Senate report – major awards and achievements
24 Jun 2025
Congratulations to our colleagues for the recent major achievements and major funding, reported in the latest Senate report (June 2025)
Major awards and achievements secured by the University since the last Senate report include:
Major awards and Fellowships
Colleagues in the Faculty of Science and Engineering (FSE) led by Professor Hugh Coe (School of Natural Sciences) are leading a £5m project funded by the Advanced Research and Invention Agency (ARIA) on a responsible innovation framework for assessing novel spray technology.
Dr Rekya Solymosi (School of Social Sciences) is leading UoM’s participation (in partnership with Manchester Metropolitan University) in an National Police Chiefs’ Council/UKRI funded Policing Academic Centre of Excellence.
Five colleagues from the Faculty of Humanities have been elected as Fellows of the Academy of Social Sciences (reported verbally at the last Senate). Congratulations to Professors Toni Haastrup, Sherilyn MacGregor, Matthew Paterson and Sophie Woodward (all School of Social Sciences) and Professor Stefan Bouzarovski (School of Environment, Education and Development).
Dr Edward Pulford (School of Arts, Languages and Cultures) and Dr Christian Semmel (School of Social Sciences) have each been awarded a British Academy Mid-Career Fellowship.
Dr Samuel Merriel (School of Biological Sciences) has been awarded an NIHR EME Advanced Fellowship.
Dr Dr Sizheng Zhao (School of Biological Sciences) has been awarded a Versus Arthritis Fellowship.
Dr Maria Christou (School of Arts, Languages and Cultures) has been awarded a Leverhulme Research Fellowship.
Awards and recognition
Professor Chris Parkes (School of Natural Sciences) is among the global researchers named as part of CERN’s Large Hadron Collider (LHC) collaborations which have been awarded the 2025 Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics. Professor Parkes previously led the LHCb experiment.
Professor Corinne Faivre-Finn (School of Medical Sciences) has been awarded the European Society for Radiotherapy and Oncology Gold Medal – Breur Award in recognition of her major contribution to the advancement of radiotherapy in Europe.
Dr Kelly Birtwell (School of Health Sciences) has received the 2025 Royal College of General Practitioners and Society for Academic Primary Care Award for Outstanding Early Career Researchers in recognition of her contribution to advancing primary care theory and practice.
Dr Bipasha Choudhury (School of Medical Sciences) has been awarded the Symington Memorial Prize 2024 for her contributions to the advancement of anatomy.
Professor Guillaume De Bo (School of Natural Sciences) has been awarded the 2025 ACS Journals Young Investigator Award for his innovative research on molecules.
Dr Darren Wilcox (School of Natural Sciences) is one of the Thieme Chemistry Journals Awardees. The award recognises researchers in the early stages of their independent academic career.
A selection of other funding awards include:
UKRI and NPCC
PI Dr Reka Solymosi (School of Social Sciences), Manchester Policing Academic Centre of Excellence (M-PACE), £234,563.
UKRI – EPSRC and Qinetiq Ltd
PI Prof Richard Curry (School of Engineering) and Co-Is Prof Artem Mishchenko, Dr Jessica Boland, Dr Alice Bowe, Prof Vladimir Falko (all School of Natural Sciences), EPSRC Strategic Infrastructure Grant, £1.5m.
UKRI-EPSRC
PI Dr Darren Graham (School of Natural Sciences) and Co-Is Dr Paul Nutter, Prof Thomas Thomson (both School of Engineering) and Dr Morgan Hibberd (School of Natural Sciences), Terahertz Wave Induced Spin Switching Technology, £787,799.
UKRI – STFC
PI Prof Andrew Pilkington (School of Natural Sciences) and Co-Is Dr Stefano De Capua, Dr Joleen Pater, Prof Caterina Doglioni, Prof Justin Evans, Dr Evalina Gersabeck, Prof Marco Gersabeck, Dr Ellen Gramellini, Prof Roxanne Guenette, Prof Mark Lancaster, Prof Alexander Oh, Prof Christopher Parkes, Prof Yvonne Peters, Prof Darren Price, Dr Michaela Queitsch-Mailtland, Proff Terry Wyatt, Dr Connor Fitzpatrick, Prof Cinzia Da Via, Dr Robert Appleby, Prof Stewart Boogert, Prof Brian Cox, Dr Alexander Keshavarzi (all School of Natural Sciences), Particle Physics Consolidated Grant, £2.8m.
