ALZ Newsletter24 JAN.Indd
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Janu ary 2 018 An unsettlingpresence: sub-Saharan Africa in RenaissanceItaly Awards in focus in Page 5 Architectureand the face of Page 6 Illuminating the workings of a thisissue include: coal: mining and modern Britain molecular machine Page8Howdochildren at the Page 10 What damage do today’s Page 11 Women in type ‘bottom’ofthe class fare? ballistic impactscause to stone structures? Director’s note Scheme news Funding ambition Imminent deadlines Allapplicationsclose at 4pm, unless otherwisestated. ThefinalBoard Meetingof2017saw theTrustees distribute abumpercropofawardsfor Leverhulme 1February 2018 DoctoralScholarships, Visiting Professorships,Major Emeritus Fellowships Research Fellowships, Research ProjectGrantsand Philip Forseniorresearchers whohave retiredfromanacademic Leverhulme Prizes –some£37 millionintotal –tosupport post whowishtocomplete aresearchproject andprepare ambitious discovery research in UK universities.Alistofthe theresultsfor publication: research expenses of up to successful proposalsisincludedinthisNewsletter. £22,000 over up to twoyears. This year,for thefirsttimesince theschemewas launched in theyear2000, thethirty Philip Leverhulme Prize 1March 2018 Winners–togetherwithguests, university representatives, EarlyCareerFellowships andmanyofthe Trust’sfriends andsupporters–will gather Forearly career researcherswithatrack record of research foracelebratory Gala Dinner andPrize-givinginthe splendid whowishtoundertakeasignificant pieceofpublishable surroundings of theDrapers’Company Livery Hall in the work,but whohave notyet held apermanent academic City of London. The prizes recognisethe achievements of position: 50 percentmatch-fundingfor thesalarycosts of outstandingresearchers workinginthe UK,eachwinner athree-yearacademicresearchposition(contribution of up receiving£100,000tospend as they choose, in supportof to £25,000pa, balancetobepaidbyhostinstitution), plus theirscholarly activities.The prizes areawonderful wayof £6,000 perannum towardsresearchexpenses. remindingourselves of thedepth of talent –fromall countries –thatistobefound in Britishuniversities. We aredelighted Successful applicantsfor both theseawardswillbe that theawardsthisyearwillbepresented by Professor Sir announcedinMay 2018. VenkiRamakrishnan, Presidentofthe Royal Society. Stillonthe subjectofspecialoccasions,Professor 21 March 2018 SirPaulNurse,Nobel Prizewinner andDirectorofthe Detailedapplicationsfor Research ProjectGrants FrancisCrick Institute,delivered thethird Leverhulme Up to £500,000 over fiveyears forresearchonaprojectof Annual LectureinNovemberlastyearatthe Institution of theapplicant’s choice,tocover salary andresearch costs Engineeringand Technology in London. SirPaul’stopic was directlyassociatedwiththe project. Please note that an outline “Research andthe Public Good”. If youmissed hislecture applicationmustbesubmitted andapprovedinthe first instance. thefulltextisavailableonthe Trust’swebsite.Nextyear’s lecturewillbegiven by MmeChristine Lagarde, Managing Successful applicantswillbeannouncedinJuly2018. Director of theInternational Monetary Fund,who will (coincidentally) be speaking in thefinalfew monthsbefore theUK’sscheduled exit from theEuropeanUnion. If she Other rounds currently open chooses to address this topic, it will be interestingtohear what shehas to say, sincemanyinthe sectorthinkthat Philip Leverhulme Prizes Brexit will have damaging effects on theUK’shard-won Up to thirty awards of £100,000 to recognisethe achievement reputationasone of thebestcountries in theworld in which of outstandingresearchers whoseworkhas alreadyattracted to conductacademicresearch across thewhole range of the internationalrecognition andwhose futurecareeris sciences, socialsciencesand humanities. exceptionallypromising.The 2018 competitionoffers Prizes Finally, theBoard is pleased to announcethatthe in Classics, EarthSciences, Physics, Politics andInternational Trustwillbeextendingits supportfor theBritish Academy/ Relations, Psychology,and Visual andPerformingArts. Leverhulme TrustSmall Grants Schemefor afurther five Closing date: 17 May years, with an awardof£2.5million. These grants recognise theimportanceofsmaller awards (upto£10,000)for many Research Project Grants researchersworking in thehumanitiesand thesocial Outlinebidsare welcome at anytime. sciences. They allowthe Academy to attractsignificant matchingfunds andhave,over theyears,providedthe first Visiting Professorships step into research whichhas gone on to shapeacademic AwardedtoUKinstitutionsthatwishtoinviteaneminent careersand wholefields of study. Workinginpartnership researcher from overseasfor an extended stay in theUKto in this wayhelps theTrust to fulfill itsambitiontoprovide enhancethe knowledgeand