Departmental news

Congratulations to Warwick Law School alumnus Siddharth Raja on his appointment as Executive Dean at Vinayaka Mission’s Law School (VMLS) in India. Siddharth studied on our LLM in International Economic Law in 1997/98, and has nearly three decades of legal practice in India and overseas.

Congratulations to Dr Ingrid Pelisoli who has been awarded the 2026 Royal Astronomical Society Fowler AwardLink opens in a new window for her noteworthy discoveries related to binary star systems and stellar mergers.

Read the full press release.

We are delighted to invite you to the following event What Makes a Good Education?, hosted by the Warwick Policy Hub.

At a time when the UK Higher Education sector is under considerable pressure and the form, accessibility, and value of a university education are all up for debate, join us to hear from a panel of experts on what the future of HE will – or should - look like.

Event Details:

• Thursday, 22 January 2026
• 15:00 – 17:00
• Space 43 - Scarman Conference Centre, University of Warwick, Scarman Rd, Coventry CV4 7SH
• FREE – registration essential

This event will include:

• Summary and response to the most recent government Post-16 Education and Skills White Paper
• Panel discussion entitled “Is a University Degree Still Worth It?”
• Flash talks in which panellists will each respond to the question "What Makes a Good Education?"

Speakers include high-profile experts in education, widening participation, and public policy including:

• Hollie Chandler - Director of Policy at the Russell Group
• Jablai Saleh - Headteacher at Birmingham's Yenton Primary School
• Charlotte Harding - Head of HR Partnering, Operations at British Airways
• Professor James Hayton - Vice-Provost and Chair of the Faculty of Social Sciences
• Professor Chris Moran - Deputy Chair of the Faculty of Social Sciences (Research and Impact)
• Professor Fiona Copland - Head of the School of Education, Learning and Communication Sciences
• Sam Roseveare - Director of National and Regional Policy

This free event aligns with one of the University's 10+1 Big Questions of the Social Sciences, and is an opportunity to explore in depth how Higher Education shapes social mobility and employability; to gain insights from local and national perspectives on both policy and practice; and to connect with a diverse network of colleagues, researchers, students, and external stakeholders who are curious about what a meaningful, equitable education should look like.

Registration is free and essential: Register here.

The Impact Team

The University of Warwick has announced the launch of a new spin-out company, VerIQ Limited, to transform how medical device and health technology clinical trials are designed, initiated and delivered across the UK.

Professor Siddartha Khastgir, Head of Safe Autonomy at WMG, University of Warwick, said, "We are glad to see the UK Government is taking a bold step to improve the safety of the roads by publishing this national road safety strategy.

Tenam Cuauhtémoc, a 1st year PhD student in Superconductivity and Magnetism, has been awarded the Best Poster Prize at the 2025 ISIS Student Meeting, hosted by the ISIS Neutron and Muon Source (world-leading centre for research at the STFC Rutherford Appleton Laboratory) Link opens in a new windowin Oxfordshire.

Plants mobilise their immune defences far earlier than scientists have believed for decades—and through a previously overlooked early signalling mechanism—according to a new study published in Nature Plants.

Professor Murray Grant and his team, including Emily Breeze and Erin Stroud have discovered a rapid, jasmonate-driven, early immune response in plants. A breakthrough live-imaging tool has allowed them to visualise immune signals moving out of infected leaves and across into uninfected leaves in real time.

(Image shows Temporal spatial dynamics of luciferase activity in JISS1:LUC plants following DCavrRpm1 challenge, initiating at 3 hpi. 3.20 hpi, 3.50 hpi and 4.30 hpi images capture the systemic spread of the signal over time. Credit: Gaikwad, T., Breen, S., Breeze, E., Stroud, E. et al. Nature Plants (2026). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41477-025-02178-4)

In the footsteps of Marco Polo. Venice, Asia, silk is the new book release from Professor Luca Mola, Professor of History, published by Laterza.

Marco Polo's fame is linked to his travel experiences in the East and the description of Chinese civilization contained in Il Milione, a source of wonder throughout Europe. But what did he do after his return to Venice in 1295? This book reveals the truth using a series of new, previously unknown documents and reconstructs his story.

Professor Mola tells an untold story that portrays Marco Polo as a key figure in the economic development of Venice and Italy, capable of capitalizing on the knowledge he acquired on his travels.

Faculty of Science, Engineering and Medicine Research Prizes 2026 – Nominations Now Open

We are pleased to announce that nominations are now open for two awards celebrating research excellence across the Faculty:

Ally Caldecote gets audiences at the Royal Institution enthused about Christmas and the science behind snow and ice.