Appointments

Professor Philip Andrews-Speed
Chair of Energy Policy

Professor Andrews-Speed has been Director of the Centre for Energy, Petroleum and Mineral Law and Policy since 2001 and has been appointed to a personal chair of energy policy.

He spent fourteen years as a geologist in the international mining and petroleum industries before coming to the Centre in 1994, gaining an LLM in Energy Law and Policy, and joining the academic staff.

He leads the Centre's China Programme in which the focus of research is on energy policy, regulation and reform in China, and on the interface between energy policy and international relations. His two recent books The Strategic Implications of China's Energy Needs and Energy Policy and Regulation in the People's Republic of China have proved very timely. The concurrent surge in demand for energy in China and the tightness of international energy markets have brought China's energy sector to prominence in international strategic debates.

In April Professor Andrews-Speed addressed a meeting of the Ambassadors to the Political and Security Committee at the Council of Europe, and in May he spoke at a joint meeting of the International Energy Agency and the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC). He is currently co-director of a project to advise the ESRC on potential future research in the field of security of international oil and gas supply.

Professor Kathryn Findlay
Chair of Architecture and Environment

Professor Kathryn Findlay has been appointed Chair of Architecture and Environment. Formerly she was Principal of Ushida Findlay Architects and Associate Professor at the University of Tokyo.

Her appointment is based on her international reputation as a practicing architect working in Japan, the Gulf and the UK. Her work has received international acclaim for its originality and influence since the realisation of her Truss Wall House in 1993.

At the University, she has been invited to establish a new architectural practice, Fieldwork, centre for architecture, in partnership with her existing practice, Ushida Findlay Architects.

In addition, she is establishing a research unit, Field architecture design research, to explore and expand on ideas that develop from her live practice.

Professor Findlay has a special commitment to the environment and environment is the primary focus of her design. Her ideas and projects have drawn the attention of politicians and environmental policy makers. In particular, her New Grafton Hall project, a prize winning country house, gained international publicity after it was identified as a seminal case study in the development of the new UK Planning Policy Guidance on the development of rural buildings.

Professor Aleksander Jovanovic
Chair of Experimental Medicine

Professor Aleksandar Jovanovic has been appointed the position of Chair of Experimental Medicine.

The University first recruited Professor Jovanovic from the Mayo Clinic in the US where he was appointed as an Instructor of Medicine. At the University of Dundee he started as a lecturer and progressed through the ranks to Chair.

Professor Jovanovic's main research focus is on understanding cell signalling pathways that may protect cells and tissues against ischaemia - a condition caused when a sufficient blood supply cannot get to a tissue or organ, for example, due to narrowing of the arteries. Diseases and conditions associated with ischaemia are one of the leading causes of premature death and a major cause of ill health and disability.

Professor Jovanovic's research adopts a multidisciplinary approach that involves the use of molecular biology, biochemistry, electrophysiology, in vitro and in vivo physiology and pharmacology. Already, he has identified some signalling molecules that play an important role in cellular resistance to stress and manipulation with these molecules has been shown to be a promising strategy in counteracting the effect of ischaemia under experimental conditions. In collaboration with his colleagues from the University and abroad, Professor Jovanovic hopes to further deepen the knowledge about these molecules and exploit them to establish better therapy against diseases and conditions associated with ischaemia and other types of metabolic stresses.