Research news Page 3
School news Page 5
Visitors and symposia Page 6
Art for science sake Page 8
Newsletter Bringing you the latest news from the School of Biosciences at the University of Kent
Inside this edition 3 Kent Bioscience funding in top decile 3 Fellowship successes 3 New Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Facility from Wellcome Trust 4 Major awards from BBSRC and Technology Strategy Board 5 Undergraduate applications – the healthiest ever 5 Biosciences welcomes 5 new staff 5 New Look web site 6 Leading Scientists come to Kent 7 Entering the Social Media era 7 Top ten reasons to be a Bioscience student in Kent 8 Science on the buses
School of Biosciences
2011/2012
2 University of Kent School of Biosciences
Welcome
Selected top publications in 2011 McVicker G, Sun L, Sohanpal BK, Gashi K, Williamson RA, Plumbridge J, Blomfield IC. (2011) SlyA activates fimB expression and type 1 fimbriation in Escherichia coli K-12. J Biol Chem: 286 32026-32035 Phillips C, Roberts LR, Schade M, Bazin R, Bent A, Davies NL, Moore R, Pannifer AD, Pickford AR, Prior SH, Read CM, Scott A, Brown DG, Xu B, Irving SL (2011). Design and structure of stapled peptides binding to estrogen receptors. J Am Chem Soc: 133(25):9696-9. Adamek, N, Geeves, M A and Coluccio, L M (2011) Myo1c mutations associated with hearing loss cause defects in the interaction with nucleotide and actin, Cell Mol Life Sci 68, 139-150. Gabriel AS, Thornhill AR, Gordon A, Brown APC, Taylor J, Bennett K, Handyside AH, Griffin DK (2011). Array CGH on first polar bodies suggests that non-disjunction is not the predominant mechanism leading to aneuploidy in humans Journal of Medical Genetics 48:433-437 Bloemink MJ, Melkani GC, Dambacher CM, Bernstein SI, Geeves MA (2011) Two Drosophila myosin transducer mutants with distinct cardiomyopathies have divergent ADP and actin affinities. J Biol Chem 286, 28435-43.
Hello and welcome to the first of what we hope will be a series of annual newsletters chronicling the achievements of 2011 and looking forward to 2012. It is just over a year since the management structure of the School changed and several new committees have now had a year to bed in. In this newsletter we will let you know some of the major achievements of the last year and update you with how the school is progressing. 2011 was undoubtedly a hard and draining year. Nonetheless, the achievements of the School have been considerable. The grant income of the school has scored some notable successes including awards to the Centre for Molecular Processing, a new Nuclear Magnetic Resonance facility thanks to Wellcome Trust investment in the School and a large Enterprise grant (from the Technology Strategy Board). There have been numerous original peer reviewed research articles from the School including the ones listed (left) – this is an amazing achievement for a school in which less that 20 staff are actively producing research papers. We welcomed the company “Cangenix” to the School, reorganised our laboratory space and introduced some exciting new teaching innovations including a new research led undergraduate curriculum and two new Masters courses. 2012 will be crucial year in terms of getting our submission for the research excellence framework (REF) in good shape and we will be gearing up for a pilot exercise later in the year. With recruitment booming and five new academic staff, we are looking forward to a productive future. I hope you enjoy this newsletter
Hayes NV, Blackburn E, Boyle MM, Russell GA, Frost TM, Morgan BJ, Gullick WJ (2011). Expression of neuregulin 4 splice variants in normal human tissues and prostate cancer and their effects on cell motility. Endocr Relat Cancer. 3;18(1):39-49. Michaelis M, Paulus C, Löschmann N, Dauth S, Stange E, Doerr HW, Nevels M, Cinatl J Jr, (2011) The multi-targeted kinase inhibitor sorafenib inhibits human cytomegalovirus replication. Cell Mol Life Sci; 68:1079-90. Chu D, Barnes DJ, von der Haar T. (2011 )The role of tRNA and ribosome competition in coupling the expression of different mRNAs in Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Nucleic Acids Res; 39(15):6705-14. Romeo CV, Ladakis D, Lobo SA, Carrondo MA, Brindley AA, Deery E, Matias PM, Pickersgill RW, Saraiva LM, Warren MJ. (2011 ). Evolution in a family of chelatases facilitated by the introduction of active site asymmetry and protein oligomerization. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA. 108:97-102. Bali S, Lawrence AD, Lobo SA, Saraiva LM, Golding BT, Howard MJ, Ferguson SJ and Warren MJ (2011) Molecular hijacking of siroheme for heme and d1 heme synthesis; elucidation of a new branch of tetrapyrrole synthesis. Proc Natl Acad Sci 108: 18260-18265
