Royal Society announces prestigious Dorothy Hodgkin Fellowships for 2010

The Royal Society, the UK’s national academy of science, has announced the appointment of 10 new Dorothy Hodgkin Fellows (DHFs) for 2010. The scientists will take up their new posts at institutions across the UK in October.

The Dorothy Hodgkin Fellowship scheme supports excellent scientists and engineers at an early stage of their career. It is designed to help successful candidates progress to permanent academic positions across the UK. It is aimed specifically at researchers who require a flexible working pattern and is particularly popular with female scientists

The new DHFs are working on projects which include studying the neural circuits that link sleep, feeing and emotion; the genetic causes of susceptibility to language impairment; understanding and managing diseases in bees; and systems for solar energy conversion.

The full list of appointments is as follows:

Dr John Apergis-Schoute, Department of Pharmacology, University of Cambridge
Neural Circuits Linking Sleep, Feeding, and Emotion

Dr Lena Bayer-Wilfert, Institute of Evolutionary Biology, University of Edinburgh
Viral pathogens of bees: a model for understanding and managing emerging disease

Dr Esther Becker, Department of Physiology, Anatomy and Genetics, University of Oxford
Signalling mechanisms linking development and disease of the cerebellum

Dr Rosalind Coggon, Department of Earth Science and Engineering, Imperial College London
Natural Carbon Dioxide Sequestration by the Ocean Crust

Dr Emily Flashman, Department of Chemistry, University of Oxford
Mechanisms of Oxygen Sensing: From Isolated Components to Studies in Cells

Dr Elizabeth Gibson, School of Inorganic Chemistry, University of Nottingham
p-Type Photoelectrochemical Systems for Solar Energy Conversion

Dr Fiona Gill, School of Earth and Environment, University of Leeds
Coprolite chemistry diet, digestion and methane emissions of extinct fauna

Dr Dianne Newbury, Wellcome Trust Centre for Human Genetics, University of Oxford
Characterisation of the genetic causes of susceptibility to language impairment

Dr Rhaana Starling, Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Leicester
The physics of black holes and jets out to the far Universe via Gamma-Ray Bursts

Dr Miriam Watson, School of Physics and Astronomy, College of Engineering and Physical Sciences, University of Birmingham
Measurements of top quark properties and their interpretation for new physics

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.