Brightest and best new scientists receive unique career boost
10 August 2007
Twenty of the UK's brightest and most promising scientists have received a unique and significant career boost under a new scheme launched by the Wellcome Trust, the UK's largest medical research charity. The £250 000 awards will enable the researchers in areas as diverse as rabies, decision-making and cell death to work with some of the world's leading scientists in the UK and overseas.
Launched last year, the Sir Henry Wellcome Postdoctoral Fellowships provide an opportunity for the most promising newly qualified postdoctoral researchers to make an early start in developing their independent research careers, working in the best laboratories in the UK and overseas.
"These fellowships offer the best and brightest newly qualified postdoctoral scientists early independence and the freedom to pursue important research questions," says Dr Mark Walport, Director of the Wellcome Trust. "The quality of the applications was exceptional. We will follow the careers of this cohort of Henry Wellcome Fellows with high expectations that outstanding scientists will mature."
The awards have been welcomed by Professor Jim Smith from the Gurdon Institute, University of Cambridge, who chaired the interview panel for the awards.
"The Sir Henry Wellcome Fellowships provide an unprecedented opportunity for the UK's most promising young scientists to develop their careers," says Professor Smith. "The Fellows are provided with the freedom and wherewithal to work alongside leading scientists around the world so that they can carry out their own independent research projects. I am convinced that this scheme will help foster a new generation of innovative, talented and exceptional scientists."
The 20 newly qualified scientists selected are currently based at institutions across the UK, from Oxford and Cambridge to Bristol, London and Dundee, and cover the spectrum of biomedical research. They include:
Katie Hampson, University of Sheffield
Katie is currently completing a PhD in the ecology of canine rabies in Africa at the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Princeton University. Her aim is to develop into a fully fledged quantitative disease biologist, which, together with her field skills, will make her well placed to develop a career leading the application of theory to real world host-pathogen systems. She also hopes to develop a better understanding of molecular tools and their application, in order to incorporate them into future research.
Rebecca Baggaley, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM)
Rebecca was awarded her PhD on the impact of antiretrovirals in resource-poor settings in July 2006. She is currently a Research Fellow at LSHTM analysing datasets on the long-term impact of obstetric complications in West Africa. Her proposed project will use mathematical models to determine the effect of treatments for herpes simplex virus type 2 (HSV-2) and other interventions on HIV transmission in sub-Saharan Africa in order to determine the public health benefit of HSV-2 control.
Isaac Bianco, University College London
Isaac currently holds a Wellcome Trust Four-year PhD Studentship at University College London, where he is studying the development of lateralised circuitry in the zebrafish brain. He plans to use the Fellowship to take an integrative approach to his research question, combining the imaging capabilities afforded by using zebrafish with behavioural analyses, neuroanatomy and the molecular-genetic tractability of the model. He plans to work in the laboratories of colleagues in UCL and at Harvard in order to gain the skills required to pursue his research questions.
Shane Herbert, University of Leeds
Shane completed his PhD in biochemistry in June 2006. During his fellowship he proposes to visit the University of California, San Francisco, and to develop an independent career using zebrafish/mice model systems to study the molecular genetics and in vivo cell biology of blood vessel formation.
Thomas Jahn, University of Cambridge
Thomas studied biochemistry at the University of Halle in Germany before being awarded a Wellcome Trust Four-year PhD Studentship in Structural Biology at the University of Leeds. His move to the University of Cambridge will allow him to broaden his expertise and perspective, and more specifically to combine experimental and computational methods.
Dr Shane Herbert, one of the recipients, said: "It is a great honour to be awarded a Sir Henry Wellcome Postdoctoral Fellowship. The Fellowship offers an unrivalled opportunity to bridge the gap between completion of research training and the establishment of a competitive independent research career. Currently, no other UK-based fellowship scheme allows such a comprehensive independent research and training programme to be pursued at such an early stage in an investigators career."
Applications have now opened for the 2008 Fellowships.
Contact
Craig Brierley
Media Officer
Wellcome Trust
T +44 (0)20 7611 7329
E
c.brierley@wellcome.ac.uk
Notes for editors
1. The Wellcome Trust is the largest charity in the UK. It funds innovative biomedical research, in the UK and internationally, spending around £500 million each year to support the brightest scientists with the best ideas. The Wellcome Trust supports public debate about biomedical research and its impact on health and wellbeing.
2. The Sir Henry Wellcome Postdoctoral Fellowships give a select few of the brightest and best unprecedented freedom at an early stage of their careers to pursue their own programmes of research, working in the best laboratories in the UK and overseas.
We expect fellows to identify and tackle an important biomedical question and, naturally, we will be expecting them to make significant contributions to the knowledge base in their chosen areas.
Candidates should have no more than 12 months' postdoctoral experience at submission of a full application in February 2008. Preliminary application forms are now available from the Trust website and must be returned by 5 November 2007.