Comment 185

| 3 New £10m labs opened | 6 Celebrating Byzantium | 8 Profile: Dr Jan Palmowski | 15 Centralising services: CATS

C mment season’s greetings

The College newsletter

Issue no 185 | December 2008

Chancellor opens labs HRH The Princess Royal opens the new Clinical Research Facility and celebrates 10-year anniversary of King’s merger with the Institute of Psychiatry and the United Medical and Dental Schools.

HRH The Princess Royal officially

opened a new Clinical Research Facility at St Thomas’ Hospital in October. The new facility will enable researchers at King’s and clinical staff at the Hospital to undertake a range of multidisciplinary research focusing on nutrition, obesity and cardiovascular health.

Director of the Clinical Research Facility, Professor Frank Nestle from King’s explains: ‘The

new clinical research facilities will help us to carry out a wide range of clinical studies in both existing patients and healthy volunteers.

‘Tackling major health problems’ ‘There will be a particular focus on local health priorities and our aim is to find more effective ways

to tackle major health problems ranging from obesity to heart disease.’

The new facility at St Thomas’ will complement similar facilities that are being developed at Guy’s and King’s College Hospitals, which will focus on other major areas of disease such as cancer and inflammatory disease, and liver disease and neurosciences respectively.

The Principal, Professor Rick

‘Hall of fame’ transforms Strand alfredo

Trainor, comments: ‘As we drive forward our ambitious vision to become one of the UK’s first Academic Health Sciences Centres, facilities such as this will be vital in allowing us to embed research and clinical and academic excellence at the heart of our organisations.

‘We are delighted that the new centre at St Thomas’ has been made possible by generous support from Tate & Lyle, the British Heart Foundation and the Guy’s and St Thomas’ Charity, and that the focus of this first centre will help to underpin the research currently being undertaken in cardiovascular sciences, clinical pharmacology, women’s health, nutritional sciences and by the Twins Research Unit.’

HRH The Princess Royal, who is also Chancellor of the University of London, visited the College for a second time in a month on 6 November to mark the 10th anniversary of King’s merger with the Institute of Psychiatry and the United Medical and Dental Schools of Guy’s and St Thomas’ Hospitals.

In his speech, Professor Trainor said: ‘We are honoured to welcome Her Highness back to the College to celebrate a decade of achievement since the initial

A larger than life-size group of characters joined the Strand streetscape in October. Find out more about the new arrivals on page 3.

continued on page 2

News

King’s hosts key Microsoft signing dominic turner

Ed Balls, Secretary of State for

Children, Schools and Families, and Jim Knight, Minister of State for Schools and Learners, from the Department of Children, Schools and Families (DCSF) met with King’s academics and students at the end of October. They were at the College to sign a three-year Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with Microsoft.

Getting disengaged students involved

Minister Jim Knight and Secretary of State Ed Balls (left) meet with King’s academics and students following the agreement signing.

The MOU signing with the President of Microsoft International, Jean-Philppe

Courtois, was the first PublicPrivate Partnership signed by the DCSF. It aims to connect

Principal’s Column greg funnell

Dear Colleagues When plans for a national student survey (NSS) were announced some years ago, there was a good deal of cynicism about the project and a widespread view that such an initiative would be problematic to administer and that its conclusions would be almost worthless. Whilst by no means flawless, the NSS has nevertheless established itself as a barometer of student satisfaction, and is now taken seriously by most institutions as a means of driving standards of student experience.

At King’s our NSS results reveal high and above average levels of student satisfaction.

However, we have fallen significantly down the NSS league table this year, and senior colleagues and I are determined

2 | Comment | December 2008

to make significant improvements in student experience and perceptions where possible. A College Task Force has been established to examine the issue, and each School has produced plans to tackle particular areas of criticism. In particular, assessment and feedback is often cited as an issue, and we are drafting specific plans for improvement and aim to ensure that all students have a consistent experience of the personal tutor system. I would urge all staff to make special efforts to meet the expectations of our students.

I am pleased to report that the College was shortlisted for the THE (Times Higher Education) award for ‘University of the Year 2008’. We didn’t win, but it was a significant achievement to have been included in a shortlist of six.

