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St Hugh’s Fellow appointed Simons Foundation Investigator

Congratulations to St Hugh’s Tutorial Fellow in Mathematical Biology, Professor Ruth Baker, who has been appointed Simons Foundation Investigator.

The intent of the Simons Investigators in Mathematics, Physics, Astrophysics and Computer Science programs is to support outstanding theoretical scientists in their most productive years, when they are establishing creative new research directions, providing leadership to the field and effectively mentoring junior scientists. A Simons Investigator is appointed for an initial period of five years. Renewal for an additional five years is contingent upon the evaluation of scientific impact of the Investigator.

Ruth’s research develops and draws together concepts from a number of fields, including statistical physics, multiscale modelling, stochastic processes, computational statistics and machine learning, to provide novel insights into the mechanisms governing cell and developmental biology phenomena. She works in close collaboration with experimental researchers to iteratively test and refine novel mechanistic hypotheses using repeated rounds of model development, calibration and refinement. In turn, the biological problems she studies drive the development of new theory and methodologies.