Swansea academics awarded two prestigious research fellowships

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Swansea University academics have received two of only seven prestigious fellowships awarded this year by The Royal Society, the UK’s national academy of science.

Professor Tavi MurrayProfessor Tavi Murray and Dr Sophie Schirmer both of the College of Science have been awarded with the two new Royal Society Leverhulme Trust Senior Research Fellowships fighting off strong competition from around the UK.

The fellowships scheme is designed to allow scientists to make major progress in their area of study by undertaking full-time research. Professor Murray has received her fellowship to research the interactions between ice and ocean at the margins of glaciers in southeast Greenland while Dr Schirmer is researching new paradigms for magnetic resonance molecular imaging via quantum control.

Professor Murray said: "I am really excited to be able to concentrate on research for the coming year: I'm going to be working on iceberg calving especially in south-east Greenland. Glaciers that calve icebergs are a primary control on how much water the Greenland ice sheet contributes to global sea level rise. It's a key time to work on this area - our group has just shown a new calving process operates in Greenland which isn't included in models as yet. I'm particularly excited to be collaborating with oceanographers for this project."

Dr Sophie Schirmer

Dr Schirmer said: “I'm very excited to be able to devote myself fully to applying my expertise in quantum control to my recently acquired interest in magnetic resonance imaging and spectroscopy.  This is a field with many potential applications including in the early detection of biomarkers for diseases from cancer to dementia, and I hope that this fellowship will enable myself and our medical imaging team to make a significant contribution to this field.”