Fellowship success for Dr Ricarda Beckmann

Congratulations to Dr Beckmann who has received a UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) Future Leaders Fellowship (FLF).

Supermassive black holes

Dr Beckmann’s research focuses on supermassive black holes, which are some of the most extreme objects in the Universe. Today, every massive galaxy has a supermassive black hole in its centre. With each black hole weighing more than a small galaxy, such massive objects cannot form directly. Instead, today's supermassive black holes started out as small black holes when the Universe was young, over 12 billion years ago.

Her fellowship success will enable her to use powerful simulations to tackle the difficult challenge of how black holes in the early Universe move in and around galaxies. Dr Beckmann’s work will unveil when and how they first find their way into the galaxies where we can see them today, and quantify what impact they had on the early Universe. As part of this work she will take advantage of the recent wealth of insight from the James Webb Space telescope, and prepare for upcoming flagship missions such as the gravitational wave observatory LISA and the X-ray observatory NewATHENA.

Dr Beckmann originally joined the School of Physics and Astronomy in 2024 as an Elizabeth Gardner fellow. 

UK Research and Innovation Future Leaders Fellowship

The UKRI FLF scheme supports universities, businesses, and other research and innovation environments to develop their most talented people into a next wave of world-class leaders.

The scheme provides long-term support in order to enable fellows to tackle ambitious programmes, multidisciplinary questions, and new or emerging research and innovation areas and partnerships.

In this latest round, 68 fellows will be funded a total of £104 million to lead research into global issues and commercialise their innovations in the UK.