Professor Mark Enright has expertise in the use of bacteriophage – viruses that can be used to infect and destroy bacteria – for infection control in burns and wounds.

At a time when the World Health Organisation is increasingly warning of bacteria becoming immune to antibiotics and the dangers of superbugs, researchers are racing to find alternatives.

The research team at Bath currently has funding to develop innovative wound dressings that would contain nano-capsules of bacteriophage, which would burst open when an infection was detected and release a bacteria-destroying virus into the wound.

While it sounds gruesome, the researchers say this is a real alternative to the use of antibiotics.

Professor Enright said: “These bacteriophages are naturally occurring and are safe, as they only ever infect their target species of bacteria.

“They enter their host, reproduce and then burst out, before going on to kill more bacteria. Once all the infection-causing bacteria are consumed the bacteriophages simply die.”

The team's research could help children like Isambard who was burned by a hot drink. Isambard has luckily since made a full recovery.

Professor Enright is the Research Director of AmpliPhi Biosciences since the company’s acquisition of Biocontrol Ltd in January 2011.

Professor Enright first established his own research group at the University of Bath in 2000, after winning a Royal Society University Research Fellowship.

He said: “I am thrilled to be returning to the University and to the city of Bath. It’s a great place in which to carry out this research, with fantastic facilities and a strong working relationship with the South West UK Children’s Burn Centre at Frenchay Hospital in Bristol.”

Project leader Dr Toby Jenkins, from the Department of Chemistry, said: “We have collaborated with Mark and AmpliPhi Biosciences throughout this project, and bringing him into the research group here at the University is an exciting step for our team.

“We’re thrilled to invite him to the Department, and we’re looking forward to working closely with him on further developing the bacteriophage project.”

Professor Enright’s appointment is for a period of three years, during which he’ll be based in the University’s Department of Chemistry.

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He has recently been awarded the Professor Kenneth Black Distinguished Service Award by the International Insurance Society, the largest insurance industry business network in the world. The award recognises his academic work in the fields of insurance and risk and his contribution to the growth and development of the Society in his role as UK ambassador.

Professor Adams said: “I was a senior lecturer at Bath twelve years ago and now I’m returning to the University to set up a new Centre for Strategic Risk. The vision is to create a multi-disciplinary research unit that produces rigorous academic research.  In the current economic climate, and particularly following the recent global financial crisis, the commercial and public policy implications of academic views on risk management are more salient than ever.

“The Centre will draw on expertise already within the School of Management. It was ranked fifth in the UK for management research in the RAE 2008 so the quality of work at Bath is well placed to help the Centre flourish.

“I’m hoping to set up collaborations across the University, in engineering, economics and psychology for example, to achieve our goal. This multidisciplinary approach will provide different perspectives on risk management problems and so contribute to effective commercial and public policy decisions at both the national and international level.

“In my own research, I’m currently working with colleagues in Hong Kong to explore the link between insurance and corporate governance in China, and researchers at Sweden’s Umeǻ University to examine the economic institutional development of the Swedish insurance market.”

Four doctoral scholars are already based at the Centre researching the use of reserving and re-insurance to manage earnings for cost purposes; the profitability of micro insurance schemes in developing countries; the link between property insurance and capital cost, and the role of reinsurance and cost of capital in the non-life sector.

The Centre has prestigious academic and industry supporters including the Willis Research Network, UK Government Actuary’s Department, the Wharton School, and RGA, one of the world’s largest life re-insurers.

“My wife and I have lived in Keynsham near Bath since my first appointment here and we make full use of the restaurants, pub and theatres that Bath has to offer. We’re also keen supporters of Bath Rugby. Returning to Bath is like returning home. The city is a great place to live and work. It’s ‘next door’ to Bristol and not too distant from London and other major commercial centres in the UK. The surrounding countryside is also very beautiful and it’s a great place to raise a family.”

He is one of 12 leading academics set to join the University as part of a strategic investment in research and teaching excellence across all faculties and disciplines.

