The Bridge Alumni Awards

August 2021 saw the University hold its first Bridge Alumni Awards, and this year we were delighted to host the fourth awards ceremony on Thursday 5 September 2024. The Bridge Alumni Awards is a thank you event that recognises alumni who have kindly given back their time to the University, to support students and the wider community. If you didn’t manage to make it to this year’s live online ceremony, we’re excited to share that you can now watch it on YouTube.

The Bridge Alumni Awards 2024

We received over 70 nominations during our 2024 awards, featuring an array of wonderful stories, which made selecting the shortlist incredibly difficult for the judging panel. 

We'd like to thank all our alumni who continue to dedicate their time and energy to the University of Dundee community and help make a difference worldwide. 

We would like to say a big congratulations to all those shortlisted and our worthy winners of 2024! Let’s find out more about why they were nominated.

Outstanding Support of the Alumni Community Award

The Outstanding Support of the Alumni Community Award is for an alumnus/alumna or group of alumni who have gone above and beyond to support the alumni community, inspiring other alumni to keep connected with Dundee and significantly contributing to the advancement of our global community.

Winner: SingASoc

The Singapore Alumni Society, aptly named SingASoc, has done a fantastic job in organising a series of successful, engaging events throughout the 23/24 academic year, which have driven the growth of our alumni community in Singapore. SingASoc is represented by Cindy Adriaan, Joshua Benjamin, Jashan Singh, Jolene Poh, Zhi Hua Chua, Pamela Wee, Wan Teng Tay, Dayang Asyiqin, Pon Poh Hsu, and Raymond Ng, to name just a few!

Finalists: 

Christopher Lewis and Alison Redpath (Medicine, 1974) took on the responsibility of organising a 50th Anniversary Reunion, after their year group came together during the pandemic to organise a class donation to medical scholarships. Chris and Alison successfully brought together a group of over 50 alumni and partners for a real celebration.

Grant Thain (Economics, 1984) has been the driving force in pulling together our alumni community in New York. He has supported planning for alumni activities around Tartan Week, teamed up with alumni from Aberdeen and Glasgow to deliver a Burns event and led the University in the 'Inaugural New York Alumni Intervarsity Bonspiel'.

Neil Boyd (Geography-Politics, 1984), Bob Young (Administrative Studies, 1984) and the 1984 organising committee took on the task of connecting alumni from across schools and disciplines. Over 40 graduates travelled to Dundee for the reunion and there are now plans for another reunion in 2026. In addition, the group donated to the University’s Access Summer School programme.

Outstanding Support of Student Recruitment Award

The Outstanding Support of Student Recruitment Award is for an alumnus/alumna who has gone above and beyond to support the recruitment of students to the University, going the extra mile to share their experience and skills as well as giving invaluable advice and guidance to applicants and offer-holders.

Joint winner: Alex Fotinos

Alex Fotinos (English Law, 2022) has supported the School of Law by engaging with enquirers, applicants, and offer holders. His ability to captivate and inspire prospective students has led to many offer holders placing Dundee at the top of their list. Since Alex began volunteering, we have welcomed 27 Canadian students to the Law School, with many students stating that Alex influenced their choice.

Joint winner: Tarek Himida

Tarek Himida (Dental Public Health, 2017) has led a number of engaging webinars and presentations for the School of Dentistry, where he highlighted the unique features of the school’s taught postgraduate programmes, as well as sharing his insights into campus life, academic excellence, student support, the vibrant close-knit community, and the natural beauty of Scotland. This has resonated with many international applicants.

Finalists:

Namrata D. Sarkar (Finance, 2018) has assisted the University’s School of Business to gain accreditation and has spent her time talking with applicants on a 1-2-1 basis, to reassure them that Dundee was the right choice.

Izuin Hanis (Economics-Politics, 2021) has been a fantastic support to staff during multiple student recruitment events in Malaysia, such as offer holder days or pre-departure gatherings. She is always enthusiastic to share her experience of Dundee and the University with prospective students.

Outstanding Support of Students Award

The Outstanding Support of Students Award is for an alumnus/alumna who has gone above and beyond to support the student experience, inspiring current students and providing them with invaluable guidance to contribute to their success.

Winner: Aaron Geddes

Aaron Geddes (Accountancy, 2016 & Data Science, 2022) has given his time and expertise to talk to undergraduate students about the growing importance of data analytics in accountancy. In addition, Aaron has helped deliver a series of lab sessions, showing how data analytics programmes are increasingly used within accounting firms and business. Thirdly, Aaron has helped the School of Business by participating in alumni meetings for accreditation.

Finalists:

Tarek Himida (Dental Public Health, 2017) has organised and delivered several training sessions for postgraduate dental students, offering valuable insights into career pathways. Tarek is developing research collaborations between the School of Dentistry and US partners, and plans to conduct clinical skills training. 

The Dundee Law School Alumni Mentoring programme is moving into its third successful year, bringing together solicitors, advocates, barristers, in-house counsel, a government adviser and business professionals with a law degree to share knowledge, experience and key advice with current students. This helps students navigate the next steps in their career journey. So far, 35 students have been mentored, with the Law School hoping to match mentors with a further 25 students this year.

