PRESTIGIOUS FELLOWSHIP FOR KEELE ASTROPHYSICIST

Dr John Taylor, Research Institute for the Environment, Physical Sciences and Applied Mathematics (EPSAM), has been awarded a prestigious Advanced Fellowship, worth £417,884, by the Science and Technology Facilities Council, for a five-year project entitled "High-precision studies of extrasolar planets and low mass stars".

The primary aim of the project is to measure the properties of each of the known transiting extrasolar planets, in order to understand their formation and evolution. Whilst many of the known transiting extrasolar planets have existing high-quality follow-up observations, some lack this and are consequently poorly characterised. Dr Taylor will also conduct an observing campaign to fill in this gap in our knowledge, using the successful telescope-defocussing technique which he has pioneered.

KEELE WORKSHOP ON ETHICAL POLICING

The Vice-Chancellor, Professor Nick Foskett , welcomed more than 30 speakers and delegates to a workshop at Keele on Ethical Policing, organised by Dr Jonathan Hughes (PEAK/RI Social Sciences) and Professor Philip Stenning (Criminology/RI Social Sciences). The workshop, supported by the Association of Chief Police Officers' Ethics Portfolio and the Scottish Institute for Policing Research, and funded by the British Academy, brought together academics and practitioners from across the UK to discuss issues relating to ethical practice, training and accountability, and to develop plans for future collaborations.

Participants included academic ethicists and criminologists, senior police officers, including five Chief and Deputy Chief Constables, representatives of the National Police Improvement Agency and police training colleges, the Police Ombudsman for Northern Ireland, and the Police Complaints Commissioner for Scotland. The keynote speech was delivered by Peter Neyroud, Chief Executive of the National Police Improvement Agency.

GREEN GRADUATE PROGRAMME HIGHLY COMMENDED IN INNOVATION AWARDS

Graduate placement programme, Project Green, involving Keele and Stoke-based environmental engineering company Wardell Armstrong, was among those shortlisted for a Lord Stafford Award in the Open Collaboration category.

The project, which was Highly Commended, allows graduates to complete a subsidised placement with a local business, while studying for a post-graduate certificate in Sustainable Business Management. So far more than 140 graduates have been placed with companies across all sectors, with Wardell Armstrong taking the role of lead private sector partner.

The programme is funded by the Higher Education Funding Council for England, and match funded by public and private sector partners.

Awards' patron, Lord Stafford, said: "The benefits of this project for both companies and graduates are obvious but it is clear that the reason for the success of Project Green is the way the private and public sector partners have worked together."

The picture shows Lucy Challinor, Employer Engagement Manager, Research and Enterprise Services, with Mark Bedford, Director at Wardell Armstrong, left, and Lord Stafford, who presented the award.

FACING THE FUTURE SEMINAR

Members of Keele's Centre for Social Gerontology, with partners in Manchester City Council's 'Valuing Older People' programme and the Beth Johnson Foundation, helped organise a highly successful seminar, Facing the Future: Creating the Age-Friendly City, in Manchester Town Hall.

The seminar, attended by nearly 200 policy makers, researchers, practitioners and older people, looked at the steps needed to reshape urban neighbourhoods and services in line with age-friendly approaches and principles. The event also celebrated Manchester, along with eight other cities, joining the first wave of the World Health Organisation's Age-friendly City programme. 

Professor Chris Phillipson, Keele, gave a well received opening presentation on 'Ageing in Cities'. The final plenary session - which included an address on the 'Global Age-Friendly Cities Network' from Professor Peter Lloyd-Sherlock, of the World Health Organisation – was chaired by Professor Miriam Bernard, Keele, who is pictured with Paul McGarry, Senior Strategy Manager for the 'Valuing Older People' programme, Manchester City Council..

A report on the seminar will be published before the end of the year and there will be another event in 12 months time to review progress. For further information about the Manchester developments, visit www.manchester.gov.uk/vop; for further information about the Centre for Social Gerontology, see www.keele.ac.uk/research/lcs/csg/.

LECTURE SERIES ON MONTREAL CONSENSUS

Professor Shaughn O'Brien, Research Institute for Science and Technology in Medicine, is undertaking a series of lectures to disseminate the 'Montreal Consensus' of the International Society for Premenstrual Disorders, of which he is founder and chairman.
 
Recommendations on diagnostic criteria, symptom quantification, research and clinical trial design have been presented in London, Wexford,  Birmingham, Manchester, Cape Town, New York, Kyoto, Berlin, Warsaw and Venice, to such bodies as the Polish Gynaecological Society, the International Federation of Gynaecology and Obstetrics and the International Society for Psychosomatic Obstetrics and Gynaecology.

Following the Venice international meeting, Professor O'Brien, pictured above, was elected Chairman of the British Society for Psychosomatic Obstetrics and Gynaecology, which also gives him representation at the International Society.

REGIONAL AWARD FOR NURSING AND MIDWIFERY TEAM

The Preventing Death by Indifference Team in the School of Nursing and Midwifery has received a regional award for a two year, collaborative project designed to help local health care workers to support people with a learning disability in hospital. The team, led by Dr Sue Read, pictured, received funding from the Staffordshire and Shropshire Locality Board to develop a bespoke toolkit. This multidisciplinary project team included representatives from health (UHNS, NHS Trust), information technology, Asist (a local advocacy organisation), Mencap Advocacy (Stafford), Combined Healthcare NHS Trust, Keele, North Staffordshire PCT, parents and people with a learning disability.