As a gesture of goodwill the College will remain closed on 2 January and re-open on 5 January. I hope that all staff enjoy a well-deserved rest over the Christmas – hopefully, in the case of academic colleagues, basking in the warm afterglow of an encouraging RAE result!

Rick Trainor

parents better with their children’s education, use technology to get disengaged students more involved and improve teaching standards

and career development.

Following the signing, the visitors met with a group of PGCE and PhD students from the Department of Education & Professional Studies and discussed their teaching experiences, including integration of the curriculum with ICT and teaching.

Professor Chris Winch, Head of the Department of Education & Professional Studies commented: ‘It was a great opportunity to show Ed Balls and Jim Knight the work the Department is doing especially as it has a direct bearing on current policy issues.’

Professor Phil Whitfield, VicePrincipal (Students) hosted the visit at the Franklin-Wilkins Building, Waterloo Campus.

Regulate genomic testing Dr Barbara Prainsack, Senior

Lecturer in the Centre for Biomedicine & Society (CBAS), wrote a commentary in Nature last month on the need to regulate direct-to-consumer genetic and genomic testing.

Genetic and genomic testing currently allows people to analyse how susceptible they are to certain diseases. Since the introduction of direct-to-consumer, wholegenome testing in 2007, a handful of newly-founded companies are now offering consumers disease susceptibility information based on the analysis of their genome.

For fees ranging from £250 to £1,600, customers receive information on their personal genetic predisposition to various diseases, and to so-called ‘recreational’ traits such as

bitter taste perception, eye colour, and ear wax consistency.

Some companies also provide information on genetic ancestry.

In response to calls from academics, ethicists and scientists to regulate this newly emerging market, Dr Prainsack and her co-authors are urging regulators to refrain from endorsing regulatory models of the genetics era.

However, Dr Prainsack also highlighted that genomic testing for personal use may be losing its appeal. She states: ‘Before regulatory action is taken, research needs to also address the question of how people actually use such data. The only evidence we have so far is from above-average wealthy (and presumably also healthy) ‘early adopters’ of the technology.’

Chancellor opens labs continued from page 1

merger in 1998. The next 10 years hold the promise of many more successes and I am pleased to be able to share some of our vision for the future of King’s and our place in the world.’

During the reception, HRH The Princess Royal and other invited guests had the opportunity to view a mini historical exhibition of artefacts reflecting the achievements of King’s over the last decade.

News

Famous faces at the Strand phil sayer

A larger than life-size group

of characters joined the Strand streetscape at the end of October, brightening up one of London’s main arteries. The figures are part of a ‘hall of fame’ stretching 90 metres along the Strand frontage of the College, between Somerset House and Surrey Street. They are all famous people who have been associated with the College during its 180-year history.

Reaching up to two metres tall, the 50 head-and-shoulders images are mounted on vinyl in the Strand windows of the College.

They illustrate the distinguished contributions to society made

by King’s people, ranging from Romantic poet John Keats to medical student Lynsey Gawn who has skied to the South Pole.

Professor Rick Trainor, comments: ‘For centuries King’s has been producing innovators

Brightening up the Strand: the new faces at King’s.

who have helped to make the world a better place. This display shows how our tradition of excellence is helping to create a future of distinction.’

Other King’s characters on

the Strand include Bloc Party musician Kele Okereke; satirist Rory Bremner; and Dame Cicely Saunders, founder of the modern hospice movement.

The project was the result of

collaboration between a number of College departments, notably the Corporate Design Unit, the Estates Department, the Public Relations Office and the Alumni Office.

New £10 million laboratories opened david tett

The MRC & Asthma UK Centre in

Allergic Mechanisms of Asthma at King’s opened new laboratories in October. The investment by the College, Guy’s and St Thomas’ Foundation Trust and Guy’s and St Thomas’ Charity will address the rising epidemic of allergy and asthma in the UK. The new research facilities, which were opened by Chief Executive of the Medical Research Council, Sir Leszek Borysiewicz, will allow expansion of the Centre’s activities. This includes a focus specifically on environment

Professor Tak Lee.

and respiratory health and the impact of the introduction of the low emission zone.

Professor Tak Lee, Director of

the Centre, comments: ‘Allergic diseases have increased threefold in 20 years and asthma affects 1 in 12 of population in UK. Our national Centre was established to find the reasons and identify new treatments.

