Grant winners - 26 June 2014

Action Medical Research

• Award winner: David W. Carmichael
• Institution: University College London
• Value: £164,035

Epilepsy in children – improving scanning before surgery

• Award winner: Elizabeth Tanner
• Institution: University of Glasgow
• Value: £117,5

Breathing difficulties – developing a stent for tracheal (windpipe) deformities in children

Royal Society

Wolfson Research Merit Awards
Awards are worth £10,000-£30,000 a year, which is a salary enhancement

• Award winner: Jonathan Higgins
• Institution: Newcastle University

Histone phosphorylation in mitosis and meiosis

• Award winner: Jonathan Keating
• Institution: University of Bristol

Statistics of arithmetic functions and matrix integrals

• Award winner: Oscar Marin
• Institution: King’s College London

Understanding cortical interneurons in health and disease

• Award winner: James Naismith
• Institution: University of St Andrews

Characterising membrane proteins by biophysical methods

Leverhulme Trust

Research Project Grants
Sciences

• Award winner: Mahesh Marina
• Institution: University of Edinburgh
• Value: £232,512

Application-oriented TV white space networking

• Award winner: Douglas Mair
• Institution: University of Aberdeen
• Value: £238,775

Calving glaciers: long-term validation and evidence

• Award winner: A. Adamatzky
• Institution: University of the West of England
• Value: £249,754

Artificial Paramecium: intelligent distributed sensing and manipulation by ciliates

• Award winner: Ortwin Hess
• Institution: Imperial College London
• Value: £184,819

Extreme non-linear chirality in THz metasurfaces

International Network Grants
Social sciences

• Award winner: Par Engstrom
• Institution: University College London
• Value: £124,799

The Inter-American human rights system: assessing its development and impact

• Award winner: Francesco Goglia
• Institution: University of Exeter
• Value: £94,658

Shifting sociolinguistic realities of the nation of East Timor and its diasporas

In detail

Award winner: Tamsin Saxton
Institution: Northumbria University
Value: £53,266

Dating, mating and relating: how parents shape offspring partner choice

This project blends theoretical biology and cognitive psychology in a study of how parents – subconsciously and directly – could influence their grown-up children’s preferences and behaviour when it comes to choosing partners. The research will investigate the reasoning behind partner choice and how it might lead to family conflicts. It is also significant for understanding Charles Darwin’s theory of sexual selection – the extra evolutionary pressure that reproduction exerts. “The project is motivated by evolutionary theory,” explains Dr Saxton. “We often behave in ways that increase the likelihood of the survival and reproduction of our genes. Our genes can be propagated via our grandchildren; yet the characteristics of our grandchildren are closely tied up with our offspring’s partner choice. So parents might be shaping their offspring’s choice of partner in ways that might enhance their evolutionary prospects.”