Dr Jonathan Marchini, Somerville Fellow and Tutor in Statistics, has won a 5-year European Research Council (ERC) Consolidator grant worth €1.6 million (£1.3 million) to fund two postdoctorate degrees. The award will enable Dr Marchini to concentrate on his research into the development of statistical methods for genetic studies of human disease and human population genetics.
Meanwhile, Professor Steven Simon, Somerville Fellow and Professor of Theoretical Condensed Matter Physics, has received the Royal Society Wolfson Research Merit Award. The award, which provides five years of funding, will enable Professor Simon to conduct supplementary research on quantum condensed matter physics. A book by Professor Simon, The Oxford Solid State Basics was published in June, 2013 by Oxford University Press.
A third Fellow of the College, Dr Renier van der Hoorn, Somerville tutorial fellow in plant sciences, has won a $1 million ERC grant to help fund a research project which aims to control the protein degradation machinery of a plant in order to increase recombinant protein production. Details about Dr van der Hoorn’s research project can be found at www.plantchemetics.org .
The two ERC Science research funding awards follow a 2013 ERC Humanities research grant awarded to Somerville fellow Dr Natalia Nowakowska.