E-ZINE COLLEGE OF SCIENCE AND ENGINEERING Issue 7 763

E-ZINE – COLLEGE OF SCIENCE & ENGINEERING

LIFE ON CAMPUS IS IN FULL SWING! IN THIS NOVEMBER ISSUE

This issue of the E-zine is truly a celebration of achievement across the College of Science & Engineering. I think the breadth and range of success is quite exciting, with everything from members of the College recognised for leading urban studies to leading the race for space. The E-zine also celebrates those nominated for the Discovering Excellence Awards as well as those that have achieved their HEA Fellowships.

In particular, I would like to bring to your attention the excellent series of upcoming inaugural lectures starting with Professor Sarah Gabbott on 28th November 2017, running through to May 2018. This represents an opportunity to hear exciting science across the College and understand new areas and new frontiers. Can I encourage you to attend these as both a celebration and the recognition of the work that goes into achieving a Chair.

With the term fully underway now, the College has been working with departments and schools to think about the continuing programme to enhance the student experience and ways we can address some of the issues that have arisen through NSS feedback. This remains a critical area to concentrate all our efforts on.

A Message from the Head of College

CONTENTS 1. Message from the Head of College 3. Congratulations to…….. 5. Discovering Excellence Awards 6. Celebrating the 60th anniversary of the

Space Age 7. Congratulations to our Students 9. News from Departments 11. New Appointment 12. Successful Applications for HEA

Fellowships 13. News from the Centre 16. Do you need help with a marketing or

communications project? 17. Lecturers and forthcoming events 18. Research News 19. And finally …….

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The early part of this year has shown an uplift in grant activity across the College which is heartening but still remains a substantial challenge moving forward through the year. There have been some exciting announcements including new space instruments, new services from space, better tablet formulations and next generation battery technology.

As ever we would always like to hear from you about activities and events that we can highlight through the E-zine which remains a key element of communicating activity across the College. With that in mind can I remind you to fill in the Staff Survey which is to close in just over a week’s time.

In recognition of the efforts of colleagues on the open-door policy across the College as a way of enhancing student engagement, I feel I should also offer the same facility to members of the College if they wish to come and discuss issues with me. Therefore I am instituting an open-door policy on college matters. If you wish to be guaranteed a “slot” do not hesitate to contact Sue Howell skh14@le.ac.uk so that this can be scheduled.

Ys-Paul-

Persistence of Flood Waters – Vale of York – Autumn 2015 Dr Sarah Johnson, Geography CLCR from Images of Research 2016

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Congratulations to: Suzie Imber from the Department of Physics & Astronomy

On being crowned winner of the six-part BBC show “Astronauts: Have you got what it takes?” Suzie fought off tough competition from 11 other exceptional candidates, chosen from thousands who applied, including scientists, engineers and pilots, to receive the ultimate reference – Chris Hadfield’s backing for her application when the space agency ESA next take on astronaut recruits. As part of the programme, the candidates were put through a series of grueling tests to find out who had the special qualities needed to be an astronaut using standards set by the world’s space agencies. They were assessed by astronaut and former Commander of the International Space Station, Chris Hadfield, along with former NASA medical researcher Dr Kevin Fong, and psychologist Dr Iya Whiteley.

Suzie, an associate professor of Planetary Science and PhD graduate of the University said: “When they announced I was the winner, I think you could tell from my expression that I was in total shock. I was standing next to two exceptional candidates who had become my friends in the process, and fully expected one of them to have won instead of me. I really enjoyed being part of the process, it was an incredible experience for me and I will definitely be applying for the next ESA astronaut selection round”.

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Alexander Gorban from the Department of Mathematics

On being awarded the honorary title of Pioneer of Russian Neuroinformatics. This was awarded in acknowledgement of his extraordinary contribution into the theory and applications of artificial neural networks award

From the Department of Engineering:

Fernando Schlindwein

On being appointed as a referee and Panel Member for FCT (Portugal). FCT stands for Fundação para Ciência e Tecnologia (Science and Technology Foundation). In Portugal this is the equivalent to the Research Councils UK (RCUK).

Mike Warrington

On being elected as the Chair of the UK Panel of URSI (the International Union of Radio Science) for the triennium 2017-2020.