Professor Darren Griffin Deputy Head of School
BREAKING NEWS... Male pride restored as Y chromosome wins a reprieve http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2012/feb/22/male-pride-x-chromosome-reprieve
Top photography awards for Bioscience staff Photography awards for Bioscience staff on page 8
University of Kent School of Biosciences 3
Research news
Kent Bioscience funding in top decile Even in these austere times Biosciences continues to beat the odds with good funding news in terms of our relative standing compared to other Universities in the country. Recent figures published with regard to the total research spend on BBSRC grants, divided by the total number of staff as reported in the last RAE puts our own School of Biosciences easily in the top 10%. This means that our total income per staff member is in the same league as Manchester, Oxford, Cambridge and most of the other top universities. The School is set to receive three major awards having led three multi-million pound applications to the BBSRC. In the first case, an idea from Evelyne Deery and Andrew Lawrence has resulted in the funding of a four year project, linked with Queen Mary (Professor Pickersgill), on a novel way to elucidate intermediates of complex biochemical pathways. The project, which also involves NMR (Mark Howard) and kinetics (Mike Geeves), has important implications for system biology approaches to
metabolism. In the second project, Mark Smales and Professor Anne Willis (MRC Toxicology Unit, Leicester) have been successful in a two-site BBSRC proposal entitled ‘Defining novel mechanisms of mRNA translational control upon cold shock in mammalian cells’. This award, worth approximately £900,000 at FEC across the two sites, builds upon ground breaking work between these two groups that has shown how cold specific mechanisms control mRNA translation and protein synthesis in mammalian o cells upon cold-shock at 27-32 C. This funding will allow these two groups to further define the control of translation upon cold-shock in mammalian cells, significantly improving our understanding of protein synthesis under such conditions, potentially leading to new approaches to improve protein production from mammalian cells and treatments for heart and brain damage. In the final project, Martin Warren and Professor Stuart Ferguson (Oxford) have been funded to study a novel pathway for the synthesis of heme.
Fellowship Awards Dr Dan Mulvihill has recently been awarded a 4 year Royal Society Industry Fellowship to develop novel technologies to allow rapid live cell imaging. Over the four year period Dan will spend half his time working with his industrial partner, Cairn Research Ltd, a company that specializes in the design and production of apparatuses to capture and record rapid changes in fluorescence signals. One of the projects he plans to work on is the development of an apparatus that can be plugged into any existing microscope and will allow the simultaneous capture of multiple images through different depths of a cell. This will allow researchers to build instant 3D pictures of where a molecule localizes within a cell, to allow the real-time study of how molecules move throughout the cell.
Dr Emma Hargreaves has also been awarded an Early Career Fellowship by the Leverhulme Trust to work on a 3 year project within the Centre for Molecular Processing. During her studies Emma intends to further unravel the links between transcription and mRNA translation in mammalian cells. Using a cross-disciplinary approach she will first determine the stoichiometry of key translation initiation factors and their interacting partners and subsequently apply quantitative data to develop systems biology models of translation initiation. Ultimately Emma plans to use the developed models to understand the biology underpinning the dynamic levels of eIFs in mammalian cells.
