UCL academics honoured with Leverhulme prizes

Both based in UCL's Faculty of Social & Historical Sciences, Dr Corisande Fenwick (UCL Archaeology) and Professor Daniel Wilhelm (UCL Economics) have each been awarded a prize worth £100,000.

Each year, the Leverhulme Trust gives out 30 such prizes to exceptional researchers whose work has already attracted international recognition and whose future careers are extremely promising.

Chosen from more 300 nominations, the Trust offered five prizes in each of the following subject areas, which change every year: Archaeology, Chemistry, Economics, Engineering, Geography, and Languages and Literatures.

Dr Fenwick was awarded a prize in Archaeology for her work on empire and state formation, agriculture, technology, Islamic and late antique archaeology, and North Africa and the Mediterranean. Her research crosscuts traditional disciplinary boundaries between archaeology and history and traditional chronological boundaries between late antiquity and the Islamic period. She has established herself as one of the leading archaeologists of early Islamic and late antique archaeology, particularly in North Africa.

Dr Fenwick said: “The award of this Philip Leverhulme Prize will provide me with a unique opportunity to take a bold step out of North Africa and to advance a comparative archaeological agenda for the early Islamic world."

Professor Wilhelm was awarded a prize in Economics for his work on econometrics. His work involves developing new statistical methods for research in economics and related fields. The grant awarded in connection with the Leverhulme Prize will enable him to kick-start an exciting new research agenda, involving the development of new statistical methods for studying the causes of intergenerational mobility and economic inequality.

Professor Wilhelm said: “I am honoured to receive this prize and delighted about the opportunity it presents to advance my research.”

Professor Anna Vignoles, Director of the Leverhulme Trust, said: “In its twenty-first year, this scheme continues to attract applications from an array of researchers of an incredibly high calibre, and the decisions get harder every year.

"The Leverhulme Trust is delighted to award prizes to academics undertaking work on an impressively wide range of topics, from robotics to Romans, labour markets to Black British literature, and greenhouse gases to disability and wellbeing. We are very proud to support these researchers through the next stage of their careers.”

Links

• See the full list of prize winners 
• Dr Corisande Fenwick’s academic profile
• Professor Daniel Wilhelm’s academic profile
• UCL Archaeology
• UCL Economics
• UCL Faculty of Social & Historical Sciences

Media contact
Evie Calder

Tel: +44 (0) 7858 152143
E: e.calder [at] ucl.ac.uk