President's Weekly Message
9 January 2014
I hope you all enjoyed a good break over Christmas and the New Year and didn’t suffer too badly with the weather. Sweden was unusually warm, so sadly no snow.
Congratulations to Professors Doug Kell (in the School of Chemistry) and Carole Goble (in the School of Computer Science) who both received a CBE in the New Year’s Honours list and to Lennox Green (in the School of Mathematics) who was awarded an OBE.
You may have been following Stargazing Live on BBC2 this week which is being broadcast from Jodrell Bank and presented by Professor Brian Cox and the comedian Dara O’Briain. This has now become a very popular annual event and has already attracted audiences of almost nine million. Guests this year included Commander Chris Hadfield, famous for his brilliant photos of earth which he distributed widely when he was orbiting in space for six months and his fantastic weightless performance of David Bowie’s ‘Space Oddity’. I will be attending this evening and meeting with Andrew Cohen, Head of BBC Science who is one of our graduates and holds an honorary position with us.
Programmes can be seen on BBC iPlayer:
Just before the Christmas break, I had one of my regular meeting with Professor Linda Merrick, Principal of the Royal Northern College of Music, our ‘next door neighbours’ with which we have a number of joint programmes. I also met Professor Richard Marais, the Director of the Cancer Research UK Manchester Institute, formerly known as the Paterson Institute, which is part of the University. Richard has led, or been closely involved in, several recent major successful bids to fund cancer research in Manchester.
We held one of our joint ‘University-City’ meetings, led by myself and Sir Howard Bernstein, Chief Executive of Manchester City Council. We discussed joint activities in research, liaison with companies, international strategy and the major European Science Open Forum (ESOF) which will be held in Manchester in 2016.
I got back to Manchester from Sweden on 3rd January and apart from catching up, spent several days in London at the Royal Society. Council members are asked to attend as many as possible of the meetings to discuss the election of new fellows.
While in London I also met with Jim O’Neill, who has just retired as Chairman of Goldman Sachs Asset Management and their Chief Economist, but has done a great deal to support Manchester and is an avid Manchester United fan. You may have heard Jim’s Radio 4 programmes this week on emerging economies which he calls the MINT countries (Mexico, Indonesia, Nigeria and Turkey). Back in 2001 he coined the term ‘BRIC’ economies - Brazil, Russia, India and China, which he predicted would be future powerhouses of the world economy. You can find out more at:
In Manchester, Diana Hampson (Director of Estates and Facilities) and I met with Rowena Burns, Chief Executive of Manchester Science Park, in which the University is a shareholder, to discuss long term vision for science development in the City.
I had a regular meeting with Mike Blackburn, who is chair of the Greater Manchester Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP) to discuss future opportunities for the region and how the University can contribute and benefit. Mike also holds a senior position with BT and we are discussing research collaborations with the company.
I met Clive Memmott, the Chief Executive of the Greater Manchester Chamber of Commerce which has 5,000 local businesses as members. We talked about student placements and enterprise training, general links with local businesses and particularly smaller companies which often find the University quite challenging to engage with.
Nancy Rothwell, President and Vice-Chancellor
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