Their paths diverged after a clash at DeepMind, which Google acquired for $650 million in 2014. When the A.I. race kicked off in late 2022 with the arrival of the ChatGPT online chatbot , Google put Dr. Hassabis in charge of its A.I. research. Mr. Suleyman took a rockier route — founding another A.I. start-up, Inflection AI, that struggled to gain traction before Microsoft unexpectedly hired him and most of his employees.

“We’ve always seen the world differently, but we’ve been aligned in believing that this is going to be the next great transition in technology,” Mr. Suleyman said of his old family friend in an interview. “It is always a friendly and respectful rivalry.”

Microsoft’s push into artificial intelligence with its partner, OpenAI, the maker of ChatGPT, has rattled Google . The two companies are now fighting to control what many experts see as the next dominant computing platform, a battlefield as important as the web browser and the smartphone before it. Dr. Hassabis is driving the creation of Google’s A.I. technology, while Mr. Suleyman works to put Microsoft’s A.I. in the hands of everyday people.

Though Mr. Suleyman sees their relationship as a cordial rivalry, Dr. Hassabis believes any talk of rivalry is overblown. He does not see Mr. Suleyman as a major threat, because competition in A.I. was already so high, with so many formidable companies.

“I don’t think there is much to say,” he said in an interview with The New York Times. “Most of what he has learned about A.I. comes from working with me over all these years.”

When the two first met, Mr. Suleyman was in grade school and Dr. Hassabis had started a computer science degree at the University of Cambridge. While Dr. Hassabis was competing in the annual Varsity Chess Match between Cambridge and Oxford , his younger brother, George, and Mr. Suleyman were teaching chess to local children at a Wednesday night math school run by the Hassabis family in North London.

Mr. Suleyman later studied philosophy and theology at Oxford, before dropping out to help start a mental health help line for Muslim teenagers and working as a human rights officer for the mayor of London. Dr. Hassabis founded a video game company, before returning to academia for a doctorate in neuroscience. But they shared an interest in high-stakes poker. “We are both quite good,” Mr. Suleyman often says.

In 2010, after sitting down for a game at the Victoria Casino in London, they discussed how they could change the world. Dr. Hassabis dreamed of building technologies of the future. Mr. Suleyman aimed to change society right away, improving health care and closing the gap between the haves and the have-nots.

“Demis had the pure-science moonshot aspiration,” said Reid Hoffman, a Silicon Valley venture capitalist and Microsoft board member who helped found both OpenAI and Mr. Suleyman’s Inflection AI. “He convinced Mustafa this science could be a high-order bid for making things better for society — for humanity.”

Dr. Hassabis was finishing postdoctoral work at the Gatsby Computational Neuroscience Unit, a University College London lab that combined neuroscience (the study of the brain) with A.I. (the study of brainlike machines). Seeing Mr. Suleyman as a hard-charging personality who could help build a start-up, he invited him to the Gatsby for meetings with a philosophically minded A.I. researcher, Shane Legg. In the afternoons, they would huddle at a nearby Italian restaurant, cultivating a belief that A.I could change the world.

By the end of 2010, after engineering a meeting with Peter Thiel , the Silicon Valley venture capitalist, the three of them had secured funding for DeepMind. Its stated mission was to build artificial general intelligence, or A.G.I., a machine that could do anything the human brain can do.

They were also determined to build the technology free from the economic pressures that typically drive big business. Those pressures, they believed, could push A.I. in dangerous directions, upend the job market or even destroy humanity .

As Dr. Hassabis and Dr. Legg (who is still with DeepMind) pursued intelligent machines, it was Mr. Suleyman’s job to build products and find revenue. He and his team explored an A.I. video game, an A.I. fashion app and even whether A.I. could help a company, Hampton Creek, making vegan mayonnaise , a former colleague said.

Dr. Hassabis told employees that DeepMind would remain independent. But as its research progressed and tech giants like Facebook swooped in with millions of dollars to poach its researchers, its founders felt they had no choice but to sell themselves to Google. DeepMind continued to operate as a largely independent research lab, but it was funded by and answered to Google.

For years, DeepMind employees had whispered about Mr. Suleyman’s aggressive management style. That came to a head in early 2019 when several employees filed formal complaints accusing Mr. Suleyman of verbally harassing and bullying them, six people said. Former employees said he had yelled at them in the open office and berated them for being bad at their jobs in long text-message threads.

