ANJOOL MALDE AWARDS 2025 - EIGHTEEN IMPRESSIVE INDIVIDUALS WIN AWARDS

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

ANJOOL MALDE AWARDS 2025 – EIGHTEEN IMPRESSIVE INDIVIDUALS ANNOUNCED AS WINNERS

Set up in 2010 as a legacy to Anjool Maldé (1984-2009) - Jools to his friends - the Trust makes annual awards across 6 categories with prize money to a selection of UK’s talented best young individuals with a special edge to their achievements. The Awards encourage all young individuals to 'do well, do good' in their lives and careers.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                       

• INNOVATION & ENTERPRISE - Anjool Maldé Young Innovator Award (Hosts: RSA)

Winner: Casta Schaebbicke for her submission Biotherm

Runner-ups: Hanna Cox, Charlotte Carla, Diana Jorge for their submission Hot Air Company

PHOTOS 1 & 2 (courtesy RSA)

RSA partnership statement:

“The RSA is very proud of our partnership with the Anjool Maldé Memorial Trust, recognising two exceptional young RSA Spark participants whose ideas demonstrate viable opportunities for innovation to drive social and environmental impact. We wish the winners of the financial prizes the best of luck with their innovation journey. (Jo Choukeir, Director of Design and Innovation).”

Winning Submission: Biotherm, a sustainable insulation solution using Phase Change Materials (PCMs) made from waste streams like used cooking oil, paraffin, and beeswax.

RSA’s Expert Review Panel: Biotherm is a standout candidate for the Anjool Maldé Young Innovator Award because it combines scientific insight with practical design to tackle fuel poverty and climate change using waste-derived materials. The solution is innovative, clearly rooted in research, and demonstrates strong early-stage prototyping. It reflects a deep understanding of environmental and social impact, with a clear vision for how to turn a novel material concept into real-world action — all led by a young designer showing maturity, originality, and purpose-driven thinking."

Casta Schaebbicke: “Receiving the Young Innovator of the Year award has been a significant milestone in my university journey. Working on Biotherm, a project that reuses waste materials to improve home efficiency, has been an incredibly rewarding and educational experience. I’m excited to reinvest the prize money into furthering this work and continuing my passion for sustainable design.”

Runner-up: The Hot Air Company - turns residual data centre heat into revenue by powering modular bioreactor units used in biotech. The system captures waste heat before it’s lost to chillers and redirects it.

RSA’s Expert Review Panel: "This team is tackling a hidden but massive opportunity: turning waste heat from data centres into power for biotech. The originality, cross-sector innovation, and systems-level thinking here reflect exactly the kind of bold thinking the Anjool Maldé Award celebrates. The integration of climate, technology, and entrepreneurship is truly outstanding."

Hanna Cox, Charlotte Carla, Diana Jorge: “Winning this award is a significant milestone for The Hot Air Company, and feels particularly validating for us, given the complexity and ambition of our problem space. To have RSA’s Panels endorse our idea was just the encouragement we needed to carry our mission forward with confidence and demonstrate traction. The prize money will be allocated towards research & development (process modelling, thermodynamic calculations) and the deployment of our pilot, which are capital-intensive but crucial next steps for our company.”

• JOURNALISM - Anjool Maldé Journalism Award (Hosts: Film & Broadcast Production QUB, Belfast)

Winners: ‘Beyond Words’ - Oisín-Thomás Reilly, Jonathan Braniff, Kat Mrozek,

Marc Graham, Michael McChrystal, and Ryan Martin

PHOTO 3: Winners Ryan Martin, Michael McChystal, Oisín-Thomás Reilly, Kurt Taroff [Head of School of Arts, English and Languages], Jonathan Braniff, Marc Graham, Kat Mrozek. (courtesy QUB)

Judges (Dr Des O’Rawe, Frank Delaney, Professor Cahal McLaughlin, Dr Michael Holly): ‘Created by final-year students Oisín-Thomás Reilly, Jonathan Braniff, Kat Mrozek, Marc Graham, Michael McChrystal, and Ryan Martin, the documentary explores the creative journeys of two artists with disabilities. Through a poetic lens, the film reflects on how art and music can transcend barriers and challenge societal prejudices.’

