A Professor of Applied Mathematics at the University of Strathclyde has received an international award in recognition of her outstanding accomplishments in research.
Professor Apala Majumdar has been named as a recipient of a Friedrich Wilhelm Bessel Research Award from the Humboldt Foundation. It recognises her research in the mathematics of liquid crystals and partial differential equations.
The award will involve a period of exchange at the University of Wurzburg, one of Germany's oldest higher education institutions, where she will join a research group, led by Professor Dr Anja Schloemerkemper, on the mathematics and applications of complex materials.
The Alexander von Humboldt Foundation grants around 20 Friedrich Wilhelm Bessel Research Awards per year, funded by Germany’s Federal Ministry of Education and Research, annually to internationally-renowned academics. The awards are worth 45,000 euros each.
Professor Majumdar said: "I am absolutely delighted to receive this international award from the Humboldt Foundation. The Humboldt Foundation is known to support the best science and talented researchers from around the world.
"I will use the award to spend time in Professor Dr Anja Schloemerkemper's research group on the mathematics of materials science. We plan to work together on new mathematical theories for materials that combine liquid crystalline, magnetic and elastic properties and such materials could offer new prospects for designer materials technologies.
"I also plan to use this opportunity to build and drive a new global network of female applied mathematicians, and in doing so, Anja and I will help form a scientific community with a long-lasting global legacy. I much look forward to initiating these new connections in the spring of 2023."