FAIR TRADE FORTNIGHT AT KEELE

Deputy Vice-Chancellor and Provost, Rama Thirunamachandran, attended a special pledge ceremony in the Chancellor's Building this week to launch Fairtrade Fortnight 2013.
 
The Deputy Vice-Chancellor made a pledge to switch part of his usual grocery shopping to Fairtrade items before hanging the pledge, written on a Fairtrade pledge card, on a special pledge tree.
 
He said: "We can all do something about the exploitation of cheap labour in the developing world. It is time we looked at our own shopping habits and started to shop with a conscience."
 
The pledge trees and cards are part of a series of events organised by the University to celebrate Fairtrade Fortnight, taking place until 10 March. It aims to raise awareness of the plight of workers in the developing world and what you can do to help make a difference to their lives.
 
If you would like to make a pledge you can do so at one of four locations:

•SU reception area
•Chancellor's Building foyer area
•Medical School by Le Café
•Sports Hall reception area

Other events taking place during the fortnight are:

•Friday 1 March 6-7pm– Silly Games, Sports Hall
Silly games at the Sports Centre using Fairtrade items. Take a trip back to your childhood with these fun games.

•Saturday 2 March 10am-1pm – Fairtrade 5-a-side Football Tournament, Sports Hall.
Sign up your team by registering at the Sports Hall reception.

•Thursday 7 March 9pm - SU Fairtrade Quiz, Scruffy Squirrel. Quiz with a special section dedicated to Fairtrade questions!

MARCH THE 8TH: THE GENDER DEBATE

The University invites its staff and students to get involved in hearing about and shaping the gender equality debate at Keele. MARCH THE 8TH: THE GENDER DEABTE is a day of presentations, discussion, and activities at the Sustainability Hub, from 10.30am to 5pm, that will raise awareness of gender equality issues, what this means for women and men in the workplace, and the effects of this changing context for the Higher Education sector. This is an inclusive event relevant and open to all genders.

A key note address will be delivered by Professor Cynthia Burek, of Chester University and the first chair of the Geo-conservation Committee in the world, on 'Public perceptions of the role of women in science through history'.

The day will also hear from Pro V-C, Professor Pat Bailey, pictured, on 'The University's Athena SWAN Journey' (Scientific Women's Academic Network) charter and Professor Farzana Shain on 'Women in the academy; getting on or just getting by?' 

This event is in support of International Women's Day 2013 and the University's commitments under the Athena SWAN charter. For further information and to book your place online visit the Keele Unity web pages on http://www.keele.ac.uk/keeleunity/marchthe8ththegenderdebate/

WORLD'S SMALLEST SPECTROMETER EVALUATED AT KEELE

Fast and efficient on-site and on-line analysis has become essential in food and pharmaceutical industries, environmental monitoring, security and counterfeit detection and many other areas.

Dr Vladimir Zholobenko, Chemistry and Forensic Science, has been given one of the world's smallest spectrometers to evaluate its potential in real-life applications (see photo). This space-age "tricoder" technology has now been successfully tested for a variety of applications in environmental and materials science.

GENESIS DEATH SANDWICH IN 'TIME'

Dr Gordon Rugg, Computing and Mathematics, has had his latest research "Genesis Death Sandwich" published in Time magazine and publications around the globe.

An online text-analysis tool, called Search Visualizer, which was developed by Dr Rugg, has, for the first time, revealed a common literary technique in the Book of Genesis that has remained hidden in the text for millennia. With Dr David Musgrave, from Amridge University, USA, he has discovered that Genesis uses an early example of a technique known as 'bracketing', which sandwiches one theme between two mentions of another. The technique is commonly used today, such as when bad news is sandwiched between two bits of good news. The new analysis of Genesis reveals a striking pattern between the two key themes of 'life' and 'death'.

RUBY IS TOP ORIENTAL CHEF

Ruby Rainey, a young chef from Keele, has won a top award in a national cooking competition in Birmingham. She was runner-up in the 'Wing Yip Young Oriental Chef of 2013'. 

The competition; organised by Wing Yip and judged by TV's Ching He Huang, Michelin starred chef, Glyn Purnell, and Peter Griffiths, was the first of its kind and represented the Midlands' top young talent.

Ruby had to cook a two course meal in 1½ hours. Her menu consisted of miso soup, with toasted tofu and crab bon bon for a starter, which the judges said 'was to die for', and a main course of duo of duck, with a crispy ginger wonton and sesame noodles.

KEELE WORLD FESTIVAL CONTINUES

The second week of the Keele World Festival has been a great success. A Song and Dance showcase in Lindsay Cafe Bar featured more than 15 student acts with £175 in cash prizes up for grabs.

The talks this week were all well attended, with more than 60 students and members of staff attending the "Supporting International Staff and Students in Higher Education", organised by Bal Everitt.

Claire Herbert, Policy Officer at the Equality Challenge Unit, reported on the unit's recent research into the experiences of international students and staff in higher education, and how Universities can improve their support services to these groups. The presentation slides "International staff and students in HE" can be found at equality and diversity web pages; http://www.keele.ac.uk/hrss/equalitydiversity/.

