Visiting Research Fellows & Visiting Scholars
The VRF Scheme
The scheme is intended to attract eminent researchers to Oxford and Merton College. The scheme offers free accommodation and meals. There are normally two Visiting Research Fellows resident in any term. Fellowships can be held for one to three terms. Every application has to be sponsored by a Fellow of the College and applications are considered in a gathered field at the end of September each year.
The 2025-26 competition has now closed. The next competition, for the 2026-27 academic year will open at the end of June 2025.
Trinity 2025 - Professor Mark Carrington
Trinity 2025 - Professor Anne Fernald
Trinity 2025 - Fanny Marcelle Djomkam
Trinity 2025 - Gareth Brookes (Creative Arts)
Previous Visiting Research Fellows have included:
- Professor Abosede Omowumi Babatunde
- Dr Phanankosi Moyo
- Professor Julian Paton
- Professor Dr Michelle Witen
- Professor Louigi Addario-Berry
- Professor Jacques Lezra
- Professor Suzannah Clarke
- Professor Stuart Jones
- Ben Haggarty
- Dr Jonas-Sebastien Beaudry
- Professor Christopher Skinner
- Dr Yijie Zhuang
- Professor Mihyun Kung
- Professor Athena Tsingarida
- Professor Antonis Rokas
- Dr Cheryl Frances-Hoad
- Professor Marc Domingo Gygax
- Professor Hye-Won Kang
- Professor David Wood
- Will Eaves
- Professor Simon Shaw-Miller
- Kirsty Gunn
- Professor Garegin Papoian
- Professor Jean-Louis Ferrary
- Penny Boxall
- Professor Jonathan Schneer
- Professor Yoram Rudy
- Kieran Stiles
- Professor David Hutchinson
- Professor Dominic Janes
- Professor Rebecca Fortnum
- Professor Elizabeth Wilmer
- Professor Eric Saylor
- Professor Paul Kovacs, University of Virginia
- Professor Michael Goldberg, Cornell University
- Dr Markus Späth, Justus-Liebig-Universität Gießen
- Dr Birgitta Eder, Österreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften
- Professor Robert Tampé, Goethe University
- Professor Hans Othmer, University of Minnesota
- Professor Francisco Pina Polo, Universidad de Zaragoza
- Professor John Tyson, Virginia Poly Institute & State University
- Professor Junhyong Kim, University of Pennsylvania
- Professor Graham Bell, McGill University
- Professor Steven Ellis, NUI Galway
- Professor Barton Beebe, New York University
- Professor Per Helander, Max Planck Institute for Plasma Physics
- Professor Kai Behrend, University of British Columbia
- Professor Benny Sudakov, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH), Zurich
- Professor Bruce Harris, University of Auckland
- Professor Cary Forest, University of Wisconsin
- Professor Chad Carmichael, Indiana University—Purdue University Indianapolis
- Professor Daniel Neumark, University of California, Berkeley
- Professor Jewel Brooker, Eckerd College, Florida
- Dr Koen Verboven, University of Ghent
- Bevis Bowden
- Professor Christina Kraus
- Professor Tünde Fülöp
- Joumana Medlej (Creative Arts)
- February 2024 - Professor Sherry Lee
- February 2024 - Professor Johannis Danielsen
- February & March 2024 - Professor Susanne Pfeifer & Professor Jeffrey Jensen
- March 2024 - Dr Andrew Graham
- March 2024 - Dr Chris Hamilton
- April 2024 - Professor Jonathan Schneer
- April & May 2024 - Professor Benjamin Chandran
- April & May 2024 - Professor Julie Rak
- April & May 2024 - Professor Gheorghe Craciun
- May & June 2024 - Dr Felix Vardy
- May & June 2024 - Professor Michael Krivelevich
- May & June 2024 - Professor Randall Hansen and Professor Katja Goebs
- June & July 2024 - Professor H Craig Melchert
- July 2024 - Professor Luis de Oliveira e Silva
- July 2024 - Dr Ilenia Gradante
- July 2024 - Professor Alexander Dilthey
- August 2024 - Professor Judit Simon
- August 2024 - Professor Jesper Madsen
- August & September 2024 - Professor Yohei Kawazura
- September & October 2024 - Miss Hannah Vogel
- November & December 2024 - Professor Per Helander
- November & December 2024 - Professor Ian Haynes
- November & December 2024 - Dr Chris Hamilton
All Visiting Scholars and Visiting Research Fellows have to be nominated by a Fellow of the College. Fellows can check availability on the intranet.