The toolkit was so well received that the West Midlands SHA funded workshops to integrate it across the West Midlands region; and the Staffordshire and Shropshire Locality Board awarded further funding for the development of eight workshops for local clinicians. Further information can be found here. 

SPACE TELESCOPE OBSERVATIONS

Dr Joana Oliveira, EPSAM, has been awarded 34.6 hours of observations with the Herschel satellite to observe young stellar objects in the Magellanic Clouds.

Herschel, the largest space telescope, was launched in May 2009 and it is the fourth `cornerstone' mission in the European Space Agency science programme. It has been designed to operate at long infra-red wavelengths (50 to 650 micrometre), to observe the `cool universe': the early universe, as well as the physics and chemistry of the interstellar medium and star and planet formation.

The international team led by Joana is investigating how the low metal content characteristic of the early universe could have an influence on the chemistry of the star formation process. By measuring intensities of key atoms and molecules like oxygen, carbon, carbon-monoxide, water and hydroxyl, they will be able to constrain temperature, density, ionisation state and abundances.

TALKS ON PUBLIC HEALTH ETHICS

Dr Angus Dawson, Centre for Professional Ethics, School of Law and RI for Social Sciences, has given invited talks on public health ethics and policy in three different countries over the last month.

He gave a series of talks in Taiwan, at the National Taiwanese University, Taipei, the National Cheng Kung University in Tainan and at the Taiwanese Centre for Disease Control. He also gave an invited paper at the Institute for Public Health, University of Copenhagen, on ethical values in public health ethics and ran a seminar on the ethical issues related to obesity policy. On his most recent trip he was in India and gave an invited talk on public health ethics at the Asian Institute for Public Health, Bhubaneswar, Orissa, before heading to Delhi to give a keynote address (on values in health research) at the third National Bioethics Conference, held at the All India Institute for Medical Sciences, as well as a paper on the interaction between research methodology and ethical issues (with a focus on recent cluster randomised trials in India). Angus is now involved in developing collaborative research proposals with colleagues from both Taiwan (ethical issues in dengue prevention) and Orissa (polio vaccination).

INVITED PAPERS IN OXFORD AND LONDON

Dr Peter Adey, School of Physical and Geographical Sciences, has given several invited papers in Oxford and London.

He gave a talk in Oxford to undergraduates at Mansfield College's '1887 Club' on the futures and focus of mobilities research, drawing particularly on his recent book, Aerial Life, which received a positive review in the Times Literary Supplement.

Peter then gave a co-authored paper 'Governing Events' to an audience at Oxford's School of Geography and the Environment, about the latest findings from an ESRC project on 'Staging and Performing Emergencies'.

Finally, he gave a paper on 'Infrastructural Affectivity: mobilities, security and the history of preparedness' to the London Group of Historical Geographers at the Institute of Historical Research, which developed early findings from a Leverhulme Trust funded project on the Liverpool Blitz.

JOURNAL EDITOR

Professor Paul Eggleston, who holds the Chair in Molecular Entomology in the School of Life Sciences, has been appointed as UK Editor of the journal, Insect Molecular Biology.

Insect Molecular Biology is published on behalf of the Royal Entomological Society and is one of the top international journals in entomology, currently ranked 5 / 74.

The journal has been dedicated to providing researchers with the opportunity to publish high quality original research in the broad area of insect molecular biology since 1992.

More information about the journal can be found here.

MAKING RESEARCH COUNT

Making Research Count hosted two successful events in which local authority practitioners had the opportunity to hear current research from leading academics in the field of social work . 

Professor June Thoburn, University of East Anglia, drew on her current review of safeguarding procedures in complex child and family cases to address a range of practical and ethical dilemmas facing practitioners working with families in which children have been or are at risk of being maltreated.

Professor Jill Manthorpe, King's College London, discussed research carried out as part of the Evidence Based Interventions in Dementia project,  measuring the impact of the Mental Capacity Act on both service users and  professionals.
 
Attendances were high and feedback indicated the value of the MRC programme in promoting evidence based practice amongst social work and health professionals.

CHRISTMAS MARKET

Keele's annual Christmas Market, held in association with the Douglas Macmillan Hospice brought more than 2,000 visitors to Keele Hall on Sunday.

The market, with more than 40 stalls, provided inspirational ideas for all the family and a chance for the children to meet Santa .

The event raised £1,599 for the charity.

RAVEN MASON COLLECTION OPEN EVENT

The Raven Mason Collection of distinctive ceramics, which is held in Keele Hall, will be open on Tuesday 30 November 2010, from 10am to 4pm, to allow members of staff the opportunity to view one of the finest displays of Mason's Ironstone and Porcelain pottery.

Lovingly assembled by three members of the Raven family, the Raven Mason Collection of Ironstone and Porcelain was presented to Keele in 1993 and is held in Trust.

Curator, Harry Frost, and Trustees of the collection will be available to help visitors.

FROM THE ARCHIVES

This week 23 years ago -

28 November 1987

Actress Glenda Jackson, former pottery chief Mr R Spencer C Copeland, and former Staffordshire County Archivist Freddy Stitt, received honorary degrees from the V.C. Professor Brian Fender at the degree congregation in the chapel.