President's weekly update
3 July 2014
It was a pleasure to host our annual Distinguished Achievement Awards again this year. These awards recognise our most outstanding staff, researchers and teachers, undergraduate and postgraduate students, and individuals and teams from within the Professional Support Services. Even from the brief citations, it was clear how remarkable the achievements of the winners are. The event was held in the Whitworth Hall and attended by guests of the winners and colleagues from across the University. The formal awards ceremony was followed by lunch for everyone attending. You can find out more about the winners at:
After the Council meeting of the Royal Society in London, I attended the annual ‘soiree’. These are quite grand events where everyone is in evening dress and scientific exhibits are displayed around the beautiful premises of the Royal Society. There was a gorgeous black Labrador dog who sniffs cancers; he was completely unfazed by the thousand people there. I may be biased but by far the best exhibit, and the one most photographed, was the one from our University, led by Professor Phil Manning with a huge dinosaur skeleton demonstrating our imaging techniques.
At an extended joint meeting between the University’s Senior Leadership Team and the University Research Group we considered our research income, quality of outputs and citations and the possible outcomes of the Research Excellence Framework (REF). The panels are still working and the results are expected to be known in mid-December.
At the Russell Group of Vice-Chancellors we discussed the regular topics such as internationalisation, pensions, the forthcoming referendum on Scottish independence, funding and student visas. The guest at the dinner was Professor Madeleine Atkins, the Chief Executive of the Higher Education Funding Council for England who talked about REF, likely future funding and regulation.
I met Mike Oglesby, the chair of Bruntwood and a fellow member of the Local Enterprise Partnership (amongst many other things). Mike chairs the Strategy Board of our Manchester Cancer Research Centre which is the partnership between the University, the Christie Hospital and Cancer Research UK. With Professor Ian Jacobs (Vice-President and Dean of the Faculty of Medical and Human Sciences) we discussed the next steps to achieve our vision to enhance cancer research and delivery of patient benefit, particularly through the development of ‘biomarkers’ which indicate progression of disease and effectiveness of treatments.
At the ‘Blue Skies’ lunch with a group of staff from across the University, we covered a huge range of topics including research facilities and great opportunities across the University (but these were balanced with some challenges of scale), the importance of teaching and how good it is to have a very diverse student population, green spaces on campus, recruiting new staff, the employability of our students and nursery provision.
It was a pleasure to see Walter Grattidge, an alumnus of our University, who graduated in Physics in 1944, then obtained a PhD in 1950, and who is a very longstanding member of our North American Foundation. Walter turned 90 just recently and he was accompanied on his visit to the University by his fiancée Grace who was a Women's Health Care Physician.
In London I met Andy Duncan, Chief Executive of Camelot, who is another of our alumni. He is very interested in social responsibility and in contributing to our University in some way.
We held one of our regular meetings with members of Manchester City Council, which I co-chair with Sir Howard Bernstein, to consider initiatives between the City and the University, new funding opportunities and the Chancellor of the Exchequer’s speech in Manchester last week about support and funding for the north of England.
Congratulations to Professor Tim O'Brien and Dr Teresa Anderson from the Jodrell Bank Observatory who have been awarded the Kelvin Medal of the Institute of Physics for outstanding contribution to the public understanding of physics. The Institute’s citation recognises their work in creating the award-winning Discovery Centre and the development of an education programme that reaches 16,000 schoolchildren every year. This is the third time in five years that Manchester physicists have been awarded the medal – previously it’s been awarded to Professors Jeff Forshaw (2013) and Brian Cox (2010).
I receive many emails each day from varied sources usually bringing information or work. Over the last week I have received three remarkable emails. One told me of the bravery of one of our student nurses who pulled injured passengers from a crashed car and resuscitated one until the ambulance arrived. Another was from two recent medical graduates who had both won prestigious Kennedy scholarships and are going to Harvard to take their Masters in Public Health - they wanted to tell me what a great experience they had had at the University. The third contact was from the mother of a potential prospective student who was taken ill at Piccadilly after one of our recent Open Days. A passer-by not only helped the girl but also drove her on a 150 mile round trip to get her home safely. The ‘good Samaritan’ was one of our own Professional Support Services staff.
Strange though it may seem, we held the ‘Christmas dinner’ for my office this week. It has taken this long to get an evening when everyone could attend - though of course I am the main problem and caused several cancellations. It was very enjoyable and we will try to be a bit more timely next Christmas.
Nancy Rothwell, President and Vice-Chancellor
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