LSE academics awarded Philip Leverhulme Prize 2025 to fund future research

Dr Clare Balboni from the Department of Economics (also at STICERD and the IGC) and Dr Kasia Paprocki from the Department of Geography and Environment have been awarded prestigious Philip Leverhulme Prizes 2025 by the Leverhulme Trust.

The prizes recognise and celebrate the achievements of outstanding researchers whose work has already attracted international recognition and whose future careers are exceptionally promising.

Each of the prize winners receives £100,000 which can be used to advance their research.

Chosen from over 350 nominations, the Trust offered five prizes in each of the following subject areas: Archaeology, Chemistry, Economics, Engineering, Geography, and Languages and Literatures.

Commenting on her award in the Economics category, Dr Balboni said: “I am delighted and honoured to have been awarded a Philip Leverhulme Prize by the Leverhulme Trust. This award will support my research at the intersection of environmental economics, trade and development economics, focusing on the management of local and global environmental externalities from growth in developing countries.”

Commenting on her award in the Geography category, Dr Paprocki said: “My work examines how the futures engendered by climate change adaptation and mitigation frequently threaten agrarian communities and livelihoods. I ask: what kinds of futures are possible in the time of climate change? Who has the power to ask this question, and how is that power exercised? This work builds on longstanding collaborations with colleagues here at the LSE around the social life of climate change. The prize will give me the opportunity to extend my research agenda on the global politics of climate change by turning my focus to how legacies of empire shape climate action today.”

More information about the 2025 prize winners is available from the Leverhulme Trust.