For the Winners (Oisín-Thomás Reilly – Director and Choreographer of Beyond Words): ‘It is an absolute privilege that our film has won the Anjool Maldé Journalism Award. I created this documentary, alongside a great team, because as a disabled film-maker, I was deeply passionate about exploring the connection between disability and art. The film is a meditative journey into the creative practices of two incredible artists: Joe, a blind musician, and Suzii, a ceramist living with chronic pain. For both, the artistic process is more than a vocation, functioning as a vital form of empowerment, healing and testimony. It was an honour to tell their story, and the entire team is delighted to have received this award. This win gives me increased confidence and inspiration as I continue to tell stories through documentary film-making and journalism.’

• MUSIC - Anjool Maldé Jazz Prize (Hosts: Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama, Cardiff - RWCMD)

Winner: Cameron Saint (Jazz & Double Bass)

PHOTOS 4 & 5: PHOTO 4 - Winner Cameron Saint with Head of Jazz Dr Andrew Bain (L) and Dr Anita Howman (R - Friend of the Trust), (courtesy RWCMD). Photo 5 - Cameron Saint performing at AmserJazz Cardiff, July 2025), (courtesy Anita Howman).

Judges: Andrew Bain (Head of Jazz): “Cameron has been an outstanding student and musician here on the RWCMD jazz course. He has excelled in both his own bands, but also as a side-player. His unrelenting energy, positivity, and pro-action make him a key part of any band he is part of. “

Tim Rhys-Evans (Director of Music): “For the whole four years that Cam has been a student at RWCMD, he has been a positive, proactive, entrepreneurial spirit in the Jazz Department. His ‘larger than life’ personality and his friendly demeanour make him a joy to work with and his skill, adaptability and dedication as a bass player have seen him as one of the busiest students in the school.”

Cameron Saint: “I am honoured to receive the Anjool Maldé Jazz Prize 2025. Thank you to the staff at RWCMD for nominating me for the prize and thank you to everyone at the Anjool Maldé Memorial Trust for supporting this prize at the College. This award will significantly help me to develop my practice further, contributing towards the funding of my Master’s degree at the Royal Academy of Music in London, which I begin in September.”

Cameron’s website: http://www.csaintbass.com/ AmserJazzTime recording 04/07/2025: https://www.youtube.com/live/MpDaGxdvJ7g?si=e04t0UKdtCy0L3dR
                                                                                                                                                                    

• PHOTOGRAPHY - Anjool Maldé Photography Award (Hosts: Edinburgh Napier University, Scotland)

Winner: Levente Hegedus for his portfolio Haza

PHOTO 6: Winner Levente Hegedus being presented his Award by Judge Ben Harman (Senior Curator of Photography, National Galleries of Scotland (courtesy Napier/Andy Caitlin)

Dr Emile Shemilt, Programme Leader for Photography: “The Anjool Maldé Young Photographer of the Year Award is quickly becoming a very meaningful part of our Degree Show. While still in its early years here at Edinburgh Napier, it already holds real significance—not only because of the generous support behind it, but because of what it represents. We are honoured to carry the legacy of Anjool Maldé forward through this award, and grateful to the Trust for allowing us to offer this kind of encouragement and recognition at such a formative moment in a young photographer’s career.”

Wining portfolio: Haza: - Haza (2024–2025) is a documentary project exploring the cultural and political divisions within contemporary Hungary. Through photographs taken across a range of urban and rural settings, the series captures the atmosphere of a nation caught between past and future, memory and disillusionment. The work is shaped by Levente’s reflections on returning to Hungary after time living and studying in Scotland, offering a nuanced and personal perspective on national identity. https://www.napierdegreeshow.co.uk/photography-4/project-one-ephnc-27tfn-bx6w4-42jxr

Judge (Ben Harman, Senior Curator of Photography, National Galleries of Scotland): “I want to acknowledge the standard of work in this degree show and the amount of work that has gone into all the presentations. I’m awarding this prize to Levente because I think his work is of a high standard all round and I think he’s doing something really important in holding a mirror up to the world in a very meaningful way.”