Mr. Suleyman later said of his time at DeepMind: “I really screwed up. I remain very sorry about the impact that that caused people and the hurt that people felt there.”

He was placed on leave in August 2019, with DeepMind saying he needed a break after 10 hectic years. Multiple people told Dr. Hassabis that the punishment should go further, two people with knowledge of the conversations said.

Months later, Mr. Suleyman moved into a job at Google’s California headquarters. Privately, Mr. Suleyman felt that Dr. Hassabis had stabbed him in the back, a person with knowledge of their relationship said.

Mr. Suleyman’s new Google position had a big title — vice president of A.I. product management and A.I. policy — but he was not allowed to manage employees, two people said. He disliked the role, a friend said, and soon left to start Inflection AI.

When OpenAI released ChatGPT less than a year later, sparking an industrywide race to build similar technologies, Google responded forcefully. Last April, the company merged its homegrown A.I. lab with DeepMind and put Dr. Hassabis in charge.

(The New York Times sued OpenAI and Microsoft in December for copyright infringement of news content related to A.I. systems.)

For a time, Mr. Suleyman remained an independent voice warning against the tech giant and calling for government regulation of A.I. An opinion piece that he wrote with Ian Bremmer, a noted political scientist, argued that big tech companies were becoming as powerful as nation states.

But after raising more than $1.5 billion to build an A.I. chatbot while pulling in practically no revenue, his company was struggling. In March, Inflection AI effectively vanished into Microsoft , with Mr. Suleyman put in charge of a new Microsoft business that will work to inject A.I. technologies across the company’s consumer services.

Mr. Suleyman, who splits his time between Silicon Valley and London, officially became a rival to Google DeepMind, opening a new Microsoft office in London to compete for the same talent. Dr. Hassabis expressed frustration to his staff that Mr. Suleyman was positioning himself as a prominent A.I. visionary, a colleague said.

They still text each other on occasion. They might meet for dinner if they are in the same city. But Dr. Hassabis said he does not worry much about what Mr. Suleyman or any other rival is up to.

“I don’t really look to others for what we should be doing,” Dr. Hassabis said.

Cade Metz writes about artificial intelligence, driverless cars, robotics, virtual reality and other emerging areas of technology. More about Cade Metz

Nico Grant is a technology reporter covering Google from San Francisco. Previously, he spent five years at Bloomberg News, where he focused on Google and cloud computing. More about Nico Grant

Explore Our Coverage of Artificial Intelligence

News  and Analysis

The spending that the tech industry’s giants expect A.I. to require, for the chips and data centers , is starting to come into focus — and it is jarringly large.

The table stakes for A.I. start-ups to compete with the likes of Microsoft and Google are in the billions of dollars. And even that may not be enough .

Demis Hassabis and Mustafa Suleyman, who both grew up in London, feared a corporate rush to build A.I. Now they’re driving that competition at Google and Microsoft .

The Age of A.I.

A new category of apps promises to relieve parents of drudgery, with an assist from A.I . But a family’s grunt work is more human, and valuable, than it seems.

Despite Mark Zuckerberg’s hope for Meta’s A.I. assistant to be the smartest , it struggles with facts, numbers and web search.

Much as ChatGPT generates poetry, a new A.I. system devises blueprints for microscopic mechanisms  that can edit your DNA.

Could A.I. change India’s elections? Avatars are addressing voters by name, in whichever of India’s many languages they speak. Experts see potential for misuse  in a country already rife with disinformation.

Which A.I. system writes the best computer code or generates the most realistic image? Right now, there’s no easy way to answer those questions, our technology columnist writes .

COMMONWEALTH DAY SERVICE OF CELEBRATION

Organised by the Royal Commonwealth Society, the Commonwealth Service is the world’s premier public event to celebrate the Commonwealth and provides an opportunity to focus attention on this voluntary association of 56 countries. Find out about this year's Service.

The  Royal Commonwealth Society is a network of individuals and organisations committed to improving the lives and prospects of Commonwealth citizens across the world. Find out more about our vision and how we aim to achieve this. 

OUR VISION AND MISSION

OUR HISTORY 

Founded on 26 June 1868 as a ‘literary and scientific body’ the Society was granted a Royal Charter by Queen Victoria a year later. Since our establishment the Society has welcomed speakers including Nelson Mandela and evolved to meet the changing nature of the Commonwealth. 