Dr Tom Ridge from the Department of Informatics

On winning the Most Influential ICFP Paper Award for his paper Effective Tool Support for the Working Semanticist.

ICFP is a leading conference in Computer Science – it is ranked A* (which is the highest rating) in the Australian CORE rankings.

Hong Dong

On being awarded an Innovate UK contract, “superslab/Novel Uni-Directional Casting Technology for Manufacturing Super Extra-thick Offshore Steel Plate” with a total budget of £499,219 with the University’s share being £160,589.

Hong has also been appointed as referee and Panel Member for the Natural Science Foundation of China (equivalent to the NSF of USA, with a similar budget), and for the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (EPSRC equivalent).

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Loretta Lees from the School of Geography

On being listed as the 17th highest cited author in Urban Studies world-wide and the only woman in that 17.

Ivan Tyukin and PhD Student Dr Nick Jarman from the Department of Mathematics

On having published a paper in Scientific Reports which is available on line at: www.nature.com/articles/s41598-017-12589-9

The paper presents a solution to the long-standing question of why the vast majority of networks around us (WWW, brain, roads, power grid infrastructure) might have a peculiar yet common structure: small-world topology. The study showed that these structures emerge naturally in systems in which the information flow is accounted for in their evolution.

Discovering Excellence Awards

The College is pleased to report that the following people have been nominated for a Discovering Excellence Award. The winners will be announced at the celebration event scheduled to take place on Thursday 16 November 2017 – Well done to all!!!

Exceptional Team Leader: Richard Poyner – Physics & Astronomy

Inspiring Leader: Graham Wynn – Physics & Astronomy

Student Experience: Sandeep Handa – Chemistry

Teaching Excellence: Sarah Gretton – Physics & Astronomy and Dylan Williams – Chemistry

Research Excellence: Emma Raven – Chemistry

Excellence in Internationalisation: Ian Jarvis

Equalities Champion: Rhaana Starling – Physics & Astronomy and Alison Stuart – Chemistry

Enterprise Award: Andy Abbott - Chemistry

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HEA announces National Teaching Fellowship Scheme Awards and Collaborative Awards for Teaching Excellence Finalists

The Centre for Interdisciplinary Science at University of Leicester has been announced as a finalist in the Collaborative Awards for Teaching Excellence. The CATE recognises outstanding contributions to teaching by teams at higher education providers. The criteria for the CATE award are: excellent practice, teamwork, and the team’s dissemination plan. Teams will need to have shown they are working in collaboration with direct student involvement in their work. Fifteen institutions have been shortlisted for the award. Six of these institutions will be awarded grants of £15,000 to disseminate their learning. The six teams will be announced at the formal celebration event for all these awards at Church House, Westminster, London, 1November 2017.

The Centre for Interdisciplinary Science comprises a strongly collaborative teaching team delivering the University’s innovative Natural Sciences undergraduate programme. The team consists of Sarah Gretton (Director and Biology Covenor), Derek Raine (Programme Founder), Cheryl Hurkett (Physics Covenor), Dylan Williams (Chemistry Convenor), Paul Abel (Maths Convenor), Kath Clark (Biology Tutor) and the programme administrator Alex Mack.

Celebrating the 60th anniversary of the Space Age

Martin Barstow, PVC, Strategic Science Projects and Director of LISEO

Appeared on the BBC programme Songs of Praise on 1 October to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the space age, the launch of Sputnik 1 on 4 October 1957. Parts of the programme were filmed at the National Space Centre, where a full-size model of Sputnik is located in the rocket tower. Professor Barstow stated “I filmed at the Space Centre and then we moved to the Physics Department foyer at the University for the main interview with me. This touched on the relationship between science and religion and my personal views that science can’t provide a full

explanation of why we are here. There is still plenty of room for some “divine” element and I find it difficult to believe that the Universe and our place within it is a random accident.

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And 20 years of the Cassini-Huygens spacecraft orbiting Saturn

On 15 September 2017 Planetary Scientists from the Department of Physics & Astronomy said a fond farewell to the Cassini mission at Saturn as it plunged into the Saturnian clouds, after almost 20 years in space ending humankind’s first detailed exploration of the ringed planet

For 13 years, Cassini has been sending back to Earth images of its extraordinary discoveries at Saturn. Cassini’s Grand Finale is the ambitious culmination of a mission by a nuclear-powered robotic explorer that has travelled

a total of 4.9 billion miles, completing 294 orbits of Saturn, with 360 engine burns, 2.5 million commands executed and 635GB of science data collected...