skillsofacademicstafforthe acomprehensive suiteoffundingopportunities fortalented studentbodywithin thehostinstitution. researchersworking in theUK. Closing date: 10 May Professor Gordon Marshall Forfulldetails andtoapply,see leverhulme.ac.uk/funding 2 January 2018 Adventures withthe Buddha Dr Naomi Appleton, University of Edinburgh Philip LeverhulmePrize Jatakas –stories of theBuddha’spast My overallresearchinterestisthe role of storiesinthe construction, communicationand challenge of religious lives–aremanyand varied.Naomi ideas, with afocus on earlyIndia.Ihave aparticularinterest Appleton is creating an online database in multi-lifestories,includingstories of theBuddha’s past lives (jatakas),which form an importantliterarygenre bringing together both text andvisual throughoutthe Buddhist world;theypurport to illustrate versions,beforeexaminingthe stories themanyadventuresofthe Buddha-to-be when he wasborn amongstanimals,humansand gods,aswellasoutlininghis in abroader Indian context progress towardsBuddhahood over multiple lifetimes. Ihave also worked on thewaysinwhich narrative characters,motifsand themes reveal thesharedhistorical contextofJain, Buddhist andHindu traditions.Mynext projectwillcombine thesetwo research interestsand examine jataka storiesintheir broaderIndian–including non-Buddhist–context. My aimisto explorethe different ways in whichstories of theBuddha’s past liveswere understood andused across differentIndianBuddhist schoolsand contexts,aswell as theextenttowhich they are shared with non-Buddhist narrativetraditions,uptoaround thefifthcentury CE. Photograph Jataka literature is difficult to navigate because of its scaleand complexity.The largesttextual collection contains around 550 stories, whilethe many other jataka textsboth courtesy increase thetotal number of storiesand repeat storiesin multiple versions;versions of some storiesare also found in non-Buddhist texts. Artistic depictions at Buddhist sites of from thefirstcentury BCEtothe presentday addtothe James challengesofinterpretingthe genre, whiletextual scholars andart historians operateinlargely separate fieldswithout M. many opportunitiestoshare theirexpertise. Hegarty Forthese reasons, research into thesefascinating narratives wouldbegreatly enhanced by thecreationof an online database of jatakas in texts andart.Avarietyof search andbrowse functions, comprehensive bibliographic information, andlinks to artistic depictions andtextual and epigraphic translations,willmakethe resource invaluable notonlyfor my ownresearch,but also forother scholars of Asianreligion, includingart historians,withwhomIwill collaborateonthisproject.The online database will also be ausefuleducationalresource,within andoutsidethe Buddhist world,and Ihopetouse it in my ownteachingas well as in work Iamdoing with localschoolteachers. The jataka of the monkey king, in which the Buddha-to-be, born as amonkey, saves his troop by making abridge to safety out of his ownbody.Sanchistupa complex, Madhya Pradesh, c. 1st centuryBCE leverhulme.ac.uk 3 Something in theway we move Dr Karl Bates, University of Liverpool Research Project Grant Karl Bates andteamare clarifying thelink betweenfootbones, footprintmorphology andlocomotion to help understand how we evolvedtowalkon twofeet istockphoto.com Eraxion, Photo: Upright bipedalism: adefining moment in human evolution Thetransitiontowalking on twofeetrepresentsadefining much moredetailedunderstandingofhow morphology links episodeinhuman evolution. To understand how, when to function in modern humans is necessary to understand andwhy uprightbipedalismevolved,palaeontologistsand locomotion in hominid fossils, andsubsequently how, when anthropologistshave long relied on theshape of fossil foot andwhy upright bipedalism first evolved. bonesand footprints to diagnose thestyle of locomotion Our primary goal is to investigatehow the different used by ourancestors.Modernhuman foot anatomyand useofthe mid-foot (stifforflexible)interacts with bone function areconsidered thehallmarks of ourupright andfootprint shape. We aimtoexplain howorwhy some bipedalism: we possess stabilised longitudinal arches in individualsvarythe motionoftheir feet so dramatically step themid-foottoimpartthe necessary stiffness to help to step.Weargue that understandinghow this functional generate theforcesrequiredtostridebipedallyoverthe variationcorrelates with morphologyinmodernhumans ground.Thiscontrasts with tree-dwelling non-human will providefundamental insights into howthe lowerlimb apes like chimpanzeesthathave long toes andahighly functionsasamechanical structure. In turn, this new mobile mid-foot to providethe necessary flexibility for mechanisticunderstandingofhow morphologyworks will grasping andclimbing. Thus,for example, broadlyhuman- enable themostrobust interpretation of fossil bonesand