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LimesNet (Low Impact Materials and innovative Engineering Solutions Network) will build a multi-disciplinary community of stakeholders to develop pioneering materials and technologies that will significantly reduce the impact of new and existing infrastructure.

Over 70 leading researchers and sector stakeholders, including product manufacturers, building designers, contractors, and clients, attended the launch workshop at the University of Bath on 15 September 2011.

The network is now seeking to recruit research active members who generally do not work in the area of construction materials and civil engineering.

Through inter-disciplinary working LimesNet seeks to develop novel research programmes capable of delivering significant innovation in the use of materials for the built environment.

In previous workshop discussions a need for greater engagement with a variety of expertise was identified, including economists, pure and applied scientists, health specialists, sociologists and artists. LimesNet welcomes approaches from any interested individuals, research groups or organisations.

Concrete is the second most consumed material by humankind after water, and worldwide the production of cement alone is responsible for an estimated five to ten per cent of all carbon emissions.

Whilst modern building regulations have driven improvements in the energy efficiency of buildings in use, the construction industry is still largely reliant on materials developed in an age of cheap fossil fuel based energy.

The construction product industry has made significant improvements in materials manufacture, such as the use of cement replacement materials; greater recycling of steel; more energy efficient processes, and improvements in building energy performance, through increased levels of insulation. Despite this, many new buildings have an increased rather than a decreased level of embodied carbon.

Professor Pete Walker, Director of the BRE sponsored Centre for Innovative Construction Materials will be leading the network. He said: “Achieving significant reductions in the cradle-to-cradle environmental impact of construction materials requires a fundamental reappraisal of their manufacture, specification and use.

“LimesNet will bring together a unique network of multi-disciplinary researchers and industry representatives to establish a new framework for structural and ground engineering.”

Delegates at the LimesNet launch event held in Bath earlier this month.

LimesNet is supported for 12 months by the Engineering & Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) and 50 industry partners. Initial membership is much larger than similar research networks, comprising researchers from over 30 leading UK universities.

Professor Walker said: “The launch event allowed for considerable networking opportunities, an introduction to the network’s aims and the launch of the network’s International Mission Fund with a call for proposals to lead on international missions. We’re now looking forward to recruiting research members to input to the network.”

Chris Stobbart, an Engineer from Jane Wernick Associates (architects), attended the launch event. He stated that one of the most important outcomes of the event was in “seeing the same kind of concerns come up across industry and academic, which led to a better understand within the community of priorities for future research.”

Non-academic membership of the network is drawn from across the construction sector including material and product manufacturers; ground and structural engineering consultants; construction contractors and subcontractors; architects and building environment engineers; and clients, property owners and procurers. Members at the workshop included representatives from: Arup, Buro Happold, Carillion, CIRIA, Expedition Engineering, Forestry Research, Ibstock, Kier, Mineral Products Association, NHBC, Ramboll, and URS Scott Wilson.

Interested individuals and organisations from a wide range of backgrounds, with the potential for developing collaboration within the construction industry, are encouraged to contact LimesNet Network Coordinator, Eloise Spark.

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Professor James Davenport and Dr Russell Bradford have been awarded the grant for the project, which will allow the department to continue its collaboration with the leading Ontario Research Centre for Computer Algebra (ORCCA) at the Universities of Western Ontario and Waterloo.

The continuation of this collaboration between the institutions will allow the team from Bath to extend research in the field of ‘connectedness’ – with the aim of achieving a major breakthrough in computational geometry.

Professor Davenport said: “Connectedness, as in ‘can we get there from here’, is a fundamental concept, both in actual space and in various abstract spaces.

“This research grant will fund the continuation of our collaboration with the Ontario Research Centre for Computer Algebra, and will allow us to explore this field and advance on previous research we have carried out.

“We have appointed a research student who will join us in October, and are now looking to take on a postdoctoral researcher to complete the group.”

Professor Davenport at the presentation of an honorary doctorate to Professor Stephen Watt.