Congratulations also to our students: Engineering Student – Oishi Deb together with her project team

On being awarded the first place award at the Hackathon in this year’s WomENcourage Programme. The Hackathon took place in Barcelona and was hosted at the Universitat Politecnica de Catalunya, with the aim of encouraging women to pursue vocations in the field of computer science and ICT sector. Oishi said: “During this Hackathon we decided to create something useful that helps our community. Out project ‘SafeHack’, is a device which automatically informs the emergency contact during an

attack or an accident”.

Well done also to: The Four Students who took part in the popular BBC quiz – University Challenge The team consisted of Pip Brown , first year Psychology with Cognitive Neuroscience student, Stanley French, a second year Chemistry student, Graham Aldred, a PhD student in Toponymic Archaeology and Jamie Bryne a fourth year Physics student. Even though they didn’t manage to get through to the next round Pip

Brown (Team Captain) described the process as, “stressful, surreal but very rewarding: I will remember this experience for the rest of my life!”

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And to…. Four Physics Undergrads, Kimran Dhaliwal, Mabel Evershed, Elspeth Lewis and William Sainty who worked as Science Interpreters for the National Space Centre over the Summer 2017 (12 July – 28 August)

This Science Interpreter programme was established in 2016 to build closer links between the NSC and the UoL Physics and Astronomy Department, and is now in its second year. The Science Interpreters bring their science expertise to help interpret and enhance visitor experiences at the NSC, and act as outreach ambassadors for the Physics and Astronomy Department and its space research. They receive training in all aspects of science communication during the summer period. During the summer period, the Science Interpreters worked an average of 28

hours a week for seven weeks, interacting with NSC visitors. They developed and presented demonstrations on topics as diverse as meteorites, space food, NASA technology spin offs, space suits, astronaut training, the scale of the Solar System, and solar weather, among others. In the afternoons they ran 10-minute Mini Artefact Tours focused on rockets, human spaceflight or satellite applications. They also assisted the NSC Education team in running family crafts and drop-in workshops.

In addition to this public interaction, the Science Interpreters wrote blog posts for the NSC website and helped update the Leicester in Space mission database that is on public display at the NSC.

As part of their science communication training, the Science Interpreters observed educational talks, crafts, and planetarium shows at the NSC. They also shadowed NSC Space Crew members to receive training in customer service and health and safety policies.

The Science Interpreters’ presentations and writings were regularly reviewed by their supervisor, Tamela Maciel, who provided feedback, tips, and advice throughout the seven weeks.

Finally, the Science Interpreters received a careers and CV-writing session from Tamela Maciel, based on her research and science communication experience.

These four students continue to be employed on either a part-time or casual shift basis at the NSC.

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News from Departments

EarthSense Systems, a joint venture between the UoL and aerial mapping company Bluesky, are helping to develop a system to automatically activate zero-emission running of hybrid vehicles along the most heavily polluted city streets. Using its state-of-the-art Zephyr air quality monitoring sensor, EarthSense will measure local air quality levels, in real time, and upload them to a specially developed hybrid vehicle interface, triggering on-demand zero-emission running instructions in vehicles when pollution levels are high enough.

Jon Lappington and his team in the Department of Physics & Astronomy are developing a camera system for the 70 telescopes proposed for the Small-Sized Telescope (SST) array in CTA, which will be located high on the Andes in South America. The SST array will be able to detect astro particles with energies as high as 300 Tera electron volts, or twenty-one times higher than the maximum collision energy of the Large Hadron Collider.

For the third time in two years, Leicester geologists from the School of Geography, Geology and the Environment will participate in an offshore scientific drilling expedition. In October Erwan Le Ber and Laurence Phillpot will join the ship Fugro Synergy in Corinth, Greece to collect data as part of the International Ocean Discovery Program (IODP). Erwan and Laurence will work with a team of international researchers, operators and drillers to better understand the timing and activity of young continental rifts.

John Smellie from the School of Geography, Geology and the Environment has recently written an article for The Conversation discussing how massive eruptions can have the potential to fundamentally alter the climate, and what could happen if Antarctica’s dormant, ice-covered Volcanoes wake up.

