QM Alumni e-Newsletter Issue 16, October 2008
Previous Issues I Issue 15 I Issue 14 I Issue 13 I Issue 12 I Issue 11 I Issue 10 I
 |
 |
 |
ALUMNI IN THE NEWS
Television Chef and cookery writer Ching He Huang (Economics, 1999) of Fuge Foods and Professor the Lord Robert Winston (q MBBS The London, 1964) have been listed in The Evening Standard’s 2008 Top 1000 Londoners. Ching He Huang was featured in QUAD 16; along with Professor Lord Robert Winston, she is listed among our Notable Alumni.
Professor Sir Peter Mansfield FRS (Physics 1959; PhD 1962)
A new portrait of Sir Peter Mansfield FRS was unveiled at the National Portrait Gallery in September 2008.
The portrait by BP Portrait Prize winning artist Stephen Shankland, was developed through a series of meetings initiated in September 2007. Sir Peter Mansfield is pictured behind his desk in his office at the Sir Peter Mansfield Magnetic Resonance Centre at Nottingham University, a building inextricably linked to the pioneering work that led to his joint Nobel Prize in 2003 for his contribution to the invention of Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI). A great admirer of Sir Peter Mansfield’s pioneering work and the fact that Shankland’s own child underwent MRI scans as a baby, made him a particularly sympathetic artist to undertake this commission. MRI scanners are today used in hospitals throughout the world and it is estimated that over 60 million investigations with MRI are carried out every year.
Sir Peter said: “To have my portrait specially commissioned and hanging in the National Portrait Gallery is a great honour.”
Rt Honourable Baroness Royall of Blaisdon (Westfield, Spanish, 1976)
A former Westfield student has been named Leader of the House of Lords. Jan (Janet) Royall held the post of General Secretary to the British Labour Group in the European Parliament from 1979-85. For the following 10 years she was variously policy advisor, personal assistant, researcher and press officer to Neil Kinnock, MP. When he moved to Brussels to become a European Commissioner she went with him. She was given a Life Peerage in 2004 (taking the title Baroness Royall of Blaisdon in Gloucestershire) and was Government Spokesperson for Health; International Development; the FCO and a Government Whip between 2005 and 2008 in the House of Lords. The Leader of the House of Lords is also a Cabinet Minister.
STAFF NEWS
Dr Davidson Day Ateh, from Barts and The London School of Medicine and Dentistry, and Dr Zimei Rong, from the School of Engineering and Materials Science, have been awarded a grant by the Royal Society of Edinburgh (RSE) to fund their innovative research and business skills. They received their awards from the Cabinet Secretary for Education and Lifelong Learning, Fiona Hyslop MSP and the President of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, Sir Michael Atiyah, OM, PPRS, at a special awards ceremony on Friday 26 September in the Great Hall of Edinburgh Castle.
Read more [opens in new window]
Fellows of British Academy
Professor Trevor J Dadson, and Professor Colin Jones from Queen Mary, University of London were elected to the Fellowship of The British Academy in July. The British Academy elects 35 new Fellows scholars who have attained distinction in the Humanities and the Social Sciences each year.
Professor Trevor Dadson, FBA
Trevor Dadson is Professor of Hispanic Studies and Vice-Principal (Humanities and Social Sciences) at Queen Mary. His particular area of expertise include the literature and socio-economic, cultural and political history of 16th and 17th-century Spain; contemporary Spanish poetry; literary criticism; textual bibliography and the Moriscos (Moors).
Professor Colin Jones, FBA
Colin Jones, Professor of History, is the fourth member of staff in the Department of History to be honoured with a Fellowship of the British Academy. Professor Jones taught at Newcastle, Exeter, Warwick and Standford Universities before joining Queen Mary in 2006. The other Fellows are Peter Hennessy, FBA; Julian Jackson, FBA and Quentin Skinner, FBA.
Professor Jones was also elected to the Ordre des Palmes Academiques, the presitigious French civil honour for services to French culture. He became an Officer dans I'Ordre. Read more about Professor Jones' research interests. [opens in new window]
Other Queen Mary academics who were recognised for their achievements at the French Embassy in Knightsbridge in June were Brigitte Granville, Professor of International Economics and Economic Policy and Jeremy Jennings, Professor of Political Thought both became Chevaliers dans I'Order.
Professor Peter
Hennessy, FBA: Lifetime Achievement
Peter Hennessy, Attlee Professor of Contemporary British History at Queen Mary, has won the Times Higher Education’s Lifetime Achievement Award for 2008.
