Dr Sarah Penington has been awarded the Erlang Prize for her fundamental contributions to her field.

The prize has been awarded every two years since 1994 to an early career researcher for their outstanding contributions to applied probability. This year the prize was shared with Daniel Russo of Columbia University. Sarah is a Reader and Royal Society University Research Fellow, in the Probability Laboratory, Prob-L@B. She was awarded her PhD from the University of Oxford in 2016 and joined the University of Bath in 2018 as a Prize Fellow. Her research focuses on population genetics models, branching processes, interacting particle systems, dual processes, and solutions to partial differential equations using probabilistic techniques.

The inscription from the award reads: "This award recognizes Sarah Penington for her influential contributions to the scaling limits and coalescence of models in population genetics and branching processes. The committee highlights her proof that Bolthausen-Sznitman Coalescence is not the 'universal' limit for populations undergoing natural selection, as she establishes instances of Kingman Coalescence. Her work on hybrid zones provides a rigorous interface scaling limit of the spatial Lambda-Fleming-Viot model, a significant advancement in the field. With further work connecting PDE analysis and the scaling limit of branching processes, Sarah's broad-based and deep analytical thinking has brought mathematical techniques from outside traditional probability to bear on significant applicable problems."

The Department of Mathematical Sciences congratulates Sarah on this prestigious award.