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Dr Myra Lydon
Dr Myra Lydon
What are your key research interests?

My current work focuses on developing digital solutions for long term monitoring and assessment of Civil Infrastructure. My research interests include bridges, Transport networks, Structural Health Monitoring and Data analytics

What is your proudest career achievement?

My proudest career achievements are being awarded the Royal Academy Fellowship and being involved in the ICE invisible superheros exhibition.

What one piece of advice would you give to those considering applying for the Fellowship at Queen’s?

Make your research independent and engage with industry and government to develop your research ideas and solutions.

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 Dr. Trung Q. Duong
Dr. Trung Q. Duong
What are your key research interests?

I work at Queen's as a Reader in Signal Processing for Communications. My research interests include: wireless communications, disaster communications and management, Internet of Thing (IoT) in smart cities and smart agriculture, and AI in healthcare and disaster relief networks.

What is your proudest career achievement?

I'm proud of receiving the Royal Academy of Engineering Research Fellowship in 2015, the Queen’s Vice Chancellor’s Research Prize for Early Career Researcher in 2016, the Newton Prize 2017, and the Queen’s Vice Chancellor’s Research Prize for Innovation in 2018.

What one piece of advice would you give to those considering applying for the Fellowship at Queen’s?

A Queen's Fellowship will leverage your research career. Be ambitious to truly make a difference.

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Professor Denise Fitzgerald
Professor Denise Fitzgerald
What are your key research interests?

As Professor of Neuroimmunology at Queen’s University Belfast, my research programme focuses on Regenerative NeuroImmunology, addressing the fundamental question, "how can we use the immune system to help repair the brain?" Our goal is to develop a new class of tissue regenerative treatments for people with neurodegenerative conditions such as Multiple Sclerosis (MS). Our research team intersect immunology, neuroscience and regenerative medicine including stem cell biology.

What is your proudest career achievement?

My proudest career achievement is training early-career researchers, particularly PhD students and Postdoctoral researchers.

What one piece of advice would you give to those considering applying for the Fellowship at Queen’s?

One piece of advice I would give is to explore opportunities outside your immediate research area and comfort zone. While your fellowship is likely to be focused on your current expertise, the future growth of your research programme will be influenced by those around you at QUB and further afield. Some of the most exciting projects arise from unlikely collaborations!

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Dr. Seyed Mehdi Jafarnejad
Dr. Seyed Mehdi Jafarnejad
What are your key research interests?

I am the Principle Investigator and Patrick Johnston Research Fellow, working in the Centre for Cancer Research and Cell Biology at Queen's. My main research interest is mRNA translation and decay.

What is your proudest career achievement?

Securing the Patrick Johnston Research Fellowship is my proudest career achievement to date.

What one piece of advice would you give to those considering applying for the Fellowship at Queen’s?

"Explore the existing strengths and expertise at Queen’s and identify and highlight how your skills can complement those."

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Dr. Leila Moura
Dr. Leila Moura
What are your key research interests?

I currently work in Chemistry and Chemical Engineering. My core research targets energy reduction and process improvements. I am interested in the development, evaluation and application of new materials to reduce the environmental and energy impact of current operations, specifically in gas-liquid and liquid-liquid separations and purification processes.

What is your proudest career achievement?

My proudest career achievement was being awarded this Royal Academy of Engineering Research Fellowship. I learned a lot while going through the selection and application stages. I actually had a lot of fun during the interview at the Royal Academy of Engineering in London!

What one piece of advice would you give to those considering applying for the Fellowship at Queen’s?

My main piece of advice for someone considering applying for a Fellowship at Queen’s is to be themselves. Your personality and your vision should come through to anyone that comes in contact with your application. And don't be afraid to ask for help, we have great colleagues here at Queen's!

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 Dr Elton Santos
Dr Elton Santos
What are your key research interests?

My key research interests are Energy materials such as 2D crystals, graphene, van der Waals systems, etc. Method development, high-throughput screening, strongly correlated system, and optical and electronic properties.

What is your proudest career achievement?

Designing the next generation of LED that will overpass the current state-of-the-art QLEDs in a few years. The research was published in Science Advances, see more information here.

What one piece of advice would you give to those considering applying for the Fellowship at Queen’s?