‘We have made very good progress in a short time and I am optimistic that real benefits to the patient will come through very soon. The new state of the art research facilities will provide a terrific boost to our endeavours and I am most grateful to our partners for placing their confidence in us.’

The new facilities in the Centre will consist of three larger laboratory spaces with an air conditioned en suite facility, offices and a seminar room. Nineteen senior scientists in the Centre also work as honorary NHS consultants within the Guy’s and St Thomas’ Foundation Trust and the Royal Brompton Hospital.

Guy’s and St Thomas’ Charity awarded £1.25 million towards the laboratories as part of its commitment to promoting the translation of world class research at King’s into clinical care.

Major boost for cancer research King’s was a big winner in a

£50 million funding round which was announced at the National Cancer Research Institute (NCRI) Cancer Conference in October.

The nationwide initiative will see the development and introduction of the latest imaging technologies to help advances in basic and

clinical cancer research.

Cancer Research UK will be investing up to £30 million and the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council will contribute £15 million towards the initiative.

In addition, the Medical Research Council will invest £3 million and at least £1.3 million will come from

the National Institute for Health Research to help improve the detection, diagnosis and treatment of cancer. An international panel of experts have awarded up to £2 million a year to establish four large cancer imaging centres – Imperial College London, The Institute of Cancer Research, a

joint centre between King’s and University College London and the University of Oxford.

The centres will serve as focal points of world-class research using a variety of imaging techniques, such as magnetic resonance imaging and Positron Emission Tomography.

December 2008 | Comment | 3

News

Raising nursing standards The National Nursing Research

Unit (NNRU) at the Florence Nightingale School of Nursing & Midwifery (FNSNM) launched two new major reports on the future of nursing in October.

Commissioned by the Chief Nursing Officer, Dame Christine Beasley, on behalf of the Department of Health, the two reports, Nurses in Society: starting the debate and State of the Art Metrics for Nursing: a rapid appraisal aim to start debate amongst nurses about Lord Darzi’s healthcare vision.

Nurses in Society: starting the debate highlights the pivotal role of nurses in determining quality of care and patients’ experiences, while State of the Art Metrics for

Nursing: a rapid appraisal, the companion report, sets out the evidence indicators spanning issues of safety, effectiveness and compassion to measure the quality of the indicators of care delivered by the contemporary nurse.

On the Nurses in Society report, Dame Christine Beasley commented: ‘The report identifies both an opportunity and a challenge for today’s and tomorrow’s nurses, and should inspire talented people with aptitude and motivation.’

Professor Anne Marie Rafferty, Head of FNSNM said: ‘Nursing is raising its game [and] nurses are crucially important in influencing the healthcare quality.’

Children suffer from PTSD Psychologists from the Institute of Psychiatry have published new findings in the American Journal of Psychiatry that suggest even young children can develop posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in response to traumatic events.

While the reactions of older children, teenagers and adults to traumas such as assaults or natural disasters are well documented, the reactions of preschool children have previously received very little consideration.

By using an age-appropriate technique for diagnosing PTSD in young children, that relies on parents’ reporting of how their offspring are coping, the researchers were able to

investigate the prevalence and course of this disorder in 114 two to ten year-old children. These children had all visited the A&E departments in London after a road traffic accident.

Lead researcher on the project Dr Richard Meiser-Stedman said: ‘Our findings indicate that the mental health needs of pre-school children caught up in terrifying events should be considered by parents and health services.

He continues: ‘More research is needed into how PTSD in young children should be treated and how parents can best help their offspring in the aftermath of a trauma.’

From left Dame Christine Beasley, Anne Keene MP and Professor Anne Marie Rafferty and at the launch of the two reports.

Protecting biodiversity Two new databases to help monitor

protected areas and the water that they provide to the world’s rivers, have been created thanks to research teams led by Dr Mark Mulligan, Reader in Geography.

The first is a geographic database of the extent and status of the world’s national parks and other areas for nature conservation – RALUCIAPA (Rapid Assessment of Land Use Change in and Around Protected Areas) – while CostingNature, is a system to value the services provided to humanity by protected areas.

