Awards season

18 December 2020

The autumn saw a whole host of Hertford fellows recognised for their outstanding research. Professor of Computer Science, Mike Wooldridge, shared the Lovelace Medal, Britain’s top award for computing. It recognised Mike’s pioneering work on multi-agent systems, developing them from concepts and theories in the 1980s to an integral part of contemporary computer science today. Prof. Martin Maiden was also recognised for his long service and exceptional contributions to the discipline of microbiology, picking up the Marjory Stephenson Prize and its associated lecture in 2021. More societies recognised the work of our early career academics, with Dr Fernanda Duarte winning the Frank Blaney Award for outstanding research in computational chemistry and Dr Louise Slater receiving a divisional Outstanding Early Career Scientist Award from the European Geosciences Union. Meanwhile, Prof. Manolis Chatzis was named as an Outstanding Reviewer by the ASCE Journal of Engineering Mechanics.

Covid-19 has brought many challenges and Prof. Zhanfeng Cui received a Special Award for Pandemic Service from the Royal Academy of Engineering for stepping up to the plate. The award celebrated the rapid test developed by Prof. Cui and his team back in March. Within the University, two of our tutorial fellows were elevated to professorships in the annual Recognition of Distinction exercise – Prof. David Dwan and Prof. Jamie Lorimer were recognised for their leading research, teaching and citizenship in English and Geography respectively.