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Engineers without Borders

Four Bristol students flew out to Havana inJuly in a bid to improve the Cuban capital’swater supplies. The Engineers WithoutBorders society at Bristol – which has morethan 200 student members – has beenworking on a project called ‘Optimisationand control of the urban Cuban watersupplies’. The students obtained permissionfrom the water company, Aguas de laHabana, to test a prototype system in theDistrict Metered Area (DMA) of thePolytechnic University of Havana, whichserves nearly 5,000 people.

Nearly 70 per cent of the water pumped intoHavana is lost through leakages, oftenresulting in supply being cut off from someareas for days. The team met with theircounterparts and with senior staff at Aguasde la Habana, and returned with enoughinformation to begin optimising the waternetwork within the DMA. The ultimate aim isto set up an efficient automated waternetwork that not only detects leaks but alsoallows for optimal distribution throughout theHavana water system.

The project follows on from the University’sprestigious 2005 Mondialogo EngineeringAward-winning project, which researched intothe optimisation of the Cuban electrical andwater supplies.

The student experience has always been characterised by transition, change anddevelopment – that’s what higher education is for. But as the landscape of education itselfundergoes radical change, Bristol’s enterprising students continue to excel in their chosenfields and branch out into extra-curricular activities with energy and imagination.

Postgrads rally to Mongolia

Two Bristol postgraduates completed one ofthe most extreme car challenges in the world– the 8,000-mile Mongol Rally – in an oldVolkswagen Polo. Dan Bailey (Department ofMathematics) and George Chapman(Department of Physics) covered a quarter ofthe Earth’s surface in a car with a one-litreengine, driving on roads ranging from bad toalmost non-existent, with no support vehiclesand obstacles including two deserts and fivemountain ranges.

The Mongol Rally raises funds for twocharities: ‘Send a Cow’, which provides poorfarmers in Africa with livestock, training andadvice; and ‘Save the Children in Mongolia’.Competitors’ cars must have an engine nobigger than 1,000cc. After completing therally in 27 days, Dan and George arrived inUlaan Bataar, where they donated their car toSave the Children in Mongolia.

Right: Key members ofthe Bristol/Havana

team. Top, l-r: RobertCottrell, Hayley SharpJose Ernesto GonzalezHugo Baker. Bottom,

l-r: Ian Baggs,Alejandro PerezMalagon. Inset:

Machinery inside apump house.

Left: Danand Georgepose withtheir car inUlaan Bataar

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Undergrads go to Taiwan forIDEERS

Four Civil Engineering undergraduates (above)travelled to Taiwan in late 2005 with a group ofsixth-formers from Gloucester and Stroud tocompete in the fourth annual InternationalIDEERS (Introducing and DemonstratingEarthquake Engineering Research in Schools)Earthquake Engineering Challenge. They joinedmore than 300 university and high schoolstudents from the USA and Asia.

The Challenge, inspired by the competitiondeveloped by Dr Wendy Daniell and Dr AdamCrewe at Bristol’s Earthquake EngineeringResearch Centre, took place at Taiwan’sNational Centre for Research on EarthquakeEngineering (NCREE). The teams designed anearthquake-resistant building, which theymade using wood, string, paper and glue.The models were then tested on theearthquake simulator in the NCREElaboratory in the Taiwanese capital, Taipei.

The challenge is held on the anniversary ofthe 1999 Chi-Chi earthquake, which causedmore than 2,400 deaths and left 100,000homeless in Taiwan. The two UK teams,sponsored by the Institution of StructuralEngineers and Lloyd’s Register, both receivedprizes for the most creative design in theircategory. The undergraduate model made itdown to the last three standing.

Batting for Purbeck

Jon Flanders, a postgraduate in the School ofBiological Sciences, is leading the UK’s largestlandscape-scale study into rare bats. ThePurbeck Bat Project is researching roosts,flight patterns, diets and habitats, as well asthe influence of farming practices on the raregreater horseshoe bat and other bats in thePurbeck area. The project partners include theNational Trust, Dorset County Council, DorsetWildlife Trust, MoD, RSPB and otherconservation bodies such as English Natureand the Dorset Bat Group.

