President's Weekly Update
6 March 2014
It was a great pleasure and real fun to attend events in London to celebrate and receive the Queen’s Anniversary Prize for Further and Higher Education to the University, in recognition of its world leading imaging techniques and extensive knowledge base in advanced materials technology. These awards are made every two years to about 20 universities and colleges. We also won two years ago for our research on nuclear energy - both bids were led by Professor Colin Bailey, Vice-President and Dean of the Faculty of Engineering and Physical Sciences, working with staff across the University.
On Wednesday evening we attended a large banquet with about 400 guests at the Guildhall in London where the winning universities processed wearing academic gowns (I thought that ours were definitely the best gowns!). In addition to myself, Colin, our Chancellor Tom Bloxham, and our academic staff who lead our activity in this area Professors Phil Withers, Peter Lee, and Paul Mummery, we invited several guests to our two tables. Many leaders of national funding bodies and higher and further education were present. It was a beautiful setting, with fabulous musical performances as well as great company and so many people to meet as well as some old friends. Unfortunately, we could not invite all our staff and students involved in imaging in this area across the University otherwise we would have taken over half of the hall! We will however, have a celebration event on campus later in the year where we can thank all those that contribute to our world-leading work in this area.
The next day, we attended Buckingham Palace along with five PhD students who conduct research linked to imaging. Several were overseas students, and one said that this was the experience of a lifetime! Phil Withers and I went up to receive the award from the Queen and Prince Philip. Then we met several members of the Royal Family and members of the Queen’s Anniversary Trust at a reception in the remarkable ‘Picture Gallery’ in the Palace. We also sneaked into a few adjoining rooms - including one where absolutely everything was gold, including all the furniture, fittings and even the piano! For further details of the Queen’s Award see:
You may have seen the announcement that after nearly 40 years working for the University, including six years as a Vice-President and then four years as Deputy President and Deputy Vice-Chancellor, Professor Rod Coombs will retire in the autumn. Rod will continue to be very much at the forefront of leading the University over the next six months, with particular emphasis on external activities. I am delighted that Rod is keen to continue to work with us on a part-time basis after his ‘official retirement’ as an Associate Vice-President of the University. We will be appointing Rod’s successor as my Deputy over the coming weeks.
I did quite a bit of travelling this week. On Monday I was in London for the Council for Science and Technology, then on Monday evening I flew to Singapore overnight for not much more than 24 hours! I joined a visit led by David Willetts, the Minister for Universities and Science. This provided an opportunity for me to follow up my visit early last year and helped to build on our many relationships with Singapore. We have strong links with the National University of Singapore; Nanyang Technical University; Singapore Institute of Technology (now attaining university status, where we lead their degree in nursing); the A*STAR research institutes; and Manchester Business School Worldwide has a longstanding office in Singapore.
On the short visit, I met the British High Commissioner (he had hosted a talk I gave last year at the High Commission), the leaders of Singapore universities, ministers in the Singapore government, heads of the major funding bodies and key scientists. Many of these I had met last year and several will be visiting Manchester in the near future. I signed an agreement with the A*STAR Chairman for joint PhD studentships with us. I also did an interview for the BBC and finally attended a business reception on links between Singapore, China and the UK.
Back overnight on Wednesday to London and on to a meeting in Cambridge.
Last week I met our local MP, Lucy Powell. We talked about our Manchester Access Programme to help local students attend university, our many community engagement projects, including ‘The Works’ to help local, long term unemployed people get back into work, and our research and business engagement. She had visited our graphene facilities and was clearly excited by the potential. Lucy’s visit came a day after the EU Commissioner Johannes Hahn visited the National Graphene Institute site. A total of £23 million of funding for the building has been provided by the EU.
Nancy Rothwell, President and Vice-Chancellor
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