COMMONWEALTH VOICES

'Commonwealth Voices' is the Society's magazine containing observations on Commonwealth-wide news, developments and concerns, and includes high-profile guest contributions, research pieces and contemporary news. Read the latest edition.

Commonwealth Day Service of Celebration 2024, 11 March 2024

Launch of The Queen’s Commonwealth Essay Competition 2024 – ‘Our Common Wealth’

Celebrating our Commonwealth aiga

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COMMONWEALTH DAY SERVICE

11 MARCH 2024

Organised by the Royal Commonwealth Society and held at Westminster Abbey the Commonwealth Day Service and celebration is the premier public event to celebrate the Commonwealth and is attended by His Majesty The King, Senior Members of the Royal Family, Commonwealth political & diplomatic representatives as well as hundreds of young people. 

COMMONWEALTH BANQUET

12 MARCH 2024

Held annually in Commonwealth Week each March, this black tie dinner takes place in London with live entertainment from around the Commonwealth. For 2024, the gala will take place on the evening of Tuesday, 12 March, at the St James’ Court, a Taj Hotel, and will feature Gyles Brandreth, broadcaster and RCS Ambassador, alongside live musical performances.

LAUNCH: THE QUEEN'S CW ESSAY COMPETITION 15 MARCH 2024

The Queen’s Commonwealth Essay Competition (QCEC) is the world’s oldest international writing competition for schools and has been delivered by the Royal Commonwealth Society since 1883. In the past decade alone, the competition has engaged over 140,000 young people, 5,000 schools and 1,000 volunteer judges.

WIPO National IP Essay Competition 2024

April 26, 2024

Every year on April 26, we celebrate the World Intellectual Property (IP) Day to learn more about the role that IP rights play in encouraging innovation and creativity, and ultimately in shaping our world. This year’s celebration is themed “IP and SDGs: Building Our Common Future with Innovation and Creativity”, highlighting the role that IP plays in achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of the United Nations.

To build our common future and achieve the SDGs, we need to re-think how we live, work and play. This year’s campaign is an opportunity to explore how IP encourages and can amplify the innovative and creative solutions that are so crucial to building our common future. The SDGs are an interdependent blueprint for people, peace, prosperity, and our planet. The challenges we face are deep-seated and complex. Therefore, development efforts must balance social, economic, and environmental sustainability. We need to use our ingenuity, to achieve a sustainable future for everyone, everywhere.

This year’s essay theme provides an opportunity for students of tertiary institutions to explore the various ways in which IP can support Nigeria’s goal of a addressing food insecurity. IP is especially important in achieving sustainable agriculture for long term food security in Nigeria. Sustainable agriculture encourages farming methods and systems which meet society’s present needs without negative effects on the environmental quality or the ability of future generations to meet their needs.

The essay competition topic “IP and Sustainable Agriculture: Combating Food Insecurity in Nigeria” is an opportunity for students to reflect on the relationship between IP and SDG’s, with a primary focus on the opportunities and challenges for harnessing IP towards achieving food security in Nigeria.

Essay entries will be assessed for factual accuracy, imagination, originality, creative and innovative thought, by an independent expert Panel of Judges drawn from leading IP practitioners and entrepreneurs, academics, policy experts, scholars, and regulators across the country. Participation in this competition will provide students with an excellent opportunity to research and learn more about the field of intellectual property and its interaction with SGDs, while yet contributing directly to policy making as they explore policy ideas along the lines of this year’s essay topic.

Who can participate:

The national competition is open to all registered students (undergraduate and postgraduate) of recognized tertiary institutions in Nigeria; Universities, Colleges of Education, Polytechnics, as well as professional or vocational institutions.

Entry requirements:

• Font- 12 Arial (Black);
• The essay shall be written in English in not less than 500 but not more than 1,500 words (500min- 1500 max), bibliography and references excluded;
• Double-line spacing and page numbered;
• Submissions must be made in word and pdf format;
• Do not include any pictures or other graphical illustrations;
• Entries must not contain any indication as to the names, school, number, email address or other means of identification or affiliation of its author and/or any other person;
• Plagiarism of any sort will result in disqualification;
• Submissions received after the announced deadline of May 31, 2024 will not be considered.

More information on submissions . Winners of the competition will be announced in June 2024.

