Eight College of Science and Engineering colleagues elected as fellows to the Royal Society of Edinburgh. Image Professor Conchúr Ó Brádaigh The Royal Society of Edinburgh (RSE), Scotland’s National Academy, has announced its 2023 intake of Fellows, with 91 names representing science, arts, business, sports, civil society and academia from across Scotland and beyond. A total of 18 of those have come from the University of Edinburgh with eight coming from the College of Science and Engineering. The newly elected fellows from the College of Science and Engineering: Professor Conchúr Ó Brádaigh Professor Conchúr Ó Brádaigh is the current Head of the School of Engineering and Chair of Materials Engineering. He is a leading international authority on composite materials, specialising in research in the design and manufacture of fibre-reinforced composite materials. Professor Ó Brádaigh has developed innovative materials and processes for use in the aerospace and renewable energy sectors, including cryogenic fuel tanks and blades used in wind turbines and tidal stream turbines. More on Professor Conchúr Ó Brádaigh’s election to the FRSE Professor Karen Halliday Image Professor Karen Halliday Professor Karen Halliday, is Chair of Systems Physiology and Dean of Systematic Inclusion at the School of Biological Sciences. She studies how plants sense their environment and the molecular pathways that translate light cues into adaptive physiological responses that influence plant growth using systems approaches to biological problems, conducting cross-disciplinary research spanning molecular-genetics, mathematics, computational science, the humanities and social sciences. Professor Halliday also has longstanding involvement in equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI), internally and externally, and is currently College Dean for Systematic Inclusion. More on Professor Karen Halliday’s election to the FRSE Professor Steven Spoel Image Professor Steven Spoel Professor Steven Spoel, is Head of the Institute of Molecular Plant Sciences at the School of Biological Sciences. Professor Spoel’s research aims to improve plant health in an ever-changing environment. This is vital for the sustainable future of agriculture and for establishing food security for a growing global population. Steven is also passionate about linking frontier science with industrial research and innovation. In his scientific advisory and consultancy roles he aims to provide strategic solutions and establish inclusive environments that promote innovative thinking to tackle challenges across the plant science and Agri-Tech sectors. More on Professor Steven Spoel’s election to the FRSE Professor Isla Myers-Smith Image Professor Isla Myers-Smith Professor Isla Myers-Smith, is a Chancellor's Fellow and Chair of Climate Change Ecology at the School of GeoSciences. Professor Myers-Smith is a global change ecologist from the University of Edinburgh in Scotland. She studies plants in the Arctic and beyond and how ecosystems are responding as the planet warms. She works with her research group Team Shrub using tools from measuring tapes to drones to capture Arctic change in the Yukon territory in northwest Canada and around the tundra biome. In particular, her research investigates the spread of willows and other shrub species into arctic and alpine tundra. Shrubs have the potential to restructure tundra ecosystems by changing ecosystem functions and creating feedbacks to climate warming that could further the increase of shrubs. She collaborates with researchers working at sites around the circumpolar Arctic to synthesise their combined data to better understand vegetation change in tundra ecosystems. Professor Isla Myers-Smith's staff profile Professor Martin Evans Professor Martin Evans is Professor of Statistical Physics at the School of Physics and Astronomy. Professor Evans' research interests focus on the statistical mechanics of non-equilibrium systems. Such systems are all-pervasive in nature since the classical assumptions of thermal equilibrium do not apply to most real-world systems. Professor Evans has contributed to establishing a now vibrant and expanding field by elucidating the properties of simple mathematical models through various analytical and numerical techniques. More on Professor Martin Evans' election to the FRS Professor Alex Lascarides Image Professor Alex Lascarides, Professor Ross Anderson and Dr Fiona McNeill Alex Lascarides is Professor of Semantics in the School of Informatics. Professor Lascarides' research is in theoretical and computational linguistics and AI. Her research aims to model the semantics and pragmatics of communicative actions in conversation, mainly focussing on text and speech but also analysing non-verbal actions such as hand gestures. Professor Lascarides also has an ongoing interest in developing machine learning methods for learning optimal strategies, particularly for complex games such as Settlers of Catan, or for decision problems where the agent starts out unaware of possible states and/or actions that are critical to task success. Professor Ross Anderson Professor Ross Anderson is currently working between University of Cambridge where he is Professor of Security Engineering, and School of Informatics, the University of Edinburgh where he’s a Chair in Security Engineering. His mission is to develop the discipline of security engineering, which investigates how systems can be made robust in the face of malice, error and mischance. He has made pioneering contributions to many subdisciplines, including peer-to-peer-networks, hardware tamper resistance and cryptographic protocols. Professor Anderson was a designer of the block cipher Serpent, and he has worked on many applications with diverse protection requirements such as payment networks, power-line communications, goods vehicle tachographs and clinical information systems. Dr Fiona McNeill Dr Fiona McNeill is a Reader of Computing Education at the School of Informatics. Her research interest is in STEM education particularly in access to education and how certain groups - especially women and young people from disadvantaged backgrounds - can be excluded and marginalised in STEM and Computer Science. She has been involved in developing national policy, for example through the BCS Scottish Computing Education Committee, which she currently co-chairs, the RSE's Learned Society Group and the BCS Academy. More on the three School of Informatics fellows Publication date 21 Mar, 2023