The outcome of the project will have implications for Bath’s longstanding research in formula simplification, and also for questions associated with robot motion planning.

Professor Davenport has recently visited the Universitatea de Vest in Timișoara in Romania, where he was one of four international research leaders representing the computer algebra community at the award of an honorary doctorate to Professor Stephen Watt, a leading researcher in the field of computer algebra from the Ontario Research Centre for Computer Algebra.

Professor Davenport is internationally recognised as the main author of the first textbook in the field of computer algebra. He is also the first Research Chair of ORCCA, which performs fundamental research and development in mathematical software, focusing on computer algebra.

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She represented Great Britain in the 20 to 24 year old age group and finished in third place overall, achieving the best GB time for her group.

She completed the 1.5km swim, 40km bike ride and 10km run in 2 hours 24 minutes.

Kate, aged 23, is in the second year of completing a PhD in the Department of Biology & Biochemistry, and qualified for the World Championships after success in the national triathlon competitions.

Kate took up triathlon as a hobby while she studied for her first degree at Bath and fell in love with the sport. She says her level of success has taken her by surprise: “I entered Beijing to see how I’d do and to try my best. Winning a bronze medal came as a complete shock.

“The scale of the competition was amazing and it was a brilliant experience. I wasn’t sure what to expect competing at that level, but everyone was really friendly.”

Kate currently trains for about six hours a week, swimming with at the Sports Training Village with the Bath Amphibians, cycling to campus several times a week from her home in Holcombe, and fitting in runs at the weekend.

She swam competitively at school so says she is used to making time for sport, and that her training helps to make her more efficient at work.

Kate’s PhD supervisor, Dr Will Wood added: “This is a fantastic achievement by Kate and made all the more impressive by her ability to juggle her triathlon commitments with her PhD research. We are all very proud of her in the Wood lab.”

Kate is hoping to qualify for next year’s World Championships in Auckland and is now looking ahead to the event: “As I didn’t know I’d do so well I haven’t got my season planned yet. I’m really looking forward to next year though and I know I’ve got a lot of work to do.”

From working-out to chilling-out, via the kitchen sink, Bobby’s wellness road show investigates how to get better at feeling better, and even includes a cup of tea for audience members.

The show on 14 October will launch the UK tour, and has been commissioned by the ICIA as part of the World Mental Health Day celebrations, with further performances scheduled for next year as part of the Cultural Olympiad in the lead up to the London 2012.

The show is based around Bobby’s own experiences of mental illness and recovery and is told through a series of large flight cases which she will open throughout the course of the show revealing a compendium of top tips for well-being including a beautifully crafted gym, kitchen and rest and leisure zone.

The show will explore notions of what is good for our well-being, from the health benefits of exercising and nutrition to issues relating to modern daily life.

Bobby said: “Mad Gyms and Kitchens is about how I got better physically after years of ill health, and only being seen as someone who was ‘mentally disordered’.

“People like us are always given advice on how we should ‘keep fit, look after yourself, be well’. Even if well-meant this advice can be patronising – or just add to our list of personal ‘failures’.

“So this show is my riposte and demonstrates my ‘top tips for me’. The show also encourages the audience to contribute their own tips so that maybe, in this maddening world, we can all be our own experts on what it means to be well?”

ICIA’s relationship with Bobby Baker began in 2003 and includes the first exhibition of Bobby Baker’s Diary Drawings in 2006.  In 2010 Bobby Baker and sculptor Charlie Whittuck conducted a research and development residency for Mad Gyms & Kitchens at ICIA, resulting in an exhibition and talk. 

Mad Gyms & Kitchens has been co-commissioned for Unlimited, a project celebrating disability, arts, culture and sport on an unprecedented scale, as part of the London 2012 Cultural Olympiad.

The project is principally funded by the National Lottery through the Olympic Lottery Distributor, and is delivered in partnership between London 2012, Arts Council England, the Scottish Arts Council, Arts Council of Wales, Arts Council of Northern Ireland and the British Council.