Professor Aimee Morgans wins ERC Consolidator Grant

Professor Aimee Morgans

Professor Morgans is one of 329 top researchers to be awarded the grants, which are part of the EU's Horizon 2020 programme.

The €1.98m five year grant from the European Research Council (ERC) will fund the AFIRMATIVE project, focusing on modelling acoustic-flow interactions in the combustion chambers of aeroplane engines and power gas turbines. Professor Morgans will lead a team comprised of three postdoctoral researchers and two PhD students.

The AFIRMATIVE project addresses an effect known as thermoacoustic instability, the key barrier to lowering NOx pollution from aeroplane engines and power gas turbines. Professor Morgans explains how the research could facilitate instability-free, ultra-clean gas turbines:

"The AFIRMATIVE project aims to develop the first way of computationally predicting thermoacoustic instability which is fast and accurate enough to be used in the industrial design process,allowing instability to be designed out at a very early stage. A new generation of mathematical models for the acoustic waves, which account for real and important acoustic-flow interactions,is key to this.”

On the importance of the new grant to her career, Professor Morgans said:

“I am absolutely delighted! ERC grants are hugely prestigious, offering a golden combination of substantial funding and complete research freedom. Having held an ERC Starting Grant for the last 5 years, I feel extremely privileged to have been awarded successive ERC grants. I now have a real opportunity to pursue my dream of feeding fundamental research on acoustics, flows and flames into a state-of-the-art computational tool with real industrial and societal impact.”

The ERC Consolidator Grants are awarded to outstanding researchers of any nationality and age, with at least seven and up to twelve years of experience after PhD, and a scientific track record showing great promise.