Liverpool Physicist named as 2025 Blavatnik Award finalist
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Professor Brianna Heazlewood, from the University of Liverpool’s Department of Physics, has been named as a finalist in the 2025 Blavatnik Awards for Young Scientists in the UK.
Established in 2007 by the Blavatnik Family, the Blavatnik Awards for Young Scientists recognise exceptional young scientists and engineers, aged 42 years and younger, whose research is transforming medicine, technology and our understanding of the world.
This is the first time a University of Liverpool researcher has been shortlisted for this prestigious awards scheme.
Brianna Heazlewood is a Professor of Chemical Physics and her research is reshaping our understanding of astrochemistry and chemical processes in extreme environments.
She is recognised for her work developing instruments that characterize complex chemical reactions at extremely cold temperatures, providing new insights into the chemistry of space and other challenging environments.
Professor Heazlewood studied for her BSc and PhD at the University of Sydney, Australia before moving to the UK where she took up a post doctoral research role and held several fellowships at the University of Oxford. She joined the University of Liverpool in 2021.
On being announced as a finalist, Professor Heazlewood said: “Thank you to the Blavatnik Awards scheme for this fabulous recognition. It will allow me to share our research into cold chemical reactions with a wider audience, and to celebrate the contributions of our amazing group members and collaborators.”
The Blavatnik Awards for Young Scientists honours researchers in three separate categories: the Chemical Sciences, Physical Sciences and Engineering and Life Sciences. The scheme is independently administered by The New York Academy of Sciences.
Three winners will be announced at a glittering awards ceremony on Wednesday, 4 March 2025 at Kensington Palace. Each winner will receive an unrestricted award of £100,000 whilst the remaining finalists will each receive £30,000.
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Professor Heazlewood's research group. From left to right: Paul Regan, Jake Diprose, Vincent Richardson, Brianna Heazlewood, Lucy Morris, Kyriaki Vourka, and Maks Roman.[/caption]