Dr Adriana Palacios Rosas

Dr Adriana Palacios Rosas held a Newton International Fellowship from 2012 – 2014 and focused her research on aiming to improve the fundamental understanding of jet fire stabilisation, structure and reach.

What attracted you to a Newton International Fellowship?
I was attracted to a Newton International Fellowship for a number of reasons, one of the main ones being the international prestige of the Royal Society and the British Academy. I also felt that the duration of the Fellowship, 2 years, was the perfect amount of time to develop a quality research project, disseminate the obtained results at national and international conferences and publish them in international journals.

What was it that attracted you to conduct your research in a UK institute?
The well-known prestige and excellence of UK universities attracted me to look into working in the UK. What attracted me to the University of Leeds was the outstanding research being done in my field in the areas of combustion, energy and Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) by internationally renowned researchers. The university also had strong industrial collaborations related to my research.

How did you find the process of locating to the UK?
I am from Mexico originally and have lived in many different countries. Based on my experiences, the UK is undoubtedly one of the best places to live in. People, inside and outside of Leeds, were supportive and friendly during my relocation. I also attended a welcome event at the Royal Society at the beginning of my Fellowship. However, the weather was a little difficult to adjust to at the beginning!

How do you feel this Fellowship has benefitted your career?
This Fellowship has benefited tremendously both my research and career by giving me the opportunity to create important academic and industrial collaborations. Today these collaborations are materialised in collaborative research projects involving 5 universities and organisations across the world.

The Fellowship also allowed me to progress towards my career aims of becoming an Associate Professor. I am now an Associate Professor in the Department of Chemical, Food and Environmental Engineering at the Universidad de las Americas in Puebla, Mexico.

This Fellowship also helped me to become a leader of large research projects. I can now provide scientific support to the international community on the formulation, implementation and monitoring of risk assessment policies for the control, prevention and mitigation of the hazards from jet fires.

Now that I have completed my Newton International Fellowship I am eligible, through the alumni programme, to receive further financial support to maintain my links with UK research groups.