ITI Awards 2024 - Results
We are delighted to announce the winners of the ITI Awards 2024.
John Sykes Memorial Prize for Excellence
The ITI Awards recognise the achievements of translators and interpreters and include the prestigious John Sykes Memorial Prize for Excellence. This award is presented for outstanding achievement in translation or interpreting over a long period.
The winner is selected by the current and recent Chairs of the Institute and this year is awarded jointly to Joseph Lambert and Callum Walker.
Joseph and Callum have been recognised for their in-depth and relevant research for the benefit of our industry and for freelance translators and interpreters in particular. Joseph is a Lecturer in Translation Studies at Cardiff University, while Callum is an Associate Professor of Translation Technology at University of Leeds.
While individually Callum has written on topics including project management and cognitive translation studies and Joseph has primarily explored a range of questions relating to ethics, their combined research is centred around the translation industry, building upon these separate strands to explore areas including status, finance, sustainability, and working conditions within the UK context in particular.
Together with ITI, they recently contributed to the 2023 rates survey, and are currently publishing an ongoing series of reports drawing out key data from this study for members. Joseph has also worked closely with ITI on plans to revamp their ethical provision, and is running a series of ethics-based events through 2024.
Along with JC Penet (Newcastle University) they also led a wide-ranging empirical study (funded by the British Academy) into the state and sustainability of the UK freelance translation industry in 2023, part of which involved running a series of focus groups with ITI members across the UK. They are currently disseminating the results of this research and the findings will feed into larger future projects, continuing to address these vital issues.
The following awards are presented to the members who achieved the highest marks in the translation and interpreting assessments for MITI Qualified status in 2023/24.
Highest score - Interpreting Assessment: Lin Wang
Lin is a Chinese (Mandarin) /English interpreter and translator with over nine years’ experience in multiple fields including manufacturing, management, education, psychology, and counselling. She graduated from the University of Bath with an MA in Interpreting and Translation and is currently based in Edinburgh.
Lin was mainly based in China before 2023 but relocated to the UK last year, hoping to find more job opportunities in the UK market. To increase her credibility and raise her profile she decided to join ITI and take the assessment to become a Qualified interpreting member.
Speaking about winning the award Lin said ' “I am truly honoured and humbled to receive this award. Thank you for the recognition of my work — it means a huge encouragement to be acknowledged in this way. With this award I’ll be always reminded of the privilege of being an ITI member and the aspiration to be a better interpreter.
John Hayes Prize — Excellence in Translation: Daniel Spencer
Daniel is a translator working from Italian and French into English, specialising in travel, tourism and PR. After studying Modern and Medieval Languages at the University of Cambridge he worked in translation project management for 4 years before taking the plunge and becoming a full-time freelance translator 8 years ago. He is currently based in Manchester, UK.
Daniel's main motivation for joining ITI was to connect with peers, to build a network, and to further develop his skills through CPD. He has been delighted to discover the support that the ITI community offers. Daniel decided to take the MITI assessment as a way of gaining recognition of his ability, helping him stand out to potential clients.
Speaking about the award he said, "It is a real honour to win the John Hayes Prize. Receiving this kind of recognition from such an established institution of peers has given me a huge confidence boost and will be a great asset in promoting myself to new clients, giving me another way to demonstrate the quality I can offer. Thank you, ITI!"
