University welcomes first round of 125th anniversary academics

University appoints new researchers and senior academics to boost key research areas, advancing its goal of becoming a global top 50 university.

The University of Birmingham has announced the appointment of the first cohort of 125 anniversary Fellows and Chairs. The new academics will help build strength in key research areas, driving the University’s ambition to become a Top 50 global university. The Chairs are Susan Banducci, Amy Grove, Richard Hastings, Alfonso Ngan, John Devin Peipert, Joy Porter and Nadia Schoenmakers, and the Fellows are Özge Eyice, Xiaoxuan Lui, Hiroki Shin and Mary Zhang.

Their appointments are part of the successful first phase of a campaign to recruit 125 new Fellows and Chairs in celebration of the University’s 125 anniversary in 2025. The campaign seeks diverse talent from among the world’s best researchers to help change the way the world works. Joining the university are specialists in some of the major issues of the age: climate change, artificial intelligence, inequalities and health.

University of Birmingham Vice Chancellor Professor Adam Tickell said: "I am very pleased to welcome our first cohort of 125 anniversary academics, each of whom will make a valuable contribution in critical areas of research. We have a strong track record of nurturing talent at Birmingham, and it is great to see our approach attracting outstanding researchers from a range of countries."

Learn more about the anniversary researchers below and by visiting the 125 Anniversary Fellows and Chairs directory.

125 anniversary Chairs

Susan Banducci, Professor of Political Science, joins from the University of Exeter and focuses on the areas of comparative political behaviour, media and political communication. She is Principal Investigator of ERC-funded TWICEASGOOD, which examines women candidates’ experience of sexism on the campaign trail, and is a Fellow of the British Academy, the Academy of Social Sciences and the Alan Turing institute.

Amy Grove is Professor of Implementation Science, an NIHR Advanced Fellow and Honorary Professor, University Hospitals Coventry, and Warwickshire. As a Chartered Psychologist Professor Grove leads a programme of research to evaluate health care interventions on behalf of a range of policymakers including the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence. Professor Grove is Director of an NIHR Technology Assessment Review team and NIHR Evidence Synthesis Group.

Professor of Psychology, Health, and Social Care, Richard Hastings has joined from the University of Warwick, where he was Cerebra Chair of Family Research and the Director of the Centre for Research in Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities. A highly citied researcher specialising in intellectual and developmental disabilities, he is rated seventh globally for whole career impact in the Stanford University analysis of scientific citation data organised by sub-field and has received three international awards for his research.

Congratulations to the outstanding academics who become our first cohort of 125th Fellows and Chairs. I am very much looking forward to working with and supporting our new colleagues and am delighted that to mark our 125th year as a leading civic and global university, we are looking for more exceptional researchers to join us.

Professor Rachel O-Reilly, University of Birmingham Pro-Vice-Chancellor (Research)


Joining from the University of Hong Kong is Alfonso Ngan, Kingboard Professor in Materials Engineering. Holding a PhD and DSc from the University of Birmingham, he is internationally renowned for his work on the microstructural basis of properties of engineering materials, nanomechanics, and micro-scale plasticity. He is an International Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering in the UK, a Fellow of the Hong Kong Academy of Engineering Sciences and serves in a number of advisory and management boards in the government and other organizations in Hong Kong.

Professor of Health Outcomes Measurement, Devin Peipert joins from Northwestern University. His research focuses on ensuring that patients’ experiences are considered during the development and use of new treatments. He has developed ways to ensure that patient-reported outcomes can be incorporated as clinically relevant evidence in drug trials and works on improving research to quantify and manage drug intolerability across multiple therapeutic areas.

Professor Joy Porter is an interdisciplinary researcher of Indigenous historical and environmental themes and leads the Treatied Spaces Research Group. She serves on the UKRI Interdisciplinary Assessment Panel, AHRC Review College, and reviews for the Fulbright Commission, Leverhulme Trust and NERC, among others. She served as UK REF 2021-2022 Interdisciplinary Panel Member and full Panel Member (UoA28, History) and is a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society.

Professor Nadia Schoenmakers joins from the University of Cambridge where she was Wellcome Senior Research Fellow and Honorary Consultant Endocrinologist. Her research, which has both laboratory-based and clinical elements, focuses on a range of thyroid disorders, in particular primary and central congenital hypothyroidism and resistance to thyroid hormone. At Addenbrooke’s Hospital, Cambridge, her clinical work included management of general thyroid disease, thyroid disorders in pregnancy and involvement in the Cambridge National service for unusual thyroid disorders.

125 anniversary Fellows

Dr Özge Eyice, Associate Professor in Molecular Microbial Ecology, focuses on the diversity, structure and function of microbial communities. She investigates methane production via one-carbon compound degradation in anoxic sediments such as from estuaries and wetlands. Her research interests also include resource and energy recovery from anaerobic digesters, and more recently the impact of plastic pollution on microbial communities in aquatic ecosystems. Her work is mainly funded by NERC, the Leverhulme Trust, and the European Union.

Associate Professor in AI and Digital Health Technologies, Dr Xiaoxuan Liu joined the University from Apple, having previously been an ophthalmologist in the NHS. She leads the AI theme in the Birmingham Health Partners Centre for Regulatory Science and Innovation, working with international regulators, academia, government and industry on the responsible innovation of AI health technologies.

Associate Professor in History of Energy and Environment, Dr Hiroki Shin joins from Queen’s University Belfast. A public historian, he led the Communicating Material Cultures of Energy project, which was based in the Science Museum, London. His current project examines the roles of cultural and heritage institutions in responding to today’s climate crisis as a way of envisaging society’s cultural adaptation to climate change.

Dr Mary Zhang, Associate Professor of International Social Policy joins from the University of Oxford where she lectured in Quantitative Research Methods. Her work, which focuses on sustainable development, inequalities, climate change and poverty, particularly in lowand middle-income countries, receives funding from ESRC, IDRC, NERC, UKRI, UNICEF.

University of Birmingham Pro-Vice-Chancellor (Research) Professor Rachel O’Reilly said: "Congratulations to the outstanding academics who become our first cohort of 125 Fellows and Chairs. I am very much looking forward to working with and supporting our new colleagues and am delighted that to mark our 125 year as a leading civic and global university, we are looking for more exceptional researchers to join us. Our campaign to attract applications from researchers and senior academics across the world continues later this year."

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. The scheme aims to develop academics who epitomise citizenship and collaboration - protecting research time through careful scheduling and planning to give appointees the freedom they need to carry out world-leading research.

Applications for the next phase of the 125th Anniversary Fellows and Chairs scheme will open in early October.


    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.