MALIAN SCIENTISTS VISIT KEELE FOR MALARIA RESEARCH TRAINING

Following a major award of £803,794 from The Wellcome Trust to Professor Paul Eggleston, Professor Hilary Hurd and Dr Frederic Tripet, in the Centre for Applied Entomology and Parasitology/ Research Institute for Science and Technology in Medicine, for a three year programme entitled "Genetic engineering of refractory mosquito vectors for the control of malaria transmission", three Malian scientists are visiting Keele for four months of training.
 
The award supports a capacity building and technology transfer collaboration with the Malaria Research and Training Centre at the University of Bamako, in Mali, West Africa and will seek to develop novel approaches to malaria control.

Dr Mamadou Coulibaly, Head of the Genomics and Proteomics Laboratory at the University of Bamako, is working with Professor Paul Eggleston and Dr Emma Warr on the technology for genetic engineering of malaria vector mosquitoes; Mr Ibrahima Baber is working with Professor Hilary Hurd and Dr Vicky Carter on techniques for malaria parasite culture and tests of anti-malaria effector molecules and Dr Mahamoudou Toure is working with Dr Frederic Tripet and Mr Doug Paton on techniques for the evaluation of fitness and mating competitiveness of genetically engineered mosquitoes.

In June, both the visitors and the UK staff will travel to Mali to establish state-of-the-art research facilities within the University of Bamako and undertake the first phase of research in Mali. This challenging programme represents the first use of genetically modified mosquitoes in Africa and will be the first to involve scientists from a malaria endemic nation.

KEELE CHEF STRIKES GOLD AT COMPETITION FOR UNIVERSITY CATERERS

A Keele team was successful in winning a gold, silver and bronze at the 16th annual TUCO awards in Blackpool this week.

Alan Jones, Keele Hall Head Chef, took gold for Chef of the Year. TUCO, The University Catering Organisation, joined forces with Unilever Foodservice, through its KNORR brand, to provide a two day competition inviting individual chefs to showcase their culinary talents, with each finalist asked to prepare a three course meal for four people.

Lisa Amison, Keele Hall Deputy Manager, took silver in the TUCO / CUBO Food Service Skills Challenge 2009. Competitors were asked to prepare, serve and clear a table d'hôte table setting for four people, demonstrating four different and individual napkin folds. Finalists were judged on their design for the table and overall ability to undertake table service in a live competition.

A team headed by Executive Chef Peter Walters took bronze in the British Universities Chefs' Challenge.

INSPIRATION AWARD FOR SCIENCE EVENT

A Public Understanding of Science event called "CSI:Stoke", which was run at the Potteries Museum & Art Gallery and in which Keele was a leading partner, won  an award at the Renaissance Best of the West  Awards, held at the Herbert Gallery, Coventry last week.
 
The Renaissance awards celebrate the region's best museums and art galleries in six different categories and CSI:Stoke was shortlisted in the "inspiration on a small budget" category.  The judging panel praised the event for the strength of its partnerships between Keele and Staffordshire Universities, the Potteries Museum and a range of other public and private sector partners.

Keele's contribution to the event was lead by Drs. Vladimir Zholobenko, Craig Adam and Jamie Pringle, from the School of Physical and Geographical Sciences, and Dr. Shanta Aphale, pictured right, from Research and Enterprise Services.

KEELE SUCCESS IN NATIONAL ITMB UNIVERSITIES COMPETITION

An Information Technology Management for Business (ITMB) student team from Keele won the second prize (£300) in a competition on business ideas and strategy at a nation-wide event organised by e-skills UK and hosted by CA in Slough.

The competition involved Second and Final Year BSc (Hons) ITMB students from seven universities. Keele's team presented a portfolio on how IT can be strategically deployed to address the adverse impacts of the current economic recession.

During the day, Keele's first year ITMB students presented a poster on "How IT is improving our environment", addressing many issues, including improving virtual collaboration in order to reduce the carbon footprint and using recyclable materials for manufacturing IT equipment. Greenwich University took the first place, while University College London was third.

For more information about the ITMB degree visit http://system.newzapp.co.uk/GLink.asp?LID=MjA3MzU5Nyw5

SEMINAR SERIES FOR MA IN CREATIVE AND CRITICAL PRACTICE

Rob Pope, Professor of English at Oxford Brookes University, gave the inaugural seminar 'Creativity and its Others: A Critical Historical Review and Playful Work-Out', in a series for the MA in Creative and Critical Practice.

