PIONEERS REUNION AT KEELE

The University's most senior alumni gathered last weekend for this year's "Pioneers' Reunion". Ninety alumni who graduated in the 1950s, including 15 from the very first cohort who started in 1950, attended and enjoyed a range of activities

The Vice-Chancellor welcomed and addressed the Pioneers and Professor Pat Bailey, Dean of the Faculty of Natural Sciences, gave an inspiring talk about "Keele's Green Campus: Past, Present and Future". This reunion coincided with the 60th Anniversary of the opening of the University College of North Staffordshire in 1949 and alumni enjoyed the first screening of "First Decade". This new film tells the story of the creation of Keele from the students' perspective and was produced by alumni volunteers. Combined with an audio programme entitled "In Your Own Words", featuring interviews with pioneers, "First Decade" captured the spirit of the innovative Keele Experiment, which became the ultimate campus university of the Twentieth Century.

Excellent teamwork across various departments, coordinated by the Alumni Office, enabled us to deliver what was, in the words of one Pioneer, "…by a distance, quite the best reunion I have experienced …. The tone and atmosphere were just right, the dinner was excellent, the talks and tours nicely balanced, well led and delivered, and the spirit of Keele was much in evidence throughout." Another added: "An enormous amount of thought and hard work must have gone into the planning and execution but the result was seamless!  Everything had the stamp of effortless professionalism. We were made to feel that all the staff we met had been looking forward to meeting US!  The Royal Family doesn't do it any better."

CANNOCK CHASE GEOTRAIL – A LANDSCAPE EVOLVED FROM DESERT, SWAMP AND ICE

Dr Ian Stimpson and Dr Richard Waller, School of Physical and Geographical Sciences, in conjunction with the Staffordshire Regionally Important Geological and Geomorphological Sites (SRIGS) Group, have produced a guided geological trail for Cannock Chase.

Funded by an award of £20,000 from the Staffordshire Aggregates Levy Grant Scheme, the A3 leaflet details the 36 kilometre long circular trail route, with alternative shortcuts, linking a series of important geological, geomorphological and geologically-related industrial heritage sites around the Chase from Great Haywood in the north to Castle Ring in the south. Geologically, the Chase comprises Triassic conglomerates and sandstones, with pebbles derived from northern France, overlying Carboniferous Coal Measures, which were extensively mined. The modern landscape has been carved by meltwater during the last Ice Age. 

The geotrail leaflet, companion to the Hamps & Manifold Geotrail and the Churnet Valley Geotrail, will be available free of charge from tourist information centres and other outlets in the region. This, and the previous geotrail leaflets, can also be obtained from Richard Waller (http://system.newzapp.co.uk/GLink.asp?LID=MjEyMzc2OCw5) or can be downloaded as pdfs from the SRIGS website http://system.newzapp.co.uk/GLink.asp?LID=MjEyMzc2OSw5

EU PROFILER GOES LIVE

Dr Elisabeth Carter, Research Institute for Law, Politics and Justice, has been working on the EU Profiler, the first Europe-wide voting advice application, that will help people who are not sure which party to vote for in the forthcoming European Parliament elections.

The EU Profiler went live yesterday in advance of the European Parliament elections that will take place in June. The EU Profiler is an online election aid that enables voters to discover which party most closely reflects their political preferences. It works by asking voters to evaluate a number of political statements that cover a range of issues. On the basis of their answers, voters are positioned in a 'political space' and are able to explore which party in their own country is closest to them in that space. Voters can also compare their position to that of parties throughout Europe. See the EU Profiler at: http://system.newzapp.co.uk/GLink.asp?LID=MjEyMzc3MCw5.

The EU Profiler covers 34 countries and regions across Europe. The UK team was led by Dr Carter and also included Dr Thomas Lundberg (University of Glasgow and formerly at Keele) and Dr Gemma Loomes (University of Birmingham, also formerly at Keele). The EU Profiler is directed by colleagues at the European University Institute in collaboration with two technological partners – the Dutch company, "Kieskompas", and the Swiss, "NCCR/Politools". These three institutions funded the project.

VISITING FELLOW IN EDUCATIONAL DEVELOPMENT

Dr Stephen Bostock, Head of the Learning Development Unit, has returned to the University after three weeks as a Senior Visiting Fellow in Educational Development at the Centre for Teaching and Learning, University of Windsor, Ontario, Canada.

Windsor has similarities with Keele, with a pleasant campus, excellence in both teaching and research, and a concern for widening participation, although it is twice our size. While at Windsor he gave two seminars, 'Framing effective teaching: From competence to excellence' and 'Accrediting Teaching Competence', and advised on the development of SEDA (Staff and Educational Development Association) accredited programmes in university teaching, the first in Canada. He also visited the Centre for Research into Learning and Teaching at the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, the largest such centre in North America.

