Celebrating Researchers 2022 – Your Time to Shine
Every year, the University celebrates the individual achievements, successes and strengths of our research staff by appreciating and recognising their contributions. The nominations on this page highlight the appreciation of the rich tapestry of who they are and what they bring.
Watch a video from Professor Anthony Hollander, Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Research and Impact:
Our nominees
Dr Veronica Del Angel Hernandez
Veronica is not only a great researcher, but she is also a great team player. She uses her own initiative to connect with other researchers in our group, she proactively helps a number of PhD students and she goes the extra mile to engage in other activities such as outreach or organisation of social events. I believe this would be a great opportunity for her to utilize her networking skills in the wider community and connect with her peers in other fields.
Dr David Ashmore
Two nominations
1. Dave is an excellent researcher who has learned new skills and applied them to new areas of research throughout our time working together. He has a rare blend of technical, field, laboratory, computational and writing skills. Furthermore he has been tremendously collegial, founding a local glaciology research grouping, "LiverCool" to promote wider exchange of research, and is the post-doctoral rep for the School Research Strategy Group.
2. David was highly engaged with Prosper and driving his own career development forward. Great participation with us and the cohort and active in giving feedback (especially around the benefits of self-reflection).
Dr Yalda Ashraf-Kharaz
Yalda is an exceptional PDRA with a vast portfolio of skills in extra cellular matrix biology which she unreservedly shares with her peers as well as undergraduate students from many disciplines. She has published thirteen excellent publications in well recognised journals for her field and is a CoI on a large charity grant. Yalda is a wonderful team member and colleague and will always help those around her without question.
Dr James Butler
I have nominated James because of his substantial contribution to the project in such a short space of time. He has a wonderfully approachable personality and has supported every member of the project team without hesitation. I hope James will be able to celebrate his achievements with the project's Digital Library, a difficult area to work in, which he has led with intelligence, clarity, and a generous spirit with those involved.
Dr Glenn Cahilly-Bretzin
I am nominating Glenn because of his phenomenal work ethic and how he has been so reliable, dedicated, and conscientious, especially in identifying and supervising project residents, and balancing his workload between two different projects without any deficit to either. I hope he will be able to celebrate his immense success in compiling the first-ever medieval collection of texts on exhumation and reburial which will drive years of future research in multiple disciplines for numerous scholars and students.
Dr Kudzai Dominic Chiwenga
Dominic was highly engaged with Prosper and driving his own career development forward. Great participation with us and the cohort and active in giving feedback.
Dr Christian Cooijmans
Chris's first monograph came out in 2020 during the first lockdown and he has not had much opportunity yet to celebrate this success. I would also nominate Chris for his contribution to the field of Viking Studies through his work with the Scottish Society for Northern Studies.
Dr Malen Crespo Llado
Malen is a fantastically talented researcher. She is incredibly careful, dedicated, hard working but also flexible and really works well in a team. She has led and managed a large and complex research study in Malawi and everyone she works with loves working with her. She creates a wonderful positive working environment. She is an excellent scientist, is extremely intelligent and questioning about the research aims and goals and has great ideas about how to further our research in the future.
Dr Lee Devlin
Lee has been pivotal in enabling the team associated with the £2.5M "Big Hypotheses" grant to make the progress that it has: that progress has been crucial in engagement with multiple external partners (eg GCHQ) but also involved mentoring PhD students and other junior researchers with generous contributions of his time. Lee's belief in the vision and diligence in progressing through the tactics are exemplary.
Dr Cordelia Dunai
What amazing organisation skills Cordelia has! Her energy in anything she does is amazing and she is a great manager of her time and great at multi-tasking.
Dr Alessandra Frau
Alessandra was highly engaged with Prosper and driving her own career development forward. Great participation with us and the cohort and active in giving feedback. Alessandra also passed on a contact to us for fireside chats.
Clarissa Giebel
I am making this nomination because of Clarissa’s public involvement work with people with dementia, carers, and service providers. She hosts the continuously growing and increasingly attended Liverpool Dementia & Ageing Research Forum, and her own science podcast (The Ageing Scientist), both of which provide much needed platforms to make research and knowledge about dementia care easily accessible.
Dr Arturas Grauslys
Arturas continues to work at very high standards at the CBF. Even while on parental leave he managed to put together a grant proposal and continue to support his student. He is an asset to any team and we are just very happy that he is on ours. His ideas, theoretical insights and leadership are key to the success of the facility.