The project is funded by SITA Trust, throughthe Landfill Tax Credit Scheme, and by theproject partners. Jon will be tagging the batsand using radio receivers to record their flightpatterns, which can extend as far as 30 milesin one night, to locate their night roosts andfeeding areas.

Zoe is SET Chemistry Studentof the Year

Chemistry student Zoe Schnepp was one ofthis year’s SET (Science, Engineering andTechnology) Student of the Year awardwinners. Zoe received the Royal Society ofChemistry Award for the Best ChemistryStudent for her project on ‘Supramolecularhydrogels for advanced tissue growth’. TheSET Awards, supported by industry andleading scientific and technical institutions, areBritain’s most prestigious awards for scienceand technology undergraduates.

Left: Zoe Schnepp withDr Simon Campbell,President of the RoyalSociety of Chemistry.

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Convocation Awards 2005

The Convocation Award winners for 2005 wereRobert Harding (fourth-year Civil Engineering)and Tobin Webb (third-year Music).

Robert’s contributions to University life includestudent mentoring, RAG (especially the record-breaking RAG Barmy pub crawl), StudentCommunity Action, and working for studentmedia and the Students’ Union.

Tobin organised an open-air production of AlanBennett’s Wind in the Willows at Goldney in2005, involving many local school children withwhom Tobin, as the SCA Roleplay Project Co-ordinator, had led workshops.

Champion rider is youngest ever

Laura Bechtolsheimer, a Philosophy andPolitics undergraduate, became the youngestever National Dressage Champion at theNational Dressage Championships inSeptember 2005. She was among 350 UKcompetitors and won both the Grand Prix andthe Grand Prix Freestyle to Music. Laura is amember of the National Lottery-funded WorldClass Potential programme for riders betweenthe ages of 14 and 30 who show the talent anddedication to ride and win at Olympic level.

Lissy wins Jewel of India

Lissy Kunnumpurath, a Masters student at theCentre for Deaf Studies, received the Jewel ofIndia Award for outstanding achievements inDeaf Education. She received the award fromthe International Institute of Education andManagement for 13 years’ service in DeafEducation, including promoting awarenessabout deafness through seminars, camps andworkshops, and working with families in remoteareas of the northern Indian state of Bihar.

International Student Award

Mohammad Furquan Ur Rehman Kidwai, anElectrical and Computer Engineering studentat Bristol, received the 2006 Best InternationalStudent of the Year Award for South-WestEngland from the British Council.

Furquan was a trustee of the Students’ Unionand sat on many Union and Universitycommittees. He was the first internationalstudent to sit on the University’s Senate and Court.

Rugby players’ victory March

Five Bristol students represented theUniversity in international rugby matches infour different teams in March. First teamcaptain James Lumby and James Greenwoodrepresented England Universities against theirWelsh counterparts at Imperial Medicals RFC,where England defeated Wales. In theEngland-Wales under-19 match at theTwickenham Stoop, Dave Attwoodrepresented England while Rhys Priestlandwas selected for Wales, and WayneThompson represented England Studentsagainst France Students at Twickenham itself.

All four Bristol students played in the LloydsTSB Varsity Rugby match against theUniversity of the West of England later in the month, where Bristol won both the men’sand women’s games.

Left:Furquanreceives hisaward fromthe PrimeMinister,Tony Blair,at 10DowningStreet

Right: Lissy receivesthe Jewel of IndiaAward from GVG

Krishnamurthy, FormerChief Election

Commissioner of India,in New Delhi.

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Crossing BordersThis new student group set up a mentoringscheme to help refugee clinicians throughthe re-qualification process that will allowthem to practice in the UK. Volunteers fromMedicine and Dentistry meet regularly with arefugee clinician to provide a supportnetwork, help with the acquisition oflanguage skills and discuss everything fromcultural issues and aspects of their course tomeeting people and integrating into the localcommunity.

The Crossing Borders project brings greatbenefits to the volunteers, the refugeeclinicians and the wider community throughbetter healthcare provision. The project ispopular among Medicine and Dentistrystudents and is a lifeline for many refugees.

Everyday CountsThis new government initiative, managed byConnexions, addresses secondary schoolattendance. Bristol has one of the worstattendance records in the country, and the aimis to help change this through studentmentoring support and group work. There havealready been improvements in the attendanceof pupils involved in the scheme.

