Dr Michael Rosbotham, who completed his PhD under the supervision of Professor Martin Mathieu in the Mathematical Sciences Research Centre last autumn with a thesis entitled “Cohomological dimension for C*-algebras”, recently won two prestigious awards helping him forward in his strives to obtain a postdoc position.

The Charlemont Grants Scheme by the Royal Irish Academy, named in honour of the Academy’s first president and notable proponent of the Grand Tour, James Caulfeild, 1st Earl of Charlemont (1728-99), is an international research scheme awarded to outstanding early career researchers in the humanities, social sciences and sciences. Michael will use his award to visit the University of Maine, USA and collaborate with Professor Tyrone Crisp on aspects of operator algebras related to categorical properties of operator modules.

The London Mathematical Society Early Career Fellowships, which are also part-funded by the Heilbronn Institute and UKRI, aim to support early career mathematicians in the transition between PhD and a postdoctoral position; a very limited number of these are awarded each year following a rigorous evaluation procedure. With his LMS grant, Michael will spend several months at Carleton University in Ottawa, Ontario to work with Professor Jason Crann who is an expert in abstract harmonic analysis, notably quantum groups, and made important advances in this area using operator modules. Michael’s PhD work on exact categories of various types of operator modules prepared him in a unique way to develop his research in this direction further.

Michael, who is from Comber, is delighted to be given these two chances to embark on an academic career.