APPOINTED DIRECTOR OF THE RESEARCH INSTITUTE FOR PRIMARY CARE AND HEALTH SERVICES

Professor Elaine Hay has been appointed as Director of the Research Institute for Primary Care and Health Sciences. Professor Hay is a Community Rheumatologist at the Haywood Hospital in Burslem, who trained in Sheffield and Manchester before moving to Keele in 1994. She has gained an international reputation as a clinical trials leader in the field of musculoskeletal disorders, having published over 150 peer-reviewed papers and attracted some £18 million in external grants.

She was a member of the RAE primary care panel and has recently completed a period as the first Clinical Director of the West Midlands (North) Comprehensive Research Network. 

Professor Hay currently leads a National Institute of Health Research programme on back pain and heads the applied research component of the Arthritis Research UK's National Primary Care Centre grant.  She is presently chair of the Royal College of Physicians' Rheumatology Committee, chair of the Arthritis Research UK's Pain Clinical Studies Group and a member of the Editorial Board of the journal Rheumatology.

MALDIVIAN HIGH COMMISSIONER VISITS KEELE

The Maldivian High Commissioner for the United Kingdom, and a graduate of the University, Dr Farahanaz Faisal, visited Keele last week.

The High Commissioner was welcomed by the Deputy Vice-Chancellor, Rama Thirunamachandran and introduced to Professors Pat Bailey, Andy Dobson and Graham Williams, who presented an overview of their work on Environment and Sustainability.

Dr Faisal, BA in International Relations (1989), became the first Maldivian woman to obtain a PhD for her thesis on the 'Security Problems of Small, Island Developing States (SIDS) with particular reference to the SIDS of the Indian Ocean". She was actively involved during the Gayoom era in liaising with human rights organisations to try to secure the release of political prisoners, and has worked as an analyst and consultant on security problems of small island states, gender and international relations.
 
Her warmly-applauded lecture on 'The democratisation of an Islamic state: the experience of the Maldives', which was based on first-hand experience, included a tribute to the support Keele students gave during the struggle for democracy.
 
A second International Relations graduate to return to the University to share with students and staff their 'practical' experience of International Relations since graduating was Pete Wright, who obtained both his BA and MA from Keele (2005). He spoke to second year Global International Organisation students about 'the role of NGOs: the humanitarian work of the Mines Advisory Group'. 

The MAG, for which Pete works in procurement, is a humanitarian organisation clearing the remnants of conflict for the benefit of communities worldwide.  For these services it shared the 1997 the Nobel Peace Prize.

PEARLS PROJECT SHINES

Dr Khaled Ismail, Research Institute for Science and Technology in Medicine and Consultant Obstetrician and Gynaecologist, UHNS, pictured, and Professor Christine Kettle, Professor of Women's Health, UHNS and Staffordshire University, have won a prestigious Shine award from the Health Foundation to lead a team to develop the PEARLS.net e-learning system.

The PEARLS.net team is one of 18 that have been selected for the award. The main aim of this project is to develop and validate a multidisciplinary, web-based, e-learning package to enhance practitioners' knowledge and skills in perineal assessment, repair and management in order to reduce associated morbidity and improve women's experiences of maternity care. Each team has been awarded up to £75,000 to test out their ideas which aim to improve quality and make savings within their service.

CHANGING PUBLIC PERCEPTIONS IN THE NEW MEDIA LANDSCAPE

The Research Institute for Law, Politics and Justice last week held its second Justice, Media and Public conference. The event attracted delegates from Australia, Belgium, the Netherlands, the UK and the US.

The discussions centred on the experiences of practitioners from the criminal justice field and academic research involving the relationship between courts, the police, the legal profession and the media.

The keynote lectures were delivered by Judge Keith Cutler CBE (Chairman of the Judges' Council Committee on Communications), Joshua Rozenberg (former BBC legal correspondent and freelance journalist), Olga Kavran (Spokeswoman to the Prosecutor at the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia) and Dr Daniel Stepniak (University of Western Australia).

CINEMA AND MEDIA STUDIES CONFERENCE

Dr Beth Johnson, Lecturer in Film and English Studies in the School of Humanities, last week attended and presented research at the international Society for Cinema and Media Studies conference in Los Angeles, the historic home of the "Hollywood" film and television industries.

The 2010 SCMS Conference, Archiving the Future/Mobilizing the Past, celebrated the 50th year of the scholarly association. Her paper, entitled 'Sex, Semblance and Shortbus: Re-mapping Desire', formed part of a three-person, British-based panel with colleagues at Anglia Ruskin University, Cambridge, discussing the ways in which contemporary screen cultures are working to mobilise new representations of sex on screen in the UK, France and the US.

