University Updates
29 May 2009
News
Bath professors listed amongst world’s premier chemists
Barry Potter, Head of Medicinal Chemistry (Pharmacy & Pharmacology), and Paul Raithby, Professor of Inorganic Chemistry, have been included in the H-index ranking of Living Chemists which measures research inputs.
University of Bath offers new language test for UK employment visa applicants
The University is introducing a new general English language test this month for people looking for work in the UK.
Forty-one students have received a new award marking the skills and successes they have achieved alongside their academic studies. The Bath Award is designed to help students stand out from the crowd, showing prospective employers that they have made the most of their university experience to build and expand their abilities and develop themselves as people.
School of Management update
The School of Management's monthly e-newsletter includes the latest news about staff, students and alumni.
Funding news
Wellcome Trust to fund new state-of-the-art crystallographic facility
A major biomedical research equipment grant worth £337,000 has been awarded by the Wellcome Trust to the Wolfson Protein Crystallography Unit. The highly competitive award was won by Ravi Acharya (Biology & Biochemistry) and Matthew Lloyd (Pharmacy & Pharmacology) together with their colleagues from the two departments.
Pharmacy & Pharmacology receives £190k for knowledge transfer
A research grant of over £190,500 has been awarded to develop methodology and identify new processing technology for the manufacture of pharmaceutical co-crystals and binary API crystals suitable for use in inhaled and oral medicines.
Funding opportunities
The funding lists are taken from the current ResearchResearch listings and include fellowship, travel and studentship opportunities.
Gifts from alumni pay for undergraduate scholarships
Twenty Alumni Fund scholarships are being awarded this year thanks to the generosity of graduates and friends of the University. Awarded to “exceptional” students, the scholarships were set up to enable students to continue to excel in their studies at University free from previous financial or other barriers that might prevent them from reaching their full potential and benefitting from the University of Bath experience. Scholars will receive £1,000 for each year of study whilst on campus.
Information for academics
Potential for academic re-organisation - feedback after consultation
Thank you to everyone who has contributed to the discussion about the potential for academic re-structuring. A summary of feedback from heads of department, Academic Assembly, Senate and our wider community is now online, together with an explanation of the next steps to be taken.
Academic writing coaching extended to all faculties and schools
From 26 May to 29 June 2009, Royal Literary Fund Writing Coach Trevor Day will be offering academic writing support on Mondays and Tuesdays to postgraduates and staff in all schools and faculties (not just to science and engineering students as previously).
Je-S System maintenance rescheduled 30-31 May
Users of the Je-S System are advised not to attempt to access the Je-S System from 5pm on Friday 29 May until 9am on Monday 1 June.
Information
Limited seating in Claverton Rooms Tuesday 2 June
The Hospitality Team would like to advise customers that the Careers Department have organised a Graduate Recruitment Fair lunch to take place in the Claverton Rooms on Tuesday 2 June from 12.30-2.00pm, so staff may experience limited seating. You may prefer to use the Parade Bar, Level 1 or the Blues Café as an alternative.
Free Eurostar tickets to Paris with any longhaul flight purchase
STA Travel is giving away free Eurostar tickets to Paris with the purchase of any longhaul flight. The offer includes staff travelling on University business.
Pensions Officer Bob Bane retires
The Finance Office staff are organising a get-together and would like as many of Bob’s friends and colleagues from across the University to join them in wishing him well over a coffee and pastry in the Claverton Rooms from 10.30-11.30am on Thursday 11 June 2009. RSVP to a.j.milsom@bath.ac.uk if you would like to attend. There is a card and collection in Angela’s office (Wessex House 4.04) for anyone wanting to make a contribution towards a gift.
2009 Facts & Figures booklet now available
The 2009 Facts & Figures booklet, which contains up-to-date information on different aspects of the University, is now available from the Press Office (Wessex House 8.1 )
Nominations for Council
Nominations are requested for the vacancy for one member of non-academic staff to serve on the Council of the University from 1 August 2009 to 31 July 2012.
The THE Awards 2009
The closing date for entries to the Times Higher Education Awards is Friday 5 June.
