Winner of Fellows of the Future competition announced
L-R: Hannah Shanks-Boon, Laura Huntenburg, Joycelyn Intanate.
The winner of this year’s Fellow of the Future competition has been decided at the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons (RCVS) Fellowship Day.
Joycelyn Intanate, a student at the Royal Veterinary College, won for her presentation on ‘Patient benefit and factors associated with technique success of sentinel lymph node mapping via indirect computed tomography lymphography in small animal oncology patients’.
Ms Intanate was one of three finalists who presented their research projects to the RCVS Fellows during the event at One Great George Street, Westminster, on 28 November.
The other finalists were Laura Huntenburg and Hannah Shanks-Boon, both students at the University of Liverpool. Ms Huntenburg presented on ‘Progressive methods of reducing lameness in the UK sheep industry: A study on the use of thermal imaging as a diagnostic tool to identify sheep foot lesions’, while Ms Shanks-Boon gave a presentation on ‘Increased soft palate angle and basihyoid depth is related to increased body condition score and increased tongue size in the horse’.
After the presentations had been given, the winner was decided by a panel of judges. The winner received a £200 book token and the two runners-up each received a £100 book token.
The annual competition provides an opportunity for veterinary students to showcase their original research. Every student who entered the competition was invited to attend Fellowship Day and to submit a poster about their research. The posters were displayed on screen in the break areas.
Ms Intanate said: “This was one of my first times giving a public speech, I was nervous but it was a great experience.
“I’ve taken away from today that there’s nothing to lose from giving an opportunity a go – I was nervous before applying [to the competition] in case I didn’t get it, but I realised I would regret it if I didn’t give it a go.
“My favourite part of Fellowship Day has been getting to meet everyone else, everyone has been so friendly and supportive.”
Image © RCVS
The BSAVA has opened submissions for the BSAVA Clinical Research Abstracts 2026.
