eContact

A newsletter for staff of the University of Dundee

Friday, 25 March 2011

CONTENTS

1. Alumni Annual Fund Telephone Success
2. Japanese researchers aid disaster fund
3. Top teachers recognised
4. Chinese strengthen links with Dundee
5. Lights to go off for Earth Hour
6. Professor Wouters joins World Water Day webcast
7. Nick Barratt gives Graduates Council talk
8. Burns project closes with poetry conference
9. New book highlights art role in science
10. Horace Walpole talk for Dundee Professor
11. CEPMLP scoops award at Mediation competition
12. Computing hold open evening
13. Recruits wanted for tower abseil
14. Research grants news online
15. What's On
16. Contributing to eContact

1. Alumni Annual Fund Telephone Success

A telephone campaign to raise money for the University’s Alumni fund has raised more than double its original target.

The six-strong team of student callers secured a pledge total of £50,148 for the fund by calling more than 1,000 alumni over the last 2 weeks.

A total of 60% of the unrestricted money raised, including gifts made by University Principal Pete Downes and External Relations Director Judith Barnard, will be directed towards student hardship.

This year's campaign projects include Library group workpods, the Scottish Internship Graduate Certificate Scholarships, PLUS e-Backpack memory sticks and Medical School - lecture theatres.

Full details of the Alumni Annual Fund can be found at www.dundee-reunited.com/NetCommunity/Page.aspx?pid=592.

2. Japanese researchers aid disaster fund

Japanese researchers at the College of Life Sciences came together with family and friends this week to raise funds for their stricken country in the aftermath of the devastating earthquake and tsunami.

The researchers held a bake sale at the Wellcome Trust Building in aid of Japanese Red Cross and other non-profit voluntary groups.

The sale was co-ordinated by Drs Tetsuya Muramoto, Etsushi Kitamura, and Kei Sakamoto, researchers within the College.

'We just felt we had to do something given the horrible events of the past week, and people were asking us what they could do to help,' said Dr Muramoto.

'There are a lot of Japanese researchers at the College of Life Sciences so it made sense to hold it here. This is just the first thing we will be doing to raise money, but we wanted something visible to raise awareness of our fundraising.

'There are lots of other fundraising activities organised by CLS researchers and their families, notably by Mrs Noriko Kobayashi, and Japanese residents of Dundee as well as students and staff at the University.

'Thankfully, we’ve not spoken to anyone here who has lost a family member, but every Japanese person has been affected by what’s happened. We have had a lot of messages of support from our friends here and hopefully the community in Dundee will continue to do what they can to help.'

The fundraisers will be continuing their efforts this weekend when they attend Dundee FC’s match against Cowdenbeath. They will be presented with a signed match ball and football shirt to auction off to raise money for their appeal. The items have been donated by the Dundee FC Supporters’ Society.

3. Top teachers recognised

The College of Arts and Social Sciences celebrated its wealth of teaching talent this week as it held the Annual College Teaching Awards.

The Innovation in Teaching Award was awarded to a team from the School of Education, Social Work and Community Education who developed an integrated communications system by incorporating different online communication tools including GroupWise email, a purpose built Wordpress blog and a Twitter microblog.

This innovation led to the creation of 'TQFE-Tutor', which has replaced the personal tutor and now utilises the whole tutoring team who ‘work as one’ in the support of their 200 online distance learners.

The student nominated Inspirational Teaching Award went to Dr Suzanne Zeedyk from Psychology and Dr David Miller from ESWCE. Both David and Suzanne impressed the judging panel with their ability to create a learning environment which stimulates achievement and fosters a culture of inquiry and curiosity. Their enthusiasm for their work and their ability to communicate with students in an approachable and nurturing manner was commended.

4. Chinese strengthen links with Dundee

The University’s links with Tianjin Medical University in China have been further strengthened over the last six months by visits from Chinese academics to the School of Medicine.

A total of 16 academics from Tianjin have visited Dundee over the past six months to observe how the University’s undergraduate medical programme is structured and how teaching methods and materials are used.

In two groups of 8, the Tianjin delegation shadowed students at various stages of their degree in different teaching environments with each group spending two months on the programme.

