Science Dean's Awards

The Dean's Awards for excellence in the Natural Sciences and Mathematics were initiated in 1994/1995. At this year's ceremony, the University Rector, Professor Roger Ellul-Micallef, presented 15 awards to students placing first, second and third in each of the four years of the B.Sc. (Hons) course during the academic year 2001/2002.

In congratulating the students on their achievement, the Rector emphasised the country's need for well-trained scientists while the Dean of the Faculty, Professor A.J. Vella, also expressed his satisfaction at the fact that such high quality students are found in the University's Science Faculty.

The students on the Dean's List were: Year I - Mary Rose Bonello and Andrew Duncan (Computer Science and AI and Maths); Matthew John Vella (Biology and Chemistry); Year II - Sarah Buttigieg (Maths and Statistics and Operations Research); Joel Azzopardi (Physics and Computer Science and AI); Pamela Cohen (Maths and Physics); Renato Camilleri and Jonathan Henwood (Biology and Chemistry); Year III - Pierre-Sandre Farrugia (Maths and Physics); Michael Caruana and Karen Caruana (Maths and Statistics and Operations Research); Year IV - Adrian Vella (Chemistry and Physics); Andrew Briffa, David Paul Suda and Silvan Zammit (Maths and Statistics and Operations Research).

The Faculty of Science comprises seven departments including traditional sciences, the newer disciplines in Information Technology; the most recent addition is the Department of Statistics and Operations Research.

Research is being carried out in several fields but particular areas of interest include marine biology, environmental chemistry, microwave applications, atmospheric physics, alternative energy devices, algebraic graph theory and combinatorics, systems analysis and design, multimedia authoring environments and stochastic processes.