Departmental news

On Friday 7th July, researchers, clinical representatives and industrial partners gathered to share information on the latest Biomedical Engineering research.

Congratulations to Dr Matthew Pearce who has been awarded the Faculty of Science, Engineering and Medicine Thesis Award. Matthew was awarded this for his thesis titled “Applied-magnetic-field studies of f-electron materials."

Matthew did his undergraduate degree at Warwick, before continuing to do his PhD in the Superconductivity and Magnetism Group under the supervision of Paul Goddard. During his PhD he used a variety of experimental techniques including magnetometry (torque, SQUID, VSM and pulsed-field compensated coil), electrical transport (traditional 4-wire and PDO), heat capacity and x-ray scattering. Matthew performed measurements at low temperatures and high magnetic fields, utilising both the in-house facilities in the laboratories at Warwick, as well as international high-field user facilities – where materials can be studied in some of the highest magnetic fields on earth.

Matthew's research focussed in part on Ho₂Ir₂O₇, which belongs to a class of highly frustrated magnetic systems known as spin-ices, which are famous for hosting magnetic monopole quasiparticles. Matthew and his collaborators found that not only do measurements of the electrical resistance in these systems act as an indicator for the density of magnetic monopoles, but also that, mediated by the monopoles on the Ho sublattice, an applied magnetic field is able to manipulate the antiferromagnetic Ir domains, with potential applications to areas such as spintronics. He also studied the compound CeOs₄Sb₁₂, which had previously been found to undergo a valence transition. This is a transition where f electrons undergo a transformation from quasi-localised to itinerant with perhaps the most dramatic example being that of elemental Ce, which is accompanied by a volume collapse often quoted to be as large as 15 %. Matthew and his collaborators mapped out the phase boundary of this transition which exhibited an extremely unusual shape, owing to the influence of locally varying strain within the sample and quantum fluctuations.

Since completing his PhD he has been working at the University of Oxford with Radu Coldea studying quantum magnetism.

Professor Leonardo Melosi has been named as a ‘Wim Duisenberg’ fellow for 2024 by the European Central Bank (ECB).

The prestigious fellowship programme is named after the first President of the ECB and aims to promote policy-relevant research that meets the highest academic standards.

The programme offers research staff at the ECB the opportunity to gain exposure to the most recent advances in economic research, while giving prominent scholars the opportunity to gain insight into the policy-making environment of the ECB.

Professor Melosi will spend three months conducting research at the ECB in Summer 2024.

Leonardo Melosi is Professor of Economics at Warwick and previously served as Executive Director of the Center for Applied Macroeconomic Research, Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago. View his staff profile

Dr Serena Natile, Associate Professor at Warwick Law School, has been awarded the Independent Social Research Foundation (ISRF) Early Career Fellowship for her project ‘Transnational Social Security Law in the Digital Age: Towards a Grassroots Politics of Redistribution’.

We are happy to announce that Dr Gihan Mudalige and Dr Victor Sanchez have both been promoted to Professor from 1st August 2023.

Many congratulations to our colleagues for all their achievements!

Researchers are listening to earthworms to monitor soil health, in what could be a major innovation for maintaining soil health. In the first study of its kind, scientists are using a technique called ecoacoustics to listen to the activity of earthworms and other invertebrates in the soil. The theory is that a noisy soil is a healthy soil – and that the sounds generated in soil can be recorded, measured and used to evaluate soil condition. Press release (14 July 2023)

Jackie was interviewed about the research by David Gregory-Kumar for BBC Midlands Today.
Watch the interview (16 July 2023)

Members from WMG at the University of Warwick’s SME team worked together with the Manufacturing Assembly Network (MAN Group), on Tuesday (11th July), to offer a group of students the opportunity to learn real life engineering and design skills.

Eighty pupils from 16 local schools swapped their daily lessons to take part in the challenge. They were tasked, supported by engineers from the MAN Group's eight member companies, with building a miniature aircraft and then testing the designs.

The event took place on the University of Warwick campus and was attended by WMG’s Executive Chair, Margot James, as well as representatives from the BBC and Sky News.

 Dr Mark Swift, Director of SME Engagement at WMG, University of Warwick: "WMG is working tirelessly to address the skills gap, that our SME manufacturing partners continue to face, through education programmes; innovation projects; internships and knowledge transfer partnerships.

“It’s important that the manufacturing industry engages with future engineers, to encourage, inspire and lead us into a prosperous future together. This is exactly what the Design and Make Challenge aims to do.

“This event in particular, really brings home the creativity and innovation involved in the manufacturing sector, and it was a privilege to be part of it.”

You can watch footage of the event here: http://www.capturepr.co.uk/design_and_make_challenge_110723.html

Combining honey and vinegar could be an old, yet new, way of treating persistent infections. The mixture of honey and vinegar, also known as oxymel, has been used as a medical treatment throughout history and now scientists have established that this combination could have modern applications in the treatment of wounds. New research by Dr Erin Connelly, Dr Freya Harrison and team, published in Microbiology, is the first comprehensive exploration of how the mixture could be applied to modern medicine and improve treatments for infections.
Press release (13 July 2023)

The Law School’s Dr Tor Krever was recently selected for a Fellowship of the inaugural Palestine Academic Links Seminar (PALS) organised by the Friends of Birzeit University (FOBZU). The Fellowship involved a week-long study tour in Palestine in late June with a delegation of 11 academics from British Universities, led by academic coordinator Akram Salhab.