Dr Mulligan explains: ‘Although some 12 per cent of the terrestrial surface is now protected legally in one way or another, many of these parks are little more than ‘paper parks’. RALUCIAPA helps to highlight parks under imminent threat so that conservation efforts can be focused upon them.’

The new species of glass frog (Centrolene mariaelenae)

Protected areas are also the last refuge of much of the world’s biodiversity such as glass frogs.

Diego F Cisneros-Heredia, a master’s student, recently completed a study of glass frogs.

Although he found new species, he also pointed out that their future is uncertain due to habitat loss and climate change.

Prisons could become hubs for radicalisation King’s academics are urging

European governments to pay attention to the situation in European prisons as they are likely to become major hubs for radicalisation and recruitment of Islamist militants in a report published by the European Commission in October.

4 | Comment | December 2008

The report written by Dr Peter Neumann, Director of the International Centre for the Study of Radicalisation and Political Violence and Dr Brooke Rogers, Department of Geography, entitled Recruitment and Mobilisation for the Islamist Militant Movement in Europe, is based on extensive

fieldwork in Britain, France and Spain and provides the most comprehensive picture to date of the methods through which Islamist militants in Europe mobilise their supporters and find new recruits.

Dr Neumann warns: ‘Islamist militant recruitment efforts have

largely been driven underground.

There is little overt propagation and recruitment now occurring at mosques, for example. But prisons and other ‘places of vulnerability’ continue to be a great cause of concern.’

The report is also available to download at www.icsr.info

News

Gene link discovery to baldness Researchers from King’s have

coordinated a multicentre study where two genetic variants have been identified which, when present together in the same individual, increase the risk of male pattern baldness (otherwise known as androgenic alopecia) seven fold. Androgenic alopecia, affects around 40 per cent of adult men and women.

Professor Tim Spector, Head of the Twin Research Unit, who led the study at King’s comments: ‘Androgenic alopecia is a highly genetic condition, with heritability estimates of over 80 per cent.

Genetic variants in, or in close proximity to, the X-chromosome androgen receptor (AR) gene have been previously associated with

Genetic breakthrough: the risk of male pattern baldness is increased seven fold with the presence of the two new gene variants.

male pattern baldness. However, since the inheritance pattern of this trait appears to be polygenic, we

Mechanisms of fracture

undertook a two-stage genomewide association study to look for other genes.’

The study assessed 1,125 men for male pattern baldness. The investigators found two genetic regions which substantially increased the risk of this condition.

They then tested these findings in an additional 1,650 men and confirmed that the one in seven men who carry the variants in both of these genes have a seven fold increased risk of baldness.

Professor Spector concluded: ‘The strong genetic basis of hair loss is odd – as any evolutionary advantage is unclear. Clearly most men know if they are bald or not – but early prediction before hair loss starts may lead to some interesting therapies that are more effective than treating late stage hair loss.’

MP welcomes ageing initiatives david tett

The understanding of the way

brittle materials – including rock – fracture took a major step forward in October with the publication of a paper in Nature which identifies the delicate, fundamental mechanisms by which fractures propagate in these materials.

The work, undertaken by Dr Alessandro De Vita, Reader in Physics, School of Physical Sciences & Engineering, working with an international team of collaborators, is based on a new computer modelling technique which could revolutionise our understanding of how, for instance, rocks break, resulting in large financial savings and improvement of the environmental impact of the mining industry.

In the paper, Dr De Vita’s research group have revealed, for the first time, in full atomistic detail, how fragile materials – rocks, gems, crystal glasses, silicon chips in laptops and portable phones or silicon films in photovoltaic cells – break apart under mechanical stress.

Dr De Vita explains: ‘For the first time, we can describe the delicate fracture mechanism which cause the instability of fracture propagation, revealing and explaining all the ‘stumbling’ and ‘sinking’ mechanisms which determine the features of the fracture process as they are actually observed in controlled experiments and in real-life technological devices.’

David Willetts MP, Shadow Secretary of State for Innovation, Universities and Skills, attended the launch of the ‘Facing Retirement Forum’ at King’s in October. This initiative aims to develop a better understanding of the needs of older people – baby boomers – in the UK. The Forum’s first research report, State of the Nation, which provides key insights into the UK’s 50 plus population, was presented at the launch event in the River Room, Strand Campus. The Principal of King’s, Professor Rick Trainor, welcomed guests to King’s and introduced proceedings.

