Sidney geographers recognised nationally for dissertation excellence

Sabrina Mohammad, Lucy Twittey, and Izzie Engestrom recently graduated after completing the Geographical Tripos. All three dissertations received first-class marks and have been selected by the Department of Geography, University of Cambridge for nomination to prestigious national dissertation prizes. As the Department is only able to submit one dissertation for each prize category, the nominations reflect the outstanding standard of their work.

Reflecting on their time at Sidney, the graduates said:

"We have loved our time studying Geography at Sidney, and are so proud of this collective achievement. Thank you to our wonderful Director of Studies, Dr Catherine Sumnall, whose guidance and support has been invaluable throughout the past three years.’"

(Left to Right) Sabrina, Lucy, and Izzie at graduation on Friday 3rd July 2026

"I am incredibly proud of Lucy, Sabrina, and Izzie. That all of their dissertations are potentially prize winning, and were highly individual projects born of their own intellectual creativity to boot, is a huge credit to their imagination and determination. I hope they'll take their skills and success out into the wider world and inspire others to think geographically too." – said Dr Catherine Sumnall, Deputy Senior Tutor and Director of Studies for Geography, Sidney Sussex College.

Lucy’s dissertation, ‘Atmosphere at the Emirates: The Women’s Match Day Experience’, examined the experiences of 17 Arsenal Women supporters to explore what constitutes atmosphere at the women’s match day, and how this is experienced differentially by spectators. This dissertation was awarded the William Vaughan Lewis Prize by the Department of Geography in recognition of outstanding undergraduate research. It has also been nominated for the Royal Geographical Society’s Alfred Steers Prize, awarded annually for the best undergraduate geography dissertation in the UK.

Sabrina’s dissertation, ‘Welcome to the Other? Exploring Cosmopolitan Encounter in Supermarket World Food Aisles’, examined how supermarket world food aisles shape understandings of culture and ethnic belonging through everyday shopping practices. The dissertation has been nominated for the Royal Geographical Society’s Food Geographies Research Group Dissertation Prize, recognising outstanding undergraduate research in food geographies. 

Izzie’s dissertation, ‘Quantifying water extent on a partially debris-covered Antarctic ice shelf using a machine learning approach’, used Landsat 8 satellite imagery and a Random Forest Classifier to map supraglacial water area and volume across 12 melt seasons on McMurdo Ice Shelf. The dissertation has been nominated for the British Hydrological Society Undergraduate Dissertation Prize, awarded for outstanding undergraduate research in hydrology.