Hall CollectionThis new project makes a virtue of an age-oldstudent habit. At the end of each term, studentsin halls dispose of many useful or reusable itemssuch as food, clothes and kitchenware – items indemand at Bristol’s shelters and housingcharities. The first hall collections took place inJune, and the goods were delivered to the JulianTrust shelter for homeless people in St Paul’s.

Student Community Action (SCA) expands its activities year by year. New projects launchedsince August 2005 include the following three.

RAG and Student Community Action

RAG and SCA 2005/06: the year in numbers

Student volunteers involved in RAG events 4,500

Amount raised by RAG activities £124,000

Local community groups who received funding from RAG 19

New and existing SCA projects 34

Student volunteers involved in SCA projects 830

Community volunteers enrolled in training provided by the Students’ Union 859

Total hours contributed by SCA volunteers 100,000

Left: Street collections,jailbreaks and bouncycastles – SCA andRAG activities during 2005/06.

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The employment framework

In January, the University implemented a newstatute governing the employment ofacademic staff. This modernises theemployment framework, taking into accountrecent employment legislation and currentgood practice. A range of new ordinances, oremployment procedures, provide themechanisms by which matters such asdiscipline, grievance, ill health, redundancyand fixed-term contracts are managed.

The ordinances apply to all staff, and theirintroduction is a major step towards a single,modern framework of employment. TheUniversity also implemented harmonised termsand conditions of employment for all staff andassimilated all grades to a single pay spine as afirst step towards a new pay and grade structure.

In February, the University offered a new pay andgrade structure to the trade unions based on theoutcomes from University-wide job evaluation.Following consultation with their members theunions rejected the offer, asking that theUniversity review the job evaluation outcomes totest further for equity and fairness. The Universityis undertaking this review and will then re-enternegotiations on the pay and grade structure.

Positive steps

Work continued on delivering five ‘commitments’made to staff in 2005. These involved 51 actionsin Staff Support and Development, Leadershipand Management, Communication, PhysicalEnvironment and Evaluation. By the end of2005/06, 70 per cent of these had beenachieved, including:

� appointment of a Staff Careers Adviser andInternational Staff Adviser;

� the first Positive Working Environment Week,with events attended by over 1,200 staff;

� research staff departmental representativesoperating in 48 departments;

� greater Staff Counselling Service resources;

� one day’s annual volunteering leave for staff;

� English language improvement classes forinternational staff;

� new forums for black and ethnic minority,disabled, and gay, lesbian, bi-sexual andtransgender staff;

� research, technical and support staff conferences;

� a management development programme;

� tax-free computers, bikes and childcarevouchers promoted to all staff.

The second PWE staff survey in 2006/07 willassess the impact of these developments andidentify action for the following period.

Developments for research staff

A team has been embedding a number of newdevelopments for research staff, including:

� more staff development workshops;

� a 50 per cent decrease in the use of fixed-termemployment contracts for research staff;

� the third annual research staff conference,attended by 180 delegates;

� one-to-one careers advice with the ResearchStaff Career and Development Manager;

� continued improvements in communication withresearch staff, via the Research StaffRepresentatives and a new website.

This work has attracted interest from the mediaand other universities.

It may be a cliché, but staff really are the University’s most importantresource. Maintaining a positive working environment supported byprogressive personnel policies therefore remains fundamental to theUniversity’s success.

STAFF

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Fleming in top tenProfessor Peter Fleming (Clinical Science atSouth Bristol) (above) was named as one of‘Ten Britons who shaped our world’ by TheIndependent in July, as part of its coverage ofa new book published by Universities UK.Eureka UK celebrates 50 years of life-changing research, developments andinterventions by UK academics. ProfessorFleming’s work on the possible causes of cotdeath isolated three potential factors: babiessleeping on their front, being wrapped in toomany blankets, and exposure to cigarettesmoke. The article described how, following asuccessful local campaign, ‘Flemingpersuaded an initially sceptical and reluctantDepartment of Health to launch the “Back toSleep” campaign nationwide’, resulting in areduction in UK cot deaths of over two-thirds.