EXPANDING STUDENT EXCHANGE

Jesse Lutabingwa, Professor and Associate Vice-Chancellor for International Education and Development at Appalachian State University in North Carolina, visited Keele to meet subject tutors from Politics, International Relations, English, Music and History to explore how the relationship between Keele and ASU can be expanded from the successful student exchange, which has been active since 1996 with 48 students exchanged in each direction.

The additional study abroad programme in Psychology lends itself to expansion and discussions took place with School of Psychology staff, as well as with the David Bruce Centre and Graeme Easdown, to see what graduate links might be created. Dr Annette Kratz, pictured above with Jesse Lutabingwa, will follow up on these discussions when she visits ASU in May.

A delegation from Universiti Sains Malaysia in Penang visited Keele to discuss the PMI2 initiative in Life Sciences, enabling MSc Parasitology and Vector Biology students, as well as undergraduate Biology students, to spend three months in Penang this summer. Eight selected students were briefed about the kind of projects they would be engaged in, as well as cultural aspects of living in Malaysia. This is Keele's fourth PMI2 International Student Mobility programme.

The delegation, headed by the Vice-Chancellor, Professor Tan Sri Dato' Dzulkifli Abdul Razak, met with Keele's Deputy Vice-Chancellor, Rama Thirunamachandran, Dave Hoole, Professor of Fish Diseases, and Richard Ward, Professor of Medical Entomology. Future potential collaborations were discussed around the Natural Sciences and the Environment.

DISCOVERING NEW PLANETS

Professor Coel Hellier, Astrophysics, this week gave the last lecture in the University's programme of Inaugural Lectures for 2009/2010.

In his lecture, "Discovering new planets", Professor Hellier described how planetary systems form and evolve. In 2005 Keele was involved in building a camera array in South Africa to find planets that transit across the face of their star.

This has turned into the world's most successful transit search programme, finding more than 20 planets, including the largest known planet, the shortest-period known planet, the first planet in a retrograde orbit and the planet with the strongest tidal interaction.

PROJECT GREEN SHORTLISTED FOR PRESTIGIOUS NATIONAL AWARD

Project Green, the University's Sustainable Business Programme to assist unemployed graduates back into work, has been shortlisted for a prestigious Green Gown Award.

The project, run by Research and Enterprise Services and the School of Physical and Geographical Sciences, is one of five institutions shortlisted in the Skills category, which recognises achievement in the development of skills relevant to sustainability. The short listed institutions were announced at the Environmental Association for Universities and Colleges 14th Annual Conference last week.

Project Green reskills graduates by providing training in environmental business management in conjunction with a placement in an external organisation working on a business-related environmental project.  The scheme's success means we are now looking to extend it to other sectors including medical technologies, ceramics, professional services and digital industries.

VIDEO CONFERENCE WITH UK AMBASSADOR

Students in the School of Politics, International Relations and Philosophy and the School of Law studying international law and human rights were privileged to hear about these areas of law 'in practice' when one of the UK's highest diplomatic representatives, the UK Ambassador to the United Nations Mission in Geneva, Peter Gooderham, talked to a group of second, third and Masters level students about his work.

This guest lecture ran by video conference and was part of the final module on the MA Human Rights, Globalisation and Justice. The Ambassador provided an overview of the legal and political operation of the new UN Human Rights Council, the highest body in the UN for human rights. The Ambassador also answered questions on the work of the UN in human rights, contemporary issues of human rights protection, and provided reflections on the role of the Ambassador and his experiences in that role.

NEW ACADEMIC STARTER

The following academic appointment commenced in post this week:

Research Institute for Primary Care and Health Sciences

Dr John McBeth, Reader in Epidemiology, who was previously a Senior Lecturer at The Medical School, University of Manchester.

OSTEOPATHY WORKSHOP

Osteopathy course leader Liz Elander delivered a workshop at the NHS Careers and Health Skills Academy for students from St Joseph's College, who may be considering a healthcare career. It was the first time that osteopathy had been included in these careers events.  In return, osteopathy students will be spending some time with NHS colleagues to learn more about the NHS and, in particular, to observe departments and medical procedures that are very relevant to osteopathy, such as neurology and orthopaedics. 

Those attending were offered a range of hands-on activities to enable them to get a 'feel' for osteopathy. They also watched a live demonstration of osteopathic techniques, with one of the osteopathy students acting as a patient.

KEELE WELCOMES THE MAYOR OF NEWCASTLE

Keele welcomed the Mayor of Newcastle-under-Lyme last week for her Annual Spring Ball. The ball was attended by about 180 guests from throughout Staffordshire, who enjoyed the historic charm of Keele Hall's ballroom and celebrated in style with an elegant dinner dance.

FROM THE ARCHIVES

April 1986

Sir Claus Moser and the Duke of Westminster have been appointed Chancellor and Pro-Chancellor of the University, respectively, in succession to HRH The Princess Margaret and The Lord  Rochester, who both retire this year, the Princess after 30 years in office and Lord Rochester after 10 years.