At The Glasgow School of Art (GSA) Winter Graduation on Friday, 21 November 2025, Antoine Graham, an MSc Product Design Engineering graduate from the School of Design, was presented with the 2025 Foulis Medal. Alongside this award, The Glasgow School of Art conferred an honorary Doctor of Letters on the Edinburgh-based writer and editor, Alice Bain.
The Foulis Medal, which is awarded to the top student on a taught Masters programme at The Glasgow School of Art, was presented at Winter Graduation at the Glasgow Royal Concert Hall. Top students in each of the GSA’s four specialist Schools: Mackintosh School of Architecture, School of Design, School of Fine Art and School of Innovation and Technology, were awarded Chair’s Medals: Kate Drummond (MArch Architectural Studies), Josh Jensen (MDes Fashion and Textiles), Victor Garel (Master of Letters in Fine Art Practice) and Alejandra Kerguelen Roman (MDes in Design Innovation and Transformation Design).
”As The Glasgow School of Art gathers to celebrate its Winter Graduation today, we honour a transformative moment for our students as they step confidently from education into the wider creative world.” Says Prof. Penny Macbeth, Director and Principal of The Glasgow School of Art.
“Today’s remarkable achievement marks the beginning of a vital journey for our graduates, who will shape cultural, political, and ecological futures through their creative practice, making invaluable contributions to the wider creative economy. Graduates from the GSA create groundbreaking work in their time here, challenging perspectives and engaging with important themes, and our Foulis Medal winner Antoine’s achievement highlights the profound and sometimes unexpected reach of a creative education.
“His work demonstrates how creative thinking, rigorous experimentation, and a deeply human-centred approach can unlock solutions with real impact on global health and wellbeing, and is a reminder that the creative disciplines are essential to addressing the world’s most urgent issues. His success today captures the very best of what our students carry into the world: imagination paired with purpose, and a commitment to improving lives through thoughtful, innovative design.”
Antoine Graham’s final year project addresses the issue of Neonatal Hypoxic-Ischemic Encephalopathy (HIE), a type of brain damage which affects newborn babies caused by a lack of oxygen and blood flow around the time of birth. It is a condition which kills 2.4 million newborns every year and disproportionately affects patients in low – and middle-income countries – especially Sub-Saharan Africa where HIE rates are nearly ten times higher than in wealthy countries.
Working closely with specialists in obstetrics and low-resource medicine, Antoine reviewed existing treatment plans, conducted field interviews, developed a mathematical model for his thermal system, and built a functional prototype to validate the design in compliance with international standards. Antoine’s solution, designed to be deployed in low-resource communities, induces therapeutic hypothermia in newborn children using a low-cost cooling mattress that can be flat-packed for rapid deployment. Its connector-free frame allows for intuitive assembly by lay users, and the open-sourced hardware and firmware promote long-term repair in remote clinical settings.
“The School of Design is delighted that Antoine and his work has been recognised here today.” says Prof. Stephen Bottomley, Head of School of Design.
“Existing solutions for these kinds of care units are prohibitively expensive and unable to operate in the arid climates of Sub-Saharan Africa, so this unit that can utilise local materials and a low-cost cooling mattress that can be flat-packed for rapid deployment is a powerful example of how design can be instrumental in improving health and care while embracing environmental and sustainable needs.
“Antoine is a driven, detail-oriented, and diligent product design engineer on our collaborative programme with the University of Glasgow. His passion for solving complex problems through hands-on exploration is evident, and we commend him for this achievement.”
At the graduation ceremony, by the authority of the Senate of the University of Glasgow, the GSA conferred the honorary degree of Doctor of Letters on Alice Bain in recognition of the historic and impressive impact her career has brought to art, criticism, and the cultural economy in Scotland.
Alice Bain is an Edinburgh-based writer and founding editor of MAP Magazine (2005–2024), a non-profit devoted to artist-led publishing and production. She has contributed extensively to specialist visual art and dance publications as well within the arts pages of prominent national newspapers including The Guardian, The Scotsman, and The Sunday Times. After earning a BA in English Literature from the University of Edinburgh in 1978, Alice established the bookshop at Glasgow’s Third Eye Centre (now the CCA) and later edited The List, where she launched MAP Magazine, editing it for 19 years. She has supported key Scottish arts initiatives such as New Work Scotland (now Satellites), Glasgow International, and founded the ‘Mote 102’ gallery project in Edinburgh.
Alice has been a vital mentor, providing platforms for many emerging and established artists like Karla Black, Douglas Gordon, and Simon Starling – all former GSA graduates. MAP’s critical and multi-platform projects fostered influential contemporary art and cultural discourse. She remains a profoundly influential figure in Scotland’s arts
Full details of Antoine Graham’s project can be found HERE on the digital showcase for GSA Postgraduate Degree Show 2025.
For further information please contact press@gsa.ac.uk
|ends|
Notes for Editors
The Foulis Medal is named in honour of Robert Foulis the printer who together with his brother Andrew established the Academy which has been described as ‘the single most influential factor in the development of eighteenth-century Scottish Art’. The GSA’s lineage can be traced back to the Foulis Academy.
About The Glasgow School of Art (GSA).
The Glasgow School of Art (GSA) is internationally recognised as one of Europe’s leading independent university-level institutions for education and research in the visual creative disciplines. Our studio-based, specialist, practice-led teaching, learning and research draw talented individuals with a shared passion for visual culture and creative production from all over the world.
Originally founded in 1845 as one of the first Government Schools of Design, the School’s history can be traced back to 1753 and the establishment of the Foulis Academy delivering a European-style art education. Today, the GSA is an international community of over 3500 students and staff across architecture, design, fine art, innovation and technology in our campuses in Glasgow and Altyre (in the Scottish Highlands) and a thriving Open Studio programme delivering non-degree provision to over 1500 students annually.