CASE Award and Honorary degree for VCThe University’s Vice-Chancellor, ProfessorEric Thomas, received the Chief ExecutiveLeadership in Europe award from the Council forAdvancement and Support of Education (CASE)at the CASE Europe Annual Conference inEdinburgh. The Awards recognise outstandingleaders who take exceptional initiative topromote and support education. ProfessorThomas’s report of the DfES Task Force onVoluntary Giving to Universities, published in2004, had a galvanising effect on universities'relations with friends and alumni and on theircommitment to establishing a professionalbasis for development operations.

Professor Thomas also received the Honorarydegree of Doctor of Science from theUniversity of Southampton in July.

Surface Analysis AwardDr Michelle Dickinson (right, top), a ResearchAssistant at the Interface Analysis Centre, wasnamed Young Surface Analyst of the Year 2006by the UK Surface Analysis Forum. She receivedthe title during the Forum’s July 2006 meeting inIreland. In front of an audience of peers, Michellegave an oral presentation and fielded questionsin defence of her PhD study, ‘A Cryo-SIMS Studyof the Arsenic-Hyperaccumulator Pteris vittata’.Her work, supported by the EPSRC, hasimplications for the clean-up of landcontaminated by arsenic and other heavy metals.

Andrew Lang awarded Mach MedalEmeritus Professor Andrew R Lang, FRS (right, middle) in the Department of Physicswas awarded the Ernst Mach Honorary Medalfor Merit in the Physical Sciences (image attop of page), established by the Council of theAcademy of Sciences of the Czech Republic.

Leverhulme PrizesTwo Bristol academics won a prestigious 2005Philip Leverhulme Prize, awarded tooutstanding scholars whose work has alreadybeen recognised at an international level:Dr Tim Kendall in the Department of English,for his work on poetry in English;Dr James Ladyman (right, bottom) in theDepartment of Philosophy, for his work on thephilosophy of science.

Angelini’s unit wins surgery award Professor Gianni Angelini, British HeartFoundation Professor of Cardiac Surgery, and histeam (right) at the Bristol Royal Infirmary havebeen voted Surgery Team of the Year by HospitalDoctor magazine in its Hospital Doctor Awards2005. Professor Angelini’s team won the awardfor its pioneering work in developing ways toperform operations on the beating heart, aprocedure known as off-pump coronary bypasssurgery. The new technique has been shown intrials to reduce the number of post-operativedeaths, and to reduce the risk of stroke in certainpatients after surgery. The judge commented:‘This outstanding unit has been at the forefront ofdevelopments in cardiac surgery and a model forresearch, audit and clinical practice at a very highlevel. It has a high throughput and extremelygood relationships with the University. It is led bya world-recognised charismatic leader whohas brought together an excellent team.’

AWARDS AND DISTINCTIONS

Bristol’s academics receive hundreds of awards, prizes anddistinctions every year. Here is a handful of examples.

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Royal Society Wolfson ResearchMerit AwardsProfessor Peter Green (1) (Department ofMathematics), Professor John Rarity (2)(Department of Electrical and ElectronicEngineering) and Professor Varinder Aggarwal(3) (School of Chemistry) have each beenawarded a prestigious Royal Society WolfsonResearch Merit Award, given ‘to individuals ofproven outstanding ability to undertakeindependent, original research’.

Professor Stephen Mann (4) has beenawarded the Joseph Chatt Lectureship andMedal by the Royal Society of Chemistry forhis ‘leading contributions to the chemicalsynthesis, characterization and developmentof complex forms of matter’.

Professor Guy Orpen (5) in the School ofChemistry (now Dean of Science) has beenawarded the Ronald Nyholm Lectureship andmedal by the Royal Society of Chemistry forhis ‘extensive contributions to the structuralchemistry of molecular inorganic compoundsand structural systematics’.

Dr Mark Szczelkun (6) in the Department ofBiochemistry has been awarded the YoungInvestigator Award by the British BiophysicalSociety. The award is made biannually to theindividual considered to be the mostoutstanding biophysicist in the UK agedbelow 35. Dr Szczelkun’s award recogniseshis groundbreaking work on the movement of motor proteins along DNA.

