The Royal Society of Edinburgh research awards reception 1 2 3 4 5 67 8 9 10 monday 1 september 2014 Front cover images: 1. Professor Lynn Abrams – Scottish Government Arts & Humanities Network, p. 23 2. Dr Geraldine Parsons – Scottish Government Arts & Humanities Small Grant, p. 29 3. Dr Kamusella Tomasz – Scottish Government Arts & Humanities Small Grant, p. 27 Map of official languages in Central Europe, 1721 4. Mungo Campbell – Scottish Government Arts & Humanities Workshop, p. 18 William Hunter 1718–1783 by Allan Ramsay 5. Dr Gareth Lloyd – Scottish Government Personal Research Fellowship, p. 11 Crystal structures, produced by X-ray Crystallography, of a molecular porous material with two important gases, carbon dioxide (top) and acetylene (bottom), captured within the structure 6. Professor James Loxley – Scottish Government Arts & Humanities Workshop, p. 18 7. Professor Murdo Macdonald – Scottish Government Arts & Humanities Small Grant, p. 27 Detail of ionisation caused by X-rays, CTR Wilson, 1912 8. Dr Bertalan Pusztai – CRF European Travel Fellowship – Visit to Scotland, p. 16 Reenactment and place branding – jousting at the Bruce Festival in Dunfermline 9. Dr Anita Quye and Dr Klaus Staubermann – Scottish Government Arts & Humanities Network, p. 22 ReCREATE network logo 10. Dr Genevieve Lennon and Professor Clive Walker – Scottish Government Arts & Humanities Workshop, p. 19 THE ROYAL SOCIETY OF EDINBURGH RESEARCH AWARDS RECEPTION 2014 PROGRAMME 5.00 pm Guests arrive and seated by 5.30 pm 5.30 pm Welcome from the President: Sir John Arbuthnott MRIA 5.35 pm Research Awards Convener: Professor Steve Beaumont OBE Report on 2014 Awards Programme Announcement of Scottish Crucible Project Awards Launch of RSE Enterprise Fellowships Promotional Film 5.45 pm President’s Concluding Remarks 5.50 pm Poster Displays and Buffet Supper 8.00 pm Finish Welcome by Sir John Arbuthnott MRIA The President of the Royal Society of Edinburgh The Research Awards reception is a true highlight of the Royal Society of Edinburgh’s annual events calendar. It lets us celebrate and reflect upon the important research work being done across academia and business here in Scotland. It also allows us to recognise the forging of new international research connections, and reinforces the strength of our existing collaborations. Gathered here this evening we have over 100 distinguished individuals whose achievements and discoveries not only help progress knowledge in their respective subject areas, but also serve to revitalise the RSE’s 230-year history of supporting excellence across all areas of academic, public and scientific life in Scotland: from science and engineering, to medicine, and the arts and humanities, I am once again heartened by the sheer breadth of research that is being supported by our various awards. These awards are made possible through the continued support of our many funding partners. For this I want to extend my warm thanks to BBSRC, BP, Scottish Enterprise, the Scottish Funding Council, the Scottish Government and the STFC. Finally, I would like to offer my congratulations to each of the inspiring individuals whose successes and abilities are being celebrated here this evening. They represent the continuing ferment of inspired research that typifies the RSE. Welcome by Professor Steve Beaumont OBE Research Awards Convener Welcome to the RSE’s annual awards reception. I am Professor Steve Beaumont, from the University of Glasgow, and I am the Research Awards Convener here at the RSE. Many of you will have met me when you came for your interviews earlier in the year. This evening gives us the opportunity to celebrate with the 2014 Research Fellows, Enterprise Fellows, Scholars and Students. You will find their details and information about their projects in the following pages of this programme. The RSE is Scotland’s National Academy of both Science and the Arts and it is very fortunate to be able to offer awards across all disciplines, reflecting the founding aim of the Society which is “the advancement of learning and useful knowledge.” We have awarded Scottish Government-funded Research Fellowships, a BP Trust Research Fellowship and a Caledonian Research Fund (CRF) Research Fellowship this year. The RSE welcomes the funding it receives from its partner organisations, the logos of which you will find on page 5, which make these awards possible. The RSE employed a new PR and Marketing Officer late last year and this evening we will see the fruits of his labours as we launch the Enterprise Fellowships promotional film and new marketing materials. Application numbers continue to be high for these awards and we anticipate they will become even more competitive when the new materials take effect. The Arts and Humanities awards remain very popular and the next deadline for applications is approaching on 15th September. Earlier this year, the RSE selection panel selected 30 Scottish Crucible participants and they have now completed their career development ‘labs’. We will announce the winning group projects at this event and you will find more information about Scottish Crucible, and its participants, at the end of this programme. I wish all the 2014 awardees every success with their projects over the coming year and into the future. 