Two scientists from Oxford University have been awarded an £80,000 fellowship to develop their research into health and renewable energy sources.
Tim Sudmeier’s project looks at creating ammonia through electrolysis in order to store electricity from wind farms and other renewable energy sources.
The other project, led by Tom Fleming, has been researching drugs that might lead to an improvement in the efficacy of chemotherapy through the reduction of DNA-repairing processes in cancerous cells.
The Industrial Fellowships were awarded by a commission originally set up by Prince Albert in 1851 in order to organise the Great Exhibition. Twenty-five fellowships are given each year to the most promising engineers and scientists.
Mr Sudmeier described receiving the fellowship as an honour. His fellow Oxford scientist, Mr Fleming, a DPhil student of chemical biology, said of receiving the news: “I think my first reaction was shock because I really did not think my interview went that well.”
He went on to say that he was “extremely grateful and honoured to receive this fellowship because in the past it had been awarded to 13 Nobel Prize winners.”
He thanked his professor, Tom Brown, for inspiring his interest in DNA repairs and emphasised the importance of funding and support for science and engineering research projects.
He added: “I think for the pair of us to be from the department of chemistry at the University shows what a world class department it is.”