For the more active there has been table tennis, badminton, tennis, handball, football, salsa, Capoeira, Bollywood and belly dancing sessions.  The KPA provided a World Quiz and you can book your place at the End of the World party at the KPA this Sunday by emailing internationalsupport@keele.ac.uk.

SOCIAL ENTREPRENEUR AWARDS

Do you have an idea for a social enterprise and need funding, support and training? The UnLtd Social Entrepreneur Awards support students and staff at Keele University to develop business ideas for a social enterprise activity.
 
Round 1 in December saw four successful award winners, with over £10k of funding allocated.  The next round is just about to be launched so make the most of this opportunity to get some seed funding to develop your ideas:
Try It Awards - up to £1,000 to try out a social enterprise concept
Do it Awards – up to £5,000 to grow an entrepreneurial idea

Applications will be accepted soon – check   http://www.keele.ac.uk/business-support-services/socialenterprise/  for further details, or email socialenterprise@keele.ac.uk

THREE COUNTIES OPEN PHOTOGRAPHY EXHIBITION

Stoke photographer Steve Geary won first prize in this year's Keele University Three Counties Open Photography Competition, with his entry 'Gannets of Bass Rock'.

Photographers from Cheshire, Shropshire and Staffordshire were praised for the excellent quality of the work submitted. They entered more than 300 photographs for the competition, which was opened this week by Professor Michael Murray. The exhibition, which features 110 of the works, runs until 27 March.

Professor Murray, a member of the University's Arts Panel, pictured with the winning photographer,said the standard of the entries had been exceptional.

RECORD NOMINATIONS FOR TEACHING EXCELLENCE AWARDS

A record number of more than 400 nominations have been received for this year's Keele University Excellence Awards in Learning and Teaching.

Each year students and staff are invited to nominate teachers who have been inspirational and/or outstanding in their support for student learning.

During the three month nomination period, 209 teaching staff were nominated by individuals and groups of students and staff for their contribution to the student learning experience at Keele.

Nominations frequently referred to the support and help they had received, the expert knowledge and enthusiasm of great teachers and their ability to make time for student queries.

A full list of this year's nominees and more details about the Keele Excellence Awards in Learning and Teaching can be found here.

KEELE RESEARCH PAPERS IN NATURE

A paper co-authored by Emanuele Nardini, Astrophysics Group, which measured the rate of spin of a supermassive black hole for the first time, was published in Nature this week and hit the national headlines.

The work, "Unambiguous Determination of the Spin of the Black Hole in NGC 1365", is based on the X-ray observation of the active galaxy NGC 1365, performed simultaneously with the XMM-Newton and NuSTAR space telescopes, which made available for the first time high-quality X-ray spectra over more than two decades in photon energy. 

He said: "This allowed us to disentangle the general relativistic effects through a time-resolved spectral analysis, and to measure the spin of the supermassive (like about 2 million suns) black hole in the centre of this striking nearby galaxy."

A paper co-authored by Ruoli Chen, School of Pharmacy, "Tsc1 (hamartin) confers neuroprotection against ischemia by inducing autophagy" has been selected for Advance Online Publication on Nature Medicine's website.

STUDENT SET TO PRESENT RESEARCH WORK AT HOUSE OF COMMONS

A PhD student at the School of Pharmacy / ISTM, Amy Judd, has been invited to present her work at the Houses of Parliament.

She has been selected to present the research from her PhD project in the House of Commons.

Out of over 1,000 applicants her abstract was chosen and as part of the process she will invite the local MP, Paul Farrelly, to Parliament to discuss her research.

It is part of SET (Science, engineering and technology) for Britain organised by the Parliamentary and Scientific committee and there is a medal and cash prize to compete for within her stream, which is biological and biomedical sciences.

Then there will be the chance to win overall, which has a further medal and prize.

WHAT'S ON

Keele University Concert Band - "The US Masters" in the Keele Chapel tomorrow, Saturday, 2 March, at 7.30pm.

The programme includes music with an American theme and will feature music such as the Slava by Bernstein, Piano concerto in C by Anderson and Liberty Bell by Susa.

Tickets can be bought at the door and are £7/£5.

The Recruitment, Outreach and Access Team, with Staffordshire University, is holding a free information evening for the parents and guardians of Year 12 students considering their higher education choices.

The event is  on Wednesday, 6 March, between 6.30 - 9.00pm, at the Sustainability Hub.

Light refreshments will be provided and the students are welcome to attend. 

Book your place here by clicking on the 'Events' tab or contact on 01782 734009/733949 or e-mail outreach@keele. ac.uk.

FROM THE ARCHIVES

Forty-six years ago -
 
Professor Alan Gemmell of Keele University nears the 1000 mark in radio and television broadcasts.

He has contributed to 750 editions of Gardeners' Question Time and his tally also includes Any Questions?, Ask me Another, Who Knows?, Brains Trust and Woman's Hour.

3 March 1967.