19 Dec 2018

Bursary support for Summer School graduates

A group of University of Dundee students will each receive £100 bursaries to help towards the cost of their studies this week. The bursaries, donated by Strachans Ltd, an Aberdeenshire-based distributor of food and catering goods to the offshore industry, are being awarded to ten students who earned their places at Dundee having completed the University’s Access Summer School course earlier this year.  Stanley Morrice, chairman of Strachans, was made an honorary professor in the University’s School of Business last month. Strachans decided to fund the bursaries after Professor Morr...

19 Dec 2018

Lisburn girl’s award recognises links to Northern Ireland

From Danny Blanchflower to Snow Patrol, the University of Dundee has a proud history of welcoming Northern Irish students to Scotland and a new award, presented for the first time this year, celebrates this relationship. The University of Dundee Mathematics Award will be given to Northern Ireland’s top performing student in GCSE Mathematics each year. The inaugural prize has been shared by James Pratt of Methodist College in Belfast and Anna Trimble of Wallace High School in Lisburn. Dundee representatives visited Wallace High School yesterday to present Anna with her award, after James received his...

19 Dec 2018

University opens its doors for Discovery Days

University of Dundee academics will begin the New Year by welcoming the public to hear more about their world-leading research. More than 20 professors, award-winning teachers and students will be among those talking about their specialist work over three days of presentations at Discovery Days 2019. The annual event, taking place in the University’s Dalhousie Building from Wednesday 9 to Friday 11 January, will see some of the foremost minds in their fields speak about issues such as climate change, the safety of e-cigarettes, treatments for tropical diseases, and Russian politics. As well as sho...

17 Dec 2018

Mystery of human cell ‘recycling centre’ revealed

A previously undiscovered stress signal can kick-start a human cell’s ‘recycling centre’, University of Dundee scientists have revealed. A team from the University’s School of Life Sciences has found that signals sent to a protein known as STAT3 will trigger the production of lysosomal enzymes, which are crucial to breaking down proteins in the human body, an essential process in keeping cells healthy. The findings of the Wellcome Trust-funded study, published today in Nature Communications, could potentially pave the way for research in to several neurodegenerative diseases. Col...

12 Dec 2018

“Liquefied” soil may have contributed to earthquake death toll

Soil conditions may have been responsible for hundreds of deaths following September’s deadly earthquake and tsunami in Indonesia, a University of Dundee academic has discovered. Dr Andrew Brennan, from the University’s School of Science and Engineering, said high water levels in the ground in the province of Central Sulawesi may have allowed soil to liquefy, triggering several landslides that buried hundreds of homes in the disaster. Dr Brennan recently returned from the affected city of Palu where he had been working in his capacity as an expert in soil liquefaction, which occurs when soil ...