Grant winners – 17 September 2015

Royal Society

Wolfson Research Merit Awards

Awards are worth £10,000-£30,000 a year, which is a salary enhancement

• Award winner: Alexander Ruban
• Institution: Queen Mary University of London

Quantifying plant adaptations to light environment

• Award winner: Andrew Taylor
• Institution: University of Edinburgh

Revealing the nature of dark energy with cosmological probes

Leverhulme Trust

Research project grants
Sciences

• Award winner: Andrew Dove
• Institution: University of Warwick
• Value: £184,714

Alkene-containing polymers: novel synthetic elastomers inspired by nature

• Award winner: Malcolm Halcrow
• Institution: University of Leeds
• Value: £177,228

Exploiting a spin-crossover module in materials chemistry and nanoscience

• Award winner: Gareth Owen
• Institution: University of South Wales
• Value: £190,842

Hydrogen atom storage catalysts: new reaction pathways and novel synthetic transformations

• Award winner: Keke Zhang
• Institution: University of Exeter
• Value: £203,163

The non-spherical geodynamo driven by both convection and precession

Humanities

• Award winner: Neil Roberts
• Institution: Plymouth University
• Value: £298,065

Changing the face of the Mediterranean: land cover and population since the advent of farming

• Award winner: Richard Sharpe
• Institution: University of Oxford
• Value: £117,425

The medieval books of Canterbury Cathedral

Arts and Humanities Research Council

Standard Fellowship

• Award winner: Richard Cleminson
• Institution: University of Leeds
• Value: £132,250

Anarchism and eugenics: a seeming paradox (1890-1940)

Research grants

• Award winner: Béatrice Han-Pile
• Institution: University of Essex
• Value: £529,615

The ethics of powerlessness: the theological virtues today

• Award winner: James Daybell
• Institution: Plymouth University
• Value: £36,384

Gender, politics and materiality in early modern Europe, 1500-1800

In detail

Leadership Fellowship

Award winner: Sharon Ruston
Institution: Lancaster University
Value: £238,812

A man of science and a poet: Humphry Davy’s letters, life, and legacy

This project will explore the relationship between science, society and culture, then and now, through the life and letters of one of Britain’s foremost scientists. “Between October and December 1815, Davy invented a form of miners’ safety lamp that became known as the Davy lamp. He was also the first to use the newly invented electric battery to isolate nine chemical elements, the largest number attributed to any individual,” said Sharon Ruston, professor in the department of English and creative writing. “The collected letters will provide a significant resource for Romantic-era literary scholars, proving the centrality of Davy to Romantic-period culture. [They] will tell us more about his life, his networks, and the times in which he lived, as well as about the connections and interactions that are possible between literature and science, and the ways in which science is part of culture, affected by politics, history and society.”