Professor Hennessy joined the Department of History in 1992, and has been an outstanding teacher of modern history and cabinet government for over 15 years. In 1999 he led the development of Queen Mary’s BA Journalism and Contemporary History degree programme with City University. In 2003 he established the annual Bagehot Lecture which brings distinguished practioners to an audience of historians, with speakers including Polly Toynbee, Rory Bremner and Andrew Marr; in the same year he also established the Mile End Institute. Read more [opens in new window]
Quentin Skinner, FBA, formerly Regius Professor of Modern History at the University of Cambridge, has been appointed Barber Beaumont Professor of the Humanities at Queen Mary. Professor Skinner has been associated with Queen Mary since 2000 when he was awarded a Honorary Fellowship of the College and he has served as Distinguished Visiting Professor in the Humanities in the past. Read more
[opens in new window]
FORMER STAFF NEWS
'Sue Boswell' launched
Sue Boswell, former Head of Alumni Relations, for the Barts and The London Alumni Association
The ‘Sue Boswell’ boat purchased for the Barts and The London Ladies Boat Club with funds donated by BATLAA, was officially launched on Wednesday 8 October at the London Regatta Centre, Royal Albert Docks. Sue worked in the Alumni Relations Office from 1997-2006.
Dave Greenwood (Geology, 1962), along with Mike Howgate (Geology, 1969), organised a three-part exhibition to commemorate the life and work of the late Professor JF Kirkaldy, former Head of the Geology Department (1947-74), as part of the bicentennial celebrations of the Geological Society of London in 2007. The exhibition was held at the Potters Bar Museum - Kirkaldy was a Potters Bar resident for many years and used the area for many of his one-day field trips!
The exhibition covered the life and work of Professor Kirkaldy; his major contributions to geology and, finally, the geology of the Potters Bar area. Whilst the latter part will remain on permanent display, the former sections were showcased at the Alumni Campus Lunch on Saturday 4 October where the Kirkaldy Society held a special reunion to mark the centenary of Professor Kirkaldy's birth and the tenth anniversary of the formation of the Society. Read more about the Exhibition [WORD 27KB]
For more information about the Kirkaldy Society, including how to join, contact alumni@qmul.ac.uk
Professor Marcus du Sautoy, formerly a post-doctoral researcher in Pure Mathematics at Queen Mary, University of London has been named Simonyi Professor for the Public Understanding of Science at the University of Oxford. He takes over the role from the controversial biologist Professor Richard Dawkins. Marcus is currently presenting a four part TV series, The Story of Maths broadcast on BBC4 at 9pm every Monday until 3 November. On a journey through the ages and around the world, Marcus du Sautoy describes the often surprising lives of the great mathematicians, explaining the development of the key mathematical ideas and shows how - in a multitude of unusual ways - those ideas underpin the science, technology and culture that shape our world. Click here to watch the programme.
Professor Paul Julian Smith, FBA, eminent film critic and former lecturer in the Department of Hispanic Studies, was elected Fellow of the British Academy. Professor Smith has published extensively on the subject of Latin American cinema, including a number of cutting edge articles for Sight & Sound magazine, The Guardian Film Blog and the monograph Amores Perros (BFI Modern Classics), for which he secured exclusive access to Alejandro González Iñárritu’s film set.
Former Staff Association
Members of the Former Staff Association enjoyed a number of visits to places of interest over the summer months including Battle, near Hastings; the Royal Dockyard at Chatham; Bletchley Park and Audley End.
The Association is always looking for new members who enjoy convivial company, the theatre and an eclectic range of visits. You can find out about recent visits and membership details by visiting http://www.qmul.ac.uk/alumni/formerstaff/
Women at Queen Mary
A commemorative book Women at Queen Mary has been published to celebrate the contribution of women as students and teachers to the development of the College. The pioneering work of Constance Maynard in the establishment of Westfield College, is placed alongside the work of Elizabeth Garrett Anderson and Elizabeth Blackwell at Barts and The London Hospitals, who both proved that women could qualify and work as doctors. This illustrated book can be purchased from the Alumni Relations Office for £7.95 (excluding p&p). Proceeds from the sale of the book will support the work of the Queen Mary, University of London Foundation. Please click here to download an order form [PDF 782 KB].
STUDENT NEWS
Student Media Awards
Two third-year students of Journalism and Contemporary History were shortlisted for The Guardian Student Media Awards 2008. Roald Tjon-Kon-Fat is named in the category for Feature Writer of the Year and Benjamin Curtis for Sports Writer of the Year. The winners will be announced at an awards ceremony on 26 November in London.
London Schools and the Black Child’s Academic Achievement Awards 2008 (LSBC)
Receipient of a First Class Honours degree, Shardae Smith (Mathematics and Statistics with Finance, 2008), shown here on her graduation day, won this year’s LSBC girls’ Outstanding Achievement Award in Higher Education. While a student, Shardae balanced study, volunteering, and mentoring. She will soon be taking up a post as a trainee actuary.
Other runners-up included First Class Honours recipients, Iskander Ibrahim (Biochemistry, 2008) and Hodan Sulaiman (MSci Mathematics, 2008).
