Swansea University graduate Ciara Moody was the recipient of this year's Quantum Advisory Prize
Quantum Advisory has named Swansea University graduate Ciara Moody as the winner of its 2026 maths prize.
Moody was chosen as the recipient of the Quantum Advisory Prize in recognition of her final year project which explored in detail the concept and mathematical framework of affine spaces, structures with no fixed origin.
Moody, from London, graduated with a pure mathematics degree from the University this summer.
The Quantum Advisory Prize is an annual award presented by pensions and employee benefits consultancy, Quantum Advisory, to celebrate mathematics students.
Moody said: "I am incredibly grateful to receive this award, and it feels especially rewarding after a rigorous third year. It has encouraged me to continue pursuing a career in financial mathematics, in which I am aiming to progress into a quantitative or finance related role after my studies. I plan to reinvest the money into my education as I progress towards a master's degree, where it will be particularly helpful in covering the cost of textbooks and other academic resources."
Swansea University professor of mathematics Professor Tomasz Brzezinski said: "It was a real pleasure to work with Ciara on her final year project. Her project explored affine spaces, a sophisticated mathematical framework for describing physical space without fixing a particular coordinate system. This is a challenging and highly theoretical topic, yet Ciara approached it with impressive independence, curiosity and determination.
"She worked largely independently throughout the project and produced a beautifully presented final document. What impressed me particularly was her ability to take difficult and abstract mathematical ideas and explain them with remarkable clarity, making them accessible, engaging, and even entertaining. Her enthusiasm for the subject, together with her ability to communicate complex ideas so effectively, made the project especially rewarding to supervise. I was genuinely impressed by the quality of her work and by the maturity and confidence she demonstrated in carrying it out."
Quantum Advisory partner and actuary Stuart Price added: "We were delighted to partner with Swansea University once again to award the Quantum Advisory Prize. Each year, we are highly impressed by the calibre of the graduates and the quality of their work.
"Ciara's excellent project and approach to her work on such a complex and challenging topic makes her a worthy recipient of the prize. We are delighted to hear that she is reinvesting the prize in further education with a view to a career in finance and wish her the very best for her master's degree."
Previous winners of the Quantum Advisory Prize include Bristol University graduates Muhammad Ridhwaan Korimbocus, Jayna Atool Vegad, Rafaelos Shokri, James Robb and Anna Wolstenholme, and Swansea University graduates Alissa Alicherova Kamilova, Elizabeth Carlsen, George Moore, Poppy Reffold, Benjamin Phelps, Gianluca Catania, Hal Packett and Jessica Gaule.
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