Royal Society announces prestigious University Research Fellowships for 2009

The Royal Society, the UK's national academy of science, has announced the appointment of 38 new University Research Fellows (URFs) for 2009. The scientists took up their new posts at institutions across the UK in October.

The University Research Fellowship scheme aims to provide outstanding scientists, who have the potential to become leaders in their chosen fields, with the opportunity to build an independent research career. The scheme is extremely competitive and URFs are expected to be strong candidates for permanent posts in universities at the end of their fellowships. 

The newly appointed URFs are working on a wide variety of projects including the search for life on Mars; determining the chemical conditions during the formation and early evolution of our Solar System; predicting the evolution of the influenza virus; improving current methods of climate modelling to help scientists better understand climate change; and the design of novel materials for the efficient storage of gases such as carbon dioxide and hydrogen.

The full list of appointments is as follows:

Dr Filipe Abdalla - University College London, Department of Physics and Astronomy
"Design and Exploitation of current and future cosmological surveys"

Dr Ross Anderson - University of Bristol, Department of Biochemistry
"The Functional Assembly of Artificial Oxidoreductases"

Dr Sean Barrett - Imperial College London, Department of Physics
"Percolation, simulation, and computation in quantum many body systems"

Dr Isabel Baurle - University of East Anglia, School of Biological Science
"The Molecular Basis of the Cellular Memory of Abiotic Stress"

Dr Ian Baxendale - University of Cambridge, Department of Chemistry
"New Approaches for Nano-Scale Synthetic Organic Chemistry"

Dr Alexandra Brand - University of Aberdeen, School of Life Sciences & Medicine
"Environment-sensing and tip-steering in fungal hyphae (Directional Growth)"

Dr Jon Coleman - University of Liverpool , Department of Physics
"A measurement of Neutrino Oscillation and of the Mixing Angle Theta 13 with T2K"

Dr Bernardo Cuenca Grau - University of Oxford, Computing Laboratory
"Privacy in Ontology-based Information Systems"

Dr Anoop Dhoot -University of Cambridge, Cavendish Laboratory, Physics Department
"Electrolyte gated inorganic transistors (Ion-gated FETs)"

Dr David Drew - Imperial College London, Division of Molecular Biosciences
"Biochemical and structural studies of mammalian GLUT transporters"

Dr Brian Gerardot - Heriot-Watt University, Department of Physics
"Quantum optics of tunable zero-dimensional solid-state emitters"

Dr Mark Gieles - Institute of Astronomy, University of Cambridge
"Globular Clusters: Tracers of Galaxy Evoution"

Dr Stephen Goldup - Queen Mary, University of London, School of Biological and Chemical Sciences
"Molecular Machines for Syntheis: Information Transcription Inspired by Nature"

Dr Ashleigh Griffin - University of Oxford, Department of Zoology
"Cooperative breeding in nature: from microbes to meerkats"

Dr Jill Harrison - University of Cambridge, Plant Sciences Department
"3D and branching growth in land plant diversification"

Dr Gino Hrkac - University of Sheffield, Department of Engineering Materials
"Fundamentals of spin-torque induced magnetisation dynamics"

Dr Sharon Jewell - University of Exeter, School of Physics
"Optical Imaging of Electrical and Mechanical Effects in Biomembranes"

Dr Mikel Lujan - The University of Manchester, Computer Science
"Taming the Beast: Runtime Adaptation as the Key to Power-Efficient Many-cores"

Dr Craig MacLean - University of Oxford, Department of Zoology
"Evolutionary genetics: an experimental approach"

Dr Philip Marshall - University of Oxford, Department of Physics
"Dark Matter and Dark Energy with 2020 Gravitational Lenses"

Dr Chris Martin - University of Oxford, Department of Physiology, Anatomy and Genetics
"Neuropharmacological modulation of functional brain imaging signals"

Dr Zita Martins - Imperial College London, Department of Earth Science and Engineering
"Organic signatures of life and prebiotic chemistry in our Solar System"

Dr Oleg Mitrofanov - University College London, Department of Electronic and Electrical Engineering
"Terahertz near-field probe microscopy"

Dr Heath Murray - University of Newcastle, Institute for Cell and Molecular Biosciences
"Regulation of the DNA replication initiator protein DnaA by the ParABS system"

Dr Salvador Navarro-Martinez - Imperial College London, Mechanical Engineering
"Droplet Size Distributions in Spray Atomization"

Dr Francesco Poletti - University of Southampton, Optoelectronics Research Centre
"Driving fibre laser technology beyond its limits with novel meta-material fibres"

Dr Paul Race - University of Bristol, Biochemistry Department
"Structure Function and Engineering of Polyketide Synthases"

Dr Colin Russell - University of Cambridge, Department of Zoology
"The evolution and epidemiology of antigenically variable pathogens"

Dr Suchitra Sebastian  - University of Cambridge, Department of Physics
"A Materials Driven Approach to Novel Phenomena in Condensed Matter Systems"

Dr Christof Sparber - University of Cambridge, Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics
"Partial differential equations modeling collective dynamics in quantum systems"

Dr David Tew - University of Bristol, School of Chemistry
"Computational tools for quantum molecular dynamics"

Dr Philippe Tobler - University of Oxford, Department of Experimental Psychcology
"The neuronal basis of economic and moral utility"

Dr Abbie Trewin - University of Liverpool, Department of Chemistry
"Materials for Energy Applications"

Dr Elizabeth Tunbridge - University of Oxford, Department of Psychiatry
"Mechanisms linking COMT, cannabis and psychiatric phenotypes"

Dr Samuel Turvey - Zoological Society of London, Institute of Zoology
"Quaternary mammal extinctions"

Dr Gregory Wildgoose - University of East Anglia, School of Chemistry and Pharmacology
""Designer" organometallic-electrodes using chemically modified carbon nanotubes"

Dr Paul Williams - University of Reading, Department of Meteorology
"Improving predictive climate models through stochastic parameterization"

Dr Edward Yelland - University of Edinburgh, School of Physics and Astronomy
"Experimental investigation of quantum order under extreme conditions"

For further information on any of the projects listed above or to arrange interviews with the scientists appointed please contact the Royal Society press office.