Ryan Thompson (Graphic Design, 2005) helped run the Long Lunch series of speakers and has supported our students to hear from world-renown professional designers, including Paul Barnes, an exceptional typographer and designer. Supported by Ryan and Paul, the lecture and subsequent time spent with our students was an invaluable contribution to our students’ learning experience. Furthermore, Ryan has supported our mentor days and met with 2 students to support them to their final degree outcome.

Adrian Binzaru (Business Management, 2014) delivered an excellent talk on workspace and leadership, then going on to work closely with the University to host a delegation of students at his company’s headquarters in Edinburgh. He provided a tour and delivered an inspiring presentation, finished off with some delicious pizza!  

Outstanding Student Ambassador Award

The Outstanding Student Ambassador Award is for a student who has been an exceptional Student Ambassador, helping to enhance the University’s reputation and others’ experiences regular volunteering.

Winner: Heidi Le

Heidi Le (Graphic Design, 2026) volunteers at events and showcases her passion for the arts, whilst supporting many Vietnamese students in their transition to Dundee. Heidi is the first President of the Vietnamese Society and through various events, she has fostered a deeper understanding and appreciation of her culture, enriching the University's cultural diversity. 

Finalists:

Samuel Murray (Economics-Politics, 2027) supported every single graduation and garden party event. Sam has an infectious energy and enthusiasm for helping others, actively engaging with staff and other students. Sam helped motivate other student ambassadors and was always willing to listen to feedback.

Outstanding Alumni Ambassador Award

The Outstanding Alumni Ambassador Award is for an alumnus/alumna who has been an exceptional ambassador, helping to enhance the University’s reputation across the world through regular volunteering.

Winner: Arif Adnan

Arif I. Adnan (Energy Studies, 2011) regularly supports University delegations in Indonesia and assisted the University in delivering an alumni event in Jakarta. He is driving the development of the Indonesian Alumni Chapter, helping to grow the alumni community and has been instrumental in connecting the University with his contacts in South East Asia, creating many partnership opportunities for the University. 

Finalists:

Xuanyun Lu (Dental Public Health, 2020) has made significant contributions to the success of recruiting Chinese students by producing a blog, presenting at webinars and creating engaging videos. She assisted in organising a Health Sciences meeting with Nanjing Medical University, as well as offering direct advice to Chinese dentistry applicants and contributing her ideas to the development of a clinical short course specifically for the Chinese market. 

Grant Thain (Economics, 1984) has been the driving force in pulling together our alumni community in New York. He has supported planning for alumni activities around Tartan Week, teamed up with alumni from Aberdeen and Glasgow to deliver a Burns event and led the University in the 'Inaugural New York Alumni Intervarsity Bonspiel'.

The Transforming Lives Award

The Transforming Lives Award recognises alumni who support the University’s commitment to transform lives by inspiring change and making a positive difference within their local community, region or on a global scale. There are three sub-categories – alumni who have made an impact at local, national and global scale. 

Local Winner: John Fyffe MBE

John Fyffe MBE (Teaching in Primary Education, 2003) and his wife Carolyn, also a University of Dundee graduate, conceived the idea of a Dundee Tapestry. Together with Dr Francis Stevenson and Andrew Crummy MBE, the Designer of the Great Tapestry of Scotland, John organised funding and resources to progress the idea. John's contribution to the community saw 140 stitchers from across Dundee come together to tell the city’s story.  Not only did this provide many community spaces for people to come together, but showcased Dundee's fascinating history. The Tapestry was displayed in the V&A Dundee in early 2024, with visitors to the exhibition in excess of 80,000.

Local Finalists:

Saskia Singer (Fine Art, 2019) founded Narture CIC, which bakes bread and uses the proceeds to fund art projects, fostering culinary and artistic creativity. The enterprise provides workshops that teach participants not only how to make bread but also skills such as teamwork, patience, and resilience. Funds generated from the bakery support a wide range of arts projects, with art exhibitions, community theatre productions, and creative workshops enriching the local cultural landscape. 

Eilidh Macleod (Product Design, 2021) is a full-time practitioner at Action for Children, helping young children from difficult backgrounds in the local community by inspiring them with creativity and expression through art. At the V&A Dundee, Eilidh is a freelance educator, helping to engage the local community in creative outputs whilst trying to break the boundary of the often 'elitist' nature of galleries and museums. Eilidh is now working alongside DJCAD to deliver a new summer school module. Eilidh has been working on a project of her own - 'The Art Clinic' with its mission to generate creative impact through thinking, speaking and making. The project aims to identify and disrupt creative barriers within our communities, focusing on the themes of accessibility and belonging.

Ruby Kelly (Philosophy-Spanish, 2019) is the community hub manager for Maslow’s; a second-hand goods shop, run by volunteers. They provide free clothing and household goods to asylum seekers and people in the local community who are experiencing hardship. Under Ruby’s management, the hub has become a bustling centre of free workshops and classes. The aim of the centre is to provide a safe, free space. 

