Royal Society of Edinburgh honours for St Andrews academics

Seven exceptional academics from the University of St Andrews have been awarded research grants by the Royal Society of Edinburgh (RSE) in their most recent funding awards announcement this week (Monday 12 February 2023).

A total of £727,752.71 was awarded to 60 academics across 17 of Scotland’s 19 Higher Education Institutes (HEIs) to enable research across all academic disciplines, with projects ranging from uncovering Scotland’s earliest textiles and terahertz quantum nanoelectronics, to fire festivals and the collective entrainment of crowds.

The RSE’s Research Awards Programme runs twice a year in spring and autumn. It aims to support Scotland’s research sector by nurturing promising talent, stimulating research in Scotland, and promoting international collaboration.

The RSE Awards for St Andrews researchers includes international collaborations with research partners in Germany, Italy, and the USA.

The full list of new University of St Andrews RSE Research Awardees is listed below.

International Joint Projects

• Dr Katrin Ackermann from the School of Chemistry for an international joint project with Dr Andreas Meyer from the Max Planck Institute for Multidisciplinary Sciences for their research Cu(II)-19F distance measurements using electron nuclear double resonance spectroscopy for structural biology
• Dr Catherine Hobaiter from the School of Psychology and Neuorscience with Professor Nathaniel Dominy, Dartmouth College (United States), for their project Fire festivals and the collective entrainment of crowds

Personal Research Fellowships

• Dr Bernhard Blumenau from the School of International Relations for the research project When states are terrorists: a history of state terror from the Middle Ages to the present
• Dr Nicholas Barnes, also from the School of International Relations, for the project Responding to criminal governance: how communities relate to organised criminal groups in Latin America

Small Grants

• Dr Tyler Parks from the School of Philosophical Anthropological & Film Studies for the project Infrastructural cinema and the remaking of the American West: filmmaking at the United States Bureau of Reclamation, 1930 to 1965
• Dr Craig Smeaton from the School of Geography and Sustainable Development for the research project The time before trawling: a baseline study of seabed carbon storage.

Research Collaboration Grants

• Dr Morven Shearer, Director of the Graduate School for Interdisciplinary Studies and Senior Lecturer in the School of Medicine, with Dr Bethany Whiteside, Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, and Professor Sara Houston, University of Roehampton, for their research Methods in movement: Dance for Health Scotland Research Network

RSE Vice-President for Research, Professor Anne Anderson OBE FRSE commented:

“The Research Awards Programme of the RSE plays a vital role in supporting Scotland’s thriving research community. These awardees will help to advance our knowledge, address global challenges, and contribute positively to Scottish society. On behalf of the RSE, I offer my congratulations to these leading researchers and their international colleagues and look forward to following the outcomes of their work.”