KEELE ASTROPHYSICS GROUP WINS £400,000 FACILITY TIME

Keele Astrophysics Group, Research Institute for the Environment, Physical Sciences and Applied Mathematics, has again been successful in winning facility time on international astronomical observatories. The nominal monetary equivalent of these awards amounts to over £400,000 in total.

Jacco van Loon was awarded four nights on the European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope (ESO-VLT), to detect infrared signatures of carbon monoxide in the exhausts of giant stars in globular clusters. He was also awarded time on the IRAM millimetre-wave interferometre at Plateau de Bure in the French Alps, to detect radio emission from carbon monoxide in super-giant stars in a Galactic cluster. Pierre Maxted gained three nights on the ESO-VLT to analyse two exoplanets discovered with SuperWASP. The aims are to detect absorption due to sodium in the atmosphere of WASP-17 and to measure the "day-side" temperature of WASP-19. Apart from leading the world in finding transiting exoplanets, SuperWASP measures many other peculiar types of stars. For instance, some eclipsing binaries contain a "metallic" star.

Barry Smalley was awarded seven nights on the 2.2m CASLEO telescope at Leoncito, in Argentina, to determine the orbital and chemical properties of some of these cosmic oddballs. Rob Jeffries won 4.5 nights on the 2.2m telescope at the La Silla observatory of ESO, in Chile, to use spectroscopy to look for the traces of meteoritic material that may have been accreted into the atmospheres of newly-born stars during the formation of their planetary systems.

GOOD MORNING KEELE FROM PHIL AND FERN

Television presenters Phillip Schofield and Fern Britton, from the "This Morning" show, made a "guest appearance" at Keele this week as more than 300 staff from the Commercial and Facilities Directorate gathered for their annual review of the year.

The Westminster Theatre was transformed into the studios of "This Morning with CFM" for the event, which took the theme "Think Bigger", as interviewees looked back at 2008 and gave a taste of what is in store for 2009. What excited the audience most was a special, pre-recorded message from the real-life presenters of "This Morning", Phil and Fern, who wished the team well – what a coup!

Jenny Tucker, Director of the Directorate, was first in to the studio and spoke primarily about the Ultimate Campus University for the 21st Century and the team that helped make her Directorate a success. Other interviews included a phone-in with the Security Manager, David Gray, an update on the Directorate's Investors in People status and a cookery demonstraton with the University's executive chef, Peter Walters.

The morning concluded with the University's Secretary and Registrar, Simon Morris, presenting a selection of awards to staff and teams, including awards for those who had attained 25 years service.

Sales and Marketing Manager, Marcus Wilson (who took the place of Phillip Schofield in the Keele production) said: "Our annual address to staff is in its 3rd year, and is essential to our internal communication strategy to update all staff on what projects and themes our Directorate is working on."

The picture shows, left to right, Rachael Cairns, Head of Training, Quality and HR for CFM, Jenny Tucker, Vicki Forrest and Marcus Wilson. 

THE EPIDEMIOLOGY OF PAIN

Professor Danielle van der Windt, Primary Care Epidemiology, gave the latest lecture in the University's programme of Inaugural Lectures for 2008/2009 on "The epidemiology of pain: a tale of two countries".

Professor van der Windt said: "Everyone will have episodes of pain in their life. Some people are lucky and live their life nearly pain free, whereas others develop chronic, multiple pain problems. The experience of pain is different in every individual but on a population level there are many similarities. Risk factors, prognosis and even potential for treatment seem to be similar regardless of the type or location of pain. But does that mean that all pain is the same?"

She addressed the question by presenting results from research at Keele and in Amsterdam.

The other lectures in the series are: Tuesday, 17 February 2009, Professor Marilyn Andrews, Health and Rehabilitation, "Innovation in healthcare education: a model for the future"; Wednesday, 18 March 2009, Professor Tony Bradney, Law, "Should the Law Respect Religion?"; Wednesday, 13 May 2009, Professor Mihaela Kelemen, Management,  "Management, uncertainty, pragmatism: the new triumvirate".

ROYAL SOCIETY GROUP CHAIR

Dr Rob Jackson, Chemical Sciences section, School of Physical and Geographical Sciences, has been elected Chair of the Royal Society of Chemistry Solid State Chemistry Group for three years from the start of 2009. The Group represents the interests of solid state chemists in the UK, and organises two or three conferences a year, specialising in solid state chemistry, solid state physics and materials science.

NEW EARTH SCIENCE EDUCATION INITIATIVE LAUNCHED

Professor Chris King, Director of the Earth Science Education Unit (ESEU) based in the School of Public Policy and Professional Practice, launched ESEU's new primary initiative in Earth science education at the Annual Association for Science Education Conference at the University of Reading. The Unit has devised three 90-minute workshops to be delivered as Key Stage 2 Primary CPD to teachers and trainee teachers across England and Wales, through ESEU's network of primary-trained facilitators.

Thanks to ESEU's sponsors, 'Oil and Gas UK', the workshops will be presented free of charge to institutions, apart from minimal expenses. For further details and information on the work of the unit, please see here.

TECTONIC STUDIES GROUP AT KEELE

The 39th Annual Meeting of the Tectonic Studies Group (TSG) was held at Keele last week, under the auspices of the School of Physical and Geographical Sciences and the Research Institute for the Environment, Physical Sciences and Applied Mathematics (EPSAM), and organised principally by Dr Stuart Clarke, with assistance from Professors Peter Styles and  Graham Williams.

The Tectonic Studies Group, which started in 1970, is a group of specialist geologists in the field of structural geology and tectonics and is now an affiliated specialist group of the Geological Society of London. The meeting attracted delegates from 10 countries and was sponsored by the BG Group, Shell UK, Badley Geoscience Ltd and the British Isles GNSS Facility, as industrial geologists attend to get new ideas on structural geology, as well as to present their own work.

TSG gives the opportunity to discuss current research and to try out new ideas before publication and has a less formal environment than the large international meetings. The emphasis is on postgraduates and young researchers and preference is shown to talks and poster contributions from them. Linda Austin, of EPSAM, won the prize for the best poster presentation.

They are a hardy bunch as the meeting concluded with a field excursion to the Dent Fault system in the southern Howgill Fells in Cumbria, which was led by Dr Dave Millward, of the British Geological Survey and, despite the fog, ice and snow, was attended by some 30 participants!

TOP TEN ARTICLE

First year PhD student Tom Shave, who is supervised Professor Rajmil Fischman, has had a paper, "Communicative Contract Analysis: An Approach to Popular Music Analysis", published in Organised Sound. It was in the top 10 of Organised Sound articles read online last month.