CONTEMPORARY ISSUES IN MARKETING AND CONSUMER BEHAVIOUR

Dr Elizabeth Parsons, Senior Lecturer in Marketing at Keele and colleagues in Marketing and Sociology have just published a new book aimed at marketers wanting to keep up to date with contemporary issues.
 
Dr Parsons and Pauline Maclaran (Professor of Marketing and Consumer Research, Royal Holloway, University of London) are editors of Contemporary Issues in Marketing and Consumer Behaviour, and contributors include Krzysztof Kubacki, Caroline Miller, Emma Surman, Nia Hughes and Christina Rafopoulou, Marketing at Keele; Lydia Martens, Sociology at Keele; Draragh O'Reilly, Sheffield, and Mark Tadajewski, Leicester.

This new book covers all the latest buzzwords within marketing and consumer behavior: building brand cultures; gender; ethics; sustainable marketing; the green and the global consumer, among many more. Importantly, Contemporary Issues in Marketing and Consumer Behaviour makes clear links between theory and practice in marketing. It provides a complete off-the-shelf teaching package for Masters, MBA and advanced undergraduate modules in marketing and consumer behavior and a useful resource for dissertation study at both undergraduate and postgraduate levels. See here.

PRESTIGIOUS RESEARCH FELLOWSHIP

Marie Molloy, a second year doctoral student at Keele, has successfully been awarded the prestigious Archie K. Davis Fellowship from the North Caroliniana Society at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, USA. The fellowship is designed to assist scholars pursuing research in the history of North Carolina.

The award of over $1,000 will help cover travel costs on an archival trip later this year utilising the rich resources at the Southern Historical Collection for her thesis on white, female singleness in the Nineteenth Century South, 1830-1880. Marie will be speaking at the Southern Women's History Conference in June 2009, in Columbia, South Carolina. Her paper, "A Noble Class of Old Maids: Death, Ties and Responsibility in 19th Century Southern Families" has been formulated from her latest research on death and the Maiden Aunt.

VISITING PROFESSOR IN ENVIRONMENTAL POLITICS

Professor Andrew Dobson, Research Institute for Law, Politics and Justice, has been appointed Visiting Professor in Environmental Politics at Chiba University, Japan.

He was also invited last week to a high-level Natural England (NE) Advisory Committee meeting on NE's scenario planning for 2060, designed to anticipate the conditions under which environmental protection will need to be carried out in fifty years time.

He has also been invited to address the annual conference of Fast Stream civil servants in London in July on the topic of policy responses to climate change and has been co-opted onto the Carnegie Trust's team working on an Inquiry into the Future of Civil Society in the UK and Ireland.

WELLCOME AWARD FOR VACATION SCHOLARSHIP

Dr Paul Horrocks, Research Institute for Science and Technology in Medicine, has been awarded a Wellcome Trust Biomedical Vacation Scholarship for a project to evaluate magnetic nanoparticle-mediated delivery of DNA into the human malarial parasite Plasmodium falciparum.

The £1,440 stipend has been awarded to support a year 2 Keele Medical School Student (Srdjan Milicic). The Wellcome Trust indicates that "These awards provide promising undergraduates with hands-on experience of research during the summer vacation with the aim of encouraging them to consider a career in research".

NEW ACADEMIC APPOINTMENT

The following academic appointment commenced in post this week:

School of Nursing and Midwifery:

Karen Wild has been appointed a Lecturer in Adult Nursing and was previously a Senior Lecturer at Manchester Metropolitan University.

FESTIVAL OF CHEMISTRY

More than 100 students from 20 schools in the West Midlands and north-west region this week enjoyed a fun-filled day of chemistry at the Salters' Festival of Chemistry, held over two days on campus.

The event, run in partnership with the Royal Society of Chemistry at the School of Physical and Geographical Sciences, was aimed at promoting the appreciation of chemistry and related sciences among the young. Each school was represented by a team of four 11-13 year olds.

The teams took part in a competitive, hands-on activity, "Murder at Saltmarsh Farm", in which they used their analytical chemistry skills, and competed in "University Challenge", a practical activity in which they explored the chemistry of everyday materials.

They also enjoyed fun lectures, 'Molecules and light' and 'Green Chemistry', given by Chemistry staff. All participants received individual fun prizes and certificates and the winning teams were awarded prizes for their schools.

Keele was one of a series of fifty-five festivals which are taking place at universities throughout the UK and the Republic of Ireland between March and June.

The event was supported by the Pre-Initial Teacher Education Chemistry Enhancement students at Keele.