Departmental news

Dr Charlotte Woodhead takes a unique and exciting approach to examining how law and non-law instruments look after cultural heritage in the UK in her new book, 'Caring for Cultural Heritage'.

The Humboldt Research Award is given to outstanding researchers whose discoveries and insights have had a significant impact

Jianfeng Feng, a Professor of Computer Science at Warwick University, has been selected to receive a Humboldt Research Award from the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation.

The award is granted to fewer than 100 researchers each year across all disciplines. It recognizes academics whose fundamental discoveries, new theories, or insights, across their careers, have had a significant impact on their own discipline and who are expected to continue producing cutting-edge achievements in the future. Winners receive a prize of 60,000 Euros and are invited to carry out research projects of their own choice, in cooperation with specialist colleagues in Germany, in the hopes of promoting international cooperation.

Professor Feng has spent much of his career working on developing new mathematical, statistical and computational theories and methods to meet the challenges raised in neuroscience and mental health research. He has made considerable contributions to the modelling of single neurons and neuronal networks, brain-inspired machine learning algorithms, stochastic control and causality analysis. He has many publications in journals that include Nature Medicine, Nature Human Behaviour, Nature Aging, and Nature Mental Health. His recent research interests are mainly in exploring the human brain, based upon data and experiments, carrying out simulations of the entire human brain (86 billion neurons), monkey and zebrafish brains, and developing brain-inspired AI algorithms for applications in automatic cars and medicine.

Jianfeng Feng was awarded the Royal Society Wolfson Research Merit Award in 2011, as a scientist “being of great achievement or potential”. He was also invited to deliver the 2019 Paykel Lecture at Cambridge University.

Times Higher Education covers Warwick’s spin-out company, MedheranLink opens in a new windowt, and Prof Dave Haddleton's aim to launch a testosterone patch for menopausal women.

Professor of Visualisation, Alan Chalmers, an expert in flavour simulation at WMG at the University of Warwick, discusses the most famous creations of Willy Wonka ahead of the film premiere this December.

“While we may not have discovered the source of snozzberries, our research invites everyone to wonder about the extraordinary possibilities within the science of flavours” – Professor Chalmers.

Professor Chalmers is the creator of an exciting new flavour experience in a virtual way, with the opportunity to taste almost anything in a sip. The process takes samples of food for analysis, to accurately simulate a real flavour by extracting its tastes, aromas, and mouthfeel. His research has placed him as Warwick’s Willy Wonka.

“We can take a person on a journey through the vast flavour space from the start flavour to a variant that they enjoy”.

Three-course meal bubble-gum:
“Flavour is just the sensation of the taste, aroma and mouthfeel of food or drink in your mouth. If you take the real food or drink and analyse them to extract these components – then they can simply be authentically simulated with UK Food Standards Agency food-safe chemicals.

“So, you take a fork full of roast turkey, gravy, Brussel sprouts and a bit of roast potato … and analyse it with specialist devices to extract exactly what the taste, aroma and mouthfeel components are for this food ensemble. Once you have this “recipe” you simply recreate this exact flavour with the food-safe chemicals – with a specific food-safe chemical for each component, for example, sucrose is used to simulate the sweetness component.

The correct combinations of these chemicals can then be embedded in chewing gum … and voila – as you bite down on the chewing gum – you will experience the same flavour – as if you just had eaten the real roast turkey, gravy, Brussel sprouts and roast potato.”

Lick-able Wallpaper:
“This would be quite straightforward to do. You simply need to embed the food-safe chemicals for each of the components of the desired flavour into the wallpaper – and as it is licked – so the flavour will be perceived.”

The Everlasting-gobstopper:
“I could imagine a ball of eg hard plastic which is impregnated with a sweet flavour. The sweet won’t get smaller - but at some point the sweet flavour will have to be replenished. This will depend how often the gobstopper is sucked and how hard! I could imagine the centre of the plastic ball contains the liquid and this is drawn out as the person sucks. The liquid could be replaced when required.

“Not sure it is a sweet I would want – I think I will stick to chocolate!”

ENDS

Notes to editors
For further information please contact
Bron Mills
bron.mills@warwick.ac.uk
07824540720

The technology was not originally created with inspiration from the infamous chocolatier. The theory behind the invention is that changes in a person's taste and smell senses could be an early indication of Alzheimer’s before signs of memory loss arise. The easy-to-use low-cost dispenser could be used by a nurse as part of an annual health check, in pharmacies, care homes, community centres and even in the home. Researchers hope to achieve UK-wide screening services where members of the public can take a simple smell and taste test. Those who perform poorly can then be referred for further tests which could result in an Alzheimer’s diagnosis.

Professor Chalmers said: “At the moment, people who present with symptoms of memory loss are referred for MRI scans and spinal fluid tests to confirm a diagnosis. By the time memory loss occurs, things are often too late; pioneering drug treatments only perform well in the early stages of degeneration.

The Department of History seeks to appoint an Assistant Professor in Modern History on a full-time and indefinite basis from 1 September 2024.

This is an exciting opportunity to be part of one of the largest History departments in the UK with a thriving community of teachers and researchers covering a range of disciplines and geographical areas.

The advert and job description for the post can be found via the Human Resources webpage. For informal enquiries, please contact Professor Tim Lockley (Head of Department) at t.j.lockley@warwick.ac.uk.

The closing date for applications is 14 January 2024.

Dr Peng Wang (Microscopy group) has been named as a Highly Cited Researcher in the Clarivate's 2023 list.Link opens in a new window The researchers are those whose publications are most often cited in academic journals that rank in the top 1% by citations for field and year.

Dr Maryna Utkina and Dr Aisel Omarova participated in a comprehensive leadership training program.

Professor Sandra Chapman (Director, Centre for Fusion Space and Astrophysics) has been awarded the 2024 European Geosciences Union (EGU) Hannes Alfvén medal.

It is with much sadness that we have learned about the passing of Professor Natalie Zemon Davis on October 21, at the age of ninety-four. A Canadian-American, Professor Davis helped pioneer the genres of cultural and micro-history. Specialising in early modern period, she remained active in the field until her death, publishing a book in 2022 and nearly completing another in September of this year. Over the course of her career, she received numerous accolades and prizes, including an honorary degree from Warwick in 2006.