Academy awards eight new research fellowships

Eight outstanding engineers have been awarded prestigious Royal Academy of Engineering Research Fellowships to advance their research careers. Their work addresses some critical issues in engineering, from maximising the capacity of optical communications to developing a new generation of solar cells.

The Fellowships provide early-career researchers with five years’ worth of funding and mentorship, enabling them to develop independent careers in research and establish themselves as future leaders in their fields.

Additional funding received through the UK government’s Investment in Research Talent initiative has enabled the Academy to award a record 17 Research Fellowships this year, with these eight new Research Fellows in addition to nine awards announced in August. In recognition of the importance of engineering research to the UK, the government has provided the Royal Academy of Engineering with a significant increase in funding over the next four years to attract and retain the best research talent in the UK and support their work.

The eight new Research Fellows and their projects are as follows:

• Dr Lidia Galdino, University College London
  Capacity-Approaching, Ultra-Wideband Nonlinear Optical Fibre Transmission Systems
• Dr Abderrahim Halimi, Heriot-Watt University
  Advanced Computational Methods for Smart and Extreme Imaging
• Dr Robert Lianqi Zhao Hoye, University of Cambridge
  Designing and Engineering a New Generation of High-Efficiency Tandem Photovoltaics
• Dr Thomas Kissinger, Cranfield University
  Doppler-Enhanced Lidar System Using Range-Resolved Interferometry
• Dr Armin Mustafa, University of Surrey
  4D Vision for Perceptive Machines
• Dr Pavlos Petoumenos, University of Edinburgh
  Deep Learning for Easier Compiler Analysis and Optimisation
• Dr Tatiana Trantidou, Imperial College London
  Novel Microfluidic Technologies for Tissue Engineering, Organs-On-Chip and Therapeutic Nanovesicles Targeted for the Heart
• Dr Yue Wang, University of York
  TOAST – Two-dimensional Optical Amplification for Silicon Technologies

The Royal Academy of Engineering Research Fellowships and Engineering for Development Research Fellowships support early-career academics to establish successful research careers and become future research leaders in their fields. The scheme provides funding for five years to allow awardees the freedom to concentrate on basic research in any field of engineering and establish a track record in the field. Funding for the Royal Academy of Engineering Research Fellowships is provided by the Department of Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) and the Engineering for Development Research Fellowships through the government’s Global Challenges Research Fund (GCRF).

The Engineering Research Fellowship scheme is currently open for applications until Monday 24 September 2018. For more information, please visit: https://www.raeng.org.uk/grants-and-prizes/support-for-research/raeng-research-fellowship

About the Royal Academy of Engineering: As the UK’s national academy for engineering and technology, we bring together the most successful and talented engineers from academia and business – our Fellows – to advance and promote excellence in engineering for the benefit of society.

We harness their experience and expertise to provide independent advice to government, to deliver programmes that help exceptional engineering researchers and innovators realise their potential, to engage the public with engineering and to provide leadership for the profession.

We have three strategic priorities:

• Make the UK the leading nation for engineering innovation and businesses
• Address the engineering skills and diversity challenge
• Position engineering at the heart of society

We bring together engineers, policy makers, entrepreneurs, business leaders, academics, educators and the public in pursuit of these goals.

Engineering is a global profession, so we work with partners across the world to advance engineering’s contribution to society on an international, as well as a national scale.