4 5 Research Awardees 2014 Cormack Vacation Research Scholarships Craig McNeill School of Mathematics and Statistics, University of St Andrews Analysis of Sunspot Rotation on the Simulation of an Emerging Toroidal Flux Tube The wide scope in the reporting of sunspot rotation merits a study of the mechanisms driving this motion. Several reports have noted that rapidly rotating sunspots have accompanied coronal mass ejections and solar flares, giving the study of sunspot rotation particular significance (recent studies include reports by Török et al. [2013] & Wang et al. [2014]). A suggested method of the mechanism is due to the untwisting of an emerging toroidal flux tube through the photosphere. This project used data from simulations of the toroidal flux tube described by Hood et al. [2009] to analyse the magnetic field and plasma velocity at both the photosphere and the solar interior. This was to determine if the flux tube was untwisting and what its rate of rotation was at the photosphere, in order to compare it with previous reported findings from observational data. Laura Moran School of Physics and Astronomy, University of St Andrews Detecting Earth-size Planets I have always had a fascination with space and, in particular, planets orbiting stars other than our own. The prospect of life in other planetary systems, or even another planet for humans to live on, used to be science fiction, but thanks to more powerful telescopes we are now able to discover and characterise these alien worlds – albeit from afar! Extra-Solar planet detection is a relatively new field in Astronomy. Improving the radial velocity method (one of the most common techniques used to find these planets) allows us to measure the mass of small planets. By monitoring a star’s radial velocity, we can detect a planet and measure its mass. This leads to estimating its density and hence the bulk composition and structure of the planet. The aim of this project is to determine the masses of small Earth-size planets. Aneesh Naik Department of Physics, University of Oxford Visiting: School of Physics and Astronomy, University of St Andrews Onset of turbulence and inverse cascade in the ISM The stellar IMF (initial mass function) is the mass distribution of stars. This turns out to be a universal function; i.e., it is the same wherever we look in the sky. There are various different strands of theories regarding the origins of this universal function; e.g., theories based purely on statistics, theories based on accretion processes, theories based on turbulence, etc. I played around with the latter case. In the first part of my project, I investigated the assumptions underpinning Padoan and Nordlund's turbulence-based theory of 2002, while in the second part I considered the effect on the IMF of turbulence arising via the 'inverse cascade'; i.e., turbulence rising from small length scales to large length scales, as opposed to the conventionally assumed 'direct cascade', the opposite case. 6 Research Awardees 2014 Cormack Vacation Research Scholarships Anna Mary Rice School of Physics and Astronomy, University of St Andrews Equilibrium Chemistry in Extra-Solar Objects The LEAP project, based at the University of St Andrews, studies charge processes in planetary atmospheres, with the aim of understanding how atmospheric ionisation mechanisms change in the transition region between stars and planets. These charge processes could potentially influence the occurrence of life by electricity. Key to this is understanding what the dominating electron donor species are in such objects, and what global parameters are required for an atmosphere to become an ionised plasma. Over the course of this project, we use simulations produced by the Drift-Phoenix atmosphere grid and apply a chemical equilibrium routine to them, to calculate chemical compostion. By using a broad range of simulations with varying global parameters such as effective temperature and metalicity, we are able to understand how the ionising species in an atmosphere change at varying atmospheric depths for different types of object. Magnus Woods School of Physics & Astronomy, University of Glasgow Investigating small X-ray flares outside of Solar active regions Flares are rapid bursts of energy released in the Sun’s atmosphere, observed as flashes of light over many wavelengths. The largest flares always occur in active regions, locations of strong magnetic field. This characteristic appears to continue down to smaller flares, known as microflares. This is supported by data from NASA’s Solar X-ray satellite RHESSI. Some flare positions found with RHESSI lie outwith active regions and although this is often due to instrumental artifacts, it would be important for understanding how the solar atmosphere is heated to find flare-like energy releases occurring throughout the Solar atmosphere, not just in active regions.