Dr James Harris
James has been the driving force behind the Eighteenth-Century Political Participation and Electoral Culture project, on which I am Co-I. James has worked closely with me on this project and has done outstanding research in identifying all of the contested elections in eighteenth-century England, as well as collecting all of the extant poll books for the period 1695 - 1832, arranging for their digitisation and/or transcription, and laying the groundwork, through painstaking work with the digital team at the University of Newcastle, to make this information accessible, searchable and geocoded for the publicly accessible website that is going to be one of the central outputs of this AHRC project. He has done this, despite all of the problems posed by Covid and the closure of archives. The project simply could not have gone forward without the work he has done. Moreover, his efforts have added substantial new and original material and added importantly to electoral historians' understanding of the period.
Dr Lauren Hepworth
Lauren is a true all-rounder. She loves her research and loves bringing this to life when teaching/supervising our students. Her research is bringing meaningful impact to patients lives for those who have developed vision impairment after brain injury.
Dr Stephen Hewer
Stephen has recently published his first monograph 'Beyond Exclusion in Medieval Ireland' which is a ground breaking analysis of legal relations between the English and Gaels in Late Medieval Ireland.
Dr Christopher Hill
Eight nominations
1. Chris is an outstanding individual with a natural ability to soak up knowledge from different research areas/methods to enrich his area of research while seemingly easily integrate, interact with ALL members of the research team and in wider department / university, and contribute positively to all others research/ teaching activities. His enthusiasm, team working and personal skills are rare and he should be a future leader of the scientific research at the university/ global setting.
2. Chris has made an outstanding contribution to the research in our department since he joined us a few years ago. He is always willing to share his expertise and is an excellent teacher. His presentation and communication skills are excellent and he is always willing to answer any questions that staff or students might have. His skills using Inkscape have significantly added to many manuscript submissions over the past few years.
3. Chris is an excellent postdoctoral researcher, and is pivotal to the success of our research group. He is knowledgeable, approachable, and extremely hard working. He is always willing to (and very often asked to) provide help and advice to other members of the team. He manages to multi-task exceptionally well, whilst delivering the required outcomes in a timely manner, and maintains a professional and friendly demeanor at the same time.
4. Chris is an invaluable asset and an integral part of our research department. He plays key roles in teaching and guiding students through their research in an extremely knowledgeable and supportive manner. Chris creates an innovative and exciting learning and working culture within our department and is very highly regarded by all he works with.
5. Christopher is a passionate and dedicated researcher, going above and beyond what is expected of him on a daily basis. As a researcher in women's health, Christopher has made a massive impact on our understanding and knowledge of several critical conditions. Christopher has many inspirational qualities; however, his greatest strength is the kindness and support that he provides to his colleagues, allowing us all, as a collective community, to thrive and achieve our greatest potential in the pursuit of science.
6. Chris is a highly knowledgeable and respected colleague who plays a vital role in everyone's studies here at the Centre for Women's Health Research. He is always a reliable opinion and has something sensible to say about any queries. His artistic talents are also put to good use as the departmental figure maker! Thank you Chris.
7. Chris made a remarkable impact in supporting the research outcome in our team. His inspiration, encouragement and endless help go beyond expectations.
8. Goes above and beyond to teach and help with project development Overall an excellent researcher, teacher and mentor.
Dr Sophie Jones
Two nominations
1. Sophie was highly engaged with Prosper and driving her own career development forward. Great participation with us and the cohort and active in giving feedback.
2. Sophie is a really dedicated worker, who you can always rely on to get the job done. She has been an absolute pleasure to work with as a fellow early career researcher and RIC member for HSS, and co-chair of the Research Staff Association! She's always got a lot on her plate between researching, teaching, and organising career development events, but she balances it all brilliantly!
Dr Anna Katavouta
Anna has conducted very detailed, rigorous and diverse work ranging from global carbon feedbacks in the climate system and climate feedbacks involving how clouds operate in the Southern Ocean. She was 2nd author in a major paper with a total of 32 authors heavily cited in the IPCC report, where she performed the ocean analysis (Arora et al., 2020, Biogeosciences, 155 citations).
Dr Louis Longley
Louis is an excellent problem solver. He has got an exceptional scientific and engineering creativity that he utilizes in driving his own and others' projects forward. His enthusiasm to dig deeper into problems and understand their core makes him an excellent researcher. His attitude and research perspectives are worth sharing with others.
