MARIE CURIE FELLOWSHIP AWARD

Drs William Kirk and Gordon Hamilton, Research Institute for Science and Technology in Medicine, have been awarded a Marie Curie International Incoming Fellowship under the EU 7th Framework Programme for Research and Technological Development. The Fellowship will allow an experienced natural products chemist from India, Dr Sudhakar Akella, to carry out research at Keele for two years.

The project has the title "Pheromone Identification for Environmentally Responsible Control of Thrips (PERFECT)". Thrips are major pests of horticultural crops and the visiting Fellow will identify pheromones that can be used to help control them. Dr Kirk, pictured above, and Dr Hamilton are the named inventors on a Keele University patent for the use of pheromones to control thrips. The fellowship has a value of about 196,000 euros.

GERMAN RESEARCH COUNCIL SCHOLARSHIP

Dr Anthony Kauders, Research Institute for the Humanities, has been awarded a prestigious major grant from the German Research Council (DFG).

The 144,000 Euro scholarship will allow him to spend two years in German archives and libraries investigating the reception of Freudian psychoanalysis between 1900 and 1985.

Dr Kauders, a historian of German Jewry, will be based at the University of Munich from July 2010 to June 2012, where he will cooperate with historians and psychoanalysts on the project. Research will centre on five discrete episodes in the history of psychoanalysis that were emblematic of societal reactions to Freud.

Based on these sections, the project will examine cultural conceptions of selfhood disclosed in the encounter, thereby hoping to depict common fears, aspirations and fantasies related to the conscious/unconscious, rationalism/irrationalism and individual/society.

ROYAL COLLEGE OF PSYCHIATRISTS ACADEMIC FACULTY SCIENTIFIC MEETING

More than 100 clinical and academic psychiatrists and trainees came together at Keele for a stimulating scientific programme of the 4th residential meeting of the Faculty of Academic Psychiatry of the Royal College of Psychiatrists.  The overall theme was Academic Psychiatry- Influencing the Future.

The opening talk was very topical with Professor David Nutt, Imperial College London, speaking about drug reclassification and government.   The keynote lecture on "Evidence and Psychiatry – a Personal View" was delivered by Professor Robin Murray, Institute of Psychiatry, King's College London. Editors from the British Journal of Psychiatry, Psychological Medicine, the Lancet and The Psychiatrist, discussed the changing world of publishing and the implications for research.  

Internationally acclaimed speakers contributed to the excellent scientific sessions, which included research and addiction policy, undergraduate teaching, effectiveness of treatments for depression, the future of publishing psychiatric research, evidence and psychosis, neurodevelopmental disorders and old age psychiatry.

THE MYTHS OF AGEING

Professor Graham Mulley, President of the British Geriatrics Society, delivered the Annual Yette and Boris Glass Foundation Lecture to a capacity audience in Keele Hall, last week.

Professor Mulley, who is Developmental Professor of Elderly Medicine at the University of Leeds and Consultant Community Geriatrician at St James's University Hospital, used drawings, sculpture, art, films, literature, poetry, TV, photography, advertisements, birthday cards, newspapers and road signs to illustrate the evolution of stereotypes, myths and misconceptions, and beliefs and actions about older people.

Professor Ilana Crome said: "It was a most original lucid critical analysis of the myths of ageing. Not only did he capture the essence of the Foundation, but he extended it, by integrating the humanities, arts and politics into his exposition."

PHARMACY UNDERGRADUATES PRESENT AT NATIONAL CONFERENCE

Final year pharmacy UG students, Bernard Naughton and Nick Thayer, pictured, presented their work on the antipsychotic drug quetiapine, at the 21st Annual Scientific Meeting of the Drug Utilisation Research Group at the Royal Society of Medicines in London last week.

Bernard and Nick's work, undertaken in collaboration with Professor Stephen Chapman, investigated the difference in marketing claims in the UK and the USA for the antipsychotic medicine quetiapine.  Subsequent to the meeting the work was featured in the national press, in particular the Financial Times.

