Professor gets share of research funding pot

A PROFESSOR from the University of Portsmouth will be receiving a share of a €600m funding scheme, after being named as one of the top researchers in Europe.

Professor Bridget Waller, a professor of evolutionary psychology, is one of 301 top scientists and scholars across Europe who are winners of the European Research Council’s grant.

Her project, studying how facial expressions are connected to anatomy and a comparison with primates, will run for five years, costing just under £1.7m.

Professor Waller said: ‘Communicating with others via the face is crucial for navigating our social world.

‘Difficulties with facial expression production can have debilitating effects on social interaction, particularly with conditions such as autism spectrum disorder, schizophrenia and Parkinson’s disease.

‘Despite this, we know surprisingly little about individual differences in facial expressions.’