Following the tragic loss of Julia Mead Knox, the Leverhulme Centre for Demographic Science and the University of Oxford have established The Julia Mead Knox Memorial Prize for Research in Demography and Population Health in her honour. Entries are open to DPhil students across the University of Oxford and must be emailed to the LCDS Office mailbox by Monday 30 September.
Entries for The Julia Mead Knox Memorial Prize for Research in Demography and Population Health will open from 1 April to 30 June annually, commencing in 2025. For 2024 the prize period is 1 August to 30 September. The prize aims to encourage scholarship from DPhil students across all departments, divisions and colleges at the University of Oxford, where the submitted essay can be on any topic related to demography and population health, broadly defined. Preference will be given to those working in Julia’s research area of genetics/genomics, inclusivity and public health.
Julia Mead Knox
The prize is in honour of Julia Mead Knox. Julia was a DPhil student at the Leverhulme Centre for Demographic Science and Green Templeton College, where she studied the diversity of participants in genomic research and public health. Julia received her bachelor’s degree in women’s studies from the University of Vermont, and her master’s degree in public health from the University of New England. She loved books and everything about them. Not only a reader, Julia was a born writer with a deep love of and respect for words. She had a treasured collection of pens from many places. She loved the natural world, its beauty, the all of it, and was full of wonder. Julia was fiercely intelligent, curious, forthright and with a great wit. Committed to social justice, she was truly kind and thoughtful, compassionate, and always sought the good. She was beloved. Julia tragically died on 7 November 2023, following complications arising from Covid-19.
The prize
The winner will receive a monetary prize of £1,000, with presentation of the award to take place at a relevant Leverhulme Centre for Demographic Science event.
How to enter
Entries should be submitted via the LCDS Office mailbox. We welcome entrants to nominate either themselves or somebody else. We especially encourage nominations from departmental or college supervisors on behalf of their students.
Competition rules
The competition is open to anyone currently enrolled in postgraduate research at the University of Oxford. They can be from any department, although they should not have defended their thesis earlier than in the January of the calendar year of the award. The winner’s student status verification will be requested from their academic supervisor or relevant head of department.
Submissions should include a title and an abstract (of up to 250 words), and may be of variable length, but they should be no longer than 10,000 words (inclusive of all tables, figures and references). The article or essay may be co-authored, but we require that the entrant is the primary author and that the paper contains an author contribution statement.
Prize donations
If you would like to donate to The Julia Mead Knox Memorial Prize for Research in Demography and Population Health, you can do so via the fundraising link. If you prefer another payment method, please contact Joanna Human at the University of Oxford’s Development Office who can help process your donation and provide more information about Americans for Oxford if required.
Your support will help us encourage scholarship in demography and population health across the University of Oxford to leave a lasting legacy for an extremely talented demographer, Julia Mead Knox – rest in peace.