Congratulations to George Solomou on being awarded Runner Up for the Zeshan Qureshi Award for Outstanding Achievement in Medical Education.
George is a 4th-year graduate-entry medical student, currently taking a year out of his studies to pursue a full-time research degree to study and characterise xenograft mouse models of diffuse adult glial tumours of the brain, for which he is granted three scholarships/research grants. He is primarily interested in pursuing a career in academic neurosurgical oncology, dreaming of being able to operate on brain tumours using cutting edge technology, including intra-operative adjuncts. His previous work has been recognised with national awards from the British Society for Nanomedicine and British Association of Clinical Anatomists (Conrad Lewin prize). He is currently the leading investigator of a UK and Ireland prospective cohort study, evaluating resection rates and adjuncts used in theatre for the surgical excision of high-grade gliomas. Further, he is a steering committee member of two other national studies in neurosurgery, currently in preparation. He has led the national Neurology and Neurosurgery Interest Group (NANSIG) last year (2019-2020) and now serves as an immediate past chair. He is also the current Deputy Chair of the medical student group of the Faculty of Medical Leadership and Management (FMLM).
In the past, he served as a core committee member of the student group of the Royal Society of Medicine (RSM) and a founding member of the British Forum for Aspiring Surgeons (BFAS). George is an author in 7 published peer-reviewed, PMID papers and an author in 6 manuscripts/book chapters currently under review. Further, he has been the presenting author a dozen of times in national and international conferences and is a co-author in >20 presentations.
During his undergraduate career, he has continuously strived to serve others, embracing innovative ideas and collaborative effort. Locally, he founded the national suturing course and competition in 2017, which is still undergoing, allowing medical students to hone suturing skills and interact with like-minded people. Further, he has founded one of the most successful events organised by an RSM group with 1200 students registering interest, gathering national experts to teach medical students and doctors how to get involved with research and develop an academic trajectory. Further, he has chaired national workshops and conferences and recently has been a co-author in a paper entitled: “The evolution of an SBNS-accredited NANSIG simulated skills workshop for aspiring neurosurgical trainees: an analysis of qualitative and quantitative data”. He is currently involved in two national medical education research studies studying how neuroanatomy and neurosurgery is taught in the UK. His involvement with medical education is hands-on as well as evidence-based. He hopes to allow more students and doctors to rise to the challenge, change the tides and come up with new ideas to serve the peers ultimately.
Throughout his undergraduate journey towards self-amelioration and peer-support, he maintained a good academic record and made life-long friends. However, as he continues to make countless mistakes, he hopes to learn from others and wishes the people he is interacting with, to pinpoint where he is wrong so he can become a better person, future doctor and academic.
