LSE Philosophy PhD Prizes 2026

We are pleased to announce this year's winners of the Popper Memorial Prize and the John Watkins Memorial Prize. Congratulations to both winners!

The Winners

• Rebecca Dreier has been awarded the John Watkins Memorial Prize for her paper ‘Accuracy first: episodic memory’s evolution’.
• Hanika Froneman has been awarded the Popper Memorial Prize for her paper ‘How to spot a dogmatist’.

The Prizes

• The Popper Memorial Prize: The Popper Memorial Prize is offered every two years, for distinguished achievement in graduate work in an area of philosophy to which Karl Popper made significant contributions. All current postgraduate research students in the Department are eligible for the award. Sir Karl Popper founded the Department of Philosophy, Logic and Scientific Method at LSE in 1946 and is known as one of the most influential philosophers of the twentieth century.
• The John Watkins Memorial Prize: The John Watkins Memorial Prize is offered every year to continuing students, graduate or undergraduate, for distinguished achievement in any of the areas in which Professor John Watkins worked. All current postgraduate research students in the Department are eligible for the award. John Watkins was Professor of Philosophy at the London School of Economics and Political Science from 1966 until his retirement in 1989. After his retirement, Watkins played a leading role in establishing the Lakatos Award in the Philosophy of Science.