Bronze medal for Science master's thesis

MSc graduate Dorit Hockman's thesis has been awarded the prestigious S2A3 Bronze Medal, the South African Association for the Advancement of Science's top honour for South African master's theses in all science fields.

Hockman won the medal for her work on the evolution of bats' flying limbs. Hockman and her colleagues, fellow MSc student Mandy Mason, and supervisors Professors David Jacobs and Nicola Illing in the Departments of Zoology and Molecular Biology, linked the evolution of bats' flying limbs to changes in gene expression of the Sonic Hedgehog gene (Shh), named after a character in the Sega Genesis video game.

The master's graduate is now at Cambridge's Trinity College for a four-year PhD, funded by a prestigious Wellcome Trust Scholarship.