Helena Normanton International Postdoctoral Fellowships
Named after the first woman to practise as a barrister in England and a founding donor to the University, this new University scheme aims to bring to Sussex the most promising independent researchers globally to work with our researchers in areas of particular strength.
In Spring 2017 applications were invited from globally outstanding postdoctoral researchers for two Helena Normanton Research Fellowships that are hosted and sponsored by the University of Sussex.
The fellowships are intended for emerging, world leading, independent researchers specialising in strategic priority research areas for Sussex. Priority research areas for the 2017 competition are Quantum Technology and International Development.
Named after the first woman to practise as a barrister in England and a founding donor to the University, these new fellowships aim to bring to Sussex the most promising independent researchers globally to work with our researchers in areas of particular strength for two years.
The first Helena Normanton Fellowships were awarded to Dr Demet Dinler, International Development, Dr Benjamin Wetzel and Juan Sebastian Totero Gongora, Quantum Technology.
Dr Demet Dinler, International Development 
Demet took up her post as Helena Normanton Fellow in October 2017. She is based in the School of Global Studies and her research is on Governing Nature and Market: Farmers, Traders and Experts in the Cut Flower Industry and investigates the journey of a cut flower from the greenhouses/open fields throughout the global supply chain. Via an ethnographic analysis of lab technicians, middlemen, auctioneers, export traders, small-scale family farmers and contract farmers, she explores how actors learn, imitate, transmit, exchange, enforce and resist specific types of knowledge and techniques in producing, testing, trading cut flowers, flower bulbs and seeds and what their implications are for development.
You can find out more about Demet's research here.
Dr Juan Sebastian Totero Gongora, Quantum Technology 
Juan took up his post as Helena Normanton Research Fellow in February 2019. He is based in the School of Mathematics and Physical Sciences.
You can find out more about Juan's research here.