DistinctionsProfessor Patricia Broadfoot (7), Pro Vice-Chancellor, was awarded a CBE in the New Year Honours List. She was also appointed tosucceed Dame Janet Trotter as Vice-Chancellor of the University ofGloucestershire from September 2006.

New FellowsProfessor Roger Alder (8) in the School ofChemistry has been elected a Fellow of the Royal Society.

Professor George Davey Smith (9) in theDepartment of Social Medicine has beenelected a Fellow of the Academy of MedicalSciences.

Professor Michael Crossley (10) in the Graduate School of Education has beenmade an Academician of the Academy ofLearned Societies for the Social Sciences.

External appointmentsProfessor Andrew Whitelaw (11) in theDepartment of Clinical Science at NorthBristol has been elected President of theNeonatal Society for the period 2006-08.

Professor Richard Buxton (12) in theDepartment of Classics and Ancient Historyhas been named president of the steeringcommittee for the Thesaurus CultusRituumque Antiquorum, or ThesCRA, one ofthe great reference works of classicalscholarship. ThesCRA is an offshoot of themassive Lexicon IconographicumMythologiae Classicae (LIMC), whichdocuments the ancient artisticrepresentations of classical mythology.Professor Buxton is also President of theLIMC Foundation.

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1

2

12

7

6

5

4

3

9

8

11

10

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NEW CHAIRS

Chair in Child and Family WelfareDavid Berridge, formerly ResearchDirector at the National Children's Bureauand Research Fellow at the DartingtonSocial Research Unit.

Chair in Artifical IntelligenceNello Cristianini, formerly AssociateProfessor in the Department of Statisticsat the University of California, Davis.

Chair in Development PoliticsMark Duffield, formerly Professor ofInternational Security, Department ofPolitics and International Studies,Lancaster University.

Chair in PaediatricsAdam Finn, formerly Senior Lecturer inPaediatric Immunology and InfectiousDiseases, Institute of Child Health,University of Sheffield.

Chair in Systems EngineeringPatrick Godfrey, Director of StrategicRelations Development at HalcrowGroup.

Chair in Social StatisticsHarvey Goldstein, formerly Professorof Statistical Methods, Institute ofEducation, University of London.

Chair in NanobiophysicsHeinrich Hoerber, formerly Professor ofPhysiology at Wayne State UniversitySchool of Medicine, Michigan

Chair in the History and Cultures ofColonialismStephen Howe, formerly Tutor inPolitics at Ruskin College, Universityof Oxford.

Chair in Medieval StudiesPamela King, formerly Professor ofEnglish at St Martin’s College,Lancaster.

Chair in Physical ChemistryAnthony Legon, FRS, formerlyProfessor of Physical Chemistry at the University of Exeter.

Chair in Socio-Legal StudiesJudith Masson, formerly Professor ofLaw at Warwick University.

Chair in Robotics and AutonomousSystemsChristopher Melhuish, also Professor ofIntelligent Autonomous Systems at theUniversity of the West of England.

Chair in Socio-Legal StudiesBronwen Morgan, formerly HaroldWoods Research Fellow in Law at theCentre for Socio-Legal Studies atWadham College, University of Oxford.

Chair in FinanceRichard Payne, formerly ResearchAssociate at the London School ofEconomics.

Chair in EconomicsFabien Postel-Vinay, also VisitingProfessor at the University of Paris IPanthéon-Sorbonne.

Chair in History of ArtElizabeth Prettejohn, formerly Professorof Modern Art at the University ofPlymouth.

Chair in Ethics in MedicineRuud ter Meulen, formerly SeniorLecturer in the Department of HealthCare Ethics and Director of the Instituteof Bioethics, University of Maastricht.

Chair in EconometricsFrank Windmeijer, formerly a seniorresearch officer at the Institute for FiscalStudies, London.

Chair in Chemistry and Biochemistry Dek Woolfson, formerly Professor ofBiochemistry at the University of Sussex.

Chair in Law and Policy Research Richard Young, formerly Reader inCriminal Justice and Assistant Directorof the Centre for CriminologicalResearch, University of Oxford.

Chair in Cardiovascular Anaesthesiaand Critical Care Kai Zacharowski, formerly ConsultantAnaesthetist, Cardiac Anaesthesia andCritical Care, University Hospital ofDusseldorf.

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