Work hard, and do your homework on the best fellowships available that suit you. It is not only the best CV that always get the prestigious fellowships but the development of the concepts in a cutting-edge problems. By problems I meant those that help to improve our society and people lives.

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Professor Maria Lohan
Professor Maria Lohan
What are your key research interests?

 I work in the School of Nursing and Midwifery and Centre for Evidence and Social Innovation. My research interests include sexual and reproductive health and rights – especially focusing on advancing men’s involvement in sexual health, reproduction and parenting.

What is your proudest career achievement?

I rather liked presenting my work to the Dept. of Adolescent and Child Health in Washington DC – steps from the White house on a snowy day. It felt like being on a movie set.

What one piece of advice would you give to those considering applying for the Fellowship at Queen’s?

Do apply. Queen’s and Belfast is better than you can imagine.

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Professor Lorraine Martin
Professor Lorraine Martin
What are your key research interests?

I hold a Chair in Biomolecular Science within the School of Pharmacy at Queen’s and am particularly interested in chronic airways disease. With a particular focus on cystic fibrosis (CF) and chronic obstructive disease (COPD), my research seeks to understand the underlying mechanisms of disease which includes the characterisation of novel cellular proteins and pathways. Programmes of work include the development of therapeutic strategies to combat airways dehydration, a key factor contributing to disease progression, and the characterisation of novel biomarkers to aid earlier diagnosis and disease management.

What is your proudest career achievement?

My career highlights include the award of the Vice Chancellor’s Research Impact Prize (2016) and in 2017, the receipt of a €7.75M grant in support of BREATH (Border & Regions Airways Training Hub). BREATH is a highly ambitious, 5-year collaborative cross-discipline, cross-institutional and cross-border Research and Innovation project (INTERREG Va; Special European Union Programmes Body) which is focused on building research capacity in the area of COPD. BREATH has been showcased at the EU Parliament (2017) and was awarded Asthma/COPD Project of the Year at the NI Healthcare Awards (2018).

What one piece of advice would you give to those considering applying for the Fellowship at Queen’s?

My advice to anyone considering applying for the Fellowship is to consider carefully each and every opportunity as it presents itself, even (and sometimes particularly) if it means going out of your comfort zone, as you’ll never fully realise the extent of your potential until faced with challenge.

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Dr. Áine Aventin
Dr. Áine Aventin
What are your key research interests?

 As Vice-Chancellor’s Fellow within the School of Nursing & Midwifery at Queen's, I specialise in human behaviour and social research methodology and their application to the development, evaluation and implementation of complex health-related interventions. My research interests include: sexual and reproductive health and education, with a particular focus on adolescent men and their role in enabling women’s health; the use of digital technology to engage the public in health-related behaviours; and innovative evaluation-related research methodology.

What is your proudest career achievement?

It is a great source of pride for me to see a sexual and reproductive health intervention, which I co-led the development of (If I Were Jack), move through the development and evaluation stages from co-design, feasibility testing in Northern Ireland, UK-wide evaluation and now adaptation for use in Southern Africa. It’s wonderful to think that something I was involved in developing is making a real difference to people around the world.

What one piece of advice would you give to those considering applying for the Fellowship at Queen’s?

Know your ‘unique selling point’ and make sure that you can demonstrate that your research plans are in line with key Queen’s strategies.

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Dr. Blánaid Hicks
Dr. Blánaid Hicks
What are your key research interests?

I am a VC fellow, working within the Centre for Public Health at the School of Medicine, Dentistry and Biomedical Science. My research is in the field of pharmacoepidemiology and cancer epidemiology. Specifically my research programme utilises large electronic healthcare datasets and statistical methods to identify commonly used medications that influence the risk of cancer and cancer survival and to evaluate the safety of cancer treatments, particularly for patients with kidney cancer.

What is your proudest career achievement?

My career so far has been extremely rewarding. Particularly rewarding are the times when your latest paper is published, when you teach your first class or taking part in public engagement activities, but my proudest moment to date was being awarded a Cancer Research UK Population Research Fellowship.

What one piece of advice would you give to those considering applying for the Fellowship at Queen’s?

My advice for anyone considering applying for a Vice Chancellor’s fellowship at Queen’s is don’t forget to highlight your unique selling point as a researcher and just go for it! It is a wonderful opportunity!”