Winner Levente Hegedus: “Winning this award means a great deal to me – It feels like a kind of reaffirmation that maybe I did something right and that I should trust my own instincts a little more. More than anything though, the award is also a huge source of motivation to take this project on and have it shown in more places. The confidence it has given me means I’m much more optimistic about the future of my career in general.”

• SCHOLARSHIP - Anjool Maldé Scholarship (Hosts: St Peter's College, Oxford)

Winners: Ella Miles (Archaeology & Anthropology), Maisie Saunders (Physics), Efe Shimwell

(History & Economics), Margaux Dahan Hoffman (History), Kathryn Jackson (Philosophy &

Theology).

PHOTO 7: Winners (L-R): Ella Miles, Maisie Saunders, Efe Shimwell, Margaux Dahan Hoffman, Kathryn Jackson with Professor Judith Buchannan (Master) (courtesy SPC/ Edmund Blok)

Professor Judith Buchanan (Master of the College): In remembering our former student Anjool, this excellent scholarship scheme both boosts the confidence of some of our finest students at a crucial point in their studies and provides them with some much-needed material support. We are delighted, year on year, to see both their scholarship and their outstanding citizenship recognised and to witness the difference that the award makes to them. And the moment at the awards ceremony when all the wonderful things that tutors have said about their nominated students are read out, and the students themselves get to hear why they have been picked out for this special award is one of my favourite moments in the year. It means a lot to the individual students who receive the award and is also a special moment in which we can together remember Anjool and his legacy in our community.

1. Maisie Saunders (for the Winners): “On behalf of myself and the other winners, I would like to express our gratitude for receiving the Anjool Maldé Scholarship. We’re really proud to have been recognised in this way by the College. As we go into our third year, this Award gives us a real boost in our confidence academically and encourages us to continue contributing to the wider college community.”
   
   
   * SOCIAL ENTERPRISE -Anjool Maldé Young Social Enterpreneur Award

(Sponsor: Tom Latchford, Founder/Chair Localgiving Foundation)

Winner: Colette Batten-Turner, Founder/CEO of Conversations over Borders

PHOTO 8: Winner Colette-Batten-Turner, (courtesy Self)

Judge - Professor Ken Eason (a renowned expert on socio-technical system design): “It is wonderful to see this important service providing practical and psychological support and empathy where it is most needed. ‘Conversations Over Borders’ offers individual tutoring, free English classes and group support for LGBTQIA+ asylum seekers, women and non-binary people, and young people. From modest beginnings 5 years ago, it has grown to be a national service supporting over 1,000 people. Its assessment of its impact contains much evidence of people becoming more competent in English, growing in confidence and feeling more socially connected in this country. Being a lonely and isolated asylum seeker in a foreign land must be a frightening experience and it is great to see this social enterprise doing excellent work to alleviate their situation”

Winner Colette Batten-Turner: “I’m so honoured to receive the Anjool Maldé Young Social Entrepreneur of the Year Award. This recognition is not just for me, but for our whole team at Conversation Over Borders and the refugee communities we work alongside. At a time when displaced people in the UK face growing hostility, it means so much to see a vision of solidarity, care, and community-led change being celebrated. Through lived experience-led English classes, trauma-informed mental health and digital inclusion support, and bold campaigning for systemic change, we’re working to build a more inclusive and welcoming society. Thank you to the Anjool Maldé Trust for shining a light on the power of community.”

CLOSING COMMENT: Professor Ken Eason - "On behalf of the Trust I am delighted to praise and congratulate all the winners. Their great work, combining creativity with humanity, fills us with the reassurance that, even in these strange and troubled times, the world can be a better place in which all can thrive. These impressive young people are an inspiration to us all. The Trust extends its grateful thanks to all its supporters, helpers, sponsors and judges without whom it would not be able to continue its mission."

-ENDS-

NOTES:

• Press Release distribution courtesy Pressat (pressat.co.uk) - with grateful thanks
• Anjool Maldé Awards Press Contact – Gemma Shaw (gemshaw@hotmail.com)
• Anjool Maldé Memorial Trust (www.anjool.org)