With the generous support of an anonymous donor, BABAO has created two awards to recognise excellence in students’ theses. The Don Brothwell award will be given to an undergraduate thesis, and the Holger Schutkowski award to a master’s thesis.

Each winner will receive £50, a year’s BABAO membership, and the opportunity to present their research at the following year’s BABAO conference. Winners are not eligible for either the Jane Moore or Bill White conference prizes.

Scope of the award

BABAO promotes the study of biological anthropology and osteoarchaeology for the purpose of understanding the physical development of the human species from the past to the present.

This includes the study of primatology, hominines, medical anthropology, forensic anthropology, and bioarchaeology,(the latter being focused on archaeological human remains) including palaeopathology or the study of ancient disease.

We welcome submissions of quality and originality, based in any of these areas of study and methods of analysis, for example genomics, stable isotope, imaging and macroscopic. 

How to nominate a thesis

Summary of the awards process:

• Dissertations must have been submitted as part of an undergraduate or masters’ course at a UK university within the past academic year (first year: 2021-22). An exception will be made for distance learners, who receive their grade after the deadline.
• A BABAO member who serves as a member of staff within a UK university is invited to submit one dissertation for each award.
• The nominator must inform the student that they have been entered for the award, and ensure that the student signed the application form.
• Only one dissertation per award can be submitted by a department.
• The dissertation must be completely anonymised, and submitted in pdf format to the BABAO’s Grants Secretary.
• The submission must be accompanied by an application form.
• The deadlines for submissions are:
  • Don Brothwell award (1st September)
  • Holger Schutkowski award (6th January)
• The winners will be announced within at least 3 months of submission.
• The award will be made at the BABAO annual general meeting in September.