Celebrating FELS Success at the Vice-Chancellor’s Awards
Congratulations to Dr Bieito Fernandez Castro, who received the Rising Star Award at this year’s Vice-Chancellor’s Awards.
The Rising Star Award celebrates the next generation of highly skilled staff whose ideas and innovations position us for future success.
Bieito, Associate Professor in the School of Ocean and Earth Science, received the award for his outstanding research, teaching, and publication activity.
Since joining the University in 2024, he has secured almost £8 million in competitive funding as principal investigator, including an ERC Consolidator Grant and an ARIA Forecasting Tipping Points grant.
He also leads a growing research group of postdoctoral researchers and PhD students, establishing significant research capacity early in his Southampton career.
Alongside this, he has maintained strong publication momentum in high profile journals including Nature Geoscience and Nature Communications, developed a rich teaching portfolio, led modules and contributed across several others.
He also serves as editor for a leading international journal in his field and has developed new industrial partnerships with ocean technology companies.
On receiving the Rising Star Award, Bieito said:
“This prize is an expression of how lucky I am to have this working environment, where it’s very collegial, we all work together, we support each other.
“I think it’s something very unique and I am very lucky to be here and be supported by my colleagues.”
The Vice-Chancellor’s Awards took place on Friday 2 October, with finalists and guests gathering at the Hilton Southampton Utilita Bowl to celebrate their achievements.
The awards attracted a record 806 nominations this year, with the VC Awards panel selecting 37 individual and team finalists for the 12 award categories. The awards ceremony celebrated every finalist before going on to announce the winners.
Congratulations to all those who were shortlisted from across FELS:
Inspiring Leadership Award
- Professor Samuele Cortese (School of Psychology)
Research Impact Award
- Dr Michelle Myall (School of Health Sciences)
Rising Star Award
- Dr Alessio Bellato (School of Psychology)
- Dr Bieito Fernandez-Castro (School of Ocean and Earth Science) WINNER
Teaching Award
- Dr Charlotte Lee (School of Psychology)
Technical Excellence Award
- Jonathan Cowley (Ocean and Earth Science)