The ambitious project to replace the roof of the world-famous Stirling and

Gowan glass paneled roof of the Engineering Building, which saw all the 2,500 glass panels of the diamond-shaped roof reconstructed and replaced to exacting standards, has been officially completed. Taking nearly two years of intricate work on site, the extraordinary results of this technically demanding project were celebrated on Monday 9 October.

Astronomers including Kim Page from the Department of Physics & Astronomy contributed to the discovery of one of the most luminous ‘new stars’ ever by using the Swift satellite observatory to help understand what was likely the most luminous white dwarf eruption ever seen. A nova happens when an old star erupts dramatically back to life. In a close binary star system consisting of white dwarf and a Sun-like companion star, material is transferred from the companion to the white dwarf, gradually building up until it reaches a critical pressure. Then uncontrolled nuclear burning occurs, leading to a sudden and huge increase in brightness. It is called a nova because it appears to be a new star to the ancients.

Gavin Brown from Human Geography has co-written a book about young people’s involvement

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with the anti-apartheid movement. From April 1986 until just after Nelson Mandela’s release from prison in February 1990, supporters of the City of London Anti-Apartheid Group maintained a continuous protest, day and night, outside the South African Embassy in central London. This book examines how and why a group of children, teenagers and young adults made themselves ‘non-stop against apartheid’, creating one of the most visible expressions of anti-apartheid solidarity in Britain.

Jan Zalasiewicz from the School of Geography, Geology and the Environment together with other international scientists from the Anthropocene Working Group has published recommendations for formalising a new geological epoch. The research suggests that a multitude of human impacts have changed the course of Earth’s geological history, and the scale of these justifies developing a formal proposal that the Anthropocene – a concept improvised by the Nobel Prize-winning scientist Paul Crutzen in 2000 – should be made part of the Geological Time Scale.

Department of Maths are in the News

A paper by Sergei Petrovskii and Paulo Tilles from the Department of Mathematics has been published in Scientific Reports and highlighted on several web pages including sciencedaily.com; phys.org, eurekalert.org and sciencenewsline.com

How environment plays key role in changing movement behavior of animals

Explains how Mathematicians have developed a theory which helps to unravel long-standing mysteries of animal movement and how small animals, such as bats, insects and birds, adjust their movement behaviour based on cues within their environment.

The researchers propose a unified theory of animal movement that relates the movement pattern to an animal’s biological traits such as its mass and body shape and to the properties of the environment.

The theory shows how different movement patterns may arise naturally from the interplay between an animal’s force, the environmental drag, and an animal’s behavioural response to the environmental cues. The cues include information about an animal’s movement environment, in particular the information about the location of food sources, predators and mating partners.

Read more at: https://www2.le.ac.uk/offices/press/press-releases/2017/october/research-shows-how-environment-plays-key-role-in-changing-movement-behaviour-of-animals

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New Appointment

Stephan Reiff-Marganiec from the Department of Informatics has been appointed the Director of our Innovation Hub The Leicester Innovation Hub is a £5.1 million dedicated creative incubation and innovation space in the heart of the city, part-funded by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) and will provide an easy to find ‘front door’ to the University’s innovation support, expertise and facilities. The Hub is intended to be the first point of contact for any business looking to work with the University and presents a fantastic opportunity for researchers looking to further develop the impact of their work.

As academic lead for the Hub, Stephan’s role is to ensure that we can gain the best academic return from these partnership. He notes that as researchers are increasingly measured by ‘impact’ this provides a great opportunity to support them, saying: “Building relationships with industry takes a long time, and it can take a long time to see the benefits of those partnerships. The Innovation Hub will help us to develop and showcase those partnerships on a regular basis.” The Leicester Innovation Hub is supporting the upcoming Business Festival events from 23 October – 3 November and will have great events led by the University at venues across the City. This is to encourage investment and business growth throughout Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland.

Welcome to…

Richard Hopkinson, Department of Chemistry Dr Richard Hopkinson started in the Department of Chemistry on 1 November 2017 as a new member of the academic staff. Richard is an organic chemist who, as well as being an academic in Chemistry, will also have a strong association with the Leicester Institute of Structural and Chemical Biology. Because of the latter, Richard will be based in the Henry Wellcome Building.