New centre for Transnational Legal Studies launched The new Center for Transnational

Legal Studies was officially launched in October. The Center, spearheaded by Georgetown Law, is a first-of-its kind, collaborative project involving ten premier law schools from around the world, including King’s, to offer transnational legal education.

The signing ceremony was held in the Weston Room of the Maughan Library and was hosted by the Principal, Professor Rick Trainor, and Georgetown University President John J DeGioia.

President DeGioia said: ‘By helping to teach all of our law

students to be better global lawyers, this new Center for Transnational Legal Studies will help ensure the promise of greater global justice [and] a stronger global community.’

Professor Timothy Macklem, Head of the School of Law at King’s comments: ‘The Centre

will be a wonderful opportunity for top quality Law Schools worldwide to come together to share ideas on education and research, and to enable some of King’s students to study global issues with other students from a whole range of different cultures and jurisdictions.

December 2008 | Comment | 5

News

Celebrating Byzantium KIng’s College lonDon Is InvolveD

prOcurAtOriA di SAn MArcO/cAMerAphOtO Arte, venice

with one of the most ambitious exhibitions and lecture series on Byzantium to be held in Britain.

Byzantium 330-1453, which opened on 25 October at the Royal Academy of Arts, is a collaboration between the Academy and the Benaki Museum in Athens.

Highlighting the splendours of the Byzantine Empire and providing a grand scale survey of 1,000 years of history, Byzantium 330-1453 comprises around 300 objects including icons, wall paintings, micro-mosaics, ivories, and gold and silver metalwork.

Bringing Byzantium to King’s

6 | Comment | December 2008

icon of the Archangel Michael, constantinople, 12th century. Silver gilt on wood, gold cloisonné enamel, precious stones.

scholarship in the fields of Modern Greek and Byzantine history, language org.uk and literature, with the Koraes Chair Close connections currently being held King’s has played a major role in

by Professor Roderick the development of Byzantine Studies since the late 19th century. Beaton.

King’s involvement, The Department is now the largest under the auspices of of its kind in Britain, and has a Judith Herrin, Professor long and distinguished tradition of Emerita, Senior MyKhAylO Andreev Research Fellow in Byzantine studies, came as a result of her long friendship with the two curators of the exhibition, Professors Robin Cormack and Maria Vassilaki, and with the AG Leventis Foundation, which is funding the exhibition together with the Stavros Niarchos Foundation and the JF Costopoulos Foundation. icon with christ with SS Sergios and Professor Herrin comments: Bacchos, constantinople, sixth or seventh century encaustic and gold on pine.

‘Historically, the importance Further details of all the events can be found at www.royalacademy.

© the MetrOpOlitAn MuSeuM OF Art

A significant component of the exhibition is a series of public events, lectures, conferences and workshops, and both the Department of Byzantine & Modern Greek Studies and the Centre for Hellenic Studies have been heavily involved with the organisation of the events. Many of these are taking place at King’s and include: • Authority in Byzantium: a two-day conference which aims to explore the conventional but resilient view of Byzantium as a society constrained by authority which was rarely questioned.

(Thursday 15 – Saturday 17 January, Strand Campus) • Annual Runciman Lecture: ‘We are all children of Byzantium’ by Professor Judith Herrin.

(Thursday 5 February, 18.00, Great Hall, Strand Campus) • Defining Byzantium: 43rd Spring Symposium of the Society for the Promotion of Byzantine Studies.

(Friday 20 – Sunday 22 March, Courtauld Institute and King’s College London) Thanks to an initiative of Professor Charlotte Roueché, former Head of the Department of Byzantine & Modern Greek Studies, a successful bid to the London Centre for Arts and Cultural Enterprise (LCACE) secured funding for these events.

of the Byzantine Empire lies in protecting Europe from a Muslim invasion in the seventh or eighth centuries. This was achieved by military campaigns, and by diplomacy which involved a highly developed court ritual designed to impress visitors. Spiritually, it preserved Greek Orthodoxy in the East Mediterranean and organised highly effective missions to convert Bulgaria and Russia, which resulted in an extensive spread of Byzantine culture. In art historical terms, it generated both new forms of religious art, notably the icon, while preserving many aspects of pre-Christian art, such as carved ivories.’