East Car Park - part closure
A section of the East Car Park will remain closed until 8am on Monday 1 June due to the Summer Ball. Apologies for any inconvenience.
Greener computing - Reduce your carbon footprint when home-working
BUCS greener computing initiative has introduced Wake on LAN (WoL) a service that enables you to boot your work computer from any remote location. You no longer need to leave your work PC turned on if you want to remote access; WoL enables you to boot your computer yourself whenever you need to and, once you have finished, you can also close the computer down, saving energy and money.
Jobs
Vacant posts: www.bath.ac.uk/jobs
In the media
- Diane Hay (Careers) & Alex Nicholson-Evans (Students' Union) appeared on ITN news programmes at lunchtime and 6.30pm talking about a report that reveals that graduates are finding it harder to secure a job in the current recession.
- Richard Whitman (ESML) was asked to comment on the MP expenses scandal on Heart FM radio.
- Yukteshwar Kumar (ESML) recently had an article about Taiwan's political and economic history published on Sify.com, a popular Indian news website.
- Steve Gomersall's efforts to set up a school in Thailand for Burmese refugees were mentioned in the Guardian.
- An obituary of Professor Frank Wallace (Mechanical Engineering) was published in The Times.
Training & development
- Stress & wellbeing at work 3 June
- Appraisal skills and process: support staff (for appraisers) 4 June
- Enhancing learning through feedback 9 June
- Intro & general approach to writing a grant proposal - Anatomy of a research grant 11 June
- Managers' Forum 16 June
- Developing management skills June 2009-May 2010
- An intro to HE - A programme for new managers and administrators 2-4 September 2009
- Agresso familiarisation courses
- IT courses
- Content Management System (CMS) courses
- Summer e-learning staff development programme
Forthcoming lectures & conferences
View all University Public Lectures
Researcher to speak at philosophy festival Saturday 30 May
Alex Prichard (ESML) will be speaking this month at How The Light Gets In, the UK’s first ever philosophy and music festival. In the discussion “Dreams of Utopia”, Alex will speak with philosopher A.C. Grayling, author and broadcaster Kenan Malik and sociologist Ruth Levitas. The debate will be chaired by Susan Neiman, Director of the Einstein Forum.
The story of a mother’s journey from pain and disability to a full and active life, all thanks to a meeting with Director of the Centre for Orthopaedic Biomechanics at the University, will be recounted in a lecture at the Bath Royal Literary Scientific Institution.
Invitation to celebrate the launch of a pioneering pain research centre Tuesday 2 June
Staff from the new Bath Centre for Pain Research will give presentations on their work into controlling pain and relieving pain-related suffering. There will also be an opportunity to meet the research team and view an exhibition of more of the centre’s projects.
Galileo and the founding of the modern world Wednesday 3 June
Gary Mathlin (Physics) will attempt to show how all modern life can be traced back to Galileo in a free lecture next week.
The psychology of habit: From overt behaviour to mental events Thursday 4 June
Professor Bas Verplanken will discuss how habits work and why they pose serious challenges for interventions aimed at changing them. The inaugural lecture will take place at 6.15pm in Lecture Theatre 2 East 3.1. Free tickets are available from Patricia Sechi on ext 3843.
Knowledge Management Market Place Wednesday 10 June
The University together with the UK Council for Electronic Business is co-hosting a one-day event focusing upon Knowledge Management within engineering, including keynotes and a panel session involving eminent practitioners, and a marketplace with industrialists and academics hosting stands to share best practice and the latest thinking in knowledge management. Taking place in the Faculty of Engineering & Design, the event is intended to provide a forum for all those involved in Knowledge Management in engineering to interact to foster the exchange of ideas and to provide opportunities to establish networks across the domain.
Equality Forum Wednesday 17 June
This event aims to involve others in the preparation of a single equality scheme for the University. Simon Fanshawe, a writer, broadcaster and a non-exec director in the public and private sector, will be the keynote speaker.
Sustaining future ecosystem services – From understanding to action - Friday 26 June
This is the fifth and final conference in the series of interdisciplinary conferences organised by the Institute for Sustainable Energy and the Environment (I-SEE), held at the National Liberal Club, Whitehall Place, London. Speakers will review understanding from the four seminars to date, and explore policy and practical implications. The conference is being sponsored by a grant from ESRC/NERC and is free to all participants.
