KEELE ASTROPHYSICISTS USE NASA'S SPITZER TO FIND SOLID BUCKYBALLS IN SPACE

Professor Nye Evans, Astrophysics, led a team of astronomers using data from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope who have, for the first time, discovered buckyballs in a solid form in space.

Prior to this discovery, the microscopic carbon spheres had been found only in gas form in the cosmos. The new work, led by Professor Evans, appears in a paper in the journal Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society and has attracted worldwide press coverage.

Buckyballs are named after their resemblance to the architect Buckminster Fuller's geodesic domes. They are made up of 60 carbon molecules arranged into a hollow sphere like a football. Their unusual structure makes them ideal candidates for electrical and chemical applications on Earth, including superconducting materials, medicines, water purification and armour.

In the latest discovery, the team of scientists, including Keele's Jacco van Loon, using Spitzer, detected tiny particles of matter consisting of stacked buckyballs. They found the particles around a pair of stars called XX Ophiuchi, 6,500 light-years from Earth, and detected enough to fill the equivalent in volume to 10,000 Mount Everests.

"These buckyballs are stacked together to form a solid, like oranges in a crate," said Professor Evans. "The particles we detected are miniscule, far smaller than the width of a hair, but each one would contain stacks of millions of buckyballs."

The image is an artist's concept of the buckyballs. 

UK FIRST FOR KEELE AS COMMUNITY CONNECTIONS LAUNCHED

Keele has launched a pioneering community based volunteering strategy, linking its student population, through the Students' Union, with three North Staffordshire organisations – Aspire Housing, Embrace and North Staffordshire Volunteering Centres (NSVC), as part of National Student Volunteering Week.

The new strategy, named 'Keele Community Connections', was launched yesterday as part of National Student Volunteering Week, the 50th Anniversary of the award of Keele's charter as a University and the tenth year of formal volunteering at Keele.

The University will also join with the NSVC and Volunteering England to become a branch of NSVC – and it is believed Keele is the first university in the country to become a branch of this national organisation.
 
The initiative will provide high quality volunteering experiences in partnership with a wide range of local and global organisations, thereby contributing to social, environmental, and economic agendas locally, nationally and internationally, enabling Keele students to make a positive and valued contribution in the communities in which they live and work.

The Vice-Chancellor, Professor Nick Foskett, said: 'The University's mission includes our commitment to contributing positively to social, environmental and economic agenda's locally, nationally and internationally. The 'Keele Community Connections Volunteering Strategy' is an innovative, pioneering, community-based initiative, which will strengthen Keele's links with its communities for the benefit of individuals and groups within those communities, and Keele's students and alumni.'

Professor Marilyn Andrews, Pro Vice-Chancellor of Education and Student Experience, said: 'We are absolutely thrilled to be launching 'Keele Community Connections', which we hope will become a beacon of excellence in volunteering, as well as creating a significant and positive impact within the Keele, local and global communities, and on those who participate in volunteering.'

To celebrate the new initiative there was a presentation in the Westminster Theatre introduced by the Deputy Vice-Chancellor and Provost, Rama Thirunamachandran, who is pictured above with representatives from the volunteer groups and members of staff. Marilyn is pictured far left.

KEELE SOFTWARE EXPERTISE GOES GLOBAL

A research team based in Keele's School of Computing and Mathematics are currently conducting a two-year EU-funded project, aimed at producing evidence-based risk management guidelines for global software developers.
Large-scale global development has led to significantly increased complexity with project managers required to co-ordinate multiple sites, multiple time zones and control multiple groups of developers with different cultural backgrounds. The Keele based project will produce guidelines to assist managers in dealing with the risks of globally distributed software development.

Professors Pearl Brereton, pictured, June Verner and Barbara Kitchenham are currently collaborating on this work. June, a New Zealander, is at Keele as an EU-funded Marie Curie International Fellow and brings her expertise in global software development to Keele's established international reputation in evidence-based software engineering (EBSE).

Barbara is also currently a visiting scholar at Hong Kong Polytechnic University. During her stay in China she will deliver seminars in Hong Kong, at Beijing University, and at the Chinese Academy of Science.

Professors Kitchenham and Brereton, together with Professor David Budgen, from Durham, have made significant contributions to the increasing international prominence of EBSE and its associated technologies.

BENCHMARKING ICTs IN HEALTH

Professor Michael Rigby, Emeritus Professor of Health Information Strategy, has attended an invitational meeting at the OECD headquarters in Paris. 

Information and communication technologies are increasingly central to the delivery of health care, with applications ranging from electronic records to remote monitoring of patients with chronic conditions.  However, the use of these technologies is often far from optimal. OECD, in partnership with the Commonwealth Fund, a US based philanthropy, is starting to address the challenge of how to measure and benchmark the use of such technologies.

Professor Rigby was the only UK academic expert attending and will be involved in the follow-up work.

SUCCESS FOR STUDY CHINA APPLICANTS

Four  Keele undergraduates have beaten applicants from across England, Scotland and Northern Ireland to be selected to take part in the Study China Programme.

It is the highest number of successful applications ever in a single year from Keele and shows our students can compete and succeed on a national level.

The Study China Programme is a highly competitive, government-funded, 17-day study programme managed by the University of Manchester.

It is a tremendous opportunity to learn about China, its language and its culture. Students visit China, take an intensive course in Chinese language and immerse themselves in Chinese cultural and social activities.

One of the successful applicants said: "I am extremely excited to have been accepted onto the Study China Programme.

"I never thought I would be given the opportunity to study at a University in Jinan and I am so happy to have been given a chance to. It will be a once in a lifetime experience!"

23,000 TEACHERS, 12 YEARS: ESEU FORGES ON

Professor Chris King's review of the Earth Science Education Unit 's twelve year national rollout, has produced headline figures for the success of the unit.

The ESEU has presented workshops to more than 5,000 teachers and 12,000 trainee secondary science teachers, and more than 700 teachers and 1,100 trainee primary teachers in England and Wales, together with nearly 3000 teachers and 700 trainee science teachers in Scotland, and teachers in Northern Ireland too.

Thanks to Oil and Gas UK, ESEU has also secured an additional £193,282 in order to allow the Unit to continue providing Earth science teacher training throughout 2012.

GEOSOC DIAMOND BALL AT KEELE HALL

Professor Iain Stewart (How to Grow a Planet; Men of Rock, etc.) will be attending this year's GeoSoc Diamond Ball – which celebrates 60 years of geography and geology at Keele - on 16 March at Keele Hall to give the after-dinner speech.

He will also present awards to Geography, Geology and Environmental students.

NEXT WEEK - INAUGURAL LECTURE

Monday, 27 February - Professor Kurt Richard Luther will be giving the latest lecture in Keele's series of professorial Inaugural Lectures.

Professor Luther, Comparative Politics, SPIRE, will be speaking on "Political Parties: Who Needs them?"

FROM THE ARCHIVES

Forty-six years ago -

TRACK – the television and radio committee which sprang up as a counter to Mary Whitehouse's 'Clean up TV' campaign – called an emergency meeting in London on 24 February 1966.

TRACK chairman is Mr Roy Shaw, Director of Keele's Department of Extra-Mural Studies, and speakers include the head of BBC sound broadcasting.