Richard received his DPhil in organic chemistry (2012) from the University of Oxford under the supervision of Prof. Chris Schofield, where his work focused on studying the mechanisms of histone demethylases and related enzymes. Following postdoctoral work on demethylase inhibition with the Structural Genomics Consortium (Oxford) and Oxford Chemistry, he was awarded a Junior Research Fellowship at St. Edmund Hall, Oxford, where he began his research in formaldehyde (bio) chemistry. His work in Leicester will continue in this area, applying chemical, biochemical and cellular methods to understand formaldehyde’s effects on cell functions.

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Successful College Applications for HEA Fellowships – August/October 2017

Professional Educational Excellence Recognition Scheme (PEERs) – Experiential Route

Successful Associate Fellow applications:

Name Department

Rashmikant Patel Engineering

Andy Willby Engineering

Claudia Cauli Informatics

Successful Fellow applications: Name Department

Dr Shian Gao Engineering

Dr Clare Madge Geography

Prof Martin Phillips Geography

Dr Mark Powell Geography

Dr Victoria Lane Geology

Dr Emilio Tuosto Informatics

Dr Andrey Mudrov Mathematics

Prof Emma Bunce Physics & Astronomy

Dr Darren Wright Physics & Astronomy

Successful Senior Fellow applications: Name Department

Prof Rob Hillman Chemistry

Dr Margaret Byron Geography

Dr Stephen Reiff-Marganiec Informatics

Dr Mervyn Roy Physics & Astronomy

Dr Simon Vaughan Physics & Astronomy

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News from the Centre

The Leicester International Institute, Dalian University of Technology open in China

The Leicester International Institute, Dalian University of Technology opened its doors to new students in September offering dual degrees in STEM subjects, beginning with Chemistry and Engineering – from the University of Leicester and Dalian University of Technology. The joint institute provides students with the scholarship and skills to equip them for lifetime careers as leaders in industry and academia. The Institute is housed in a new building with state-of-the-art facilities. The Chinese students have the opportunity to take part of their degree in Leicester and the UK students in Leicester have the chance to have a year or more of their degree in China.

First cohort of Chemistry students at Dalian

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The East Midlands Centre of Excellence in Satellite Applications

Is to be located at the University’s new Leicester Innovation Hub and has won 2 years of funding to bring hi-tech know-how for the benefit of businesses in the region. The new Centre will receive £200,000 per year, to employ dedicated staff to showcase innovative commercial uses of satellite data and to establish close links/collaborations between industry

and academia in the region. The Earth Observation Innovation Fellow in the Leicester Innovation Hub will be on hand to help companies practically use the satellite data to create and launch new products and services.

The TEDx Leicester Event 2017 “One Step Beyond: A Connected World through Satellites” took place at the National Space Centre on Thursday 21 September 2017

In the spirit of ideas worth spreading, TEDx is a program of local, self-organized events that bring people together to share a TED-like experience. At a TEDx event, TEDTalks video and live speakers combine to spark deep discussion and connection in a small group. These local, self-organized events are branded TEDx, where x = independently organized TED event. The TED Conference provides general guidance for the TEDx program, but individual TEDx events are self-organized (subject to certain rules and regulations).

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HORIBA MIRA announces construction of a World-Class Skills Centre MIRA Technology Park – the UK’s leading automotive Technology Park and Enterprise Zone announced on 27 September 2017 the construction of the MIRA Technology Institute; a unique collaboration between HORIBA MIRA and some the Midlands’ top education institutions. The partnership – which alongside HORIBA MIRA, comprises lead partner North Warwickshire and South Leicestershire College, Coventry University, Loughborough University and the University of Leicester – will see the construction of a 24,500 sq. ft. bespoke global skills centre at MIRA Technology Park. The MIRA Technology Institute (MTI) is being created to help to satisfy the ever increasing demand for specialist skills in the automotive sector – an issue that the UK has to solve to ensure the automotive sector continues to prosper. In particular, MTI, which is set up open in September 2018, will help to create specialist skills in some of the new disruptive technology areas such as electrification and driverless car technologies, ensuring a sustainable supply of future technical specialists and engineers.

Institutional Strategic Support Fund Award The Institutional Strategic Support Fund (ISSF) enables universities in the UK and Ireland to invest in areas that are of mutual strategic importance to Wellcome and the individual institutions. These are within and across medical and clinical sciences, public health, social sciences and medical humanites.

