The winners of the Award Universidade de Lisboa|Fundação BIAL 30 Years were announced on 25 November at the award ceremony held as part of the 6th Meeting of Students of the Mind-Brain College at the Rectory of the University of Lisbon (ULisboa).
Created to stimulate reflection, interpretation, and critical analysis, this award challenged university students from all over the country to write essays on the theme of the BIAL Foundation's 30th-anniversary conference, entitled ‘On the Physiology of the Mind 2024’, by António Damásio and Hanna Damásio.
Of around 4,500 participants at the event, which took place on 9 October at Aula Magna of the ULisboa, more than 1,000 students attended the conference, and 58 responded to the challenge by writing essays that they submitted to the jury.
Ten prizes were awarded to students from the three cycles of higher education, from different institutions, disciplinary areas (Medicine, Psychology, and Humanities) and regions of the country:
Bachelor (1st cycle):
Ana Matilde Roque Gonçalves (FPUL - Faculdade de Psicologia da ULisboa);
Bernardo Alexandre dos Santos Rodrigues (FPUL - Faculdade de Psicologia da ULisboa);
Diogo Fernando Reis Carneiro (FLUC - Faculdade de Letras da Universidade de Coimbra);
Joana Alves Pereira de Ferreira Monteiro (FMUL - Faculdade de Medicina da ULisboa);
Mariana Luís da Fonseca Roque Gameiro (FPUL - Faculdade de Psicologia da ULisboa);
Samuel David Canas dos Santos (FPCEUC - Faculdade de Psicologia e de Ciências da Educação da Universidade de Coimbra).
Master (2nd cycle):
Ana Sofia Carvalho Micael (FMUL - Faculdade de Medicina da ULisboa);
Luís Manuel Guterres (FMUL - Faculdade de Medicina da ULisboa);
Mariana Catalão Peres Monteiro (FMUC - Faculdade de Medicina da Universidade de Coimbra).
Doctoral (3rd cycle): ex aequo
Inês de Andrade Matos Gonçalves Saraiva (FMUL - Faculdade de Medicina da ULisboa);
Vera Mascarenhas Pombeiro Duarte Silva (FMUL - Faculdade de Medicina da ULisboa).
The essays by the two doctoral students awarded ex aequo in their category were considered the best of the three study cycles.
The winners, recognised for the quality and innovation of their essays, received a prize of €1,000 each, an incentive for scientific production and furthering knowledge in the areas of the mind and brain.
The assessment, carried out by an academic jury chaired by Vice-Rector Cecília Rodrigues of the ULisboa and including, among others, members of Mind-Brain College of the ULisboa, took into account the participants' capacity for reflection, critical analysis, and argumentation, through the exploration of ideas, opinions and interpretations in a free and structured way, as well as their ability to present them in an articulate, coherent and rigorously reasoned manner.
With the internationally acclaimed Portuguese neuroscientist as an inspirational source, this Award sought to highlight the merit of the awardees and the relevance of interdisciplinary dialogue in training a new generation of researchers.
‘Professors António Damásio and Hanna Damásio are some of the world's most outstanding neuroscientists, with a fantastic scientific output that makes them some of the most cited scientists in the world. The BIAL Foundation is therefore very honoured that they both accepted the invitation to give the lecture that marked the Foundation's 30th anniversary,’ says Luís Portela, chairman of the BIAL Foundation, thanking “ULisboa for jointly launching this Award that promotes science and interdisciplinarity among young university students”.
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