All these aspects are finely displayed in the exhibition which covers the entire chronology of the Byzantine Empire. Material has been collected from a very wide range of museums, from the Ukraine to the United States, with particularly remarkable exhibits from the icon collection of the Monastery of St Catherine on Mount Sinai, from Belgrade (the National Museum of Serbia), and Athens (the Benaki Museum).

Byzantium 330-1453 runs until 22 March 2009.

the Antioch chalice, Byzantine, from Syria, possibly Kaper Koraon or Antioch, first half of the sixth century, Silver cup set in footed silver-gilt shell.

News

King’s and Philips collaboration A Memorandum of Understanding

was signed by King's and Royal Philips Electronics in October to work together on a new five-year research collaboration targeted at developing new ways to improve diagnosis and treatment of cardiovascular disease.

Under the multi-million Euro agreement, Philips and King’s Division of Imaging Sciences will develop new medical imaging research projects with a particular focus on cardiology and cardiac electrophysiology.

One of the key areas of focus will be on combining different imaging technologies, such as X-ray and ultrasound to help doctors navigate their way through a patient’s heart during minimalinvasive procedures.

Reza Razavi, Professor of Paediatric Cardiovascular Science and Head of the Division of Imaging Sciences, said: ‘Through our research we hope to advance the way we diagnose and treat heart conditions and so improve the care of children and adults.’

Young drinkers’ health risk Researchers at the Institute

of Psychiatry have found an increased health risk in later life amongst adolescents who drink or use drugs before the age of 15. The study was published in the October issue of Psychological Science.

Dr Candice Odgers, now at the University of California-Irvine, carried out this research with colleagues whilst at King’s. This study was funded in the main by the Medical Research Centre and is a collaboration between researchers at King’s, the University of California-Irvine and Duke University in the US, and the University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand.

Lead researcher Dr Odgers comments: ‘Findings from this study are consistent with the message that early substance use leads to significant problems in adolescents.’

Adolescent drinkers risk health problems in later life.

‘Universal interventions are required to ensure that all children – not only those entering early adolescence on an at-risk trajectory – receive an adequate dose of prevention.’

david tett

Chris Mottershead (Vice-Principal, Research), Steve Rusckowcki and Professor Reza Razavi and the team at the signing.

New biomedical centre King’s is one of nine leading universities to have received a share of awards totalling almost £30 million to help create new, internationally competitive research facilities under the Wellcome Trust’s Capital Awards in a Biomedical Sciences initiative.

Brian Sutton, Professor of Molecular Biophysics, School of Biomedical & Health Sciences, has received £1.7 million to develop a Centre for Biomolecular Spectroscopy.

The Centre, based at Guy’s Campus, will operate at the interface between basic and clinical science and will be linked to the Randall Division of Cell & Molecular Biophysics, where existing research activity in structural biology is located. It will house facilities for nuclear

magnetic resonance, optical and chiroptical spectroscopy, surface plasmon resonance and mass spectrometry.

‘This support will significantly enhance all research activities in structural biology at King’s,’ says Professor Sutton. ‘Our new facilities will strengthen current work, provide the impetus for new collaborative projects and act as a focus within King’s to highlight the role that structural biology can play in moving basic research towards clinical applications.’

He continued: ‘We expect to make great progress in a range of major research programmes, for example, in understanding the molecular mechanisms of allergy, and the use of this information to develop new therapeutic agents.’

Unique dental support service launched The new Health Psychology Service

for adults with dental anxiety, the first of its kind in the UK, has been launched at King’s to provide support for people who are very anxious about visiting the dentist.

The service was opened by the Head of Service Quality and Standards from the Chief Dental Officer’s office, Dr Serbjit Kaur, The new service, which will be

led by Tim Newton, Professor of Psychology as applied to Dentistry at the Dental Institute, offers a number of different ways of helping people who are anxious about visiting the dentist or having dental treatment. The psychologists will work with the patients to identify priorities for changing attitudes to how they feel about attending the dentist.

