Eight fantastic winners were presented with their awards during the British Academy of Audiology Annual Conference in Liverpool on 29th & 30th October.
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 2026 champions.
BAA Clinician of the Year – Dr Helen Ratnayaka
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.
Helen exemplifies outstanding paediatric audiology practice, consistently delivering compassionate, child‑centred care that families describe as welcoming, clear, and reassuring. Her colleagues regard her as the “gold standard of audiology,” recognising her professionalism, empathy, humour, and calm leadership, as well as the guidance she provides to junior clinicians. As lead for the ABR service, she has been pivotal in maintaining IQIPS accreditation, ensuring safe, peer‑reviewed diagnostic practice while supporting workforce development as a national HTS examiner. Her dedication has shaped a resilient, high‑quality service where families feel informed and supported, clinicians feel confident and valued, and the department continues to deliver exceptional care.
Team of the Year presented to Belfast Trust Audiology Dept
The Team of the Year award is always a hotly contested prize, with many, many nominees worthy of winning each year. The 2026 Team of the Year has been nominated for transforming a potential waiting‑list crisis into a strong service recovery, which has driven down waiting times. Their strategic recruitment, effective use of RNID support, and commitment to the service enabled them to increase capacity and build a fully staffed, highly skilled team. This improvement has directly changed patients’ lives. Their positive work culture, strong training ethos, and investment in expanding NHS wax‑removal provision make them a standout, forward‑thinking team.
BAA Supervisor of the year is Adam Chell
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.
This award goes to Adam as his guidance, mentorship, and unwavering support have profoundly shaped the development of a trainee entering audiology with no prior experience. He consistently goes above and beyond, offering tailored teaching, constructive feedback, and compassionate encouragement that has enabled his student to grow in confidence, skill, and professional identity. He leads by example, demonstrating clinical excellence, professionalism, and genuine care for both patients and colleagues, while creating a learning environment where students feel understood, motivated, and able to thrive.
BAA Publication award presented to Craig Tilt
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.
Craig wrote an article for the Autumn 2025 magazine about Starting from zero: A first steps in quality management toolkit. This brilliant toolkit is accessible to everyone on the BAA website, thanks to Craig for his hard work on this.
BAA Early clinical researcher award is given to Ahmet Alperen Akbulut
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 Ahmet Alperen Akbulut for his presentation on Objective hearing threshold estimation in children using the Sofi Rapid-CAEP System: agreement with Pure-Tone Audiometry and test–retest reliability
BAA Higher Training Scheme Award presented to Nicola Cleghorn
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 Nicola Cleghorn – congratulations!
Poster prizes
Best Clinical/Service Innovation poster winner was awarded to Ahmed Raheel, Debbie Cane, Garreth Prendergast, David Jay for their poster: ‘Warm-Cool Relationship (WCR): A New Measure for Differentiating Meniere’s Disease and Vestibular Migraine’
Best Education/Research poster winner was awarded to Rebecca Silkstone, Charlotte Skipper, Martin Snead, Gavin Fuller, Howard Martin, Reza Hoseinabadi for their poster: ‘Clinical characterisation of auditory and vestibular function in autosomal recessive type IX collagen-related Stickler syndrome (COL9A1, COL9A2 and COL9A3)’
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 2027 awards will open in the Summer of 2027.