Josephine Agyeman-Duah, a DPhil student at the Nuffield Department of Women’s and Reproductive Health, has been named as the winner of the PhD Student of the Year award 2022.

Josephine is part of the INTERGROWTH-21ST research group, which is dedicated to improving perinatal health, developing new fetal and newborn growth standards, and providing tools for continuity of care from conception to 5 years old. Her research focusses on neurodevelopmental assessment at age 2 for all children born preterm.

The award scheme, run by FindAUniversity, received hundreds of nominations. The judges were impressed with Josephine’s research and its meaningful contribution to improve care for preterm infants during the Covid-19 pandemic and beyond. She has already been recognised by The Family Larsson Rosenquist Foundation as a positive change agent for making a global impact beyond her PhD studies.

Alongside her impressive research, Josephine has spearheaded a number of initiatives to enrich the student experience at Oxford as the first Black Students’ Representative at Green Templeton College. These have included starting a Black Mentorship Programme, curating the Maarifa Library Collection for self-education to address racism and microaggression and to celebrate Black writers, and establishing the first Black Students’ Society at their College. She also recently won a Race Equality award at the Oxford Student Union Awards 2022.

Josephine said, ‘Winning the award has both inspired and challenged me to do more for society. It tells me that all that we do in this life, people are watching and so we always have to put our best foot forward.’