Professor Newton comments: ‘Dental fear can have a great impact on people’s oral health, by causing them to delay seeking treatment when they have toothache and by avoiding the opportunity for preventive advice.

Working together with colleagues in the Department of Sedation & Special Care Dentistry we hope to develop a range of methods to help

people overcome their fear. ’ Dr Kaur said: ‘I’m certain that this therapy is going to be a huge asset in helping a group of patients to access services and to improve their oral health, which in the past has been a difficulty.’

The service will be provided in the Department of Sedation & Special Care Dentistry in the Tower Wing of Guy’s Hospital.

December 2008 | Comment | 7

Profile

Dr Jan Palmowski

patrick barth

Dr Jan Palmowski is the current Head of the School of Humanities. Here, he talks about life before his headship, the School’s key achievements, including the Medical Humanities Centre Project, and his priorities for the future.

Describe your career.

I studied history and economics at the University of York, and did my DPhil in Modern History at Oxford. I then worked at Oxford University for four years before accepting a lectureship at King’s in 1999.

My first monograph examined the origins of German party politics in the decades before World War I. Upon coming to King’s I became interested in a new period of German history, the GDR (1949-1990). I have just submitted a book to Cambridge University Press which looks at how the ruling socialist party tried to gain legitimacy by appropriating popular traditions, and how individuals and communities responded to this.

What were you doing at King’s before becoming Head of School?

I have been teaching for the Department of German and the European Studies Programme.

In German, I was part of a highly successful bid to withstand the national decline in Modern Languages taught at universities. Our Department has consistently maintained the highest research ratings, we have a growing cohort of students, and the Department is expanding its postgraduate provisions.

In European Studies, I witnessed an expansion of staff from three to seven with the development of a highly successful MA degree, and an expanding PhD programme. What has made this demanding degree so successful is that we were able to identify an important niche in the market.

Our degrees in European Studies allow an impressive focus on the social sciences, with students who have to study through a foreign language. Both outfits combined demonstrate very well the strength of the School, its excellence in traditional areas and its pioneering of new degrees and research areas.

What have been some of the key achievements in the School recently?

One of the privileges of being Head of School of Humanities is that, through your office, you do become proud of the extraordinary achievements of staff and students. So I feel great pride in our students putting on one of the world’s few Greek plays, which are rarely performed, annually, and in our English department when I was able to sign another one of their collaborative agreements with a major 8 | Comment | December 2008

cultural institution like the British Library.

Many of our colleagues in the School of Humanities have also received recognition nationally and internationally for their work, such as Dr Clare Brant (English), Professor Roddy Beaton (Byzantine & Modern Greek Studies), Dr Anne Goldgar (History) and Dr Stephen Baxter (History), who have all won major prizes for their work in the last couple of months alone. The School of Humanities has always been a collection of outstanding scholars, and prizes like these make this quality palpable. Being at the head of such a school really is an extraordinary privilege.

Tell us about the Medical Humanities Centre project.

This is a cross-College initiative led by Brian Hurwitz, our d’Oyly Carte Professor of Medicine and the Arts. The project involves colleagues from a number of departments in the Arts and Sciences, but also in the Health Schools. This is one of only two Centres in the medical humanities funded by the Wellcome Trust, and it is the larger of the two. This wonderful and innovative project will put King’s at the forefront of this growing and important subject area – and its success is a tribute to the energy and dedication of Brian and his colleagues.

What are your priorities for the School of Humanities?

Ours is one of the strongest faculties in the arts and humanities worldwide. The first priority for any Head of our School has to be to preserve and enhance this strength. I am also extremely keen for us to continue to deepen our international links. We have thriving links with our existing strategic partner universities, and I am keen that we build new partnerships with select institutions on the European continent and in Asia.

Finally, the School has always been at the forefront of new intellectual developments, be it in our core disciplines, be it in new areas like performance, where through the exciting development of the Anatomy Theatre we are experimenting with completely new ways of interdisciplinary working with colleagues from across College. I’m very keen to support this openness to new ideas, because I think that this lies at the heart of our success.

Fact file Book on my bedside table

I’d probably go for John Drury’s Painting the Word. I’m not the world’s greatest art critic, but this book has completely transformed my appreciation (and enjoyment) of religious art.

