G-Research 2024 PhD prize winners: SOCINT

11 March 2025

News
Quantitative research

Every year, G-Research runs a number of different PhD prizes in Maths and Data Science with academic institutions in the UK, Europe and beyond.

Each prize is worth up to £10,000 and is open to final or penultimate year PhD students at specific universities, working across areas including Machine Learning, Quantitative Finance and Mathematics.

We’re pleased to announce the winners of the final prize of 2024, which ran in conjunction with Società Italiana di Intelligence (SOCINT).

Learn more about our prizes

Laura Rinaldi

“Currently, I have a research grant at the Department of Mathematics at the University of Padua. Previously, I was a PhD student in Applied Mathematics with a project about the mathematical building of a digital twin for bread leavening to avoid energy waste.

“My research focuses on applied mathematics, particularly the mathematical modelling of engineering applications using differential equations to describe physical phenomena. In my PhD thesis, I explored the intersection of continuum mechanics, inverse problems and machine learning techniques, applying them to real-world cases, such as bread leavening. This integrated approach provides a complete perspective of the system to extrapolate energy considerations.

“I am completely convinced that, the theoretical setting, the numerical approach and the proper use of advanced machine-learning techniques represent the line of research that leads us to technological advancement.”

Chiara Calascibetta

“I am a postdoctoral researcher at the Centre Inria d’Université Côte d’Azur, France, where I moved after completing my PhD in Physics at the University of Rome Tor Vergata in December.

“My research focuses on statistical mechanics, with a particular interest in turbulent and complex systems. My main work involves studying control problems by combining data-driven (reinforcement learning) and equation-informed (optimal control) approaches. Specifically, I study systems of Lagrangian active particles navigating complex fluids, optimising their trajectories to achieve specific goals.

“In addition, I am also studying theoretical questions using high-performance computing facilities to simulate the time evolution of the Navier-Stokes equations.”

Stefano Mercogliano

“I received my bachelors and masters degrees in Computer Engineering from the University of Naples Federico II. In November 2021, I began my PhD under the supervision of Prof. Alessandro Cilardo at the DIETI Department, focusing on hardware security, open-source architectures and computational genomics. I also had the opportunity to serve as a visiting researcher in the SAFARI research group at ETH Zurich, led by Prof. Onur Mutlu.

“My research interests primarily include processor microarchitectures for security applications, memory system design and hardware-software co-design, particularly in scientific fields such as bioinformatics.”