ACADEMY OF SOCIAL SCIENCES RECOGNISES WORK OF KEELE PROFESSOR

Professor Thomas Scharf's significant contribution to the social sciences has been acknowledged by the Academy of Social Sciences - the body charged with promoting the social sciences in the UK for the public benefit.

Professor Scharf, Director of the Centre for Social Gerontology, is one of 64 leading social scientists to have the award of Academician of the Academy of Social Sciences conferred upon him in the latest round. The award follows Professor Scharf's nomination by the British Society of Gerontology. It recognises in particular his work relating to advantage and disadvantage in later life.

ELECTED VICE-PRESIDENT OF INTERNATIONAL ASSOCIATION

Dr Angus Dawson, Centre for Professional Ethics, School of Law / RI Law, Politics and Justice, has been elected to the position of Vice-President of the International Association of Bioethics (IAB). The IAB is the leading intentional organisation focused on bioethics.

Angus is on the Scientific Committee for the next World Congress (to be held in Singapore in July 2010) and is co-organiser of a satellite conference on 'Human rights and public health ethics'. He has also been asked to join the ethics review board of Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF). This international board reviews protocols for research, surveillance and service development by MSF staff. MSF focuses on medical work responding to disaster and emergency relief, as well as endemic infectious disease in the developing world.

CARBON RAPTURE MOVES TO TRENTHAM

Following its exhibition in the courtyard of Burlington House, Piccadilly, London and at the University of Surrey for the British Science Festival, the Carbon Rapture exhibition has now moved to Trentham Gardens.

The models have been installed into the 'Rivers of Grass', a dramatic prairie of Molinia grasses divided up by paths and turf areas, designed by landscaper Piet Oudolf, which forms part of the Italian Gardens. The exhibition is currently funded by an EPSRC PPE award, Molecules Out and About, held by Graeme Jones, Pat Bailey and Tess Phillips in the Research Institute for the Environment, Physical Sciences and Applied Mathematics.

KEYNOTE ADDRESS AT COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY

Professor Oliver Harris, leading authority on the work of American writer William Burroughs, delivered a keynote address at Columbia University.

His talk, entitled "From Dr. Mabuse to Doc Benway: the Myths and Manuscripts of Naked Lunch", opened events at Columbia as part of a four-day conference in New York to mark the 50th anniversary of the publication of Burroughs' most famous novel. Next month, Professor Harris will make a virtual appearance in San Francisco via video link, for another major series of events to mark the anniversary.

HOT MOMENTS AND HOT SPOTS

Dr Stefan Krause, Research Institute for the Environment, Physical Sciences and Applied Mathematics, was invited by the International Association of Hydrogeologists and the Hydrogeological Group of the Geological Society to present a keynote at the INESON lecture at Burlington House, London last week.

In his presentation on "Hot moments and hot spots of reactive transport and transformation at aquifer-river interfaces" he highlighted the great potential of recent applications of distributed sensor networks in combination with adaptive modelling strategies at hydro-ecological interfaces.

STUDENT LEARNING FEEDBACK BOOKLETS

Professor Marilyn Andrews, Pro Vice-Chancellor (Learning and Student Experience) and Dr Stephen Bostock (Head of the Learning Development Unit) last week ran a workshop in Keele Hall to launch two booklets on feedback for student learning. Feedback - A Guide for Keele Students has been distributed to all students and Making Feedback Work has been distributed to all teaching staff.

NEW APPOINTMENT

The following academic appointment commenced in post this week:

School of Pharmacy

Miss Nazmeen Khideja, Lecturer in Pharmacy, who was previously Practice Teaching Practitioner Community Pharmacy and Primary Care at the University of Wolverhampton.

FOURPENNY CIRCUS COMES TO KEELE

Four former Cheshire Poet Laureates returned to Keele as Fourpenny Circus, a touring poetry performance, this week. The event was well received by a good sized audience from across the region. Fourpenny Circus is an arrangement of poems spoken by four characters from a 'faded circus' - one by one they share fragments of personal history and 'thoughts on the circus of life. 
 
The troupe performed at Keele last year as 'Bunch of Fives' and say that they received more completed feedback forms and positive audience comments from Keele than any other venue.

NURSING AND MIDWIFERY OPEN EVENT

The School of Nursing and Midwifery has hosted a successful open weekend for prospective applicants for nursing, midwifery and operating department practice programmes at the Clinical Education Centre, University Hospital of North Staffordshire NHS Trust. The event featured talks with admissions staff, programme tutors and tours of the facilities. Many of the 335 prospective applicants who attended expressed the intention of making an application to the School's programmes and undertake their studies at Keele.

INTERVIEW SKILLS DAY

The Faculty of Health Schools and College Liaison team has hosted an Interview Skills Day for 25 prospective students from regional schools and colleges. The day featured talks from Faculty representatives on University life and the application process, individual mock interviews and feedback for each student. Students and careers teachers said that it had greatly helped their knowledge and confidence in relation to the Higher Education application and selection process.

PRESTIGIOUS WELLCOME TRUST FELLOWSHIP

Dr Paul Baines, Research Institute for Law, Politics and Justice, has been awarded £267,903 as a result of receiving a prestigious Clinical Research Biomedical Ethics Fellowship from the Wellcome Trust.

The project entitled "Making medical decisions for children: a philosophical approach" is to fund four years of research, leading to submission of a PhD in Ethics. His main supervisor will be Dr Angus Dawson (Centre for Professional Ethics, School of Law / RI for Law, Politics and Justice).

Paul is a paediatric intensive care consultant at Alder Hey Hospital in Liverpool, having trained in paediatrics and anaesthesia. He will continue to work part-time in this role during the duration of this project.

His doctoral work arises directly from clinical experience and the difficulty of making decisions for children. Some problems arise from the lack of clear medical facts, others from conflicts in underlying values and beliefs. In the most intractable cases of disagreement between parents and the clinical team, cases will end up in court, where the relevant legal test applied is one of 'acting in the best interests of the child'.

However, a series of philosophical questions can be asked about what this means, how best interests can be determined and how it ought to be applied. Such issues are the starting point for the project.

NEWSNIGHT APPEARANCES

Professor Andrew Dobson and Mike Tappin, School of Politics, International Relations and Philosophy, have both made appearances on BBC2's Newsnight in the last ten days.

Professor Dobson took part in a discussion with Justin Rowlatt on the future of the green movement last week and Mike Tappin was filmed for this Wednesday's programme on the problem of social cohesion and the BNP.

KEELE LECTURE LOOKS AT SIXTEENTH CENTURY STAFFORDSHIRE

The 25th Earl Lecture was given by Professor Ralph Houlbrooke, Professor of Early Modern British History at Reading University, this week.

His lecture was titled 'Politics and Personalities in mid-Tudor Staffordshire'.

The lecture, which takes place every two years, was founded by Newcastle tax inspector Jack Leighton to encourage experts to do work on Staffordshire, so that the county might become better known.

CHILDREN'S COMMISSIONER

The Schools Secretary, Ed Balls, has appointed Keele graduate Dr Maggie Atkinson as England's next Children's Commissioner.

Dr Atkinson, who takes up her new role in March next year, has been director of children's services at Gateshead Council since 2005 and last year served as the first female president of the Association of Directors of Children's Services.

She graduated from Keele with a doctorate in Education in 2007.