New NMR spectrometer A new NMR spectrometer was installed in June 2011 following an award of £456,741 from The Wellcome Trust to upgrade the biomolecular NMR facility in Biosciences. The new spectrometer from Bruker UK will allow Mark Howard and his team to work with much lower sample concentrations as well as increasing functionality to include studies of many novel biomolecules. The spectrometer, that was custom built to Mark’s requirements, has a unique Cryoprobe that will observe hydrogen, carbon and nitrogen; considered as typical biological nuclei, but it also has enhanced capabilities for phosphorous, fluorine and cobalt. Phosphorous provides access to nucleic acids, fluorine for enhanced pharmaceutical drug discovery and cobalt for the study of vitamin B12 proteins and metabolic intermediates. NMR spectroscopy provides detailed analysis of the structure and dynamics of biological molecules and so provides critical understanding of how these molecules work.
VC Challenge Cup Result After many rounds involving members of staff and students with bats, balls, shuttlecocks, ping pong not to mention broken fingers and hospital visits, team “Biocelona” finished in third place in the VC’s challenge cup. The Sports Centre are keen to improve on the event for next year. Everyone clearly enjoyed taking part, hopefully that will enthuse more players to join in next year. Biocelona are keen beat our excellent third place result next time!
4 University of Kent School of Biosciences
Research news
Big Ideas USA winners – 3 PhD students Three of our PhD students, Caroline Tolley, Will Humphries (both from Peter Nicholls’ lab) and Claudia Rathje (From Dan Lloyd’s lab) returned from a successful trip to Virginia USA, having represented the University of Kent as part of the ‘Big Ideas’ competition. They did extremely well having won second place for their presentation, winning them total prize money of $5000. They received amazing feedback from the judges and the other teams who were really impressed with their idea and the professional way they gave their presentation. The students had a great week, having learnt so much and made to feel so welcome by the people of Virginia.
Re-badging of research groups In 2011, we took the decision to re-structure our research groups and the way we present ourselves to the world. The former structure consisting of three groups (Protein Science, Cell and Developmental Biology, Biomedical Sciences) was getting somewhat out of date and did not reflect the true nature of the synergies within the School. Research in the School now revolves around understanding and exploiting the impact of Systems and Processes in the Living Cell. It has a strong molecular focus in three overlapping disciplines of Protein Science, Molecular Microbiology and Biomolecular Medicine. This allows us to harness technology and develop ground-breaking ideas in the fields such as biochemistry, genetics, molecular biology, and biophysics. Fields of enquiry encompass a range of molecular
Pigs might not have to fly Doctor Doctor Congratulations to the following students for successfully negotiating their vivas and being awarded their PhDs (some subject to minor corrections): Katie Fowler Man Shun Fu Alem Gabriel Samuel Godfrey Sarah Hodson Shu-Ju Hsieh Dimitrios Ladakis Simon Moore Heresh Rezavandi Susanne Schroeder
A four year grant from the technology strategy board of nearly £1,000,000 was awarded to Professor Darren Griffin and his team. The project is in collaboration with JSR Genetics a world leader in superior pig genetics who routinely fly ~1000 pigs to stock overseas farms in developing markets. This involves high production and logistical costs, environmental pollution and difficulties with animal movement eg health, trade and husbandry. This project will introduce a sustainable alternative through the generation and transport of pig IVF embryos. It is hoped that it will lead to enhanced production and significant reduction in transport costs and other adverse impacts such as those on the environment. In collaboration with the London Bridge Fertility Clinic the team will adapt preimplantation genetic diagnosis (PGD) technology to ensure a mostly female sex ratio, thus realising further monetary and environmental benefits.
