Principal's Medal Tom Conti-Leslie

I should now like to introduce the Principal’s Medal. This award was inaugurated thirteen years ago with a gift from three anonymous donors and is supported by Ede and Ravenscroft, believed to be the oldest firm of tailors and robe-makers in the world. The award of the Principal’s Medal recognises students who display exceptional endeavour and achievement during their time at St Andrews. The awards are open to final-year undergraduates and postgraduates in any discipline, and the achievements celebrated are both academic and extra-curricular.

For the academic year 2020 to 2021, the Principal’s Medal was awarded to three outstanding students, and this celebration enables us to bestow the medal in the customary way. Today we recognise Tom Conti-Leslie, who graduated with a Master of Mathematics with Honours.

Tom has perhaps the finest student record I have seen during my time at St Andrews. Tom completed 32 modules in his four years of study, and he received a grade of 19 or 20 in all but three of these and graduated with a GPA of 19.5. Tom made the Dean’s List for each year of study, received the Alexander Stewart Prize for the best junior honours student in Mathematics twice over, attained the Mathematics Medal for performance at honours level, and also the Miller Prize – bestowed upon the most outstanding graduate student in the entire faculty of science. 

With such a supreme record, one could anticipate that Tom spent every waking hour in the library. Instead, Tom committed over 400 hours of service to supporting the wellbeing and mental health of his fellow students through the student-led listening service, Nightline. In January 2020, Tom stepped forward from this anonymous volunteering to become Director of the St Andrews Nightline service for twelve months, during which tenure he coordinated the response to the Covid-19 pandemic and transitioned all services online for the first time in their forty-year history, without losing a day of service. This work was recognised with the John Honey Award for 2021, bestowed by the Proctor upon the student who has made the most outstanding contribution to student welfare. 

Tom’s capacities are seemingly limitless, and in addition to Nightline he served as President of the Mathematics Society, Senior Student at John Burnet Hall, and last – but by no means least, as Band Manager for the student ukulele group, Ukelear Fusion.

Tom’s service to Nightline continues, and after graduating he transitioned to a full-time position at Nightline France, based in Paris, through which he has supported student mental health while leading projects that consolidate Nightline’s research in France and across Europe. Tom is, however, due to leave Nightline next year to commence work as a software developer based in Cambridge, in line with his ambition to draw more regularly upon his technical skills and training.

Tom, in recognition of your superlative accomplishments both academically and personally during your time as an undergraduate, it gives me great pleasure to bestow upon you the Principal’s Medal.