The Leicester WTISSF: Crossing discipline, ethnic and social boundaries to promote health – see more information at WTISSF scheme

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Do you need help with a marketing or communications project?

Make sure that you book your job in using our ERC requests system

Since we introduced our new ERD requests in May this year we’ve seen great improvements to both the service provided by, and the quality of output from our External Relations division. In the first three months of the system being used, ERD requests have taken in 698 requests for design jobs, news writing, communications planning, events and projects. It is vital that all requests for work from the External Relations Division come through this system. Not only does it help to provide clarity for the team working on the jobs, to enable them to understand what you are trying to achieve, but also allows us to track progress on jobs, assign them to the best and most relevant people, and if necessary put additional resources in place. By using ERD Requests and completing the short briefing document we can ensure that you get the best possible service from the External Relations Division and meet the University’s aims. If you would like to talk through your marketing or communication requirements with the College Marketing Manager, please contact Joe Etchells on jjs5@le.ac.uk or Ext: 5473

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George Fraser Memorial Lecture

Took place on Monday 30 October 2017

Professor Xabier Barcons from the University of Cantabria and the head of the world’s most powerful observatory presented the fourth George Fraser Memorial Lecture entitled “The road to the next large astronomical observatories” examining how new astronomical facilities have led to significant leaps in astronomical research. He also explored the

significance of Astronomy as an observationally-driven science discipline and considered the impact of new astronomical facilities, both on the ground and in space, including the Athena X-ray observatory, the ALMA sub/millimeter telescope and the ESO’s extremely large telescope.

College Events Occurring

Inaugural Lectures The following inaugural lectures are due to take place over the next few months – all are welcome to attend. Professor Sarah Gabbott from the Department of Geology will be presenting her lecture on 28 November 2017 in the Centre for Medicine LT1 at 6pm Professor Gawen Jenkins from the Department of Geology will be presenting his lecture on 20 February 2018 in the Ken Edwards LT1 at 5.30pm Professor Hartmut Boesch from the Department of Physics & Astronomy will be presenting his lecture on 20 March 2018 in Ken Edwards LT1 at 5.30pm Professor Clare Madge from the Department of Geography will be presenting her lecture on 8 May 2018 in Ken Edwards LT1 at 5.30pm Professor Graham Wynn from the Department of Physics & Astronomy will be presenting his lecture on 15 May 2018 in Ken Edwards LT1 at 5.30pm Professor Effie Law from the Department of Informatics will be presenting her lecture on 22 May 2018 in Ken Edwards LT1 at 5.30pm

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Research News The University of Leicester International Research Festival (11-22 September)

The Festival provided insight into national and international funding opportunities and grant writing, with the aim of encouraging and supporting applications to both European funding sources (H2020), and research with an international focus (ODA, GCRF etc.).

A range of workshops, fora and presentations offered colleagues practical opportunities to explore further tools and knowledge in support of research development in their professional academic life. Stephen Ison, the College Research Development Manager, presented the second lecture in his series on the “Dark Arts” of proposal writing. If you need any more information and support in the bid process, then Stephen can be reached on sji5@le.ac.uk

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And finally,

The Department of Informatics said farewell to Rick Thomas

A retirement celebration took place on Wednesday 20 September 2017 for Rick who was retiring after 30 years of services at the University. Rick came to the University of Leicester at the start of 1987, joining the Department of Computing Studies (as it was then) as a Lecturer. He was promoted to Senior Lecturer in 1992 and then to Professor in 1997. He has played many roles in the University, including being Head of the Department of Mathematics and Computer Science from 2000 to 2003, and then Head of the School of Mathematics and Computer Science from 2003 to 2005 and again from 2007 to 2009. The College of Science and Engineering came into existence in 2009 and Rick was the first Academic Director for the College, serving in that role from 2009 to 2013. On retirement Rick will be given the title of Emeritus Professor which reflects the fact that Rick will still be associated with both the Department of Informatics and the University of Leicester after his retirement, and so will still be seen around the campus from time to time.

And finally, finally…….

If anyone has any news that they would like putting in the next edition of the College E-zine then please let Sue Howell know at skh14@le.ac.uk