Claudia Solscheid Jack South Gemma Staniforth Klement Stojanovski Jane Wagstaff Lynn Wales Ming Wang
The grant is one of the largest awarded via the Enterprise office and eclipses the total enterprise income for the Faculty of Science in the previous year. After recently completing her PhD in the School, Kate Fowler will take on the role of postdoc on the project responsible for the day to day delivery of the project aims.
processes from cell division, transcription and translation through to molecular motors, molecular diagnostics and the production of biotherapeutics and bioenergy. The school now consists of 8 research groups and has a leading role in two interdisciplinary centres.
University of Kent School of Biosciences 5
School news
Welcome New Colleagues During the summer of 2011 several new members of the teaching staff joined the School bringing a range of new expertise in exciting areas of the biosciences. Professor Martin Michaelis: joined the School in July 2011. Martin studied pharmacy and completed his PhD in pharmaceutics in Frankfurt am Main, Germany, working on drug carrier systems including nanoparticles and liposomes. He took a position as postdoc at the Institute for Medical Virology, Clinics of the Goethe-University, Frankfurt/Main, Germany, and started to work on the identification and investigation of anti-cancer and antiviral drugs. From 2005, he joined the charity “Hilfe für krebskranke Kinder Frankfurt e.V.”, Frankfurt am Main, finally resulting in a joined affiliation at the private research institute of the charity’s trust Frankfurter Stiftung für krebskranke Kinder (Dr Petra JohForschungshaus) and at the Institute of Medical Virology in Frankfurt am Main. Dr Wei-Feng Xue: joined the School in April 2011. He received his PhD degree in Physical Chemistry on research regarding proteinprotein/protein-ligand interactions in Professor Sara Linse’s group at Lund University in Sweden (2006). He then took a postdoctoral position concerning the mechanism and the biological impact of amyloid assembly in Professor Sheena Radford’s laboratory at the Astbury Centre for Structural Molecular Biology in the University of Leeds (2006-2011). His research interests include supramolecular protein assembly, protein folding/misfolding, and amyloid disease/function. Dr Mark Shepherd joined the School of Biosciences in July 2011 as a Lecturer in Microbial Biochemistry. He studied Biochemistry at the University of Sheffield (1996-1999) and stayed in the Department of Molecular Biology & Biotechnology to undertake a PhD with Professor Neil Hunter FRS (1999-2003). He there developed his interest in the enzymology and spectroscopy of chlorophyll and haem biosynthesis. After completing his PhD studies,
he conducted postdoctoral research with Professor Harry Dailey at the University of Georgia (2003-2005). This was followed by a move back to the University of Sheffield in 2005 to take up a postdoctoral position with Professor Robert Poole. A subsequent position at the University of Queensland (2010-2011) with Professor Mark Schembri focussed on nitric oxide stress in Uropathogenic E. coli Dr Jeremy Rossman joined the School of Biosciences in November 2011 as a Lecturer in Virology. He received a PhD in Emerging Infectious Diseases from the Uniformed Services University (USA) for his studies on T lymphocyte signal transduction (2006). Following his PhD, he conducted postdoctoral research with Professor Robert Lamb at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute where he investigated the mechanisms of influenza virus budding (20062011). His research interests include influenza virus morphology, viral budding and advanced microscopic methodology. Professor Dave Brown, formally Director of Structural Biology and Biophysics at Pfizer, has been appointed Chair of Structural Biology in Biosciences. Professor Brown and four excolleagues from Pfizer will also expand upon their previous research links with the University by launching a new start-up company, Cangenix, from its base on the Canterbury campus. The arrangement will mean that students and researchers within the University’s School of Biosciences will be able to exchange knowledge and collaborate with the Cangenix team. Cangenix is a Contract Research Organisation that offers crystallography – a structure-based drug design tool – and biophysics services to the pharmaceutical and biotech industry. Throughout the process, Pfizer has supported Cangenix with an offer of equipment purchase at a reduced rate and advice on the academic courses Professor Brown will run. It has also permitted the team to retain its portfolio of pharmaceutically relevant structural targets. The Vice-Chancellor of the University of Kent, said: ‘The University is delighted to welcome both David Brown as our new chair of Structural Biology and Cangenix to our Canterbury campus.”