GO GREEN WEEK  AT KEELE

An Environmental Awareness Campaign to raise staff and student awareness and reduce our environmental impact, particularly on waste, energy, transport and associated CO2 emissions, was launched at Keele this week.

There was a presentation in Keele Hall giving an overview of the campaign's key deliverables and objectives, as well as what has been achieved so far.

The University's Green Week 2010, which celebrates Keele's commitment to environmental good practice, was also launched.  Go Green Week has included a sustainable cooking demonstration; a free screening of climate change docu-drama, The Age of Stupid, and a guided walk of the campus.

The picture shows Pro Vice-Chancellor, Professor Peter Jones, Campaign Director, signing up to the campaign, with Phil Butters, Professor Pat Bailey and John Mulholland, of nifes consulting.

MONTH OF INTERNATIONALISATION

An exhibition of art by international students at Keele was opened by the Deputy Vice-Chancellor, Rama Thirunamachandran, in the Chancellor's Building foyer last week. The exhibition is part of a series of events organised to mark the University's first 'Month of Internationalisation'

Keele has about 1,350 full-time international students from more than 100 countries and during February we are celebrating diversity and variety among our students and staff. There is a wide range of activities and events to celebrate our international dimension, including seminars, volunteering opportunities and 'themed' meals in the Comus Restaurant.

NATIONAL STUDENT SURVEY 2010

Now entering its sixth year, the National Student Survey 2010 was launched at Keele this week. The survey is of mostly final year undergraduates in England, Northern Ireland, Wales and some institutions in Scotland. It is commissioned by the Higher Education Funding Council for England on behalf of all the funding bodies. Ipsos MORI, an independent research company, administers the survey.

It is important that as many students as possible provide feedback for the survey to generate reliable information. We need to achieve a response rate of at least 50% at institution level and in our subjects of study (combined with 23 respondents per cohort) in order for our data to be made publicly available on Unistats.com. Last year we achieved an overall response rate of 55% and we are aiming to beat that this year.

BALKAN RESEARCH TALKS

Kyril Drezov, School of Politics, International Relations and Philosophy and the Southeast Europe Unit at the Research Institute for Law, Politics and Justice, was invited to an informal meeting in London last Sunday with Boyko Borisov, Bulgaria's Prime Minister, and Nikolay Mladenov, Bulgaria's newly-appointed Foreign Minister.

In a lively exchange of opinions Drezov, pictured above, emphasised Keele's importance for Balkan research in the UK and enquired about forthcoming changes in Bulgaria's policies towards its immediate neighbours.

KEYNOTE SPEAKER AT INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE

Dr Alexandra Lamont, School of Psychology/Research Institute for Life Course Studies, was an invited keynote speaker at the Advanced Bionics International Conference on Music and Cochlear Implants in Budapest. 

The meeting included around 100 European speech and language therapists and audiologists and engineers.  Dr Lamont, pictured above, gave an address about music and emotion in normal hearing children and adults, talking about research conducted by the music psychology team at Keele into music and everyday life.

FELLOW OF THE LINNEAN SOCIETY

Dr Peter Thomas, School of Life Sciences, has been elected a Fellow of the Linnean Society of London.

The Society, based in Burlington House in central London, is the world's oldest active biological society.  Founded in 1788, the Society takes its name from the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus who's botanical, zoological and library collections have been in its keeping since 1829.

SHAKEN NOT STIRRED

There was a James Bond themed evening for Woore-based T-T Pumps Ltd when they celebrated their 50th anniversary and post Christmas party in Keele Hall. On arrival eighty-eight guests enjoyed a Martini cocktail, shaken not stirred, followed by a four course dinner. They then took their turn at casino tables in the Old Library and a disco.

FROM THE ARCHIVES

A recital to mark the refurbishment of the University Chapel organ was given by retiring Organ Scholar, finalist Christopher Cipkin, on 14 February 1995. The refurbishment was carried out at a cost of £17,500 by Rushworth and Dreaper of Liverpool, and one of the men involved had helped build the original instrument in 1966.