Royal Society announces University Research Fellowships for 2019
16 July 2019The Royal Society has announced the appointment of 43 new University Research Fellows (URFs) for 2019. The researchers will take up their new posts at institutions across the UK and Ireland from the start of October.
The University Research Fellowship scheme was established to identify outstanding early career scientists who have the potential to become leaders in their chosen fields, providing them 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, with many alumni having gone on to enjoy significant national or international recognition for their work.
In line with the Society’s mission of supporting excellence and the next generation of research leaders, this year’s applicants were eligible to apply for enhanced research support from the UK Government’s Talent Fund, a supplement to further support applicants in building their resources and research team.
The announcement includes the appointment of one Royal Society Tata University Research Fellow, thanks to generous support from Tata companies. It also includes the appointment of four Royal Society – Science Foundation Ireland University Research Fellows funded by Science Foundation Ireland and available for outstanding researchers in the Republic of Ireland.
The newly appointed research fellows will be working on a wide range of research projects, including:
Dr Robert Cameron (University of Strathclyde) – Chiral molecules and their interaction with light
Dr Cameron will be using new and powerful light-based technologies to manipulate and understand ‘chiral molecules’ - those molecules whose structure can exist as mirror images of themselves - to explore their hitherto unknown applications, potentially leading to healthier foods, fewer deaths from surgery, and new and finely-tuned drugs.
Dr Eimear Dolan (National University of Ireland, Galway) – A Soft Robotics Approach to Reduce the Foreign Body Response to Medical Implants
Dr Dolan has developed a proof-of-concept soft robotic implant, which she plans on adapting as a treatment for Type 1 diabetes; Dr Dolan plans on establishing relationships with other research institutes to become the global leader in innovative medical devices.
Dr John Regan (Dublin City University) – Seed Black Hole Formation from Environment to Accretion
Dr Regan will track and describe the growth of black holes from their formation up to their maximal size, and in the process identify where in the Universe is most conducive to black hole formation, and how black holes may have formed in the early Universe.
Dr Beth Mortimer (University of Oxford) – Sensing surface vibrations: from animals to robotics
Dr Mortimer will understand the dynamics of vibration sensing through legs - a widespread and information-rich means of sensing in animals - looking specifically at spiders, and using this understanding to develop bioinspired technologies for use in robotics.
In total, there are 24 universities across the UK and Ireland hosting these University Research Fellowships. 14 out of the 43 new appointments (33%) were made to women.
The 2020 round of the University Research Fellowships will close for applications on 3 September 2019.
The complete list of appointments is as follows:
Dr Timothy Adamo
A New Twist on Quantum Field Theory
University of Edinburgh
Dr Helen Alexander
Evolutionary rescue in changing environments: from individuals to populations
University of Edinburgh
Dr Natalia Ares
Quantum thermodynamics at the nanoscale
University of Oxford
Dr Vaishak Belle
Efficient Inference and Learning in Probabilistic Logical Models
University of Edinburgh
Dr Jonathan Breeze
Diamond masers – a new quantum technology platform
Imperial College London
Dr Robert Cameron
Chiral molecules and their interaction with light
University of Strathclyde
Dr Igor Carboni Oliveira
New approaches to unconditional computational lower bounds
University of Warwick
Dr Nicholas Chilton
Chemical control of vibronic coupling
University of Manchester
Dr Michele Coti Zelati
Deterministic and stochastic aspects of fluid mixing
Imperial College London
Dr Ilse De Looze
The origin of cosmic dust in galaxies
University College London (UCL)
Dr Eimear Dolan
A Soft Robotics Approach to Reduce the Foreign Body Response to Medical Implants
National University of Ireland, Galway (NUIG)
Dr Andrea Droghetti
Exploring out-of-equilibrium effects and functionalities at hybrid interfaces
Trinity College Dublin
Dr Conor Fitzpatrick
Precision tests of the Standard Model with doubly-charmed beauty decays
University of Warwick
Dr Marina Freitag
1D Coordination Polymers for Charge Transport Materials
Newcastle University
Dr Jarvist Moore Frost
Meaningful dynamic models of the soft solid-state
Imperial College London
Dr Imogen Gingell
The impact of magnetic reconnection on the dynamics and energetics of collisionless shock waves
University of Southampton
Dr Mary Gosal
Attosecond nano-photonics
Imperial College London
Dr Rebecca Greenaway
Molecular Assembly in Porous Liquids
University of Liverpool
Dr Edward Gryspeerdt
Tracking aviation and shipping impacts on clouds
Imperial College London
Dr Lauren Hatcher
Dynamic X-ray Diffraction in Solar Energy Materials Design
Cardiff University
Dr Andrew Hitchcock
Photosynthesis reimagined: a modular approach to engineering phototrophy
University of Sheffield
Dr James Howarth
Searching for New Physics in events containing top quarks and bosons
University of Glasgow
Dr Lewys Jones
Retrofitting small-scale, high-impact, modular innovations for next-generation transmission electron microscopy (short name: RetroTEM)
Trinity College Dublin
Dr Helena Knowles
Diamond-based nanoscale quantum imaging
University of Cambridge
Dr Nicolai Kraus
Homotopy type theory as a language for directed infinite-dimensional structure
University of Birmingham
Dr Thomas Kruijer
Dynamics of the early solar system inferred from meteorites
University of Bristol
Dr Boris Leistedt
Fundamental physics with galaxy and quasar surveys
Imperial College London
Dr Shoham Letzter
Ramsey theory and extremal combinatorics
University of Cambridge
Dr David Liptrot
Towards Inorganic Retrosynthesis: A Generalisable p-Block Catalytic Cross Coupling
University of Bath
Dr Ferdinand Marlétaz
The genomic and regulatory origins of echinoderm pentaradial bodyplan
University College London
Dr Laura Moody
Genetic regulation of the 2D to 3D growth transition in Physcomitrella patens
University of Oxford
Dr Beth Mortimer
Sensing surface vibrations: from animals to robotics
University of Oxford
Dr Eric Perlmutter
A Conformal Window into Quantum Gravity
King's College London
Dr Sebastian Pike
Metal-Oxo Clusters: Tuneable Building-Blocks for Designing New Photoactive Materials
University of Warwick
Dr Andrew Plackett
Beyond flowering plants: using new models to test the evolution of seed plant reproduction
University of Birmingham
Dr John Regan
Seed Black Hole Formation from Environment to Accretion
Dublin City University
Dr Jason Sanders
Dynamics of the Milky Way with Gaia
University of Cambridge
Dr Sergii Strelchuk
Quantum simulation algorithms and verification for emerging quantum computers
University of Cambridge
Dr Tin Sulejmanpasic
Quantum Field Theories - anomalies, lattice and resurgence
Durham University
Dr Lorenzo Tancredi
The Physics of Scattering Amplitudes at the LHC
University of Oxford
Dr Martin Taylor
The asymptotic behaviour of solutions of the Einstein--Vlasov system
Imperial College London
Dr Andrea Vezzoli
Single-entity electronics and photonics of chemically wired nanocrystals
University of Liverpool
Dr Nathalie Vriend
Understanding granular rheology across scales
University of Cambridge