The second of the groups left Dundee earlier this month.

The visits are the result of long-standing links between the University and Tianjin Medical University. Dundee has recruited students from Tianjin for Masters courses for several years, and delegations of senior TMU staff have visited the university on several occasions.

Professor Pete Downes, Principal of the University, visited Tianjin last year and TMU President Hao Xishan will visit Dundee in June. Representatives from Dundee have been invited to attend Tianjin Medical University’s 60th Anniversary later this year.

For further information on the Science Learning Institute, visit www.dscsciencelearninginstitute.org.uk.

5. Lights to go off for Earth Hour

The lights will be turned off at buildings across the University tomorrow (Saturday 26 March) as part of the World Wildlife Fund global Earth Hour event.

All unnecessary lighting at the University buildings will be turned off between 8.30pm and 9.30pm. Stairs and fire exits will remain lit to ensure the buildings remain health and safety compliant.

Trudy Cunningham, Environment & Sustainability Officer said, 'We are happy to take part again in WWF's Earth Hour. The event is a global, symbolic gesture that shows governments that people are concerned about climate change and our reliance on finite fossil fuel as our main energy source.

'The Wellcome Trust Building, DUSA and Library are the main occupied buildings on Saturday nights and so the fact they will be turning their lights off will make a big difference.'

For more information visit www.wwfscotland.org.uk/earthhour.

6. Professor Wouters joins World Water Day webcast

Professor Patricia Wouters, Director of the University’s UNESCO Centre for Water Law, Policy and Science joined other international water experts for a live webcast this week to celebrate World Water Day.

Professor Wouters acted as an online panel member for the webcast which was led by the InterAction Council of Former Heads of State and Government, an international organization aimed at addressing long-term, global issues facing humankind.

The theme for this year’s event was "The Global Water Crisis: Addressing an Urgent Security Issue."

7. Nick Barratt gives Graduates Council talk

Genealogist, author and TV presenter Nick Barratt will explore family history and the media next month when he gives this year’s Graduates Council Discovery Lecture, part of the University’s current series of Saturday Evening Lecture Series.

Nick, presenter of BBC’s Who Do You Think You Are? will look at the power of the TV show using some real life case studies, but also examine the impact of bottom-up history on the services that local and regional archives are expected to provide in the digital age; and the creation of new online and community archives.

The lecture entitled 'Family History and the Media: Challenges facing researchers and archives in the 21st Century' will take place at the Dalhousie Building on Saturday 2 April at 6pm.

Free tickets are available from events@dundee.ac.uk 01382 385564, Tower Building reception and www.dundee.ac.uk/tickets.

A book signing and reception will follow the lecture. Overflow theatres may be in use.

8. Burns project closes with poetry conference

A project exploring the popularity of Scotland’s national bard will culminate with a one day conference at the University tomorrow (26 March)

'The Object of Poetry' at the Dalhousie Building is the final event of the 'Robert Burns: Inventing Tradition and Securing Memory, 1796-1909' project.

The conference will look at the links between literary reception and popular memory, and explore the ways in which different writers are transmitted into the broader cultural context

Funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council, the year-long Inventing Tradition and Securing Memory project has built a web-based catalogue of all the public monuments to Burns worldwide as well as classifying different kinds of Burns-related memorabilia.

It also looked at the relationship between literary and material culture and how the memorialisation of Burns fed back into how his poetry was perceived.

Admission to the conference costs £35, although entrance is free to postgraduate students from the University of Dundee. Lunch will be provided to delegates. Anyone wishing to attend the event should contact research assistant Katherine McBay at k.a.mcbay@dundee.ac.uk

9. New book highlights artistic role in science

A professor at Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art and Design has had her research work in helping to identify a bacteria that causes devastating disease in potatoes featured in a new book.

Professor Elaine Shemilt has contributed a chapter in 'Art Practice in a Digital Culture' edited by Hazel Gardiner and Charlie Gere.

The chapter highlights Professor Shemilt’s work with scientists at the Scottish Crop Research Institute. A series of screenprints of potatoes she produced allowed scientists to see features of the potatoes they had previously overlooked.

