Grant winners – 16 April 2015

Leverhulme Trust

Philip Leverhulme Prizes

Recipients are awarded £100,000, which may be used for any purpose that would advance their research

Biological sciences

• Award winner: Elizabeth Murchison
• Institution: University of Cambridge

Cancer genetics

• Award winner: Thomas Richards
• Institution: University of Exeter

Evolutionary genomics of eukaryotic cellular complexity and microbial diversity

Philosophy and theology

• Award winner: Anna Mahtani
• Institution: London School of Economics

Philosophy of probability and philosophy of logic and language

Mathematics and statistics

• Award winner: Alexandros Beskos
• Institution: University College London

Computational statistics and Monte-Carlo methods

Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council

Standard Research – NR1

• Award winner: Laurence Harwood
• Institution: University of Reading
• Value: £202,604

Advanced waste treatment using nanostructured hybrid composites

• Award winner: John Orr
• Institution: University of Bath
• Value: £241,316

Knitting bespoke reinforcement for new concrete structures

Standard Research

• Award winner: Sue Sierra
• Institution: University of Edinburgh
• Value: £294,407

Moduli techniques in graded ring theory and their applications

• Award winner: Alexander Balanov
• Institution: Loughborough University
• Value: £107,315

Acoustoelectric methods for the generation manipulation and detection of THz radiation

Royal Society/British Academy

Newton International Fellowships

Given to non-UK early career postdoctoral researchers in the humanities, engineering and natural and social sciences to allow them to carry out research at UK institutions, these fellowships offer support in the region of £100,000 for a two-year placement

• Award winner: Emmanuelle Honoré (France)
• Institution: University of Cambridge

Painting the body: prehistoric cognition of self and the other in North African rock art

• Award winner: Marina Puglisi (Brazil)
• Institution: University of Oxford

Reducing the risk of language and literacy disorders in preschoolers from disadvantaged backgrounds

In detail

Arts and Humanities Research Council Leadership Fellowship

Award winner: Andrew McStay
Institution: Bangor University
Value: £166,718 FEC (£133,374 AHRC contribution)

Empathic media: theory-building and knowledge-exchange with industry, regulators and NGOs

This project looks at the “social, political, legal and industrial consequences of media and technology companies that collect electronic data about our emotions”, said Andrew McStay, senior lecturer in media culture at Bangor University. “They do this to understand mediated responses to brands/political messages, to target advertising, to create biometrically engaging games, to understand audience behaviour (neuroscience and facial recognition in labs for example), via smart televisions, and through not just what we say but how we say it (through smartphone voice analysis). How comfortable are we with having emotions ‘mined’, even if they are not personally identifiable? Emergent technologies’ capacity to interpret and act on our emotional states is a significant development, as it involves a deep level of intimacy with human life.”