Mathematical imaging expert receives prestigious Fellowship from UKRI EPSRC
An expert in computer-based imaging at Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh has been awarded a prestigious UK fellowship.
Professor Marcelo Pereyra, a Professor of Statistics at the University’s School of Mathematics and Computer Sciences, has received an Open Fellowship from the UKRI Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC), the main funding body for engineering and physical sciences research in the UK.
The award supports ‘talented and ambitious’ researchers to deliver research excellence and will fund Professor Pereyra’s research in digital imaging for up to five years.
Mutidisciplinary and international collaboration are central to my strategy to deliver impactful world-leading research, and over the past decade I have developed deep partnerships with other imaging scientists and mathematicians based across Europe.
The Open Fellowship is part of an £80 million investment by UKRI EPSRC in research from 39 higher education institutions that will enhance the UK’s leadership in science and technology and deliver ‘life-changing breakthroughs’ for society and growth, the organisation said.
Professor Pereyra explains: “Digital imaging plays a pivotal role in the modern world, not least by providing data informing decision-making in healthcare, defence, agriculture, disaster recovery, pollution monitoring and other fields.
“But a big challenge remains – and this is how to maximise the value of this data and describe uncertainties surrounding it. I will use my EPSRC Open Fellowship to tackle this problem, by strengthening the mathematical and computational foundations of tomorrow’s digital imaging technologies.”
Professor Pereyra’s aim is to make evidence generated through digital imaging more robust and reliable. This in turn will aid decision-making in many sectors – including the scientific world. Professor Pereyra’s research uses statistics to advance both scientific imaging – imaging used in scientific research – and ‘quantitative imaging.’ This broadly involves extracting numerical data from images to help with predictive modelling and decision-making.
“Over the last 15 years, I’ve made important contributions to these areas of imaging science,” Professor Pereyra said. “Mutidisciplinary and international collaboration are central to my strategy to deliver impactful world-leading research, and over the past decade I have developed deep partnerships with other imaging scientists and mathematicians based across Europe.”
As a Professor at the Maxwell Institute for Mathematical Sciences – a joint research institute between the universities of Heriot-Watt and Edinburgh - Professor Pereyra’s role currently includes overseeing a team of PhD students and Postdoctoral Research Associates and providing leadership for the University’s School of Mathematics and Computer Sciences as an Associate Executive Dean for Research & Impact.
Born in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Professor Pereyra has Master of Engineering degrees from the Instituto Tecnológico de Buenos Aires (ITBA) and the Institut National des Sciences Appliquées (INSA) in Toulouse, France. He also holds a Master of Science degree from INSA and a PhD degree in Signal Processing from the University of Toulouse. Before joining Heriot-Watt University in 2017, Professor Pereyra was a Research Fellow in Statistics at the University of Bristol’s School of Mathematics.
UKRI EPSRC’s Open Fellowships are designed to give applicants the flexibility and freedom to design a package that fits their career ambitions, research needs and personal development requirements.
Research projects can focus on discovery science, innovation, instrumentation/technique development or software engineering, or a combination of these.