president
Professor Marion McMurdo in ageing and health has been elected president-elect of the Scottish Council of the British Geriatrics Society. Dr Miles Witham, a clinical research fellow in ageing and health has been awarded the prestigious Taylor Brown prize for his scientific presentation at the autumn Scottish Geriatrics Society meeting.
chairs
Dr Sam Cadden in the dental school and Dr Brian Eddy in the school of life sciences have been awarded personal chairs. Brian Eddy has also been elected a fellow of the Institute of biology, in recognition of his contribution in his field of research, fish biology.
appointments
Dr Keith Topping has been appointed to the chair of education and social research. Euan McArthur has taken the position as head of the school of fine art and Bob Lyon will continue as head of accountancy and business finance for another three years. Professor Allan Struthers will head clinical pharmacology and therapeutics and Professor Keith Matthews will head psychiatry both for one year in the first instance.
fellowships
The Leverhulme Trust is offering 20 early career fellowships in 2003. Applicants must hold a first degree and be under the age of 35. Applicants aged 35 and over may apply if they began their academic studies at a later age than usual or have had a career break or change. Closing date is Thursday 13 March.
breakfast
Graduate and rail regulator Tom Winsor will be the speaker at the City of Discovery business breakfast on Wednesday 12 February at Discovery Point before delivering a lecture in the Baxter conference suite at 10.30 am on "How independent regulators deal with political pressure."
Australia
Professor Jeremy Lambert in the department of pharmacology and neuroscience has been chosen by the British Pharmacological Society as their Australian visitor. Professor Lambert will visit all the major Australian universities where he will deliver a series of lectures.
prospectus
The University has published a new postgraduate prospectus for 2003/04. It is now an A4 magazine giving potential students a feel for life at the University of Dundee. All course information is provided on the accompanying CD Rom.
semesters
Up to the minute information on the implementation of semesters and modules is available on the web at https://secure.dundee.ac.uk/learning/qau/dundeeonly/
fellow
Dr Dick Lerski of medical physics has been elected a fellow of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. This is unusual for a medical physicist, and recognises the work he has done in advancing the practice of physics in medicine.
lecture
Professor Andrew Morris in medicine has been awarded the distinguished RD Lawrence named lecture by Diabetes UK. He will deliver it at their annual professional conference in Glasgow on 20 March.
donation
The Dundee Rotary club has given £1,000 to the student advisory service for international cultural events for students. A Burns night is to be held on 7 February and a celebration of the Chinese new year will follow.
hopper
Rosa Michaelson from accountancy and business finance has organised the Hopper colloquium for women in computer science on 28 February at the National e-science centre in Edinburgh. Speakers will include Professor Muffy Calder, Professor Bonnie Webber and Dr Maria Fox. http://umbriel.dcs.gla.ac.uk/NeSC/general/esi/esi for full details.
star
Director of admissions and student recruitment Gordon Craig has been given the accolade ‘faculty star’ by the council for advancement and support of education for an outstanding presentation he gave at their last conference on recruitment strategies.
data
University archivist Pat Whatley has taken up post as data protection officer. The university has a legal requirement to comply with the act. All departments will be contacted in the near future and will be asked to provide a name of a data protection co-ordinator. Academic staff development seminars on data protection are detailed in the latest brochure.
infrastructure
The University has been awarded £649,000 by the Scottish higher education funding council to develop infrastructure to improve access for disabled students. This allocation is a share of £10 million that has been allocated to Scottish higher education institutions to meet the requirements of the special educational needs and disability act 2001.
row
The university boat club held a gruelling 24-hour sponsored row in DUSA at the end of last term, raising £3000 for Breast Cancer Research Scotland. Rector Fred MacAulay was there to lend his support.
cafe
The botanic garden has increased the capacity of its catering facilties. Extending the kitchen has come about as a result of the cafe's continuing success in attracting new customers. A new picnic area adjacent to the plant sales area is being created so that the plant centre can increase its range of stock ready for the new gardening season.
resources
The law department has been awarded £7,500 by the city solicitors educational trust for library resources to support core teaching on the English law stream.