Royal Society announces prestigious University Research Fellowships for 2013

04 October 2013

Royal Society has announced the appointment of 41 new University Research Fellows (URFs) for 2013. The scientists started to take up their new posts at institutions across the UK at the start of 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 exploring the missing link in galaxy formation, deep brain tissue imaging using nanodiamond, and the biomechanics of insect flight.

The full list of appointments is as follows:

Dr Diego Altamirano – University of Southampton

Accretion onto compact objects: extreme physics at the Eddington rates

Dr Andrew Angel – University of Oxford

Mathematical modelling of gene regulation

Dr Benjamin Beri – University of Birmingham

Novel topological phases and exotic particles in condensed matter

Dr Thomas Blake – University of Warwick

Exploring new physics through rare decays of B meson particles at LHCb at CERN

Dr Michael Buckley – University of Manchester

Molecular timers

Dr Alfonso Arturo Castrejon-Pita – University of Oxford

Liquid droplet generation and deposition

Dr Pascal-Antoine Christin – University of Sheffield

Fine scale genetics of large scale evolutionary innovation

Dr Simone De Liberato – University of Southampton

Cavity QED with artificial atoms: toward next generation integrated THz emitters

Dr Vladimir Dokchitser – University of Warwick

Special values of L-functions and arithmetic

Dr James Geach ­ – University of Hertfordshire

Exploring the molecular Universe: the missing link of galaxy formation

Dr David Glowacki – University of Bristol

Beyond equilibrium: ultrafast solution-phase dynamics and enzyme catalysis

Dr Sofia Gripenberg – University of Oxford

Plant-eating insects and the structure of tropical plant communities

Dr Yvonne Grunder – University of Liverpool

Alternative solvents for electrochemical processes

Dr Iain Hannah – University of Glasgow

Electron acceleration on the flaring Sun: simulations and hard X-ray statistics

Dr Katharine Hendry – University of Bristol

The role of ocean circulation on the marine silicon cycle and global climate

Dr Christopher Jefferson – University of St Andrews

Constraints between solutions

Dr Kim Jelfs – Imperial College London

Directing the synthesis of functional molecular materials

Dr David Jennings – Imperial College London

Novel quantum resources and the analysis of exotic quantum field systems

Dr Stefan Kiefer – University of Oxford

Quantitative analysis of infinite-state systems

Dr Philip King – University of St Andrews

Electronic structure engineering of novel topological phases

Dr Steven Lee – University of Cambridge

3D quantitative molecular mechanisms of cellular machinery

Dr Yanki Lekili – King's College London

Floer theoretical invariants of low-dimensional manifolds

Dr Luning Liu – University of Liverpool

Unveiling structural assembly and regulation of cyanobacterial carboxysomes

Dr Carlos Marti-Gastaldo – University of Liverpool

Layered solids and 2D nanomaterials for energy conversion and storage

Dr Gunnar Moller – University of Cambridge

Simulating strong correlations in unconventionally ordered systems

Dr Xavier Moya – University of Cambridge

Controlling caloric materials via multiple order parameters

Dr Joshua Nunn – University of Oxford

Scalable Photonics via Ensemble Atomic Raman Scattering (SPEARS)

Dr Andrew O'Bannon – University of Oxford

Strong coupling, strange transport, and holography

Dr Constantinos Papageorgakis – Queen Mary, University of London

Using Yang-Mills theory to understand objects with five spatial dimensions in M-theory (M5-branes)

Dr Brian Patton – University of Oxford

Imaging deep tissue neural processes with nanodiamond

Dr Leonid Ponomarenko – University of Lancaster

Materials and devices assembled on demand from graphene and other atomic planes

Dr Andrew Pontzen – University College London

Connecting physics and galaxy formation

Dr Amelie Saintonge – University College London

Cold gas as a probe of galaxy evolution

Dr Tim Scanlon – University College London

Determining the true nature of the Higgs-like particle

Dr Francisco Suzuki Vidal – Imperial College London

Strong magnetised shocks: a new regime in laboratory plasma astrophysics

Dr Gavin Thomas – University of Sheffield

Understanding variation in evolutionary rates on the Tree of Life

Dr Andrew Truman – John Innes Centre

Investigating the biosynthesis of unusual peptide natural products

Dr Simon Walker – University of Oxford

Biomechanics of the insect flight motor

Dr Silke Weinfurtner – University of Nottingham

Quantum gravity laboratory

Dr Yulia Yuzenkova – Newcastle University

Mechanisms of cyanobacterial transcription

Dr Stanislav Zivny – University of Oxford

Optimisation of separable functions