- Three researchers from the University of Sheffield have been awarded prestigious Future Leaders Fellowships from UK Research and Innovation (UKRI)
- Fellowships provide funding to tackle ambitious and challenging research and innovation
- Future Leaders Fellowships help develop the most talented early career researchers and innovators
Three academics from the University of Sheffield have been recognised for being at the forefront of research and innovation in the UK by a prestigious fellowship scheme.
Dr Fay Hield from the University's Department of Music, Dr Suman De from the Sheffield Institute for Translational Neuroscience (SITraN) and Dr Theodore Hanein from the Department of Materials Science and Engineering, have been awarded Future Leaders Fellowships by UKRI.
The fellowships support talented people in universities, businesses, and other research and innovation environments. They also support universities and businesses in developing their most talented early career researchers and innovators and to attract new people to their organisations, including from overseas.
The aim of the scheme is to develop the next wave of world-class research and innovation leaders in academia and business.
Dr Hield, an award-winning folk singer, is a senior lecturer in ethnomusicology - the study of how music is imagined, discussed and made. With the English folk club scene, established in the early 1960s, under significant threat of extinction, Dr Hield is set to launch an ambitious programme of initiatives to help make the folk club scene more accessible in a bid to ensure its survival in the 21st century.
Dr Suman De, a research fellow in Sheffield's world class research centre for the study of neurodegenerative diseases - SITraN - is set to use his fellowship to determine the protein aggregation and disposition pathways involved in neurodegenerative diseases. Dr De's research will use cutting-edge tools to understand how these proteins start to go wrong in conditions like Alzheimer's disease and how these abnormal proteins disrupt and kill brain cells and their connection with one another.
Dr Theodore Hanein, a scientist in the University's world renowned Department of Materials Science and Engineering, is using the fellowship award to establish the supply chains of aluminium-rich by-products the UK desperately needs to enable the manufacture of low-carbon high-performance cement. The cement sector is the world's largest industry by mass and needs radical transformation if the UK and the rest of the world are to meet net zero carbon emissions targets to tackle the climate crisis. Dr Hanein and his team will develop new UK products - sustainable cements for the construction industry, particularly for projects in which fast strength gain is necessary, such as for repair and transportation infrastructure projects.
Professor Dave Petley, Vice-President for Innovation at the University of Sheffield, said: "Congratulations to Dr Hield, Dr De and Dr Hanein on being awarded Future Leaders Fellowships from UKRI. All three of them are at the very forefront of research and innovation in their chosen field, conducting research that can have a huge impact on the issues they are tackling. It is wonderful to see them being awarded these fellowships and I'm looking forward to seeing how their research develops."
Research at the University of Sheffield