Bioscience applications are the healthiest ever The School, for the first time topped 1000 applications by 16th January 2012 for its undergraduate degree courses – its highest ever. Growth has been particularly strong over the last two years; the total number of applicants in 2010 at the same stage was 761 and the current figures represent a 36% rise on 2010, and a 14% rise on last year. Admissions Officer Richard Willliamson said “healthy application numbers are essential if we are to successfully compete for AAB+ students who do not count against our admissions target. We are likely to receive another 300 applications or so from now until the end of July.” Head of School Martin Warren said “The statistics reflect the School’s excellent showing in the NSS and graduate employment league tables. It is also testament to the attention to detail of the admissions team.”
New look web site In 2011, the School launched its new web site. The main image is one of a nettle leaf taken by Ian Brown and typically forming part of a student practical class. Landing pages for undergraduate and postgraduate courses as well as research is hoped to attract both students and research collaborators to Kent.
6 University of Kent School of Biosciences
Visitors and symposia
Stacey Symposium 2011 Last year the School celebrated the life and work of Professor Ken Stacey, the founding Professor of the then Biological Laboratory, by holding the inaugural Stacey Symposium. As the 2010 event was so successful we decided the symposium would become an annual event and on September 16th we held the second Stacey Symposium in the School. The aim of the Stacey Symposium is to invite back alumni of the School, be they former undergraduate, postgraduate, postdocs or staff, to give a talk about the science they have been doing since leaving Kent. This year we decided the focus of the Stacey Symposium would be “Kent women in (bio)sciences” and managed to convince eight of our former colleagues to give talks. These included Professor Anne Willis, a former undergraduate and now Professor and Director of the MRC Toxicology Unit at the University of Leicester, Dr Lesley Thompson, a former postdoc and now Director of the Research Base at the EPSRC, and Dr Naheed Kaderbhai from the University of Aberystwyth and who graduated from the very first cohort of Biosciences’ undergraduates at Kent. The programme also contained talks by two of our current PhD students (Ilectra Adam and Steffi Magub) and Emma Hargreaves from the Smales’ lab who has recently been awarded a Leverhulme Fellowship.The day concluded with an overview by Louise Naylor, a former Senior Lecturer in the School but now Director of UELT on campus.
A number of other alumni returned for the event and we were delighted to see Robert Freedman and Chris Knowles and also a number of former members of Chris Knowles’ research group. In addition, we were also honoured that several members of Ken Stacey’s family also attended the Symposium.
Wain Lecture This years Wain lecture was given by Professor Molly Stevens from Imperial College. She runs a large multidisciplinary research group that focusses on the synthesis of biomedical materials and their use in regenerative
Overall we had an excellent day of science and reminiscence and are very grateful to Chris Knowles and the Vice-Chancellor for providing financial support for the event. We are now beginning to plan the 2012 event and so if you are in touch with any of your former Kent colleagues please alert them of this opportunity to come back to visit us.
Sir Tim Hunt Lecture medicine. Her lecture gave a fascinating insight into applied science and in particular how recent advances allow for the engineering of large quantities of human bone for transplantation. She is recognised as one of the top young scientists in the country, where her basic research has led to successful commercialisation and the setting up of several spin-out companies. Professor Stevens is clearly a dynamic individual, a top innovator and a major intellectual. She proved herself to be a very worthy winner of the Wain award.
At the end of April, Nobel laureate, Professor Sir Tim Hunt made a visit to the school as he had kindly agreed to come and give a lecture on the BI610 Cell Cycle module. During the day he also had a chat with postgraduate researchers, and discussed with them what had inspired him to enter into a life of science and his personal career highlights. Finally at the end of the day Tim gave the Vice-Chancellor’s lecture. During this entertaining, educational and insightful open lecture, Tim described the links between the Cell Cycle and Cancer, and the experiments that contributed to him being awarded the Nobel prize.