UK Government
PI Dr Stephen Edmondson (School of Natural Sciences) and Co-Is Dr Katharine Smith, Dr Nicholas Crisp, Dr Peter Roberts (all School of Engineering), Prof Frederick Currell (School of Natural Sciences), UK Space Defence Synergistic Testing, DSTL, £970,780.
PI Prof Barry Lennox (School of Engineering), RAICo Phase 2 Collaboration Agreement, UK Atomic Energy Authority, £900,000.
UK Government – Advanced Research and Invention Agency (ARIA)
PI Prof Hugh Coe (School of Natural Sciences) and Co-Is Dr Jessica Girdwood, Dr Nicholas Marsden, Dr Hugo Ricketts, Dr Keith Bower, Dr Paul Connolly, Dr Paul Williams (all School of Natural Sciences) and Dr Rob Bellamy (School of Environment, Education and Development), REFLECT: A REsponsible innovation Framework for assessing noveL spray tEChnology research To examine local albedo changes from marine brightening and its multi-scale impacts, £5m.
UK Government – NIHR
PI Dr Samuel Merriel (School of Health Sciences) and Co-Is Prof Kenneth Muir (School of Health Sciences) and Prof Rob Bristow (School of Medical Sciences), Modernising General Practice TESTing for the detection of clinically significant PROstate cancer: the GP-TEST-PRO study, NIHR EME Advanced Fellowship, £1.4m.
PI Prof Richard Edmondson (School of Medical Sciences) and Dr Glen Martin (School of Health Sciences), Personalising primary treatment to improve outcomes for patients with advanced ovarian cancer, £1.3m.
National Academies – British Academy
PI Dr Edward Pulford (School of Arts, Languages and Cultures), Marginal Nationhood: Transnational Minorities and the Age of Global China, BA Mid-Career Fellowship, £137,726.
PI Dr Christian Semmel (School of Social Sciences), Relational Equality and Social Class, BA Mid-Career Fellowship, £114,884.
European Commission
PI Dr Miriam Bradley (School of Arts, Languages and Cultures), HUMANITY: Humanitarian Action and Sovereignty in Conflict-Affected Countries, Supervisor Marie Curie Postdoctoral Fellowship, £232,274.
PI Dr Maria Rusca (School of Environment, Education and Development), Understanding and Predicting Impacts of Climate Extremes under Global Change, Supervisor of Marie Curie Postdoctoral Fellowship, £289,801.
Charities
PI Prof Rob Bristow (School of Medical Sciences), ARTIC 2025 - Clinical Academic Training Programme, Cancer Research UK Ltd., £1.9m.
PI Dr Sizheng Zhao (School of Biological Sciences), Developing diagnostic tests for early diagnosis of spondylarthritis, Versus Arthritis Fellowship, £749, 982.
PI Dr Edward Hayter (School of Medical Sciences), Unravelling the neurophysiological integration of circadian rhythms and autonomic control of the heart, Wellcome, £714,082.
PI Dr Maria Christou (School of Arts, Languages and Cultures), Calculating the Future: The Aesthetics of Prediction, Leverhulme Research Fellowship, £49,540.
Industry
PI Dr Mia Maric (School of Natural Sciences) and Co-I Dr Philipp Frankel (School of Natural Sciences) Understanding the critical strain for grain growth and mechanical property evolution of 20-25 Nb stabilised austenitic stainless steel, EDF Energy R&D UK Centre Ltd, £625,203.
PI Dr Tony Chen (School of Engineering) and Co-Is Dr Mufeng Liu (School of Engineering), Dr Mark Bissett and Prof Ian Kinloch (both School of Natural Sciences), Graphene based solutions for sealing new GIS using SF6 alternatives, National Grid Electricity Distribution, £554,160.