Two researchers from the University of Nottingham have been awarded UKRI Future Leaders Fellowships worth over £3m to expand their research.
Dr Stephen Green is a Senior Research Fellow in the School of Mathematical Sciences and has been awarded £1.4m for his research developing AI tools to analyse data from gravitational waves that will uncover new insights into black holes and stars. Dr Andrea Laybourn from the Advanced Materials Research Group in the Faculty of Engineering has been awarded a £2m to develop enabling technologies (automated flow microwave platforms) capable of faster production of porous materials for targeted applications.
Gravitational waves are ripples of space and time that are emitted by mergers of black holes or neutron stars throughout the universe, analysing these can be a costly and time-consuming task. Dr Green and collaborators have developed a software package called DINGO to analyse gravitational wave data much more quickly using AI tools, in a matter of seconds compared to hours. Rapid analysis tools like DINGO are essential to keep pace with advancements in detector technology. Future developments will enable DINGO to quickly localise signals from merging neutron stars, facilitating prompt and even precursor optical follow-up observations using conventional telescopes.
The Nottingham fellowship provides funding for a 4-year project that will allow Dr Green to expand the research team and focus full time on developing AI tools for gravitational waves as well as more accurate theoretical predictions for the ringing of black holes following a merger. The team aim to extend DINGO to analyse not just individual events, populations of mergers, to apply it to the future space-based detector LISA, as well as to improve performance with new AI techniques.
This fellowship is a game-changer for my research. It enables me to expand my team to tackle cutting-edge projects in gravitational waves, theoretical gravity, and machine learning for science. This award will significantly impact gravitational wave astronomy, advancing the theoretical and data analysis tools required for next-generation detectors. It firmly positions the Nottingham Centre of Gravity, the University of Nottingham, and the UK at the forefront of this exciting field.
Dr Laybourn's research focuses on making porous materials; these are materials which contain lots of tiny holes (pores) within their structure. As a result of these pores, porous materials are excellent at selective capture and release of molecules and so they are being investigated for a wide variety of applications from capturing pollutants to use in healthcare.
The Fellowship will allow her growing team to develop enabling technologies (automated flow microwave platforms) capable of faster production of porous materials for targeted applications without wasting time, energy, or chemical resources and overcome considerable issues with reproducibility, which currently hinders the commercial exploitation of such materials. This will deliver a step-change for porous materials design and production with impact in (i) catalysis (e.g. conversion of carbon dioxide into useful products) supporting world-wide net zero and environmental policies and (ii) in healthcare (drug delivery, sensors) offering new diagnostics and therapeutics for treatment of disease.
I am delighted and honoured to have been awarded a Future Leaders Fellowship. The Fellowship will enable me to deliver my vision of transforming the way in which porous materials are discovered, optimised, and scaled up by developing AI-guided microwave flow platforms. This will make discovery and production of porous materials greener and more efficient by reducing waste, time, energy, and resources. The outcomes of this work will support the development of materials with potential application in early detection and treatment of disease and as catalysts for energy-efficient conversion of waste to products. This offers huge potential for addressing key global challenges in healthcare, energy, and mitigation of environmental pollution. The Fellowship will allow me to build and train a team of interdisciplinary researchers and grow my own skills in machine learning and automation by working alongside world-leaders at Nottingham and across the globe.
UKRI's flagship Future Leaders Fellowships allow universities and businesses to develop their most talented early career researchers and innovators and to attract new people to their organisations, including from overseas.
The Nottingham researchers join sixty-eight of the most promising research leaders who are being funded £104 million to lead research into global issues and to commercialise their innovations in the UK.
UKRI's Future Leaders Fellowships provide researchers and innovators with long-term support and training to develop ambitious, transformative ideas. The programme supports the research and innovation leaders of the future to transcend disciplinary and sector boundaries, bridging the gap between academia and business. The fellows announced today demonstrate how these awards continue to drive excellence, and to shorten the distance from discovery to prosperity and public good.
