Select campus:UKDubai
University of Birmingham
Menu

University of Birmingham appoints 125th anniversary academics

Introducing eight new 125th Anniversary Fellows and Chairs, outstanding academics who bring expertise in key areas.

29 November 2024
Aerial view of the University of Birmingham's Edgbaston campus with old Joe at its centre

The University of Birmingham has appointed eight 125th Anniversary Fellows and Chairs, taking the total number to 19. The new academics are 125th Anniversary Chair, Professor Diamond Ashiagbor, and 125th Anniversary Fellows, Dr Lakshya Bhardwaj, Dr Claire Dancer, Dr Sulhail Dhawan, Dr Scott Harper, Dr Sarah Hillman, Dr Ali Sadaghiana and Dr Peng Zhang.

The new academics will help build strength in key research areas, including law, engineering, health, mathematics, chemistry and physics, driving the University’s ambition to become a Top 50 global university and helping to change the way the world works.

Congratulations and welcome to these outstanding academics who have joined the University of Birmingham. We are investing in people in line with our ambition to be a top 50 global university, recruiting a diverse mix of talent to add strength in critical areas of research.

Professor Rachel O’Reilly, Pro-Vice-Chancellor (Research)

Their appointments follow a campaign to recruit 125 new Fellows and Chairs, in celebration of the University’s 125th anniversary in 2025. They join Susan Banducci, Amy Grove, Richard Hastings, Alfonso Ngan, John Devin Peipert, Joy Porter and Nadia Schoenmakers (Chairs) and Özge Eyice, Xiaoxuan Liu, Hiroki Shin and Mary Zhang (Fellows) who became University of Birmingham academics over the summer.

University of Birmingham Pro-Vice-Chancellor (Research) Professor Rachel O’Reilly said: “Congratulations and welcome to these outstanding academics who have joined the University of Birmingham. We are investing in people in line with our ambition to be a top 50 global university, recruiting a diverse mix of talent to add strength in critical areas of research.”

The fellowships offer excellent opportunities for career progression and a bespoke package of high-quality support to enable those with demonstrable impactful research to excel in their field. Learn more about the anniversary researchers by visiting the 125th Anniversary Fellows and Chairs directory.

New academics will join a university that is ranked 80th in the 2025 QS World University Rankings and an academic community that includes 10 researchers recognised among the world’s most influential academics, according to Clarivate. These Highly Cited Researchers are leading the way in tackling global challenges in environmental and climate change, cardiovascular disease, genomics, biostatistics, sustainable agriculture, physics, computer science, and metamaterials.

Notes for editors

The University of Birmingham is ranked among the world’s top 100 institutions. Its work brings people from across the world to Birmingham, including researchers, educators and more than 40,000 students from over 150 countries.

A member of the Russell Group and a founding member of the Universitas 21 global network of research universities, the University of Birmingham has been changing the way the world works for more than a century.

The University of Birmingham commissioned London Economics to assess its social and economic impact, focusing on the 2021-22 academic year. It found that the research-intensive University’s total economic impact is estimated at £4.4 billion; a figure exceeding that of the West Midlands’s car manufacturing industry (£3.562 billion).

To create the report, London Economics looked at the impact of five key areas:

  • Research and knowledge exchange activities – £1.4 billion
  • The value of teaching and learning activities – £1.3 billion
  • The impact of the University of Birmingham’s educational exports – £690 million
  • The impact generated by the University’s operating and capital expenditure – £908 million
  • The impact of the tourism associated with the University of Birmingham – £46 million

Featured staff

  • Professor Rachel O'Reilly FRS

    Pro-Vice Chancellor (Research)

    Professor Rachel O'Reilly is Chair in Chemistry at the School of Chemistry. She leads the O'Reilly Group whose research targets the design, synthesis and application of uniquely derived polymeric materials.

    Phone: +44 (0)121 414 7757
    Email: r.oreilly@bham.ac.uk

Related news