• University of Warwick researchers receive more than 10% of the prizes awarded
•  Dr Ana Aliverti, from the School of Law, will use her prize to support her existing research on the novel configurations of law enforcement in a global age. She will spend the next two years researching police-immigration cooperation in domestic policing in the UK
•  Dr Alice Mah, Associate Professor in the Department of Sociology, will use her prize to conduct multi-sited field research in polluted industrial regions. Over the next three years, she will focus on researching and writing her next monograph on global environmental injustice
• Dr John Michael, Assistant Professor in the Department of Philosophy, will use his prize to investigate people’s allocation of effort in joint actions as a function of their sense of commitment
•  Dr Hendrik Weber, Associate Professor and Royal Society University Research Fellow in the Warwick Mathematics institute, works on equations that can be applied in weather prediction and modern finance

Four University of Warwick academics have won Philip Leverhulme Prizes in the 2017 awards round.

Philip Leverhulme Prizes recognise the achievement of outstanding researchers whose work has already attracted international recognition and whose future career is exceptionally promising. Just thirty awards were made this year to outstanding UK-based researchers, of which the University has won four.

Dr Ana Aliverti’s prize will support her research on the novel configurations of law enforcement in a global age. The new policy emphasis on foreign nationals in British domestic policing has brought to the fore the role of the police in mediating belonging and shaping the boundaries of citizenship. Ana will investigate how this iconic function of the police in delimiting civic inclusion is put to work in the everyday policing of global mobility.

Dr Aliverti commented:

“I am both excited and proud for receiving this distinction. The Prize will allow me to undertake pioneering research which, given its strong empirical component, I would not have been able to carry out without it.

“I will be travelling around the country and further afield in the next year, and I will finalise a book based on my findings.”

Dr Alice Mah, Associate Professor in the Department of Sociology, researches urban, political, and environmental sociology. Her research focuses on industrial ruination and urban decline; environmental justice and corporate sustainability; place and work memory and identity; and the democratisation of science and expertise. She has conducted comparative, mixed-method sociological research in the UK, France, Belgium, Russia, China, the US, and Canada.

Dr Mah said:

“I am honoured to receive the Philip Leverhulme Prize. I plan to use the prize to focus on researching and writing a book on global environmental injustice. This book will draw on a combination of new and existing research, which would not be possible with my current funding. I am excited about this opportunity.”

Dr John Michael, Assistant Professor in the Department of Philosophy, works at the intersection of philosophy and cognitive science, in particular focusing on issues pertaining to social cognition.

Commenting on the award, Dr Michael said:

"I am delighted and honored to receive the Leverhulme Prize, which will make it possible for me to press forward with an avenue of research that I would not otherwise have been able to pursue, investigating people’s allocation of effort in joint actions as a function of their sense of commitment."

Dr Hendrik Weber, from the Warwick Mathematics Institute, is awarded a Leverhulme Prize for his pioneering work on stochastic partial differential equations (SPDE).

These equations describe quantities which vary over space and time and are subject to random influence. SPDE are used for modelling uncertainty – and they can be used in various applications, including for example filtering algorithms used in weather prediction or modern finance.

Dr Weber studies SPDE from Quantum Field Theory and Statistical Mechanics, with methods that are close in spirit to what researchers have previously used in other parts of partial differential equations.

Dr Weber commented:

“I was delighted to find out I had won the Leverhulme Prize. As well as giving me recognition for my work, this will open up the opportunity to expand my working group and develop my research further.”

Commenting on Dr Weber’s award, Professor Colin Sparrow, Head of the Mathematics Department, said:

“Hendrik is the eighth member of the Mathematics Institute to win a Philip Leverhulme Prize. This is a really outstanding achievement. Among our previous winners we have two Fellows of the Royal Society, one winners of the Fields Medal, and two current Royal Society University Research Fellows – and all but two are still here at Warwick.”

Commenting on the success of the University of Warwick academics Professor Pam Thomas, Pro-Vice Chancellor (Research), said:

“On behalf of the University of Warwick community, I wish to congratulate Ana, Alice, Hendrik and John on their being awarded Philip Leverhulme Prizes.

“That Warwick has been awarded more than 10% of the prizes is a clear demonstration of the breadth, quality and diversity of our university and the research undertaken.”

Notes to editors:

• Philip Leverhulme Prizes have been offered since 2001 in commemoration of the contribution to the work of the Trust made by Philip Leverhulme, the Third Viscount Leverhulme and grandson of William Hesketh Lever, the founder of the Trust.
• Each Prize has a value of £100,000 which may be used over a two or three year period. Prizes can be used for any purpose which can advance the prize-holder’s research, with the exception of enhancing the prize-holder’s salary.

Image 1: Dr Ana Aliverti, credit University of Warwick (click for high res).

Image 2: Dr Alice Mah, credit University of Warwick (click for high res).

Image 3: Dr Hendrik Weber, credit University of Warwick (click for high res).

27 October 2017

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