Iskander, who has stayed on to do a PhD, has been invited to submit his final-year project for publication in the journal Bioscience Horizons. His project supervisor, Professor John Allen, commented: “This man is brilliant. His degree shows what Queen Mary is so well placed to do - give added value by recognising and rewarding real ability and achievement.”
LSBC Achievement Awards highlight and recognise the education attainment of children of African and Caribbean heritage and were set up by the Labour MP for Hackney North and Stoke Newington, Diane Abbott.
The winners were presented with their prizes by top businessman Damon Buffini at an awards ceremony at the House of Commons on Friday 3 October. Damon commented: “We celebrate the academic achievement of our young people because hard work and determination offer the clearest routes to genuine respect. Excellence is the passport to success in a globalised world and I look forward to seeing these young people shaping Britain’s classrooms, boardrooms and public life in the 21st century.”
Rebecca Stewart and Nuzhah Gooda Sahib, postgradute students in the School of Electronic Engineering and Computer Science, are among women researchers who won a prestigious Google Scholarship.
The Anita Borg Scholarship supports and encourages women studying in computer science-related fields. Rebecca who received her award in July, at a ceremony held in Zurich, commented: “I am incredibly honored to be chosen as a Scholar. While the financial award is appreciated, the highlight was attending the retreat at Google in Zurich with all the other scholars and finalists. Spending time with a large number of women who are also doing research in computer science is, unfortunately, a rare opportunity.” Read more [opens in new window]
Davina Gounden (Migration, 2008), who has completed her Master's degree in Migration Studies this autumn, was recently profiled in the Careers section of The Guardian, where she explained how her desire to work for an international organisation led her to study migration theories and practice. Davina, who speaks English, French and Spanish, is enthusiastic about working abroad.
Study life balance,
Qmotion
Queen Mary started the 2008-09 academic year with a new invigorating venture for improving campus life experience for its students, staff and alumni. Qmotion, a new Health and Fitness Centre, in which the College has invested £5 million, opened its doors in September.
Qmotion offers cardiovascular and resistance zones, a free weights area, 25 studio classes per week and state-of-the-art equipment. The Centre features two studio rooms, a performance studio, high-tech sound and lighting, a coffee and juice bar and a giant projector screen, as well as a sports hall, squash court, personal training and a female-only gym. It also offers acupuncture, homeopathy, the Bowen Technique and sports massage in its therapy room at a discounted rate of £30 per month for alumni.
For more information, contact qmotion@qmsu.org or telephone +44 (0)20 7882 8040. Visit www.qmsu.org/qmotion
Recent Graduates
If you haven’t already done so, please remember to collect your Alumni ID Card which you purchased while booking for your graduation ceremony. Outstanding cards can be collected from the Alumni Relations Office in Room CB100, on the first floor of the Queens’ Building on the Mile End Campus - please bring two passport-sized photos with you. Alternatively, you can send two passport-sized photos, including a self-addressed stamped envelope, to the Alumni Relations Office, QMUL, Mile End Road, London E1 4NS. Please ensure that your photos are clearly marked with your name, or email your photos to Stephanie Mannion at alumni@qmul.ac.uk
Your Alumni ID Card entitles you to a Queen Mary Alumni Lifelong email Address. The Lifelong email Address is beneficial when writing your CV or applying for jobs as it indicates that you are part of the Queen Mary, University of London community.
For more information about the Queen Mary Alumni ID Card and other benefits please click here.
ALUMNI NOTICES
New BATLAA Vice-President Trustee and Ordinary Members
Professor Paul Wright was elected the new Vice-President of the BATLAA Trustees. He will take over from Mr William Lloyd from 1 January 2009. In addition, Mr Matthew Barry, Dr Joy Hinson and Professor Francis Hughes were also voted as the new Ordinary Committee members at the recent BATLAA AGM, held on Tuesday 14 October.
BATLAA members are invited to nominate the 2011 President of the Dental Club Annual Clinical Meeting. Former presidents are eligible for re-election. Nomination forms which must be signed by the nominee, proposer and seconder, are available on the Alumni Relations website and can also be requested by email at batlaa@qmul.ac.uk. The closing date for returning nomination forms is Friday 23 January 2009. Click here to download a Nomination Form.
BLC Autumn/Winter 2008
Medical and Dental Alumni should have received the latest issue of BLC, mailed out on 23 October . If you have not received your copy or if you have recently moved, please let us know your up-to-date contact details by emailing batlaa@qmul.ac.uk or by completing our online Change of details form.
QUAD: Issue 17
QUAD 17 will be reaching you soon. It features interviews with alumnae Mrs Bushra Nasir (Microbiology, 1974), England's first Muslim female head teacher of a secondary school; Mr Martin Uden (Law, 1976), HM Ambassador to the Republic of Korea and Westfielder Jane Roberts (History and History of Art, 1971), Curator of the Print Room and Librarian of the Royal Collection at Windsor Castle. Please ensure that we have your up-to-date address. To change your address, please email alumni@qmul.ac.uk or use our online Change of details form.
