Professor Christopher Beem awarded ERC Consolidator Grant
Every year the European Research Council, set up to fund excellent frontier research, selects and funds creative researchers of any nationality and age to run projects based in Europe. ERC Consolidator Grants are awarded to outstanding researchers with between seven and twelve years’ experience after gaining their PhD, and a scientific track record showing great promise. The funding, on average 2 million euros per grant, is provided for up to five years and mostly covers the employment of researchers and other staff to consolidate the grantees’ teams.
In total, 301 researchers received grants worth a total of 600 million euros from the ERC this year, awarded to top scientists and scholars across Europe to enable them to address frontier research questions, build up their teams, and have far-reaching impact.
Professor Beem’s research interests relate to the mathematics of quantum field theory and string theory, and in particular the algebraic structures that underpin strongly interacting quantum systems. He will use the award to carry out research into his project entitled ‘Algebraic Foundations of Supersymmetric Quantum Field Theory’.
He said, 'This award is an incredible honour, and it signals a really fantastic commitment by the ERC to curiosity-driven research. The grant will support me in building a team of world-class postdoctoral researchers and doctoral students working at the interface of fundamental physics and modern mathematics. I'm thrilled by the opportunities that this opens up for my work, and am looking forward to the exciting discoveries that the next five years will bring.'