University of Kent School of Biosciences 7
Courses and marketing
New MSc courses MSc Reproductive medicine: Science and ethics. Reproductive medicine is one of the “growth industries” of science. As the average age of parents increases, the call for increasingly novel treatments to aid reproduction is similarly on the increase. In particular, around 1-2% of all babies in the UK are born by IVF, with varying figures in many other countries. Internationally, reproductive medicine generally, and IVF in particular, is an area in which the UK is worldleading, indeed many other countries, eg in the Middle East and Eastern Europe look to the UK for education and leadership. Academic research into human reproduction and embryology is very popular as witnessed by the increased numbers of related congresses and journals covering this topic. The course is being taught in part by staff at the University of Kent and in part by collaborators eg colleagues from the London Bridge Fertility centre. The MSc in Cancer Biology has been designed for students who wish to gain an advanced education and training in the biological sciences, within the context of a disease that affects a large proportion of the population. Students are trained in modern biological research skills that can be harnessed to further our understanding of cancer and improve treatment. They also develop a range of transferable skills that are attractive to employers within the public and private sector. This programme incorporates modules that focus on the biology and treatment of cancer, alongside advanced scientific skills training modules for application within and outside the laboratory. Through a combination of lectures, small-group seminars and practical classes, students apply this training towards the development of new cancer therapies.
Award winning teaching This academic year, Kent Union has been piloting a new Teaching Awards scheme to recognise and reward those academics who are committed to delivering excellent teaching for their students. This is the first fully student created and run teaching awards scheme at the University. Fewer than 500 applications were received for the award, with a good helping of Biosciences staff being amongst them, all those listed below received a mug by way of a ‘thank you’ from the students. Peter Klappa, Martin Warren, Bill Gullick, Kay Foster, Mark Howard, Dan Lloyd, Peter Nicholls, Frances Mansfield and Mick Tuite. Peter Klappa not only won the best Union prize for ‘fabulous feedback’ but also was a very deserved winner of the university Faculty Teaching Prize, which comes with an award of £5000.
Top ten As part of the Research and Marketing Strategy, we have put together a “top ten” reasons of what we think are our major selling points. Specific “top tens” for undergraduates and postgraduates have been developed and the following is an amalgamation and truncation of the two. 1 National Student Satisfaction: All degree programmes consistently ranked in the top 10 in England and Wales by the National Student Survey for ‘overall satisfaction’. Biomedical Science ranked in the top 2 for five of the last seven years. Biochemistry ranked 1st in 2010
4 Inspirational Teaching, internationally distinctive, and innovative programmes of study with highest possible scores (24/24) in national Teaching Quality Assessment exercises 5 Supportive and Enthusiastic Staff Personal tutorial system and high practical content 6 First class Facilities including Newly refurbished teaching laboratories 7 Excellent Sports and Social Life 8 Attractive Campus and Location
2 Research-Led Culture with Strong industrial links, real-research projects and a wide range of seminars and dissemination events 3 Global Research Excellence with £5 million in research funding, academic staff who are international leaders in their field and exciting areas of modern molecular science
9 Good Job Prospects – 8th in the UK in the 2012 Guardian University Guide 10 Award-Winning Science Communication
Top tweets The School entered the social media age last year with Dr Peter Klappa leading the line with new contributions on Facebook and Twitter Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/ School-Of-Biosciences/205851959435612 Twitter: @bio_kent Here are some of the top tweets of 2011 1 Finally! All the exam results are out :-) Congratulations to everybody, who achieved what they set out for. And for those of you, who didn’t – don’t worry, but NEVER give up http://goo.gl/LjPbV July 6 906 views 2 University of Kent makes top 30 in universities ‘Table of tables’ http://goo.gl/bnys6 July 5 656 views
