The Royal Society, the UK's national academy of science, has announced the appointment of two new Royal Society Wolfson Research Merit Award holders at Warwick.

Professor Jane Hutton of the Department of Statistics and Professor Andrew Stuart of the Mathematics Institute have been given the awards.

Jane was recognised for her work on statistical models for medical research, patient care and decision-making.

Her statistical expertise is used to help answer difficult questions raised by health-care workers and patients. For example, she provides international reports on life expectancy of people with cerebral palsy, and those who suffered brain injury in accidents. She has helped to improve understanding of effective drug treatments for epilepsy.

Andrew works on the Bayesian approach to inverse problems.

This research area blends probability and mathematical models using differential equations to provide predictions of physical phenomena, together with an estimation of the uncertainty present in those predictions. Such research underpins applications in fields such as climate change, oceanography, oil and gas recovery and weather forecasting.

Jane said:

It's an honour to receive this award from a prestigious body like the Royal Society.

My work lies at the interface of mathematics and health, and it is great to have such strong recognition for the importance of this kind of research.”

Jointly funded by the Wolfson Foundation and the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS), the scheme aims to provide universities with additional support to enable them to attract science talent from overseas and retain respected UK scientists of outstanding achievement and potential.