Four new Research Fellows chosen

  • 16 January 2017
  • 2 minutes

Four young academics with specialisms ranging from Old Icelandic family sagas to quantum gravity have been awarded Research Fellowships at Caius. A theoretical physicist, a linguistics student and two historians are the four chosen for the prestigious awards from a highly competitive field.

Master of Caius Professor Sir Alan Fersht welcomed the four, who will be formally elected to their Fellowships in the autumn, praising their "exceptional creativity in research, following distinguished academic records". Prof Fersht said: "Electing Research fellows is one of our most important and enjoyable activities of the year. It's an essential foot on the academic ladder for many people. All of our Research Fellows have gone on to have successful careers in academia, including four who won Nobel Prizes."

The selection process is initially handled by two panels of Caius Fellows - representing the humanities and sciences. Each panel whittles the candidates down to a shortlist of four, who then present their research to both panels together - some 20 Fellows in all - and answer questions. The 2018 Research Fellowships will be advertised in the summer.

The four Research Fellows are:

Carl Turner, Trinity

Carl is a theoretical physicist, studying, among other areas, quantum gravity and has made important discoveries. He obtained firsts in all parts of the Mathematical Tripos and then graduated with distinction in Part III.

Tam Blaxter, Pembroke

Tam is a linguistics student who applies modern statistical analysis to the development of language - their PhD is on Norwegian. They obtained a first in Linguistics from Essex, followed by a distinction in their MPhil at Somerville for their thesis "Sociolinguistic variation in the Old Icelandic Family Sagas”. Tam has reading expertise in Old Norse, Classical Greek, Old English, Gothic, Middle Norwegian and Modern Norwegian.

Timothy Nicholas-Twining, Caius

Tim is a historian who works on biblical criticism. To provide novel insights and reanalyse earlier work, he learned during his PhD Biblical Hebrew, Aramaic, Ancient Greek, German, Italian and Dutch at a reading level. Tim obtained a first in Pt I in History (Homerton), followed by a year in Philosophy at the Sorbonne and then Pt II History (Homerton). He then transferred to Caius for his MPhil, which he obtained with distinction. 

Tom Arnold-Forster, Jesus

Tom is a historian, specialising in modern American history. He obtained a first in Pt I of the History Tripos, followed by a first with distinction in Pt II, where he was top of Tripos. His MPhil was on Gore Vidal and Washington D.C., and his PhD on Walter Lippmann and American Democracy.

Congratulations to all.

 

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