Research Output Prize 2024 winners revealed

The winners of the 2024 Research Output Prize, which recognises and celebrates the excellent research work of early career researchers (ECRs), have been announced.

The winning publications are all highly topical and address issues of current social, environmental and political interest.

Professor Parveen Yaqoob, Pro-Vice-Chancellor (Research and Innovation), said: “The winning publications showcase the remarkable contributions of our early career researchers.

“Their innovative work tackles timely issues of societal importance, advancing knowledge and addressing global challenges.

“We strive to provide an inclusive and supportive research culture which allows colleagues at all stages of their careers to excel. I look forward to celebrating their achievements at the upcoming Research Awards ceremony.”

The prizes will be presented at the 2024 Research Awards event on Tuesday 18 June, when you will be able to hear the winners speak about their work. 

Agriculture, Food & Health 

Winner: Gemma Little (Biomedical Sciences), for her paper as co-author published in Science: ‘Immobility-associated thrombo-protection is conserved across mammalian species from bear to human’. 

Deep vein thrombosis (DVT) is a life-threatening condition that occurs when a blood clot occurs within a vein.

DVT is commonly triggered by immobility, yet, curiously, long-term immobility does not trigger DVT and the reason for this was not previously understood.

In this study, it was discovered that long-term immobility changes the levels of a protein in blood platelets, and this prevents DVT.

Gemma helped determine the molecular mechanisms that explain this process by producing conditional transgenic mice that lacked the protein and studying their platelets and megakaryocytes.

Environment 

Winner: Thomas Wilder (Meteorology), for his article as first author in Ocean Science: ‘Constraining an eddy energy dissipation rate due to relative wind stress for use in energy budget-based eddy parameterisations’. 

Ocean eddies, swirling currents under 100km wide, play a crucial role in mixing heat, salt, and carbon, affecting climate. Climate models often approximate their effects through parameterisation.

A new method, GEOMETRIC, improves ocean circulation modelling but has uncertainty around the dissipation of energy from eddies.

This study develops a way to parameterise how winds dissipate eddy energy, showing dissipation rates vary greatly across oceans. This implies that eddies significantly impact processes like heat transport and carbon absorption.

The results are vital for enhancing ocean and climate models.

Heritage & Creativity 

Winner: Annemieke Milks (Archaeology), for her article as co-author in PLOS ONE: ‘A double-pointed wooden throwing stick from Schöningen, Germany: Results and new insights from a multi-analytical study’. 

By investigating a 300,000-year-old wooden hunting tool, Annemieke Milks’ study establishes that early Neanderthals had the cognitive abilities to develop multi-step woodworking techniques, and to craft aerodynamic and ergonomic tools which may have been used by children to hunt.

Analysis of the tool enabled researchers to show how early humans were technologically capable of hunting smaller and aerial prey, altering understanding of the origins of woodworking in human evolution.

Prosperity & Resilience 

Winner: Stephen Kastoryano (Economics), for his article as co-author in the Journal of Environmental Economics and Management: ‘Unseen annihilation: Illegal fishing practices and nautical patrol’.

Industrial fishing has resulted in the widespread destruction of marine life since the 1950s, despite international regulations against illegal practices.

The use of illegal small mesh fishing nets by trawlers result in abnormally large catches of just above legal sized fish relative to what would be expected.

By analysing data on reported fish landings, researchers have been able to quantify the previously invisible loss of aquatic life due to illegal fishing practices relative to current estimates.