Prizes to be won

• Five (5) scholarship spots to attend the WIPO Summer Schools on Intellectual Property.
• Fellowship spots on the West African Young Innovation Leaders Fellowship.
• Authors of the top 15 essays will receive special WIPO Packages and Certificates of Achievement.
• The top three essays will be submitted to WIPO for possible publication in the WIPO Magazine, subject to WIPO publication schedule and review.
• All authors of winning essays will receive scholarships to undertake any of the WIPO Distance Learning (DL) courses.
• Several other exciting IP learning and professional capacity building prizes will be won!

What our judges will look out for:

• Originality;
• Structural flow, clarity of thought and expression, grammatical accuracy and coherence;
• Relevance to the field of intellectual property (IP);
• Relevance to national, regional and/or international context;
• Clear policy suggestions, proposals and/or pathways.     

Click here to start your application. Apply now

2022 Northeastern University London Essay Competition Awards

Congratulations to all of our essay winners!

This year we had over 6000 entries with many outstanding and thought-provoking pieces. Well done to everyone to entered, it was a tough decision. The winners should be proud of themselves for producing such exemplary work.

You can find this year’s questions and a list of all the winners with their essays below.

Essay Questions

Art History:  Is it time for museums and galleries to decolonise their collections, and if so, how should they go about it?

Creative Writing:  What role can fiction serve when the nature of ‘fact’ is continually called into question?

History:  What does history teach us about humanity’s ability to adapt to climate change?

Law:  What limits, if any, should we place on the right to freedom of expression?

Economics:  How has the COVID-19 pandemic impacted inequalities?

Politics:  How prepared is the international community to address the current environmental crisis?

Philosophy:  How should we (including social media companies and governments) respond to the fact that misinformation (e.g. about coronavirus) can be harmful (and even cost lives) while recognising the value of free expression (including online)?

English:  Why does the modern world need literary critics?

Psychology:  How could psychology help in understanding criminal behaviour – does society create criminals?

Data Science:  How can Data Science and Humanities inform each other?

Art History

First place:  Samara Macrae Read Samara’s essay

Second place:  Weiyen Tan Read Weiyen’s essay

Joint Third place:  Shaaon Bhattacharya Read Shaaon’s essay

Joint Third place:  Jessica Dos Santos

Read Jessica’s Essay

Creative Writing

First place:  Wing Cheong Tsang Read Wing’s essay

Joint First place:  Emily Martinez-McCune Read Emily’s essay

Joint Second place:  Helen Trappelides

Read Helen’s Essay

Third place:  Hannah Cobble

Read Hannah’s essay

Data Science

First place:  Tom Kwok Read Tom’s essay

Second place:  Sayyidah Fatimah Azzahra Read Sayyidah’s essay

Third place:  Dikoloreoluwa Oluwatobiloba Apesin Read Dikoloreoluwa’s essay

First place:  Chun Shing Pan Read Chun’s essay

Second place:  Aishi Basu Read Aishi’s essay

Joint Third place:  Arvin Egli Read Arvin’s essay

Joint Third place:  Leonard Cornelius Read Leonard’s essay

First place:  Alexia Heasley Read Alexia’s essay

Second place:  Cara Treacy Read Cara’s essay

Third place:  Max Pearson

Read Max’s essay

First place:  Ada Chaeytoniuk Read Ada’s essay

Second place:  Sasha Mullin Read Sasha’s essay

Joint Third place:  Chloe Thomas Read Chloe’s essay

Joint Third place:  Kinga Mierzejewska

Read Kinga’s essay

First place:  Hannah Bale Read Hannah’s essay

Second place:  Allie Ng

Read Allie’s essay

Joint Third place:  Amore Adam Read Amore’s essay

Joint Third place:  Zheng Zuo

Read Zheng’s essay

First place:  Hilary Hawthorne Read Hilary’s essay

Second place:  Mustafa Khuramy Read Mustafa’s essay

Third place:  Gauri Narendran Read Gauri’s essay

Politics and IR

First place:  Rosie Bray Read Rosie’s essay

Second place:  Ansh Barot Read Ansh’s essay

Joint Third place:  Eva Tollett Read Eva’s essay

Joint Third place:  Aadam Shahzad

Read Aadam’s Essay

First place:  Yixuan Wu Read Yixuan’s essay

Second place:  Jasmine Bakhshi Read Jasmine’s essay

Joint Third place:  Cara Pearson Read Cara’s essay

Joint Third place:  Shakira Warburton Ofori-Duah

Read Shakira’s essay