Eight fantastic winners were presented with their awards during the British Academy of Audiology Annual Conference in Telford on 20th & 21st November.
Every year at the British Academy of Audiology Annual Conference, time is taken to celebrate Audiologists and their teams who have excelled and shown exceptional commitment to the Audiology profession over the past 12 months. We would like to acknowledge and celebrate our 2025 champions.
BAA Clinician of the Year – Laura Turton
The BAA award for the Audiology Clinician of the Year, in memory of Peggy Chalmers, is an award that recognises an Audiologist who stands out from the crowd with regards to patient care. Laura was described in her nomination as an outstanding clinician and leader whose dedication, innovation, and compassion set her apart. Recently awarded Clinical Scientist status through equivalency, the panel described her as “an exceptional candidate with a wealth of knowledge and senior-level experience,” praising her patient-centred reasoning and depth of expertise. She consistently demonstrates excellence in clinical governance, workforce development, and quality improvement. Her leadership style is inclusive and empowering; she nurtures talent, builds confidence, and creates environments where colleagues thrive. Laura combines strategic vision with genuine humanity, ensuring that every system, organisational, and service-level improvement ultimately benefits patients.”
Laura has also recently been awarded Leader of the Year at the NHS Scotland Health Awards, where she was acknowledged, “Laura has transformed NHS Tayside Audiology Services into a national exemplar, improving access and reducing waiting times from over a year to under 16 weeks. Her leadership inspires staff and empowers patients, and she is recognised for her creativity and commitment.”
Team of the Year presented to NHS Tayside
The Team of the Year award is always a hotly contested prize, with many, many nominees worthy of winning each year. The 2025 Team of the Year has been nominated for “driving innovative service redesign, embedding person-centred care and self-management into every aspect of NHS Tayside Audiology. Patients now access care more quickly, benefit from peer networks, and can self-manage with confidence. Complaints have reduced, GP capacity has been freed up, and staff morale improved. Achieving IQIPS ahead of national policy highlights NHS Tayside as a trailblazer, setting a benchmark for other Audiology services across Scotland and beyond.”
BAA Supervisor of the year is Louise Williams
This award recognises an Audiologist who stands out from the crowd with regards to supervising and supporting a student while on placement. BAA look for an individual who has gone above and beyond to provide a supportive learning environment on placement for students, providing leadership and guidance as well as inspiration. The award is focused on the mentoring of students.
Louise is relatively new to the role of clinical supervisor, but she has taken the role very seriously and put a lot of effort and thought into being a supervisor. She sees the importance of getting it right both for the student and for the department and how the placement can be mutually beneficial and very important for the promoting and advancing of the profession. She has received excellent feedback from the placement students and has won a placement award from the University of Manchester.
BAA Publication award presented to Tianbo Zhang
The BAA Publication award (Jos Millar Shield) is a long-standing award given each year for the best contribution to a BAA publication. The recipient is chosen from all articles printed in the previous year’s magazine and newsletter.
Tianbo Zhang received this year’s BAA Publication award for his article in the Summer magazine titled, “Digitizing Audiology Stage A Checks with Microsoft 365: A scalable, Zero-Cost Innovation”.
BAA Early clinical researcher award is given to Ryan Phillips
This award winner is selected from all free papers presenting at the BAA conference, delivered by a student or someone in the early stages of their career. And this year, the winner is Ryan Phillips for his research presentation and follow up article in the BAA magazine on: “Occupational stress in UK Audiologists”.
BAA Higher Training Scheme Award presented to Rachel Barsley
The BAA Higher Training Scheme Award is given to the person who has exceptional feedback during the examination process of the Higher Training Scheme. The HTS committee selects the winner based on examination feedback. This year that person is Rachel Barsley – congratulations!
Congratulations to all our award winners, we hope to catch up with you all in more detail after the conference. For more information on the BAA Awards, please visit www.baaudiology.org/awards. Applications for the 2026 awards will open in the Summer of 2026.
Poster prizes
Best Clinical/Service Innovation poster winner was awarded to Keiran Joseph for his poster: ‘Reducing the postcode lottery: Streamlining MRI access for infants with permanent childhood hearing impairment’
Best Education/Research poster winner was awarded to Emily Forst-Garman, Paresh Malhotra, Talya Porta, Katarina Poole, Aarya Menin, Lorenzo Picinali for their poster: ‘Hearing and Listening Experience (HELIX): Evaluation of a co-designed serious game for auditory-cognitive training’