Web email Directory
Almost 3,900 members have now joined our password-protected email directory. Please email Stephanie Mannion if you would like to gain access or to have your name added to the list. Do remember to let us know when you change your email address.
EVENTS
Alumni Events
Tuesday 11 November, from 6pm
Welcome Reception for Incoming Oxbridge students and Alumni
This annual reception for new and current Oxbridge students and alumni will take place in the Senior Staff Room, in the North Wing at St Bartholomew’s Hospital. For more information please email batlaa@qmul.ac.uk
Friday 21 November 2008, 7.15 for 8pm
Barts and The London Alumni Association Dinner and Dance
More than 80 BATLAA members and their guests have already booked to attend this bi-annual event for medical and dental alumni. If you wish to attend, please download and complete the booking form [PDF 132KB]. All welcome!
Venue: Draper’s Hall, Throgmorton Street, London
Friday 21 November 2008, 6.30pm
Hong Kong Alumni Reunion
Alumni living and working in Hong Kong are invited to a reception hosted by the Queen Mary Alumni Association at the Grand Hyatt Hotel, Wanchai, Hong Kong.
To book your place email alumni@qmul.ac.uk
Tuesday 25 – Friday 28 November, 7.30pm
Queen Mary Players: Twelfth Night
The Queen Mary Players return with new additions to the cast and crew, including Peter Holiday, former Academic Registrar at Queen Mary, who performed in the Queen Mary’s Players last production of Twelfth Night over a decade ago.
Tickets: £3 students, £6 adults, if purchased in advance from the John Smith’s Bookshop on Queen Mary’s Mile End campus, the History Department Office or online at www.queenmaryplayers.org. Alternatively, they are £4 for students and £7 for adults if bought on the door.
Venue: Arts Lecture Theatre, Arts Building, Mile End campusTuesday 2 December, 7.30pm
Barts and The London Music Society Christmas Concert and Carol Service
The Christmas Concert and Carol Service includes music from Mussorgsky: Prelude to Khovanshchina, Khachaturian: Masquerade Suite, Mendelssohn: The Hebrides Overture (Fingal’s Cave), Coates: The Dambusters March and Christmas carols.
For further information, email ha05112@qmul.ac.uk
Venue: St Dunstan's Church, Stepney Way, London
Friday 6 - Saturday 7 March 2009
The London Hospital Dental Club ACM and ABM
This year’s programme which is around periodontics, will be hosted by Wendy Turner, President of the London Hospital Dental Club.
Booking forms for both the Annual Clinical Meeting and the Annual Business Meeting will be mailed out with the Dental Club Newsletter in December.
Mr Bill Meeson will preside the 2010 ACM which will be held on Friday 5 - Saturday 6 March.
Public Lectures
Wednesday 5 November 2008, 6.30pm
The Annual Rubinstein Lecture
Democratic Versus Aristocratic Enlightenment: The Split in European Thought in the Late Eighteenth Century
Professor Jonathan Israel, Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton University. Click here for more information.
Wednesday 12 November 2008, 6pm
HarperCollins History Lecture
Out of the Closet: Love, Power and Houses in 18th Century England
Amanda Vickery, Director of the Bedford Centre for the History of Women, Royal Holloway, University of London. Click here for more information.
Wednesday 26 November 2008, 6.30pm
What lies ahead
George Steiner, Professor Emeritus and Fellow of Churchill College Cambridge.
Click here for more information.
Thursday 27 November 2008, 6pm
5th David M Smith Lecture
Terrorism: a word that travelled
Professor Partha Chatterjee, Columbia University, New York
Click here for more information
Inaugural Lectures
Thursday 13 November 2008, 6.30pm
Professor Lars Chittka
Social learning: from miniature brains to consensus building
Click here for more information.
Tuesday 18 November 2008, 6.30pm
Professor Mike Noon
Equality at work: why should white men care?
Professor Mike Noon, Professor of Human Resource Management
Click here for more information.
Reviews
William Harvey Day 14 October 2008
William Harvey Day highlights some of the most cutting-edge research currently underway at Barts and the London School of Medicine and Dentistry and in our partner NHS Trusts. This year, historian, scientist and presenter of the BBC’s television series What the Romans Did for Us and Local Heroes, Dr Adam Hart-Davis, delivered the annual Schorstein lecture, entitled Much ado about nothing – a history of the vacuum, at William Harvey Day. Other speakers included Professor Pierre Corvol from the College de France, and Professor Alan Ashworth from the Institute of Cancer Research.
In addition to the guest lectures, there were nine presentations by School researchers, as well as three science "hot topics" presented by Professor Susan Nourshargh; Professor David van Heel, and Professor Jack Cuzick (Mathematics, 1971, Westfield).
