New RSE Fellows

The Royal Society of Edinburgh (RSE), Scotland’s National Academy has announced its 2024 intake of 57 new Fellows from Scotland and beyond. They will be joining the RSE’s current Fellowship of around 1,800 Fellows, who are recognised as being some of the greatest thinkers, researchers and practitioners working in or with Scotland. The following College staff members were included in the latest intake:

 

Professor Sinéad Collins

Sinead Collins, Professor of Microbial Evolution at the School of Biological Sciences’ Institute of Ecology and Evolution, is elected for her ground-breaking research into the evolution of ocean dwelling microbes, known as phytoplankton. 

These photosynthetic single-celled algae are the foundation of ocean food webs - feeding everything from krill to whales - and are also responsible for absorbing around a third of the world’s carbon dioxide.

Her work is leading to a better understanding of how climate and ocean changes affect phytoplankton – by revealing how they evolve in rapidly changing and complex environments.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Professor Lindsay Beevers

Professor Lindsay Beevers joined the School of Engineering as Chair in Environmental Engineering in 2022, and in the same year became Head of the Research Institute for Infrastructure and Environment (IEE). Her research focuses on developing numerical models to understand and quantify hydrological extremes such as floods and droughts, their future evolution in an era of climate change, and associated impacts on society and the environment.

I am delighted to be elected to the Fellowship of the RSE, and humbled to be associated with so many impressive minds past and present.

Professor Lindsay Beevers

 

Professor Steve Brusatte

Professor Steve Brusatte is a vertebrate palaeontologist and evolutionary biologist who specialises in the anatomy, genealogy, and evolution of dinosaurs, mammals, and other fossil organisms. He has written over 150 scientific papers, published six books (including the adult pop science books The Rise and Fall of the Dinosaurs and The Rise and Reign of the Mammals, the textbook Dinosaur Paleobiology, and the coffee table book Dinosaurs), and has described over 20 new species of fossil animals. He has done fieldwork in Brazil, Britain, China, Lithuania, Poland, Portugal, Romania, and the United States. His research is profiled often in the popular press, he was the paleontology consultant for the film Jurassic World: Dominion, and he was “resident palaeontologist” and scientific consultant for the BBC's Walking With Dinosaurs team.

He is recognised for his groundbreaking research on the anatomy, genealogy, and evolution of dinosaurs and other extinct animals.

When I moved to Scotland a little over a decade ago, it was a new and unfamiliar place. To have the opportunity to build my lab and research career here, and now become part of Scotland's illustrious national academy, is truly special. It is, I feel, the greatest honour of my career. It's been such an adventure hunting for dinosaurs and pterodactyls and other fossils across Scotland, and I hope that my students and I keep making new discoveries, as there is still a lot out there to be found.

Professor Stephen Brusatte

 

Professor Patrick Meir

Professor Patrick Meir is Chair of Ecosystem Science, Royal Society Wolfson Fellow, and Director of the Centre for Sustainable Forests and Landscapes. 

His research focusses on Ecosystem science; forests and global change; carbon-water-biodiversity-land use relationships of plants, soils and ecosystems; tropical and temperate forests, and their roles in the Earth system and society.

It is a great privilege and opportunity to be elected as Fellow to the RSE. This is an exciting time to be working in the area of forests, climate and society, with so much multi-sectoral interest in the issue in the UK and internationally, and with new understanding needed across disciplines. In this vein, I was lucky enough to initiate the Centre for Sustainable Forests and Landscapes at the University of Edinburgh.  The broad remit of the RSE matches well to the needs of the current re-emergence of interest in land use, forests, climate and sustainability; I hope election to the Fellowship will help me deliver useful outcomes. More personally, I would like to thank the many brilliant students, post docs and colleagues so closely involved in my efforts to understand how forest ecosystems interact with our climate and benefit society.

Professor Patrick Meir

 

Professor Elham Kashefi

Elham Kashefi is Professor of Quantum Computing at the School of Informatics, University of Edinburgh, Director of the Edinburgh Quantum Software Lab and Directeur de recherche au CNRS at LIP6 Sorbonne Université. She co-founded the fields of quantum cloud computing and quantum computing verification and has pioneered a transdisciplinary interaction of hybrid quantum-classical solutions from theoretical investigation to actual experimental and industrial commercialisation. She is a Chief Scientist at the National Quantum Computing Centre. Among a raft of achievements, she developed the world’s first method for secure cloud quantum computing.

As the director of the QSL and NQCC Chief Scientist, I'm delighted to have the opportunity to utilise the RSE’s platform to bring the quantum wave beyond our academic circles, influencing policymakers. Our rich innovative ecosystem in Scotland will ensure everyone is aware and ready for this mind-blowing new emerging technology.

Professor Elham Kashefi

 

Professor Victoria Martin

Professor Victoria Martin’s research is in particle physics - studying the structure of the Universe at the smallest accessible scales. Her main interest is in understanding more about the Higgs boson and its relationship to the other fundamental particles that make up our Universe. She works on the ATLAS experiment at the Large Hadron Collider at CERN.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Related links

See a full list of the latest RSE fellows