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Professor Anne-Marie McAlinden
Professor Anne-Marie McAlinden
What are your key research interests?

My research interests are in the area of sexual offending, including 'grooming', institutional child abuse, harmful sexual or exploitative behaviour by children and young people, restorative justice and 'risk' management.

What is your proudest career achievement?

My proudest early career achievement is winning the British Society of Criminology Book Prize 2008 for my first monograph, The Shaming of Sexual Offenders (Hart, 2007). More recently, I was delighted to be invited to give oral and written testimony to the Australian Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse (2017) on 'grooming and entrapment.'

What one piece of advice would you give to those considering applying for the Fellowship at Queen’s?

"Make the most of this wonderful opportunity and make the effort to go outside of your intellectual 'comfort zone' by networking with scholars across the University in a range of disciplines. This can really enrich your research and its real world impact."

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Professor Máire O'Neill
Professor Máire O'Neill
What are your key research interests?

Hardware Security and Applied Cryptography

What is your proudest career achievement?

Representing Queen’s University Belfast at the UK Blavatnik Awards for Young Scientists

What one piece of advice would you give to those considering applying for the Fellowship at Queen’s?

"You can use a Queen’s fellowship to build your research reputation and accelerate your academic research career. Queen’s has excellent national and international academic and industry linkages that you can take advantage of to support your research and ensure it is impactful."

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Professor Karola Dillenburger
Professor Karola Dillenburger
Karola is a leading expert in Applied Behaviour Analysis (ABA) and Education.

Her work focuses on how evidence-based interventions can enhance the quality of life for individuals, including those with autism and their families that result in significant improvements in health, social care, and education.

What are your key research interests?

Applied Behaviour Analysis (ABA) and Education

What is your proudest career achievement?

The foundation of the Centre for Behaviour Analysis (CBA) and the distant learning Masters in Applied Behaviour Analysis (MScABA) and ABA-based PhD, that has lead to the appointment of a world leading team of Behaviour Analysts at QUB and the education of hundreds of behaviour analysts across the globe.

What one piece of advice would you give to those considering applying for the Fellowship at Queen’s?

"An application for the Fellowship would allow you to work with the Centre for Behaviour Analysis with the chance to research evidence-based interventions that enable people to reach their potential and thus, makes real differences in people’s lives."

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Dr Debbie Lisle
Dr Debbie Lisle
What are your key research interests?

 My background is in International Relations, but my research is transdisciplinary in nature and critically examines how borders, security and mobility combine to enact violence and exclusion. All of my research troubles the assumed conventions of state sovereignty and explores the unexpected modes of re-ordering and resistance that arise in between.

What is your proudest career achievement?

Seeing students go on to flourish in diverse careers beyond academia, and seeing PhD students pursuing independent research on exciting topics.

What one piece of advice would you give to those considering applying for the Fellowship at Queen’s?

Be ambitious. Have the courage to think creatively, and show us what makes your work original, exciting and innovative.

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Professor Dominic Bryan
Professor Dominic Bryan
What are your key research interests?

My long term research interest explores the role of rituals and symbols in divided societies. I examine why disputes over flags or statues or parades assume so much importance in identity politics and how resulting conflict can be transformed.

What is your proudest career achievement?

Two books and 27 PhD students, seven of which have gone on to publish books themselves.

What one piece of advice would you give to those considering applying for the Fellowship at Queen’s?

Think outside the box, write creatively, but stay engaged.

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Professor Christopher Marsh
Professor Christopher Marsh
What are your key research interests?

I am a historian of England in the period 1500-1750 with a particular interest in the social and cultural lives of the demographic majority. I’m particularly interested in music, and my current project aims to identify 100 best-selling ballads (single-sheet songs) from seventeenth-century London. There will eventually be a website featuring digital images and new recordings by the Carnival Band.

What is your proudest career achievement?

I am probably most proud of a book I published in 2010: Music and Society in Early Modern England (Cambridge, 2010). This was the result of many years of research, and it involved an exciting collaboration with the musicians of the Dufay Collective. The reviews were very positive and I’m pleased to report that the project even won a couple of prizes.

What one piece of advice would you give to those considering applying for the Fellowship at Queen’s?