Rather than simply identifying genes unique to a pathogen, the screen prints revealed the presence of other genes present in all of the bacteria, possibly representing genes essential to all forms of bacteria.

The book features artists, art historians, art theorists and curators of new media as they reflect on the idea of art as research and how it has changed practice.

10. Horace Walpole talk for Dundee Professor

Professor Peter Kitson of the University’s English Programme has been invited to deliver one of four keynote lectures to an international conference held to mark the formal re-opening of Horace Walpole’s famous Gothic house Strawberry Hill after a two-year long programme of restoration costing £9 million.

Professor Kitson’s lecture, entitled 'Horace Walpole, Chinoiserie and the Stage' will discuss Walpole's ambivalent relationship with the eighteenth-century fascination with China and 'cinoiserie.'

The talk is related to his current Leverhulme supported research project on Britain and China in the Romantic period.

Walpole was famous for single-handedly originating the craze for the literary Gothic with his pseudo-medieval novel of terror, The Castle of Otranto (1764).

The conference takes place at Strawberry Hill, now owned by St Mary’s University College, today and tomorrow (25 and 26 March).

For more information visit www.smuc.ac.uk/romanticadaptations.

11. CEPMLP scoops award at the ICC Mediation Competition in Paris

A team from the Centre for Energy, Petroleum, Mineral Law and Policy has won the 'Best use of Mediator' prize at the prestigious International Chamber of Commerce Mediation Competition in Paris.

The CEPMLP team was made up of Jason Chia from Malaysia and Roderick Williams from the UK. They adopted a ‘real life’ corporate mediation style which was noted by one of the judges, Niall Lawless, as ‘the best performance he has seen of any team for the past six years.’

The duo were coached by eminent advocate and barrister Steven P Walker, Solicitor Advocate Iain K Clark, both visiting lecturers at CEPMLP, and Maxim S Marinenko, a former President of the AIPN CEPMLP Student Club.

Steven Walker, 'Iain, Maxim and I are delighted that our training paid off and we scooped this prestigious award. This could not have been achieved without the first class dedication, team work and preparation of the Team. This international award now ranks CEPMLP Mediation training as some of the best anywhere in the world.'

12. Computing hold open evening

The School of Computing held an open evening to celebrate National Science and Engineering week last week.

Researchers were on hand to talk about their work, demonstrate the value of their research, and encourage visitors to try out some of the projects for themselves.

Event organiser Dr Karen Petrie said this year’s open event focussed on Business Intelligence.

'It shows how subjects like ecology, geography and economics all come to play in the schools Computing Research,' she said.

13. Recruits wanted for tower abseil

Six members of staff will be enjoying a different view of their workplace later this Spring when they take part in a charity abseil down the University Tower building to raise funds for Marie Curie Cancer Care.

Led by School of Humanities Secretary Gwen Hunter the team will be abseiling down one of the city’s tallest buildings in May as part of a fund-raising effort by Gwen’s sister Petra McMillan.

Petra is hoping to recruit a total of 60 charity abseilers to help raise £10,000 for the charity and pay for 500 hours of free nursing care for the terminally ill in Dundee and Angus.

The fund raising campaign was launched following the death of Petra and Gwen’s mother Renate Rennie in June 2009. Since then Petra has raised more than £6000 towards her target.

So far 30 people have signed up for the charity abseil on 21 May including a team of Marie Curie nurses in Dundee.

Anyone interested in taking the plunge and helping the charity effort can contact Petra on 07717810365.

14. Research grants information available online

Details of research grants awarded are available on the web at: www.dundee.ac.uk/research/main/fact-file/20070523141349/.

15. What's On?

Find out what’s happening around the University at www.dundee.ac.uk/externalrelations/whatson/.

16. Contributing to eContact

Submissions for the next edition should be emailed to econtact@dundee.ac.uk by midday on Wednesday, 6 April 2011. Please include "item for eContact" in subject heads for all contributions.

There is a 100-200 word limit for items and staff are advised to provide a contact email or website for more information. Contributors must be University staff or students unless in exceptional circumstances.