What's on next week
More details about events below
Monday 1
13:15 PM BICS seminar
Tuesday 2
11:00 AM Graduate Recruitment Fair
13:15 PM CNM seminar
Wednesday 3
12:00 Noon Women's networking event: How to be legal and safe when starting up in business
17:15 PM Galileo and the founding of the modern world
Thursday 4
09:00 AM PG conference: Meeting of minds
Friday 5
19:30 PM Lunatick Astronomy
Exhibitions on campus
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Architecture exhibition | 6 East | From Friday 29 May
Students from the Department of Architecture & Civil Engineering will be showing their work at an exhibition opening this evening (Friday) at 6pm. A film project set in Bristol will be shown by the Fifth Year together with individual projects from the Fourth and Sixth Years. -
Life, Environment and People | First floor landing of Building 3 South | Until mid June
The annual exhibition of artwork submitted by students on the 'Life, Environment and People' course is now on view. -
Tea Brown Fields, Blue Skies | ICIA Art Space 1 | Until Friday 12 June, 10am-5pm
Tea is a collaborative group of visual artists who search for the unfamiliar in familiar places. In this project they document their ‘occupation’ of a wasteland, Widnes Waterfront poised for regeneration. - Pam Skelton Dwelling in the Space of Conspiracy | ICIA Art Space 2 | Wednesday 29 April - Friday 5 June, 10am-5pm
Using video, photography and mapping, Skelton plots out patterns of surveillance to retrace the stasi spy network in the last decade of the German Democratic Republic. She constructs an unsettling portrait of a city with 483 spy cells for monitoring citizens.
UBSA trips - open to everyone
- Day trip to London 13 June | £12.50
- Trip to Cotswold steam railway & Cheltenham 25 July | £20
- Four-day tour of Ireland through County Cork / County Kerry / Killarney and the Ring of Kerry 4 September | £269
Arts
Concerts and Performances
- Kilter Roots- A tale of love & vegetables | Bath Organic Group, Lower Common Allotments, Royal Victoria Park, Bath | Thursday 28-Sunday 31 May, Thursday 4-Sunday 7 June
Kilter invites you to grab a spade and elope to the allotment for a theatrical contemplation on the future of food. Kilter, Bath’s unique outdoor theatre company, plants the seeds of change with a playful, engaging show.
Sport
Not too late to join the Race for Life
Places are still available to take part in the Race for Life in Bath, which takes place at the University of Bath Sports Training Village on Sunday 7 June.
There are two events taking place – one at 11am and the other at 2.30pm. The morning event is now full up but there are still places available for the afternoon Race for Life.
Gold for Rushgrove, silver for Hart at Paralympic World Cup
Paralympic Games silver medallist Ben Rushgrove produced another strong performance by striking gold at the BT Paralympic World Cup in Manchester on Sunday. Fellow Sports Performance student Katrina Hart came home with a silver medal.
Mariana reigns in Spain
Coach Education & Sports Development student Mariana Agathangelou scored one of the biggest successes of her badminton career to date by winning the Spanish Open mixed doubles title partnering Robin Middleton.
Graduate prepares for season-opening rowing World Cup
Natural Sciences graduate Adam Freeman-Pask represents Great Britain at the first rowing World Cup of the year, which gets underway in Banyoles, Spain today (Friday).
Pair miss out on main draw at Myslowice Open
The GB beach volleyball pairing of Robin Miedzybrodzki (Civil Engineering) and Tom Lord (Sports Performance) missed out on a place in the main draw of the Myslowice Open in Poland.
The pair had a bye in the opening round of the qualification draw and then lost their round two game at the FIVB World Tour competition.
Emily and Chris celebrate circuit successes
TeamBath players Emily Hollis and Chris Coles were both triumphant in the finals of Badminton England’s Yehlex Under-18 Circuit competitions.
The pair, who are both Advanced Apprenticeship in Sporting Excellence (AASE) students at the University of Bath, collected doubles titles at the climax to the under-18 circuit season at Milton Keynes.