Please note that Belfast is a fantastic city surrounded by wonderful scenery in all directions (but bring an umbrella).

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Dr Olwen Purdue
Dr Olwen Purdue
What are your key research interests?

As Senior Lecturer in History, my research focuses on issues of class, poverty and welfare with a focus on spaces of the nineteenth and early twentieth-century industrial city. I am currently writing a monograph for publication with Liverpool University Press entitled Spaces of engagement: families and the Poor Law in industrial Belfast 1880-1914 and have just published an edited volume, Urban spaces in nineteenth-century Ireland. I also work on Public History, especially difficult or contested public histories, and collaborate with a range of cultural institutions. I was historical advisor for Titanic Belfast and a member of the advisory panel for the Ulster Museum’s Troubles and Beyond gallery and have advised a number of historical documentaries.

What is your proudest career achievement?

I think my proudest achievement has been establishing and developing our very successful Centre for Public History, which has provided a framework for exciting new international collaborative research and engagement at Queen’s. I was also very proud to be elected a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society and appointed a Director of the Irish Museums Association.

What one piece of advice would you give to those considering applying for the Fellowship at Queen’s?

Don’t hesitate! Queen’s is a great place to develop exciting and innovative research as there are such amazing opportunities for collaboration with academics, cultural institutions and heritage organisations locally, nationally and globally.

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Dr Tom Walker
Dr Tom Walker
What are your key research interests?

My current work focuses on two related and overlapping areas: the distinct ethical challenges that arise in the treatment of chronic illnesses; and the ethical challenges created by an ageing society.

What is your proudest career achievement?

Working with colleagues from Hong Kong to put on a series of workshops investigating, from the perspective of different philosophical traditions, where responsibilities for supporting older people lie.

What one piece of advice would you give to those considering applying for the Fellowship at Queen’s?

My advice would be to be clear about both what you would bring to Queen’s that other applicants might not, and how your research connects to the existing strengths of the University.

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Professor John Garry
What are your key research interests?

I study citizens' political attitudes and behaviour. I do so in relation to three types of democratic decision making processes: elections, referendums and citizens' assemblies (mini-publics). I have focused on the cases of Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland, but am interested in a wide range of other cases.

What is your proudest career achievement?

I served as the political scientist advisor on the Expert Advisory Group of the Irish Citizens' Assembly (2016-2018).

What one piece of advice would you give to those considering applying for the Fellowship at Queen’s?

Be very ambitious.

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Dr Alessio Belenchia
Dr Alessio Belenchia
What are your key research interests?

I am currently a Marie Curie Research Fellow at the School of Mathematics and Physics at Queen's University. My reserach focuses on how to employ to the fullest quantum technologies for fundamental physics. In particular, I am interested in the interplay between quantum mechanics, gravity, and thermodynamics.

What is your proudest career achievement?

My proudest career achievement to date is having been awarded a Marie Curie individual fellowship to work at Queen's and winning, together with my collaborators, the first prize in the 2019 Awards for Essays on Gravitation of the Gravity Research Foundation.

What one piece of advice would you give to those considering applying for the Fellowship at Queen’s?

One piece of advice that I can give is to speak with people at Queen's in your area of interest but also outside of it and grasp every and each training opportunity which is offered to you.

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Dr Hien Quoc Ngo
What are your key research interests?

My general research interests are the application of mathematical, random matrix, optimization, information theories, and signal processing to wireless communications. I aim at developing novel, low-cost, and eco-friendly solutions for future wireless systems. I am currently focusing on cell-free massive MIMO, massive MIMO, cooperative communication systems, and physical layer security for massive MIMO.

What is your proudest career achievement?

My key career achievements include the award of the UKRI Future Leaders Fellowship in 2019, and three prestigious research prizes: the IEEE ComSoc Stephen O. Rice Prize in 2015, the IEEE ComSoc Leonard G. Abraham Prize in 2017, and the Best PhD award 2018 by the European Association for Signal Processing (EURASIP).

What one piece of advice would you give to those considering applying for the Fellowship at Queen’s?

You need to emphasise "why you?".

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Dr Salvador Alvidrez Villegas
What are your key research interests?

