KEELE SCIENTISTS DISCOVER NEW PLANET ORBITING THE WRONG WAY

Keele scientists have found a new planet which orbits the wrong way around its host star. The planet, named WASP-17 and orbiting a star 1000 light years away, was found by Keele's WASP-South search for new planets.   Graduate student, David Anderson was surprised to find that the 17th new planet, WASP-17, is in a ``retrograde" orbit.

Since planets form out of the same swirling gas cloud that creates a star, they are expected to orbit in the same direction that the star spins.  WASP-17 is the first planet to be found orbiting the wrong way. 

WASP-17 appears to have been the victim of a game of planetary billiards, flung into its unusual orbit by a close encounter with a ``big brother'' planet.  Professor Coel Hellier remarks: "Shakespeare said that two planets could no more occupy the same orbit than two kings could rule England; WASP-17 shows that he was right."

David Anderson added: "Newly formed solar systems can be violent places.  Our own moon is thought to have been created when a Mars-sized planet collided with the recently formed Earth and threw up a cloud of debris that turned into the moon.  A near collision during the early, violent stage of this planetary system could well have caused a gravitational slingshot, flinging WASP-17 into its backwards orbit."

Keele's WASP-South team search for planets using an array of cameras that monitor hundreds of thousands of stars, searching for small dips in their light when a planet transits in front of them.  The camera array is sited at the South African Astronomical Observatory, taking advantage of the clear South African skies.

CO-OPTED TO ACADEMY'S GOVERNING BODY

Professor Fiona Cownie, School of Law, has been co-opted to the Council of the Academy of Social Sciences. The Academy of Social Sciences, which is composed of Learned Societies and individual Academicians, provides a voice for the social science community as a whole, representing social scientists to Government and other bodies, organising conferences and sponsoring a number of schemes that promote social science and enhance its value to society.

The Council is the governing body of the Academy and its members also act as trustees. Professor Cownie, who is currently President of the Society of Legal Scholars, is well-known for her interdisciplinary research, including that grounded in the social sciences. She is a past Vice-Chair of the Socio-Legal Studies Association and is currently a member of the AHRC Peer Review College.

PRESTIGIOUS ESRC STUDENTSHIP FOR RACHEL

Keele Student of the Year 2008, Rachel Cason (nee Wiggett), has been awarded a prestigious ESRC Studentship for her PhD. This is a real achievement for her (and for Keele) as the Open Competition awards are extremely difficult to obtain and Rachel is one of only 77 students nationally to receive one in the whole of the Social Sciences in the UK.

She is just completing her Masters in Research in Sociology, taught by many members of the School of Sociology and Criminology, and prior to that she achieved a First Class degree in Sociology and French from Keele. Rachel will be supervised by Professor Pnina Werbner and Dr Dana Rosenfeld, both from the School of Sociology and Criminology.

TOOLKIT TO PREVENT DEATH BY INDIFFERENCE

Dr Sue Read, Reader in Learning Disability Nursing, School of Nursing and Midwifery/ Research Institute for Life Course Studies, has been awarded £49,166 from the Staffordshire and Shropshire Locality Board to introduce a bespoke toolkit to prevent death by indifference of people with learning disabilities in the acute setting. This is Phase 2 of the project, following the first phase which involved developing the toolkit itself.
 
This second phase will enable workshops for 240 healthcare professionals to explore best practice in holistically supporting people with learning disabilities in the hospital setting.

UNIVERSITIES UK SHOWCASES £435,000 KEELE PROJECT

Keele is one of three new showcase studies on the Universities UK web site which highlight the success of the Government's match funding scheme for England.

As part of the scheme, worth £200m over three years, the Government will match donations to universities at one of three levels: pound for pound, £1 for every £2 or £1 for every £3.  The scheme has the potential to generate £600 million additional funding over the three years.

Raising funds for the development of the Keele Observatory, as a regional centre for science and schools, is featured by UUK.

Work is now well under way in the restoration of the Observatory, which is due to be renamed the Keele Earth and Space Observatory.

The total amount raised so far for the project is an impressive £290,000, with the majority of the donations coming from the Wolfson Foundation, supported by alumni donations to the Keele Key Fund, which with the matched funding in tier two would total £435,000.

TOP HEA AWARD FOR KEELE CERTIFICATE IN MEDICAL EDUCATION

The Certificate in Medical Education currently awarded by Keele has been recognised by the Higher Education Academy as conferring Fellowship status.

In recognition of their commitment to enhancing the student learning experience, all graduates of the Certificate programme will be invited to join the HEA as Fellows.

The HEA Health Sciences and Practice Subject Centre for Medicine and Dentistry work closely together to enhance teaching and learning in the health disciplines, as part of the HEALTH Network.

The HEA also supports the development and maintenance of teachers through its Professional Standards Framework.

LIGHTHOUSE CHAPEL CAMPS ON KEELE CAMPUS

Keele this week played host to the North and South camps of the Lighthouse Chapel, the annual get together of community churches.

More than 400 members of the chapel have fully utilised the range of facilities at Keele having undertaken group worship sessions in Lindsay studio, enjoyed some meals, between fasting, in Comus restaurant and stayed in Lindsay Court, Lindsay Hall and Holly Cross halls of residence.