National Winner: Julie Rattray

Julie Rattray (Psychology, 1995 & PhD Psychology, 2000) was born with very limited vision and has been blind since early adulthood. Julie is Director of EDI in the School of Education and the Lead for Durham University's Disability Network. She has been a leading light in the threshold concepts community of practice for almost 15 years. This community has a wide, international membership and the threshold concepts framework is underpinned by motivation to support students, particularly when learning is difficult and to transform understanding. Julie is an internationally known researcher in educational research, having published prolifically in this area and also co-leads other international threshold concepts work, notably organising the biennial international threshold concepts conference, with associated publications. 

National Finalists:

Krunal Soni (Orthopaedic Surgery, 2020), a distinguished Orthopaedic Surgeon has advanced surgical techniques and patient-focused approach in India, pioneering procedures such as wireless knee surgery. His fracture prevention programme has benefited many elderly patients and similarly, his clubfoot awareness program has facilitated early intervention. Krunal regularly conducts training sessions for young surgeons, sharing his expertise. His active participation in national medical conferences and contributions to medical journals further solidify his influence in shaping the future of orthopaedic surgery.

Emma Thomson (Medical Education, 2009) pioneered the establishment of a Teaching and Learning Development Centre in Kamuzu University of Health Sciences; the only institution training undergraduate doctors in Malawi. She led the development and inception of a Master of Health Professions Education, co-created a Global Health Perspectives Module for the University of Dundee and Kazumu University of Health Sciences aimed at addressing equity in electives and co-coordinated the South-to-South Medical elective exchange. 

Josephine Langton (Medical Education, 2023) has helped develop a vast number of educational materials now embedded within training in Malawi, Tanzania, Nigeria, Kenya and Ethiopia. These materials aim to enable these countries to reduce neonatal mortality. She also co-created and directs a course that aims to ensure the trainers teaching neonatal life support in these countries deliver effective high-quality teaching. Josephine pioneered the development of an Advanced Malawian Paediatric Life Support course, aimed at improving both paediatric resuscitation and quality of emergency paediatric care in Malawi. Josephine works as the only Paediatric Emergency Medicine Consultant at Queen Elizabeth Central Hospital. In this capacity, when tragedy hit Southern Malawi in March 2023 in the form of Cyclone Freddy, she led the major incident response at the hospital. 

Loide Matias Da Silva (International Energy Law and Policy, 2021) has worked for a number of organisations on projects which help mitigate climate change over the last five years. Loide coordinated a team which drafted the first-ever Solar Roadmap, and currently serves as the Chief Finance Officer and the Head of Projects at Explore Tech Africa, which has donated over 250 laptops and computer literacy materials to children and young adults in Nigeria, Angola and Ghana. 

Linayati Tjindra (Leadership and Innovation, 2018) volunteers for ‘Sahabat Anak’, a not-for-profit foundation which provides help and support to marginalized children in Jakarta and the surrounding area. In addition, together with her work colleagues, she initiated ‘Ayo Nyoblos’ which means ‘Let's Vote’; a social event providing information about the Indonesian General Election in 2019. It successfully reached thousands of people, from young voters to the elderly, and provided them with full information about the election; how to use their right to vote and how to gather trusted information about each political party. The event will run again this year. 

Global Winner: David Cunningham and Dave Tipping

Kids Operating Room is a global health charity, set up in part by David Cunningham (Psychology, 1999) and Dave Tipping (Architecture, 2005) which has provided nearly 100 paediatric operating rooms in low-and-middle income countries around the world, ensuring as many children as possible have access to the surgery they need. In addition, they train local surgeons and paediatric teams in country, advocate for global health and work with Ministries of Health in country to make lasting change.  Recently, they have pioneered the concept of solar surgery to address the ongoing issue of regular black outs, which frequently interrupts lifesaving surgery, particularly in sub–Saharan Africa. The solar surgery system was developed by David and Dave and is run entirely from a warehouse hub in Dundee. 

Global Finalists:

Beatrice Preti (Medical Education, 2023) has tirelessly pushed for application of her medical education skills for the improvement in the learner experience, leading or co-leading multiple qualitative studies aimed at understanding and ameliorating situations of low psychological safety. Besides this scholarly work, and while working full time as an academic medical oncologist, she volunteers her time to provide high-quality, interactive, free medical oncology education virtually on globally accessible platform, removing barriers to higher education, all for the betterment of patient care.

Suna Voss (International Relations-Politics, 2015) has used her skills and experience of advocacy during and outside her studies to set up an NGO, Perspekt Initative, which seeks to ‘build bridges and create more understanding between people’ from diverse communities. The NGO runs online and in-person workshops in schools, corporations and other civic organisations on antiracism, civil courage or rhetoric, and diversity, using methods from social psychology and peace and conflict research. It was recently awarded a two-year project, funded by the European Union, on Anti-Racism training, in five countries - Germany, Poland, Bulgaria, Denmark, and Spain – as well as online.