3 Spectacular Biology – when Arts meet biology http://goo.gl/nLhWV a project between the School of Biosciences and Creative Arts. July 4 638 views 4 VC’s Cup – School Sports Day kicks-off today at 1pm The 3rd round of the VC’s Cup kicks-off at today at 1pm down at the Pavilion (opposite Park Wood accommodation).With the weather being as nice as it is, why not pop down to the Pavilion and watch your University colleagues in action. June 27 636 views 5 The Complete University Guide has named Canterbury as the safest city for students in England and Wales http://bit.ly/qpiEZr July 7 620 views
8 University of Kent School of Biosciences
Art for science sake
Facebook and Twitter Join the School’s Facebook group and follow us on Twitter and Wikidot. @bio_kent www.facebook.com/pages/ School-Of-Biosciences/205851959435612
Artist in residence
Top photography awards for Bioscience staff
Visitors to Biosciences will notice a preponderance of new artwork adorning the walls. The efforts have been largely those of Annie Halliday who was artist in residence in the School from 2008 to 2009. During her time in the School she indulged her specialism of “science-art” producing a range of stunning images. Many of these images were taken with a camera made from a large water barrels. Exposures of up to 16 hours capture time rather than freezing it, yielding unique tracings of activity. Others are stunning composite images drawing on inspiration from experiments or images going on in the School. The artwork went up on the walls in 2010 and 2011. Annie said “I was amazed to see the advances in technical facilities and techniques which have evolved since my early career as a biologist, and which offered exciting imaging possibilities. Sources include digital photomicroscopy files, captured at high magnification; digital snapshots from confocal microscopes, data, photograms; and drawn elements. Dr Dan Lloyd said ‘Annie’s collaboration with the School has mined a rich seam of scientific activities that take place on a day-to-day basis.” Annie has continued her collaboration with researchers in the School, to design the display of research projects in the foyer of the Stacey building, and has recently been invited to facilitate a seminar on ‘Art and Science’ for the MSc course in Science, Communication and Society.
Dr Wei-Feng Xue was named the Photographer of the Year by the Society of Biology for his eyecatching photograph depicting chestnut tree roots following the pattern of pavement stones in a garden in Hong Kong. All these images will feature in a limited edition of the Society of Biology’s 2012 calendar.
Mark Downs, CEO of the Society with David Harris and Wei-Feng Xue (Right)
Dr Anthony Baines was awarded the Royal Photographic Society's second highest distinction, Associateship (ARPS), on October 12. He had to present a portfolio of 15 pictures that were judged by a panel of Fellows of the RPS. The ARPS is awarded to a photographer who can demonstrate not just complete control of all the technical aspects but who has developed a personal style that suits the chosen subject. Anthony's portfolio was based around aviation photography, both ground-to-air and airto-air and can be viewed on the RPS website at: http://www.rps.org/portfolios
Science on the buses routes throughout Kent and formed the basis of a display in the Gulbenkian cross-over gallery. Dr Lloyd said “Many of the images captured in the course of our scientific research in Biosciences could easily be viewed as pieces of art. The aim of this project was to treat these images as art, and use this as a way to draw the viewer in to the science that created the image. It was a fascinating process for us and really encouraged the students to think of communicating science in creative and imaginative ways”.
School of Biosciences, University of Kent, Canterbury, Kent CT2 7NJ T: +44 (0)1227 823743 or 827580 F: +44 (0)1227 763912
www.kent.ac.uk/bio/
School of Biosciences
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In an increasing effort to reach out into the local community an exciting initiative led by Dr Dan Lloyd and the Students on the MSc in Science, Communication and Society has brought the imagery of the School to commuters in Kent. Students from the MSc were asked to take images generated in the school and provide a short, cryptic caption that would be eye catching and informative to the general public. The posters also used social media to deliver more information on the science behind the image and the opportunity to comment and ask questions. Several of the resulting posters have been displayed on bus