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Nine young awardees set to keep University of Warwick in the top ten

A clutch of young academics from the University of Warwick have been awarded research grants from the Leverhulme Trust.

Dr Giorgio Riello, of the University’s History department, has been awarded a Philip Leverhulme Prize – one of only 25 young academics in the country to be handed the honour.

Philip Leverhulme Prizes are awarded to outstanding scholars who have made a substantial and recognised contribution to their particular field of study, recognised at an international level, and where the expectation is that their greatest achievement is yet to come

And a further eight academics have been granted Leverhulme Early Career Fellowships – more than ten percent of the national awardees.

Early Career Fellowships aim to provide career development opportunities for those who are at a relatively early stage of their academic careers but with a proven record of research. The Leverhulme provides half of the funding for each fellowship which has been matched by the University of Warwick.

Dr Riello has been awarded £70,000 for a three year research project on 'The Material Culture of Global Connections, 1600-1800.'

David O'Shaugnessy, English and Comparative Literary Studies, has been granted a three year fellowship looking at ‘Staging the Irish in London, 1780-1830,’  while Sotirios Paraschas, in the University’s French department, has also been given a three year fellowship to look into ‘Reappearing Characters.’

Francesco Lucchini, History of Art, Ben Richardson, Politics,  Nana Zhang, Sociology, David Cheung, Chemistry, Stephen Wells, Physics, and Davoud Cheraghi, Maths, have been given two year fellowships at Warwick.

University of Warwick’s Deputy Vice Chancellor Professor Mark Smith was delighted that such a high number of the University’s young staff had been recognised by the Leverhulme Trust.

He said:  “The University of Warwick’s research has long been established in the top ten of UK universities and these nine prestigious awards are testament to the quality of our young staff at the start of their academic careers.

“Such colleagues are essential to maintain and enhance Warwick’s research reputation in the future.”

The Leverhulme Trust was established in 1925 under the Will of the First Viscount Leverhulme with the instruction that its resources should be used to support “scholarships for the purposes of research and education.” It has annual funding of £50 million, making it the largest all-subject provider of research funding in the UK.

Notes to Editors

For more information contact Luke Hamer, Assistant Press Officer, University of Warwick, on 02476 575601, or on 07824 541142. Alternatively email l.hamer@warwick.ac.uk