KEELE AWARDED PRESTIGIOUS QUEEN'S ANNIVERSARY PRIZE

Keele is one of only 21 winners of the eighth round of the prestigious Queen's Anniversary Prizes for Higher and Further Education, which were announced at a special reception at St James's Palace this week.

The award recognises the work of the internationally renowned Primary Care Sciences Research Centre at Keele. The Centre's work is focused on chronic pain (especially back pain and arthritis) – the main cause of disability in the United Kingdom and the developed world. In 2008 it was chosen to be the Arthritis Research Campaign's National Primary Care Centre.

The Prizes, which rank alongside the Queen's Awards for Industry and are awarded every two years, are a national honour recognising world-class excellence which demonstrates evidence of originality, innovation and benefit for the wider community.

Peter Croft, Professor of Primary Care Epidemiology and Director Primary Care Musculoskeletal Research Centre, said: "This is a tremendous achievement and gives recognition to the high standard of research undertaken in the Centre, to the dedication and hard work of all our staff, and to the local health professionals, patients and members of the public who support our research."

Professor Croft, the Vice-Chancellor, Professor Dame Janet Finch, and the Dean of the University's Faculty of Health, Professor Andy Garner, were present at St James's Palace for the announcement. The Prize will be presented at an award ceremony at Buckingham Palace on 19 February 2010.

KEY FUND TELETHON RAISES TARGET

The 2009 Keele Key Fund telethon launched last week with a target of raising £65,000 has already seen alumni pledge almost £60,000. With one week of the campaign still to go the early success has encouraged the organisers, Fundraising Officer Robin Cross, and Alumni Officer John Easom, to raise the target for the campaign to £100,000.

The Keele Key Fund offers a way for alumni and others to make a real difference to the University and to Keele students. Twenty-eight current students were trained to call alumni and Alex Baugh, of Buffalo Fundraising Consultants, who manages the call centre, has indicated that the level of outcomes is comparable to those of independent schools and matches the very best results experienced at other universities where Buffalo have been engaged. The success is attributed to the exceptional affection and generosity of our alumni and to the skill and passion of an outstanding calling team.

The picture shows members of the telethon team.

CELEBRATING FORTY YEARS OF AMERICAN STUDIES CENTRE AT KEELE

The David Bruce Centre for American Studies marked the occasion of its 40th anniversary with a reception and luncheon at Keele Hall. Thirty-five former and present members of the Centre celebrated four decades of supporting graduate training and research into matters related to the United States. The anniversary event was also a tribute to Professor David K. Adams, who founded the Centre in 1969 after having established the first honours degree programme in American Studies in the UK. Today the Centre provides financial assistance to Keele researchers, hosts visiting faculty, organizes conferences and lectures, offers support for postgraduate students, and sponsors American Studies-related events in the UK and continental Europe.

In addition to a review of past successes and future plans for the Centre by the current director, Dr. Axel Schäfer, pictured, the assembled guests enjoyed a lively speech on "Being an Americanist" by Professor Adam Fairclough (Leiden University), a distinguished historian of the American Civil Rights movement and former Keele postgraduate student. The event also inaugurated the Bruce Centre alumni network designed to keep former members updated on the centre's activities.

RUNNING FOR CANCER RESEARCH

Medical student Jenny Hands raised £2,300 for Cancer Research by taking part in an event which saw her running 82 miles along the Ridgeway National Trail - Britain's oldest road – over three days.

The run was broken down into 28 miles on the first day and 27 miles on the second and third days.

Jenny, who has previously run just two marathons, revealed that at the time of planning the challenge her father was in the terminal stages of cancer. Sadly he passed away just two weeks before she did the run.

FOR MEN ONLY?

Professor Joe Andrew, Research Institute for the Humanities, presented a paper entitled 'For Men Only? Dostoevsky's Patriarchal Vision in The Brothers Karamazov' at the 41st National Convention of the American Association for the Advancement of Slavic Studies (AAASS), held in Boston last week. The AAASS Convention is the largest and most important event in the world of Russian and East European Studies and more than 2,000 papers were presented at this year's event, the largest number in the history of the organisation. Professor Andrew's paper is a continuation of his ongoing work into gender and narrative in nineteenth-century Russian literature. His attendance at the conference was enabled by a grant from the British Academy, as well as funding from the Research Institute for the Humanities.

CELEBRATING TENNESSEE WILLIAMS

Sue Tyrrell, a PhD student in American Studies, was last week involved in celebrations in New York, when Tennessee Williams became the first playwright to be inducted into the American Poets' Corner at the Cathedral Church of St John the Divine in Manhattan. A member of the Board of Advisors of the Provincetown Tennessee Williams Theater Festival, which organised the commemorative events, Sue joined stars and luminaries, including Eli Wallach, Vanessa Redgrave, John Guare and Olympia Dukakis, in celebrating the life and achievements of one of America's greatest twentieth century dramatists, whose work continues to be remembered in classic films and is familiar to generations of school and university students.

GROWTH THROUGH DIVERSIFICATION

The Vice-Chancellor, Professor Dame Janet Finch, delivered a University Assembly for staff in the Westminster Theatre yesterday.

The event gave an overview of the University and covered a range of topics, from levels of public sector funding to the student experience and campus developments.

The Vice-Chancellor said her key assessment for the future of the University was "Growth through diversification". She said Keele was still growing and diversifying but warned that the full effects of the recession upon the HE sector were not yet being felt.

Research selectivity and focus were beginning to show positive results and there had been strong recruitment to specific undergraduate programmes and PGCE, international recruitment had also improved, but postgraduate numbers still needed to be increased.

Professor Dame Janet Finch said the HEFCE Strategic Development Fund (SDF) funding, of £5.7Million, would allow the University to make faster progress on the UCU21C objectives and allow the development of key University strategic projects, such as Active Ageing, environment and sustainability and employer engagement and CPD.

TRAINING ON BIOREACTORS AND GROWTH ENVIRONMENTS

The Research Institute for Science and Technology in Medicine this week welcomed 50 delegates to an interactive training course which focused on bioreactors and growth environments for tissue engineering, covering bone, cartilage and connective tissue engineering.

Delegates, including students from Keele's postgrad Msc and 13 doctoral students from Loughborough, came from as far afield as Libya.

MEMORIAL LECTURE

Professor Peter Worsley, of Reading University, last week gave the 9th Annual Wolverson Cope Memorial Lecture to the North Staffordshire Group of the Geologists' Association, which meets at Keele every month over the winter.

Wolverson Cope was the foundation professor of geology at Keele and early chair of the NSGGA, and it was apt that Professor Worsley gave this year's lecture - as a graduate from Keele in 1962 he was taught geology by Professor Cope.

The lecture, on "Charles Darwin, the Beagle and Quaternary Geology", was an entertaining tour of the early life of Darwin, whose notebooks on the Beagle voyage contain almost four times as much information about geology than they do flora and fauna.

FROM THE ARCHIVES

11 November 1992

Sir John Harvey-Jones, industrial troubleshooter and former chairman of ICI, officially opened The Oaks residential accommodation at Lindsay Hall. The Oaks provides 187 en-suite study bedrooms.