Congratulations to our colleague, Elin McCready, who was chosen as one of twenty recipients of the Friedrich Wilhelm Bessel Research Award of 2020.

The award is given to researchers who have achieved outstanding results in their fields and who can be expected to continue producing cutting-edge research which will have a large impact on their discipline. Elin McCready’s research is in semantics and pragmatics, the study of meaning using mathematical techniques, and is at the intersection of linguistics and philosophy. In her recent work, she has focused on language which relates to social structures and hierarchies such as gendered language, honorifics, and political speech. With her reception of the Bessel Award, she is invited to conduct research at the Leibniz-Zentrum Allgemeine Sprachwissenschaft (ZAS) in Berlin with colleagues there, which she hopes to do during the 2021-22 academic year.

The Friedrich Wilhelm Bessel Research Awards are given to globally renowned researchers who are within 18 years of receiving their degree,  have a productive impact on their area of expertise, and are expected to produce cutting-edge activities. After being nominated by a co-researcher in Germany, the recipient will be invited to reside in Germany for research for a period of 6 months up to a year. About 20 researchers are selected each year, and they are given €45,000 as a supplementary prize.