I am the Principal Investigator of the ContactVIRT project, which focuses on reducing sectarian prejudice by means of virtual reality interactions. My research targets cognitive, attitudinal, and behavioral effects derived from the use of communication technologies. These effects include impression formation, attraction, and prejudice-reduction across different computer-mediated communication systems and virtual environments.

What is your proudest career achievement?

My proudest career achievement was being awarded with a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Fellowship, which has made possible carrying out the project so far. Moreover, I am particularly proud of how much I have learned from the post-conflict context of Northern Ireland by engaging community members with the project.

What one piece of advice would you give to those considering applying for the Fellowship at Queen’s?

Although it is widely shared, a piece of advice that has been always useful to me is "Hope for the best and prepare for the worst", which condenses the relevance of being positive and meticulous without forgetting that there are forces beyond our control.

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Dr Úna McMenamin
What are your key research interests?

I am a Vice Chancellor's Patrick G. Johnston Fellow in the Centre for Public Health within School of Medicine, Dentistry and Biomedical Sciences. I work in the area of cancer epidemiology where my research focuses on the identification of modifiable risk factors for cancer development and progression using routinely collected health records. I have a particular interest in hormonally driven cancers, such as breast and endometrial, and their precursor conditions.

What is your proudest career achievement?

My proudest career achievement was leading my Cancer Research UK Population Research Fellowship - it has been a great stepping stone in advancing my research career. I am also proud of communicating my research findings to cancer patients and clinicians as they are the most important beneficiaries of my work. .

What one piece of advice would you give to those considering applying for the Fellowship at Queen’s?

Don't undersell yourself! Get in touch with people who have gone through the process - we are a friendly bunch :)

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Dr Simon Cameron
What are your key research interests?

My research involves the application of mass spectrometry and microbiology to health and disease. I have a particular focus on human milk profiling and developing methods to take a systems biology approach to understanding the role that different components of human milk play in the development of the infant microbiome.

What is your proudest career achievement?

Securing a Vice-Chancellor's Fellowship and moving to Belfast to start my independent research programme. .

What one piece of advice would you give to those considering applying for the Fellowship at Queen’s?

Do not be afraid to step outside of your research comfort zone but make sure that you have the support and expertise that you require to do so.

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Dr Bianca Plouffe
What are your key research interests?

My background and field of expertise is G protein-coupled receptor (GPCR) signalling. This family of receptors are the target of one third of the actual prescribed pharmacological treatments, given the wide variety of physiological functions associated to GPCRs. My particular interest is compartmentalised G protein signalling. I aim to tackle molecular mechanistic questions related to this non-canonical signalling mode using Bioluminescence Resonance Energy Transfer (BRET)-based technology and to exploit these mechanisms to design new therapeutic approaches. My actual targets are type 2 diabetes, glioblastoma multiforme, and atherosclerosis.

What is your proudest career achievement?

Securing a position as an independent researcher and have the opportunity to train the next generation of scientists. .

What one piece of advice would you give to those considering applying for the Fellowship at Queen’s?

Expand your field of expertise, be curious, and think outside the box. Focus on your joy to do science if you feel overwhelmed and contaminate your team with this passion! Most importantly, use the complementary expertise available in a wide international network of collaborators. Team work is the key!

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Dr Thea Buckley
Dr Thea Buckley
What are your key research interests?

My key research interests are intercultural Shakespeare, Indian Shakespeares, and Shakespeare in South India, in performance, film, translation, and appropriation.

What is your proudest career achievement?

My proudest career achievement to date is co-chairing the international conference 'Women and Indian Shakespeares' at Queen's in 2019 with another QUB postdoc, Dr Rosa-Garcia Periago -- with scholarly talks, public screenings along with filmmakers' Q&A at the QFT, and a free concurrent public exhibition funded by the Being Human Festival on "Discovering Shakespeare's Indian Connections" at the Linen Hall Library in Belfast city centre. .

What one piece of advice would you give to those considering applying for the Fellowship at Queen’s?

Discuss your plans, research interests and dreams beforehand with the people that you will hope to be working with -- the junior and senior scholars at Queen's are friendly and accessible, even though they are at the top of their field! They can give invaluable advice on why choosing Queens could be a great fit for your research, the next natural step on an important career parth and the start of fruitful research relationships and adventures.

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