Thomas Henning is Pre-Clinical Runner-Up in National Undergraduate Neuroanatomy Competition 2021

Congratulations to St Edmund Hall student Thomas Henning (2019, Medicine) for being the Pre-Clinical Runner-Up in the National Undergraduate Neuroanatomy Competition (NUNC) 2021 at the University of Southampton. The NUNC is an annual competition open to all medical students in the UK and Ireland. It first started in 2013 and now attracts over 150 students.

Students who enter the competition get the opportunity to demonstrate their commitment to the neurosciences and ability in neuroanatomy, meet and network with likeminded people, and see the exciting collection of neuroanatomical dissections. The competition was held online for the first time but the format remained the same, with exams taking place via an online portal and talks happening over Zoom. There are three main components of the competition: a neuroanatomy spotter examination, a clinically-orientated multiple-choice examination and series of talks from on aspects of neuroscience.

Thomas says: “The NUNC to me was an opportunity to gain further insight into an area of medicine and research that I grew to love during my second year here at Oxford. The brain is such an intricate system of various structures that probably gets more complicated the more you look at it; however it is always deeply rewarding when you further your understanding of it in the slightest way.

I never entered this competition to win but for the learning and – arguably – the fun of the  preparatory sessions and the competition itself. Therefore it was even more humbling when I realised that my efforts had paid off in such a way that I was able to secure the title of Pre-Clinical runner up for the university.

On that notion, I would really like to thank my second year tutor for Neuroscience, Teddy Hall’s own David Dupret, as well as Zoltan Molnar (St John’s) and Oliver Bredemeyer (last year’s runner up) for sparking and furthering my interest and knowledge in neurology and neuroscience.I would also love to thank my family and friends back home and here at Oxford for supporting me throughout this time and for always making me laugh or have an open door whenever I need to talk to someone.”

Please join us in congratulation of Thomas on this amazing achievement!