Dr Adrian Martineau from the Institute of Health Sciences Education was awarded the prize for Oral Presentation, and the poster prizes were won by Athina-Myrto Chioni (Institute of Cancer), Peter King, (William Harvey Research Institute), David Parfitt (William Harvey Research Institute and Institute of Cell & Molecular Science), Emmanouil Papadakis (Institute of Cell & Molecular Science) and Claudio Raimondi (Institute of Cell & Molecular Science).
The Day concluded with the traditional St Luke's-tide Service in the church of St Bartholomew-the-Great followed by dinner at the Butchers' Hall.
Next year's William Harvey Day will be on Tuesday 20 October 2009. All alumni are welcome to attend.
Reunion of 1978 Barts Leavers
Alumni who qualified from Barts in 1978 attended a reunion dinner on Saturday 11 October at Barts’ Great Hall. The evening, organised by Liz Cox (née Miller), was a great success and was attended by 107 alumni and their partners.
Tour of Whitechapel Campus for The London 1958 Starters
64 alumni and their partners enjoyed a tour of the Whitechapel campus in September as part of their celebrations of 50 years since qualifying. Their tour included a visit to the Garrod Building (formerly the Old Medical College Building) to see the Old Library, the award-winning Blizard Building, the new library, and Barts and The London Trust’s Museum. This reunion was organised by John Anderson (q MBBS The London, 1963).
CAREERS
Graduates of 2005
You may recall completing a questionnaire as part of the Higher Education Statistics Agency's (HESA) Destinations of Leavers from Higher Education (DLHE) survey six months after you finished your studies at Queen Mary. There is now another opportunity for you to let us know what you have been doing since you received your degree.
IFF Research, on behalf of HESA, is conducting the DLHE Longitudinal Survey which examines graduates progress three years after graduation. They will send you a questionnaire (if you opted to participate in future DLHE surveys). Any information you provide will help in reviewing and promoting courses and giving current students an insight into early career progression, as well as providing an input into government policy development and review. It will also help to improve Queen Mary’s graduates employability position in the University League Tables.
Please complete and return the survey. Your participation is valuable to the College’s employability profile.
Results of this survey will be published online in Summer 2009. The results of 2003 graduates have already been published and can be seen at Destinations of Leavers from Higher Education Longitudinal Survey - Key Findings Report (2007 ).
Miss Aasiyah Dana (English and Drama, 2008) was interviewed by Asians In Media (AIM) magazine about her career in Journalism where she describes how her self-discipline and determination to pursue a career in the competitive media industry inspired her to balance work and study while taking a degree at Queen Mary.
After graduation, Aasiyah was given an internship at The Guardian newspaper for September 2008 where she had a chance to experience a daily broadsheet from the inside. This involved attending editorial conferences where section editors discussed their stories for the following day's issue. “It was interesting to see how the stories developed through the course of the day and how everything came together by the deadline.”
“Gaining an internship at a major paper means that you are expected to be independent and get on with your work. There is no easing-you-in time: you are given responsibilities from day one. This ranged from getting on with research and tracking statistics; liaising with Public Relations; writing breaking news stories for the website; preparing television show reviews and organising on-location interviews for themed features."
During her undergraduate years, Aasiyah concentrated on her studies during term-time and built up her work experience by undertaking commissions for the Itchy City web compilers during the holidays.
Visit our website to view more alumni profiles at http://www.qmul.ac.uk/alumni/profiles/index.html
Find your way into finance
For students who want to work in finance the task can be daunting: a multiplicity of job options to choose from, tough selection methods and the infamous credit crunch increasing job competition all present themselves as obstacles to be overcome.
The Careers Service therefore held a series of events during October dedicated to helping students find out more about possibilities withing the financial services sector, including the chance to hear from employees of top companies such as Deloitte, KPMG, The Royal Bank of Scotland and Unilever.
As part of the week’s activities the Careers Service held an evening themed Find your way into Finance, where a panel of six shared their experiences and provided insights into accessing the sector. The panel, who spoke to an eighty-strong student audience, included former Queen Mary students Imran Ahmad and Shamil De-Dodwell (Economics, 2003) who provided students with plenty of anecdotes about how they got into finance. Imran delivered a passionate speech about the need to excel and compete in this sector.
The panel consisted of individuals from diverse roles such as a Broker, a Corporate Finance Executive and an Emerging Markets Strategist who all spoke about their day-to-day work, the highs and lows and gave advice to students who wished to pursue similar careers.
Computer Scientists needed
Have you graduated with a degree in Computer Science since 2002 and are working within this field? The School of Electronic Engineering and Computer Science and the Careers Service would like to invite you to return to Queen Mary to speak to final year students about your career. These informative sessions are taking place on Tuesday 4 November and Thursday 4 December between 2pm and 3pm. Up to 100 students will attend each session.
