Royal Society announces new round of esteemed Wolfson Research Merit Awards

The Royal Society has today announced the appointment of 14 new Royal Society Wolfson Research Merit Award holders.

Jointly funded by the Wolfson Foundation and the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS), the scheme aims to provide universities with additional support to enable them to attract science talent from overseas and retain respected UK scientists of outstanding achievement and potential. Professor Jean-Philippe Avouac will be moving from the California Institute of Technology to take up his new position at the University of Cambridge.
 
The newly appointed award holders are working on a wide range of topics including medical imaging, climate change and string theory.
 
The full list of appointments is as follows:

Professor Jean-Philippe Avouac– University of Cambridge
Creep or stick? How faults work and the mechanics of large earthquakes

Professor Sandy Cochran – University of Dundee
Medical micro-ultrasound: minimally invasive high resolution imaging and therapy

Professor Graham Cormode – University of Warwick
Small summaries for big data

Professor Hayley Fowler – Newcastle University
Understanding climate change impacts on hydrological extremes

Professor Pierre Friedlingstein – University of Exeter
Earth System biogeochemical feedbacks, climate targets and emissions mitigation

Professor Sven Hoefling – University of St Andrews
Quantum engineered semiconducting and transition metal oxide materials

Professor Iain McCulloch – Imperial College London
Disorder free semiconducting materials platform

Professor Damien Murphy – Cardiff University
Pressurised pathways for free radical detection

Professor Carlos Nunez – Swansea University
Duality in string theory, dualities in quantum field theories and applications

Dr Alistair Pike – University of Southampton
Robust chronologies and isotopic windows on human behaviour

Professor Graham Reed – University of Southampton
Silicon Photonics for the 21st Century

Professor Malcolm White – University of St Andrews
The CRISPR-Cas system for prokaryotic antiviral defence

Professor Paul Wilson – University of Southampton
Perturbations and transitions in Cenozoic climate states

Professor Derek Woolfson  – University of Bristol
De novo protein structures: fundamentals, designs and applications

The Wolfson Foundation is a grant-making charity established in 1955. Funding is given to support excellence. More information is available from www.wolfson.org.uk