Dr Alison Maclean
Four nominations
1. Alison is an outstanding clinical research fellow, who has been instrumental in establishing many novel technologies in our department and helping with other members in the team and the department to excel. She is a patient teacher for the other students and team members and an excellent team player.
2. Alison works hard, constantly multitasking and always with a smile on her face. She is always willing to help students and staff wherever she is able.
3. Alison has successfully been awarded an MRC fellowship to undertake a PhD and her work is rapidly pushing boundaries and adding to knowledge regarding the previously misunderstood condition of adenomyosis. Alison is a force to be reckoned with and a professor in the making.
4. Alison is an outstanding researcher who regularly goes out of her way to support others in both the scientific and medical fields. Her passion for women's health research is an inspiration to all in the group.
Dr Smitha Maretvadakethope
Two nominations
1. Smitha is a tremendous force for good in our department. In addition to undertaking excellent research in mathematical sciences and making a valuable contribution to final year UG teaching, she has been very active in building up a sense of community amongst PhD students and PDRAs, and contributing to EDI initiatives. Examples include: initiating and running an online PhD/PDRA informal meeting for our maths biology group; helping organise an online department event for prospective PhD students, with a particular emphasis to encourage female applicants; & being ECR rep on national research network on bioactive fluids - initiating a new informal seminar series.
2. Smitha was highly engaged with Prosper and driving her own career development forward. Great participation with us and the cohort and active in giving feedback. Smitha also passed on a contact to us for fireside chats and participated in recorded testimonials.
Dr Anne Marshall
Anne has been integral to my PhD experience and has developed my skills and character during my academic sessions. Anne has done incredible work in the field of neuropathic pain mechanisms highlighting the role of the spinal cord H-reflex rate dependent depression (HRDD) in people with diabetes sensorimotor neuropathy. Her current study is a comprehensive clinical research study in people with fibromyalgia and is providing essential evidence of this poorly understood syndrome.
Dr Anne-Marie Martindale
Anne-Marie is an exemplary postdoctoral researcher. She is intellectually gifted, conscientious, strategic in her approach to research and calm amidst the many challenges of being involved in research projects.
Dr Bethan Mead
Bethan is an exceptional researcher who works passionately and tirelessly researching healthy and sustainable diets via her UKRI-funded fellowship and related research and impact projects. This event will celebrate her many achievements and strengths in research and impact, community and public engagement, partnership building, leadership and mentorship.
Dr Emily Nix
Emily was highly engaged with Prosper and driving her own career development forward. Great participation with us and the cohort and active in giving feedback. Emily has also gone on to be an advocate for Prosper to others in her department.
Dr Johann Ostmeyer
Johann is making fantastic contributions to several lines of research within the Fundamental Particle Physics cluster, in addition to continuing to develop his independent interests and career. His enthusiasm and eagerness to share his expertise also deserve to be recognized and celebrated.
Dr Firdaus Parveen
Since joining us in January 2022 Firdaus has already made a transformative impact on the group. Her expertise, professionalism, and bright and capable demeanour is hugely appreciated by us all. She is an asset to the department and is set for a stellar research career. Thank you Firdaus!
Dr Blanca Perez Sepulveda
Blanca is a cheerful, positive person who brings in the change most needed. Just ask, she has a solution to every problem. Her thoughts are clear, concise and crisp. Feedbacks from her are quite valuable. On whole a great vibrant person to work with and knock door when you have a problem.
Dr Gabriella Pizzuto
Gabriella is well organised, motivated and very effective at turning challenges into opportunities. She has demonstrated great communication skills and her ability to work across disciplines (Chemistry- Robotics) is especially worth mentioning and celebrating. I believe that many other researchers could benefit from learning about her proactivity, student supervision and analytical mind-set.
Dr Ellis Rintoul
In addition to his core research activities, Ellis has very positively contributed to the development of others through actively and inclusively supporting postgraduate researchers and taught project students. He selflessly gives his time to discuss their ideas and challenges, advising and encouraging them to develop and reflect. This fosters a sense of teamwork and community, particularly important in working post-pandemic.
Dr Katherine (Katy) Roscoe
Three nominations
1. Katy is an extremely active researcher at the University of Liverpool who has dedicated a huge part of her time to help shape research culture, both here at Liverpool as a former co-chair of the RSA and member of numerous steering group committee, and to the wider community as a member of the NPDC21 organising committee. Katy is hard working, enthusiastic and has the most incredible eye to detail (the best proof reader I know!)
