Awards

Professor Georgina Follett awarded OBE
Professor Georgina Follett, Dean of Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art and Design, hailed the achievements of the College in general after she was awarded an OBE for her Services to Design and to Higher Education.

"This is really for Duncan of Jordanstone. It is for all the staff and students of the most wonderful college in Scotland," said Professor Follett, who is also a Deputy Principal of the University.

A contemporary visual craft practitioner of 40 years standing, specialising in plique-a-jour enamelling, Georgina is a graduate of the Royal College of Art. Her practitioner portfolio specialises in plique-a-jour enamelled jewellery in precious metals- a system of using enamel within jewellery to give a stained glass effect- the only practitioner of this way of working in the UK and one of a handful in Europe. Her work is held in many private collections as well as the permanent collection of the Victoria and Albert Museum, the Roy Strong collection and the National Museums of Scotland.

Georgina has experience working with jewellery manufacturing companies and has worked collaboratively on a number of projects and consultancies with industry, including the establishing of Dundee by Design and IDEAS (Industry Design, Education Action Scotland). She chaired the hugely successful 'New Craft - Future Voices' conference and exhibition staged at the University during the summer.

Professor Kirsty Gunn wins Award
Kirsty Gunn, Head of Creative Writing at the University of Dundee, has been named winner of the Sundial Scottish Arts Council Book of the Year for The Boy and the Sea.

The judging panel, including Dr Robyn Marsack, director of the Scottish Poetry Library, and Dr Gavin Wallace, head of literature at the Scottish Arts Council, lavished praise on Professor Gunn's work, commenting:

"This is a novella of consummate subtlety, imaginative daring, and emotional intensity, capturing the anguish of adolescent sensitivity and mystery in an intimate yet elemental story, rendered in a poetic prose of dazzling lyricism."

Professor Gunn said she was "completely overwhelmed" with the award. She added: "I'm grateful to the panel for embracing my short novella it that is in so many ways such an unconventional piece of literary fiction."

The other books short-listed for the award were Robin Robertson's poetry collection Swithering, John Burnside's memoir A Lie About My Father and Maggie Fergusson's biography George Mackay Brown: The Life.

Wimberley Medal
Medical student Richard Clinghan, who graduated during the summer, was named the 2007 winner of the Wimberley Medal, given each year to a student who has made an extraordinary contribution to the life of the University.

Richard was given the medal in recognition of his work with the University Charities Committee and for his role as President of Dundee University Medical School.

Richard also revived the Inter-Medical School Sports Tournament which was a tradition that died out fifteen years ago. Hundreds of students now take part on an annual basis.

"I am really pleased to get this medal," said Richard. "The sports tournament was great fun and should continue to go from strength to strength. We really tried to make the society more fun, as well as getting support for students on more serious matters."

"I would never have got this medal without the help of the whole Dundee University Medical School Committee 2004 - 2007, especially Chris Goodman, Isobel Hancock, Jamie Davidson and Alev Onen."

Royal Society of Chemistry award in Carbohydrate Chemistry
Dr Andrei Nikolaev, of the College of Life Sciences, has been named the winner of the 2006 Royal Society of Chemistry Award in Carbohydrate Chemistry.

This prestigious award, which is sponsored by Syngenta, was given to Dr Nikolaev for his innovative syntheses of complex carbohydrates of biological importance, enabling the study of their operation in nature.

Dr Nikolaev will be presented with the award, which comprises a silver medal, certificate and a cheque for £500, at a presentation dinner and ceremony in Birmingham in November.

The Royal Society of Chemistry Award in Carbohydrate Chemistry was founded in 1970 and recognises advances in new synthetic methods for the creation of carbohydrate molecules of biological significance, or in our understanding of how carbohydrates operate in molecular recognition and cell signalling processes.

Dr Nikolaev came to Dundee in 1995 and he currently works as a Reader in Organic Chemistry at the College of Life Sciences. He previously worked within the world-renowned Zelinsky Institute of Organic Chemistry in Moscow for 18 years.

Fellow of The Royal Academy of Engineering
Professor Alan Vardy has been elected a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering, the highest honour accorded to British engineers.

Professor Vardy is a Research Professor of Civil Engineering at the University. An international expert in the design and safe operation of road and rail tunnels, he also maintains a consultancy, Dundee Tunnel Research.

"It is an honour to be elected a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering and I am particularly happy not so much for myself but for the recognition that it brings to Civil Engineering at Dundee," said Professor Vardy.

Professor Vardy is a former Deputy and Vice-Principal of the University. He came to Dundee in 1979 as Head of the Department of Civil Engineering, a post he held for six years before standing down to take up the position of Deputy Principal and subsequently Vice-Principal.

Since the early 1990s he has split his time between research work at the University and consultancy work. Through his consultancy he provides software that has been used in the design of most of the world's major tunnels. He also organised a pioneering series of major international conferences on the safe operation of road and rail tunnels.

Dundee academic named CSO Clinician Scientist 2007
The prestigious Scottish Clinician Scientist Award for 2007 has been given to the University of Dundee's Dr Miles Witham.

Dr Witham is a clinical lecturer in the Section of Ageing and Health at Dundee University Medical School and a Specialist Registrar in Medicine for the Elderly with NHS Tayside.

The Clinician Scientist Award is aimed at doctors who research disease in patients and is presented on a competitive basis to just to one doctor in Scotland every year. It is funded by NHS Education Scotland and is aimed at developing world class clinical academic doctors in Scotland.

The award covers a five year period, including money for a three year clinical research project, funded by the Chief Scientist Office of the Scottish Executive. Dr Witham's research project will be on the effect of vitamin D on heart disease.

Dr Witham said: "I am delighted to have won this award, which will give a terrific boost not only to me personally, but to study common conditions that affect so many older people - a group that is often overlooked when it comes to research. The award is also a great vote of confidence in the high quality research environment here in Dundee, and reinforces Dundee's reputation as one of the leading centres in Europe for research into conditions affecting older people."

Dr Witham works with Professor Marion McMurdo, head of the Section of Ageing and Health, and Professor Allan Struthers, head of the Division of Medicine and Therapeutics at Ninewells Hospital.

Weiss Medal for Dundee Doctor
Professor Eric Wright, Research Dean of the School of Medicine,was awarded the prestigious Weiss medal and presented the Weiss Medal Lecture at the International Congress of Radiation Research in San Francisco.

The Weiss medal is named after the late Professor J Weiss whose research projects in the 1930's are widely-known as landmarks in chemical and radiation science.

Weiss Medalists are nominated by the Chairman of the Association for Radiation Research, after suitable consultations, as having made distinguished contributions to radiation science.

Professor Wright has worked on stem cell research, trying to decipher how stem cells are regulated and how they produce the various cells that are present in the blood. More recently his research has focussed on how exposure to ionising radiation causes abnormalities in stem cells that result in leukaemia.