The Royal Academy of Engineering has announced seven outstanding engineering researchers as recipients of its prestigious Leverhulme Trust Research Fellowships.
The newly appointed Research Fellows will work on a wide variety of engineering challenges, from the transportation of hydrogen by ship, to improvements in distributed machine learning, and new materials to help repair bone fractures.
The Fellowships, which are supported by the Leverhulme Trust, allow awardees to focus on full-time research for up to a year by covering the costs of a replacement academic to take over their teaching and administrative duties. This allows mid-career engineers to not only reinvigorate their research interests, but it also gives other junior academics the opportunity to gain valuable teaching and administrative experience by stepping in during the duration of the award.
Professor Stephen McLaughlin FREng FRSE, Chair of the Leverhulme Trust Research Fellowships selection panel said: "Academic career progression can result in increased administrative and teaching commitments, at the expense of the time available for personal research projects. The Leverhulme Trust Research Fellowships are awarded to enable mid-career academics to focus on such projects while relieving them of additional workload responsibilities.
"I am very pleased not only to see such diversity in the topics covered by this year’s awards but also that the candidates are working in different regions across the UK. This is my last term chairing the Selection Panel and I am enormously proud that over the past four years we have been able to fund 21 talented awardees to focus on their research interests. This will have significantly benefited their careers and also helped to support UK innovation and economic development."
The full list of 2022/23 RAEng/Leverhulme Trust Research Fellows is as follows:
Dr Sheida Afshan, University of Southampton
Stainless steel hydrogen storage for net-zero maritime transportation
Dr Bing Ji, University of Leicester
Self-Monitoring and Resilient Control for Electrified Powertrain (SMaRtEP)
Dr Eleni Papadonikolaki, University College London
A ‘system-of-systems’ approach to meet a net-zero vision through digital twins
Dr Wasiu Popoola, University of Edinburgh
Ethical LiFi—phototoxicity-free, visible, light-based wireless connectivity
Dr Jason Stafford, University of Birmingham
Microfluidic metrology for processing low-dimensional materials at large scales
Dr Pamela Judith Walsh, Queen's University Belfast
Mimicking nature adhesive for bone repair
Dr Shuo Wang, University of Birmingham
Detecting and anticipating data non-stationarity in distributed machine learning
Notes for Editors
- The Leverhulme Trust was established by the Will of William Hesketh Lever, the founder of Lever Brothers. Since 1925, the Trust has supported grants and scholarships for research and education. Today, The Leverhulme Trust is one of the largest all-subject providers of research funding in the UK, distributing over £60m a year. The Trust provides funding across a range of academic disciplines such as arts, sciences, engineering and social sciences, with an aim of supporting talented individuals to realise their personal vision in research and professional training.
Details of researchers awarded RAEng/Leverhulme Trust Research Fellowships since 2012 are available on the Academy’s website - The Royal Academy of Engineering is harnessing the power of engineering to build a sustainable society and an inclusive economy that works for everyone. In collaboration with our Fellows and partners, we’re growing talent and developing skills for the future, driving innovation and building global partnerships, and influencing policy and engaging the public. Together we’re working to tackle the greatest challenges of our age.
Media enquiries to: Pippa Cox at the Royal Academy of Engineering Tel. +44 207 766 0745; email: Pippa.Cox@raeng.org.uk