If you are interested in participating, please contact Fiona Thurley, Careers Adviser for more information at f.thurley@qmul.ac.uk
Postgraduate Open Evening
Are you looking to undertake a postgraduate course? Queen Mary would like to offer you an opportunity to find out more about the world-class facilities and teaching which is on offer within our three Graduate Schools. This will take place on Wednesday 26 November 2008 from 4pm until 7.30pm. Click here for more information.
Short Courses at Queen Mary
The Department of Education and Skills Development runs a series of short course including academic practice, management development, quality enhancement and IT, throughout the year. To see what is available please visit http://www.esd.qmul.ac.uk/
QUEEN MARY RESEARCH
Familial and Public Attitudes impact on choosing your mate
A study of more than 7,600 twins performed by Swedish Medical University Karolinska Institute in collaboration with Dr Qazi Rahman from the School of Biological and Chemical Sciences has shown that a person’s experience and genetic make-up are the main factors for choosing their sexual partner. This study which examined health, behaviour and sexuality among both men and women aged 20-47, showed that seven per cent of the twins had had same-sex sexual partners. Read more [opens in new window].
Echo-location Evolution in Bats
Dr Stephen Rossiter of the School of Biological and Chemical Sciences, in collaboration with the Universities of Bristol and Shanghai, investigated the evolution of a gene called Prestin in echo-locating bats. They argue that as mammals such as bats evolve, so does this Prestin gene.
The researchers studied the Prestin DNA sequence in a range of echo-locating bats and fruit bats, which do not echo-locate. They found that parts of the gene appeared to have evolved to be similar in the distantly related echo-locating species. Furthermore, they could not find any evidence of genetic changes in the Prestin of fruit bats that might be expected from a loss of high frequency hearing. Read more [opens in new window]
Who were the nuns?
The Arts and Humanities Research Council has awarded a team of researchers at Queen Mary, University of London a grant of £600,000 to conduct a comprehensive study of the membership of English convents in exile during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.
Led by Professor Michael Questier from the Department of History and Dr Caroline Bowden, researchers will study an area of previously untouched history through documents and activities that have received little attention in the past.
Between 1600 and 1800 AD, thousands of English women and girls took cross-channel ferries to join one of the convents in exile. Dr Caroline Bowden said: “The history and survival of these fascinating female communities revealed in their writing contains elements of drama and danger in contrast to the regular daily ritual of the performance of divine office carried out behind the high walls of their enclosures.”
SCHOOL OF MEDICINE AND DENTISTRY RESEARCH
Relapse in quitters is unrelated to other people’s cigarette smoke
Research into tobacco dependence has shown that recent ex-smokers who find exposure to other people’s cigarette smoke pleasant are not any more likely to relapse than those who find it unpleasant.
The researchers studied a group of over one thousand smokers receiving smoking cessation treatment at the East London Smokers Clinic. During their six weeks of treatment, the smokers completed a weekly questionnaire that measured the severity of their withdrawal discomfort, and also asked them to rate how pleasant they found the smell of other people’s cigarettes during the past week.
The results showed that during their first week of abstinence, 23 per cent of respondents found the smell of other people’s cigarette smoke pleasant. Finding the cigarette smoke pleasant was not related to smoking status in the following week.
Read more
The relationship between anastrozole and impaired cognitive performance
New results of a sub-study carried out as part of a worldwide breast cancer prevention study (IBIS-II) show that after two years of taking the aromatase inhibitor, anastrozole, postmenopausal women at high risk of breast cancer do not have impaired cognitive performance.
Early data on women using hormone replacement therapy (HRT) suggested oestrogen was important for maintaining levels of cognition and that reducing oestrogen levels might have a detrimental effect on this function. However, results of this sub-study do not support this belief.
Dr Valerie Jenkins said: "These findings should be reassuring in the short term for postmenopausal women being treated with anastrozole, their clinicians and carers."
IBIS-II lead researcher Professor Jack Cuzick (Mathematics, 1971, Westfield) from Barts and The London’s School of Medicine and Dentistry’s Centre for Epidemiology, Mathematics and Statistics said: "Because the IBIS-II trial is studying healthy women it is important to investigate any possible side effects of the treatment in great detail. These results provide reassurance that taking anastrozole will not impair cognitive performance."
The IBIS-II study is continuing to recruit postmenopausal women at high risk of breast cancer into the main IBIS-II study to determine how effective anastrozole will be at preventing breast cancer in high-risk women.
Interested women should visit www.ibis-trials.org or contact the IBIS-II Recruitment Co-ordinator, Nicola Brebner on 020 7014 0223. Read more [opens in new window]
Performing Medicine Season
The Performing Medicine project has been investigating the uses of arts in medical education for the last five years at Barts and The London School of Medicine and Dentistry. Courses and workshops are now being delivered within the School’s curriculum and are also delivered at King's College and Imperial medical schools. It is clear that arts methodologies have a great deal to offer medical education especially in terms of addressing issues such as cultural difference (ethnicity and sexuality), self care of health professionals, and communication.
