Olympian collects early award

The department honours one of our students’ Olympic ambitions with a £3,000 award to help support him as he prepares for the 2012 Games.

Adam Scholefield, a PhD student and former undergraduate in our department who is the current Vice-Captain of the British Olympic Water Polo team, was presented with the award at a ceremony attended by staff and students on Friday 25 November.

The award was given in recognition of his success in managing both his studies and his sporting life across his time at Imperial, and in support of his Olympic endeavour.

Speaking at the event Professor Peter Cheung, Head of Department said: “This is a very special achievement. We celebrate not only Adam’s athletic success, but also his strong commitment to his studies – shown across his undergraduate and postgraduate work. This combination is an inspiration to the whole Department.”

Adam, who first took up water polo at the age of ten,  first joined the Department as an undergraduate. He recalls staff going to considerable trouble to ensure he could sit an exam around a sporting commitment during his undergraduate studies, as well as being supportive throughout his first degree. After Adam graduated with a first class degree he elected to take up postrgraduate stuides at the department. His supervisor Dr  Pier Luigi Dragotti (pictured with Adam above) arranged supervision around Adam’s commitments to training in Manchester with the rest of the team.

 

Adam said: “The whole department, and especially Pier, have been hugely supportive ever since I first started. They’ve been amazing all the way through and this award in particular is such a surprising but lovely gesture.”

Only now that he is in training for the Olympics, and playing water polo professionally for Hungarian team PVSK, has Adam had to interrupt is studies. He remains determined to keep his hand in though, devoting time in between gym sessions and training to his research – looking at the mathematical models related to how the data behind digital imagery degrade, affecting quality.

Adam says: “I obviously enjoy water polo but I also enjoy my academic work. I’m just really pleased I’ve been able to keep doing both.”

— John-Paul Jones, Communications and Development