Prizes and appointments

Five fellows
Five University staff are among the "60 outstanding individuals" elected to fellowship of the Royal Society of Edinburgh.

The five, who come from a diversity of disciplines including biomedical sciences, dentistry and civil engineering, have been made fellows for their national and international standing based on the quality of innovative contributions to their fields, their professional standing and their achievement in public service.

They are:
Dario Alessi, bioscience - principal investigator and honorary reader at the MRC Protein Phosphorylation Unit at the Wellcome Trust Biocentre,

Julian Blow, bioscience - Director Cancer Research UK chromosome replication research group and senior lecturer in the school of life sciences.

Sir Alan Langlands - Principal and Vice Chancellor.

Professor Nigel Pitts, dentistry - Professor of dental health and honorary consultant in dental public health; director of the centre for dental innovations.

Professor Alan Vardy, civil engineering - research professor in civil engineering.

As well as his royal society fellowship, Dario Alessi is to receive the Young Investigator G.B. Moragni Prize 2002. This prize is conferred every two years on a researcher under 40 years of age for "outstanding achievements in the field of metabolism". Dario will receive his award of a silver medal and $8000 at the 8th European Symposium on Metabolism held in Padova Italy between 2-5 October.

Five fine artists
Five fine art students have received scholarship awards from the Royal Scottish Academy.

Fourth-year Fiona Clarke received the Carnegie Travelling Scholarship for her work, Beyond the Pale, which incorporates different ideas about the female form.

The unusual work of MFA student Kathy Watts entitled "Mince"- a porcelain representation of a lump of minced beef - won her the Chalmers-Jervise award.

Ellen Munroe was inspired by a thermal pool during a visit to Iceland and her work "Bless" won one of the oldest RSA awards, the Chalmers Bursary. Ellen's aim was to evoke nature using objects including glassware, salt crystals and fibre optic light.

MFA student Jackie Anderson received the Linda Clarke Nolan award for "Krishenda", which includes an opportunity to exhibit at the Rendezvous Gallery in Aberdeen.

Fourth year Drawing and Painting student Selina Mowatt, winner of the David Gordon Memorial Trust award received £350 for "Enigma - Study after St Sebastien"

Chemistry honour
Professor David Lilley, Professor of molecular biology in the school of life sciences has received the Royal Society of Chemistry award in RNA and ribozyme chemistry for 2001. David welcomed news of the award saying: "This award represents a considerable boost for biological chemistry in Dundee. It is made at the chemistry-biology interface, like our own work which is essentially biophysics."

Honour
Dr Arthur McNeill, of the centre for applied language studies, has been made an honorary Professor in the department of foreign languages at Zhejiang Wanli University in recognition of his contribution to the development of English language teaching.

Gender
Rosa Michaelson, accountancy and business finance, has been seconded part-time as the SHEFC co-ordinator for gender equality. She attended the inaugural meeting at the Department of Trade and Industry of the working party for Baroness Susan Greenfield's report on women in science, engineering and technology. Greenfield's report will address issues such as the impact of academic career breaks, membership of research funding council committees and government review panels, and how to address 'the glass ceiling' effect for women scientists and engineers in academia and industry.

Fellow
Robb Watt, senior lecturer in the department of English, has been elected a fellow of the English Association. He is the first person at Dundee to receive this distinction, which is conferred to recognise achievement in the field of English studies. Robb is convener of computing and information technology committee in learning and teaching and has recently been guiding the introduction of the Blackboard VLE.

Member
Professor Monojit Chatterji, lecturer with the economics department, has been appointed a lay member with the Scottish Solicitors Discipline Tribunal. His appointment is for the five-year period from 1 January 2002 to 31 December 2006.

Reader
Richard Carr has been appointed reader in design history, theory and practice in the school of design.

Panel
The school of town and regional planning's Barbara Illsley has been invited to sit on the awards panel for the prestigious Scottish Awards for Quality and Planning, run by Scottish Enterprise and the Royal Town Planning Institute.

Director
Ellie Douglas has been appointed to the newly created post of director of student services. The integration of student services will bring together the student advisory service, chaplaincy, counselling service, careers service, health service, disability support service, wider access centre, nursery and music coordinator into one group and eventually under one roof. In drawing together a wide range of professional skills the aim is to build on the current high quality support available to students from a number of small units and develop strategically to meet the needs of an increasingly diverse student body.

In tandem with this role, Ellie will continue her current work within the Principal's office on a number of policy issues including support for the development of a University research strategy and proposals for expansion of postgraduate provision.

Ellie joined the University in 1996 after eight years with the Foreign & Commonwealth Office in London, where her experience included personnel administration and, latterly, policy advice within Africa department.

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