From Thursday 30 October, the Performing Medicine season, which examines medicine and healthcare, begins. There will be events taking place across London at the Wellcome Collection, Tate Modern, Science Museum's Dana Centre and the Royal London Hospital. Speakers include Antonio Damasio, Vivienne Nathanson, Richard Ashcroft and Kamdaleep Bhui. A full programme of events can be seen at www.performingmedicine.com.
On 21 November 2008, a symposium is being held at Barts and The London called The Uses of Arts in Medical Training. There will be a range of speakers giving different perspectives including medical educationalists, funders, policy makers, doctors, artists and students. There will be a range of workshops that demonstrate some of the uses of the arts in medical education and some extracts from Art Injections series - performances that have been specially formulated for 21st century medical practitioners and that can be performed for students in medical schools.
For more information about the symposium please email c.g.fowler@qmul.ac.uk There will be a drinks reception at 5.30pm on the 21 November to which all are welcome, even if you cannot come to the symposium.
£650,000 from Nuffield Foundation to alleviate rheumatic diseases
Scientists from the William Harvey Research Institute (WHRI) at Barts and The London School of Medicine and Dentistry, in collaboration with colleagues from King's College London (KCL), have been awarded funding of over £650,000 by the Nuffield Foundation for research into rheumatic diseases.
Professor Cos Pitzalis, Head of the Centre for Experimental Medicine and Rheumatology at the WHRI, and Professor David L Scott of the Academic Department of Rheumatology at KCL have received a joint Oliver Bird Collaborative Centre (OBCC) grant of £656,075 plus 5 PhD studentships for their research, entitled: Translational research into rheumatoid arthritis: an integrated laboratory and clinical approach. Read more
Institute of Cancer scientist is honoured by EMBO for excellence in research
Professor Bart Vanhaesebroeck from the Institute of Cancer at Barts and The London School of Medicine and Dentistry is among fifty-nine leading life scientists from Europe and around the world recognised on Wednesday 15 October 2008, by the European Molecular Biology Organization (EMBO) for their proven excellence in research.
EMBO Members represent a high-profile cross-section of researchers from all fields of molecular life sciences ranging from developmental biology, genomics, molecular medicine, neuroscience and plant biology to systems biology. Forty-seven scientists from the EMBO membership have received Nobel Prizes, many others are recipients of prestigious international awards. Read more [opens in new window]
More news about Barts and The London School of Medicine and Dentistry
QUEEN MARY NEWS
Queen Mary Rankings
2008 National Student Survey (NSS) published in September, revealed that Queen Mary has performed better than the national average in most aspects of the survey. Results show that the College’s highest performing departments included, History, English and Drama, Politics and Law. In addition, Materials, Engineering and Physics all showed very significant improvements in their scores across the survey. The overall result for the College’s score for ‘quality’ has remained the same as in 2007.
The College has also been ranked 20th in England in the Times Higher Education (THE) World University Rankings and placed 160 overall, as well as being listed in the top 150 for Life Sciences and Biomedicine.
The THE World Rankings have been running since 2004. Its rankings are compiled from a survey of 6,354 international academics and 2,339 employers focussing on research, teaching and global outlook.
Blair-ology - a new course at Queen Mary
This year Queen May has launched a new course module studying the history of Tony Blair’s Government.
The specialist ‘Blair Government’ module will play host to a number of guest speakers including Alistair Campbell, who played a vital role at the heart of New Labour’s communications strategy from 1994 to 2003. Other significant figures who have agreed to speak include Baroness Morgan of Huyton, Baroness Jay of Paddington, Sir Kevin Tebbit and Sir David Omand.
The course is set up by the research-led Mile End Group is inspired by Professor Peter Hennessy, a former political journalist and acclaimed scholar in contemporary British history at Queen Mary. One of Hennessy’s former students Mile End Group Executive Director Dr Jon Davis is leading the Blair Government course. “The course attempts to provide a primary-evidence-based first-draft-of-history to students who will also be bridging the gap between rigorous scholarship and daily journalism”, Said Dr Jon Davis. Read more [opens in new window]
Biology with Psychology
A number of colleges of the University of London already offer intuitive psychology courses. From this year, Queen Mary is offering a relatively unique research-intensive psychology programme, Biology with Psychology, which will look at evolution and behaviour in a scientific way. Rather than focusing on just human behaviour, students are looking at animal behaviour across the board. Twenty students have enrolled on this programme this academic year.
Queen Mary, the Draper's Company and the London Borough of Havering have formed a partnership with the intention of establishing a new Academy on the site of the current King’s Wood School in the Harold Hill area of the Borough. The Department for Children Schools and Families (DCSF) has approved an application for funding to undertake a feasibility study for building an entirely new school. The Drapers' Company is the lead sponsor and will be providing the funding: Queen Mary will support academic development of the Academy.
