Launched in 2010, the David Dineley Prize is awarded by the staff who teach the programme, and it recognises the project that best represents the ideals of the Bristol palaeobiology programme - innovative, well planned, and well presented. The prize winner will be identified by the staff, and with recommendations from the external examiner of the programme.

The prize honours Professor David Dineley (right), distinguished Bristol palaeontologist, who was a member of staff in the Department of Earth Sciences (= Department of Geology then) from 1968 to 1989, and was Chaning Wills Professor and Head of Department from 1968 to 1989. David Dineley is best known for his fundamental work on early fossil fishes and on Devonian stratigraphy, on which he wrote many scientific papers ands books. After he retired in 1990, Professor Dineley has continued his researches on the Devonian and its fishes, as well as writing and editing a number of geological books.

The first prize was awarded in early 2011, to the best project from the 2009-2010 cohort, and it has been presented annually thereafter.

Recipients

• 2009-2010: John Clarke, for his project on "Establishing a timescale for plant evolution: palaeontological evidence and calibration consistency," supervised by Phil Donoghue and Rachel Warnock
• 2010-2011: Thomas Halliday, for his project on "A re-evaluation of goniopholidid material from Central Asia: biogeographic and phylogenetic implications," supervised by Mike Benton and Marco Andrade (São Paulo).
• 2011-2012: Mark Puttick, for his project on "Comparative phylogenetics of Anseriformes", supervised by Mike Benton and Gavin Thomas (Sheffield).

Other awards to MSc students

Bristol MSc graduates have won many prizes before, often awarded by national and international bodies, and it seems appropriate to recognise their excellence in their home university.

• Fulbright Award (2012) to Rachel Frigot to enable her to study at Johns Hopkins University in the US, one of the most prestigious and selective scholarship programmes operating world-wide. Read more.
• Geologists' Association MSc Thesis Prize (2010) to Nick Crumpton, for his thesis on adaptation and morphometrics of the teeth of tiny Triassic and Jurassic mammals. Read more...
• Palaeontological Association Progressive Palaeontology Conference, Best Paper Prize (2009): awarded to Nick Crumpton for his presentation on fossil mammals. Read more...
• University of Bristol Alumni Association award (2009): awarded to Kelly Richards for CT scanning of the skeleton of the early mammal Morganucodon. Read more...
• Geological Society of America Farouk El-Baz Student Research Grant (2009): awarded to MSc student Sarah Kennan to fund her field work in Montana and Texas. Read more...
• Society of Vertebrate Paleontology, R. Estes Memorial Award (2006): Laura Säilä, for a three-week visit to Moscow to study the Permian Russian procolophonoids
• Society of Vertebrate Paleontology, Best Student Poster Prize (2005): Laura Säilä, for her poster on British sphenodontids. Read more...