Course Tutor, Dr Yvonne Hill, said: "The seminar was a literal 'seed-bed' of ideas - both familiar and strange, as Professor Pope encouraged the audience to label and actively define creativity / creativities and creating.  The presentation of his paper was skillfully structured in ways that extended the scope for playful etymology and 'new ways of seeing' the intersections between creativity and criticality. His deployment of scraps of Hessian served as a powerful metaphor for those working at Masters Level. We identified the potential of the woven sack to represent the complexity of strands, gaps, shape, form and content as we begin the process of loosening / analysing creative critical practice in educational settings.

"This was a wonderfully inventive and stimulating seminar that delighted and nourished the participants' imagination and critical engagement. We look forward to the next 'event' in the seminar series with eager anticipation."

AWAKE AT KEELE

The second AWAKE programme was successfully completed last week when participants came together to share what they had gained by taking part.

Each mentor set gave a presentation on what they had experienced and learned from their participation in AWAKE, a development programme for women, which looked to facilitate networking across the University and support career development.  Each presentation was different and expressed in a variety of ways, which included a nautical themed sketch and a handmade piece of jewellery.

The common strand throughout was the value of a supportive network and meeting colleagues from a wide cross section of the University.  Each faculty and directorate was represented amongst the participants and set facilitators.

MISSION TO AUSTRALIA

Professor Peter Styles, Professor of Applied and Environmental Geophysics, has just returned from a 12-day visit to Australia as a member of the Foreign Office Clean Coal Technologies Mission to Australia.

 
The group visited the CO2CRC Otway Basin Carbon Storage project at Melbourne, CSIRO at Brisbane and Newcastle, the Universities of Melbourne, Newcastle, Queensland and Sydney and had discussions with the Victoria and Queensland Regional Governments, where Professor Styles gave an overview of Geophysical Monitoring of Underground Gas Storage with applications for CO2 sequestration.

Professor Styles also visited the Bloodwood Creek Underground Coal Gasification project in Central Queensland and had research discussions with the Queensland Centre for Advanced Technologies.

Australian Prime Minster, Kevin Rudd, has launched a Global Carbon Capture and Storage Initiative for which Prime Minister Gordon Brown has declared UK support. The group formed to reinforce this partnership includes representatives from the Energy Technologies Institute (Director of Strategy ETI), EPSRC (Energy Technology Portfolio Manager), CLEANCOALENERGY Ltd and a number of universities: Imperial College, Nottingham, Bristol and Keele.
 
Subsequently, Professor Styles has been invited to speak on Emergent Technologies for Monitoring the Security of Carbon Sequestration at the International Energy Association Meeting on Greenhouse Gas in Japan in June.

FORMER HOME SECRETARY AT KEELE

Former Home Secretary David Blunkett, MP, was the guest of honour and speaker at the North Staffordshire Law Society Ball in the newly refurbished Keele Hall Ballroom last week.

About 150 local lawyers and guests represented the region's top organisations, including KJD, Grindeys, Knights, Beswicks and Regent Chambers. The President, Robin Lichfield, from Lichfield Reynolds, welcomed the guests and hosted a VIP drinks reception in the Terrace Restaurant with special guest David Blunkett.

NEW ACADEMIC APPOINTMENTS

The following academic appointments commenced in post this week:

Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences

Professor David Shepherd, Dean of the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, who was previously Director of the Humanities Research Institute at the University of Sheffield.

School of Nursing and Midwifery

Mrs Abbie Barnes, Lecturer in Adult Nursing, who was previously a Senior Lecturer at the University of Wolverhampton.

POETRY LIVE! AT KEELE

Award winning poet David Harsent gave a reading of his work at Keele this week in the University's fourth series of readings by outstanding poets, Poetry Live!

David, who has published nine collections of poetry, won the Cholmondeley Award in 2008. He was awarded the Forward Prize for best collection of 2005 with Legion and has been shortlisted for both the T.S. Eliot and Whitbread Awards. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and was Distinguished Writing Fellow at Sheffield Hallam University, where he is now Visiting Professor.

The last reading in the programme for 2008/9 is Wendy Cope on 12 May.