The innovative Learning Village will also include a new campus for Havering College of Further and Higher Education as well as modernised buildings for the existing primary and special school. It will provide educational opportunities for all ages on just one campus and forms the centrepiece of the Harold Hill Ambitions project which was presented to the local community in full on 7 September 2008.
The proposal, if taken to conclusion, is to build a Science and Mathematics Specialist Academy with a brand new Sixth Form - at the heart of an ambitious new development to regenerate Harold Hill. Building on the achievements of the current School, the two sponsors, the Draper’s Company and Queen Mary, will govern the Academy and introduce strengthened management and a renewed ethos and spirit. They will aim to build new relationships with the wider community of schools in Harold Hill to raise expectations and achievements of all children and young people involved.
DCSF has announced its agreement to fund a feasibility study, which is now under way. Subject to a successful outcome to the feasibility stage, including the plans for new buildings, the Academy could open as early as 2010. During its development, the sponsors will work with King’s Wood School to support its continued improvement: this has already begun with plans in hand for Queen Mary to work on outreach projects with King’s Wood.
Professor Philip Ogden, Acting Principal of Queen Mary, said: “We are excited by this opportunity to work with our long-standing partners, The Drapers’ Company, and with Havering, to bring educational benefits to the young people and communities of Harold Hill. Queen Mary has long experience of working with schools to improve standards and we are keen to draw on the excellence of our academic staff to support the new Academy”.
Alastair Ross, Clerk to the Drapers’ Company, said: “The Drapers’ Company has a long history of supporting education at schools, colleges and universities throughout UK. We relish the prospect of working with Queen Mary and LB Havering on plans to build a new Academy at Harold Hill. We hope to create a school that will provide the highest standards of education and thus enable the young people of Harold Hill to have every opportunity to thrive and achieve their full potential.”
A cure beyond the Grave
Professor John Oxford, a leading virologist at Queen Mary and his team were involved in exhuming the body of Sir Mark Sykes, eighty nine years after he was buried in a rural Yorkshire churchyard. The exhumation was part of Professor Oxford’s research to find a cure for the bird flu strain H5N1 which is similar to a fatal avian epidemic that Sir Mark Sykes died of in 1919.
Professor John Oxford said, “He died very late in the epidemic, when the virus had almost burnt itself out. We want to get a grip on how the virus worked both when it was at its most virulent and when it was coming to the end of its life. At a time when we are on the verge of the first influenza epidemic of the 21st century, the samples we have taken from Sir Mark have the potential to help us answer some very important questions."
Scientists are hoping that samples taken from the remains of Sir Mark Sykes will provide valuable clues on how the virus might pass from animals to humans which will help in finding a cure for the H5N1 virus which claims millions of lives.
Read more [opens in new window]
Listening machines
A major project is under way to give machines 'smart ears'. The aim of this project is to develop digital systems that can accurately interpret the sounds they hear and react appropriately. This technology will identify underlying principles so they can be applied to many potential applications in health, security and the creative industries. A traffic camera, for example, would know where to zoom when it heard a crash.
There are already niche systems that give dedicated machines the ability to recognise some elements of the sounds they hear. Examples of these include speech recognition and process monitoring. But these applications have limited functions and are not very useful in the wider world.
“I want to establish machine listening as a key-enabling technology to improve our ability to interact with the world, leading to advances in areas such as health, security and the creative industries.” said project leader Professor Mark Plumbley, of the Department of Electronic Engineering. Professor Plumbley has got five years to spend £1.2m research grant on advancing this technology.
Read more [opens in new window]
Cassini detects arcs of material at Saturn moons
Queen Mary scientists working on NASA's Cassini spacecraft in orbit around Saturn detected faint arcs of material ahead and behind the small moons, Anthe and Methone, providing further evidence that most of the planet’s small inner moons orbit within partial or complete rings.
It is likely that the faint ring arcs from Anthe and Methone consist of material knocked off these small moons by micrometeoroid impacts from outside the Saturn system. This material does not spread all the way around Saturn to form a complete ring due to gravitational influence or resonance from the nearby moon Mimas, which acts to confine the material in a narrow region along the moons’ orbits.
The credit for the findings goes to the Cassini Imaging Team and key analyses were made by the members of the Cassini group at Queen Mary. Read more [opens in new window]
The return of the Queen Mary Players
With the retirement of Professor John Ramsden in the summer, the future of the Queen Mary Players was uncertain. Ben Bellamy, who recently graduated with a First Class Honours degree in English from Queen Mary, has taken over running the company and the Queen Mary Players are back with ten new additions to the cast and three new crew members.
Passionate about drama since a young age, Ben was involved with the Players throughout his undergraduate studies so was delighted to be invited to lead the group. His debut directorship will be Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night which he says he chose because, ‘I think it's frankly one of the greatest comedies of all time!’
Alumni are very welcome to come and see Twelfth Night which will run from Tuesday 25 – Friday 28 November.