2. Provides support for other PGRs, colleagues and advice on how to publish and apply for funding opportunities. Great researcher with experience in historical archival work.
3. Katy is a credit to the Researcher community - she is incredibly generous with her time, in sharing best practice, and connecting colleagues with others. In her capacity of co-chair of the RSA and representing HSS on several University Committees, she has worked tirelessly to improve the research environment for her colleagues. She also manages it all with a smile!
Dr Malaka De Silva
I'm nominating Malaka because he has worked so very hard in setting up wet laboratory research in our lab, is a real team player, and has gone above and beyond in his work many times.
Dr Krishanthi (Kris) Subramaniam
Two nominations
1. Kris has worked tirelessly over the last few years transferring her quality immunological skills to COVID-response, whilst trying to manage her own research. Kris is kind, patient, methodical and efficient and is a pleasure to work with. Kris' talent and hardwork should translate to recognition instiutionally and beyond.
2. Dr. Subramaniam is an excellent researcher and an extremely helpful scientist. She is a true team-player and an asset to the University of Liverpool. She deeply cares about translational research and making a positive impact on health.
Dr Wesley Surta
Wes has probably been acknowledged for this help in every single PhD thesis that's been submitted by our group since he has been a post doc here. Not only is he a phenomenal teacher and mentor, his depth of research and crystallography expertise not only in his field of lead-free piezoelectrics (in which he has been successful in creating multiple new materials) but in many other aspects of crystallography and deserves a multitude of commendations. I hope Wes is given a platform to talk about the amazing crystallography he is capable of and has achieved which is often overlooked by the desire for properties driven publications.
Dr Rachel Swallow
I have nominated Rachel because she has made such incredible contributions to the project and continued to drive towards her ambitions in the face of difficult personal circumstances throughout 2020-2021. Her work with HS2 has been that of a consummate professional, and she has been a consistently reliable, dedicated team member who has supported other team members in numerous ways. I hope she will celebrate all these achievements and successes and more.
Dr John Tyson-Carr
John is great to work with and is technically savvy. He goes above and beyond to achieve desired results and is always solution-focused. His dedication and work ethic are admirable. He is always available to help and can always explain things in a comprehensive manner. He has pioneered new analysis techniques for EEG data.
Dr Amy Wedley
Amy is someone who never seeks praise and is very modest about her own abilities and value as a researcher. She is an individual who is always acknowledged by our undergraduate students and postgraduate students for her help, support and mentorship both academically and pastorally. She works across and contributes to a number of different research projects and always contributes to teaching. Amy is a great example for collegiality and team science and is a great asset to our research community at Leahurst.
Dr Claire Wilson
Two nominations
1. Claire is a dedicated researcher who is also highly involved in shaping research culture at ISMIB and across UoL. She acts as Chair of the ISMIB Concordat Working Group, ECR representative for UoL's Athena Swan commitee and co-chair of UoL's Research Staff Association - and brings her trademark hard work and enthusiasm to every challenge she is faced with!
2. Claire Wilson Claire is a researcher who is dedicated to her lab work, while also contributing to the university's research culture as Co-Chair of the RSA, ECR rep on the Athena swan and as chair of the ISMIB Concordat working group. Claire is talented, dedicated and a joy to work with!
Dr Antonia Wimbush
Antonia is coming to the end of her second year as Leverhulme ECF. She has developed excellent work during her project on Caribbean migration to France, but has also been an outstanding member of the department in terms of contributions to UG teaching and PG supervision. Her external collaborations in the broader field of French studies are also outstanding. She would benefit greatly from meeting with other ECRs across the University.
Dr Mengru Yang
Mengru Yang's PhD and postdoc work at UoL has provided mechanistic insight into the self-assembly and biosynthesis of bacterial microcompartments evolved in Salmonella and has significantly advanced our understanding of how pathogenic bacteria manipulate their metabolism to become dominant in the challenging human gut environment. This will help us to design new therapeutics to combat infectious bacteria and impede pathogen invasion. The research outcomes have led to two high-quality papers published in Nature Communications 2020 and Nature Communications 2022. Mengru is a highly motivated, committed and conscientious researcher. She has been awarded with Hong Kong Graduate Association, Tung & Yu Postgraduate Scholarships THREE TIMES during her PhD.