Favourite holiday destination

New Zealand: incredible scenery; full of unique indigenous plants and animals; wonderful people; and very, very, far away.

Proudest work moment

Finding out that I got a first in my BA was just amazing: I remember being unable to stop smiling for the rest of the afternoon and evening. But even that was not really about ‘pride’, which I’m not very good at.

How would you like to see the School of Humanities progress?

I would like to see us bring our intellectual expertise to new arenas. We are diversifying our activities through setting up e-learning courses and modules, and we are developing a Summer School to be launched in 2009. In the following year, we hope to create short courses for alumni, so that we can foster new ways of keeping in touch. Finally, a School with our intellectual strength and our connectedness in London is ideally placed to engage in knowledge transfer with other institutions and companies, and this is something I would want us to develop further.

International news

King’s and the US elections King’s hosted a series of panel

debates in America before the US elections in October.

The debates, entitled ‘The US Presidential Elections: Any Future for the War on Terror?’ took place in New York, Boston and Washington DC, and offered unique international perspectives on the War on Terror from renowned scholars, military personnel and civilian security professionals from the fields of terrorism and counter terrorism.

Chaired by alumnus Martin Bashir, ABC Nightline Anchor and 20/20 correspondent, the debates were by moderated by Dr Peter Neumann, Director of International Centre for the Study of Radicalisation and Political Violence (ICSR) at King’s.

The debate panel, from left: Marc Sageman, Dr Michael Levi, Professor Sir Lawrence Freedman and Dr Peter Neumann.

Featured panel experts included: Peter Bergen, CNN chief terrorism analyst; Brig Gen (retd) Russell

Forging partnerships

Howard, faculty associate for Asian security and international terrorism at the University of Montana; Richard Falkenrath, former homeland security adviser to President George W Bush and

King’s alumnus (War Studies 1993) and Professor Sir Lawrence Freedman, Vice-President.

Dr Neumann commented: ‘The debates brought together leading American experts and policymakers just a few weeks before the election. We talked about one of the issues that has defined our age, and I believe that – by the end – everyone had a much better sense of the options available to the next President of the United States.’

The debates were organized by the College’s Alumni Office and formed part of a visit by the Principal, who also toured the east coast of the United States, visiting alumni and meeting the newly inaugurated regional alumni branches in New York, Boston and Washington DC. For a blog of the first debate, see: www.kcl.ac.uk/blogs/terror/

An internationally rising star King’s has risen to 22nd place in the Times Higher Education-QS World University Rankings (as reported in Comment 183).

The Principal, Professor Rick Trainor, comments: ‘I’m delighted at this excellent result for King’s. I believe we can truly say that the College is a major

global player in the world of higher education.

‘This continued and sustained level of excellence is something that every member of the College community can be proud of as it is a remarkable tribute to us all.

My congratulations and thanks go to every member of staff.’

Dr Legido-Quigley and Professor Li (both left) with key members of the NUS research group.

Dr Cristina Legido-Quigley,

Lecturer in Pharmaceutical Chemistry in the Division of Pharmaceutical Science, became the first member of staff this year to receive College international partnership funding to visit the National University of Singapore (NUS). She was hosted by Professor Sam Li from the Department of Chemistry at NUS. During her stay, Dr Legido-Quigley learnt about the current projects being undertaken

by Professor Li’s group, as well as exploring the possibilities of collaboration.

Dr Legido-Quigley also gave a presentation on ‘Metabonomics:

applications to parasitic disease’ and used the opportunity to obtain feedback from scientists at the University.

Dr Legido-Quigley says: ‘I will now be in regular contact with my hosts. I also hope that NUS will help me to further scientific collaboration between PhD students at NUS and King’s.

Professor Keith Hoggart, VicePrincipal (Arts & Sciences) added: ‘We have a lot to learn from the NUS on internationalisation.

People like Dr Legido-Quigley are playing an important role to ensure that we can form lasting links that will benefit staff and students in both institutions.’

Hong Kong celebrations Last month, the Hong Kong Alumni

branch represented the College at the celebrations of the 60th anniversary of the British Council in Hong Kong. The King’s College London alumni representatives included the Assistant Principal Emeritus, Dr Abraham Lue, and the Chairman of the Hong Kong alumni branch, Mr CY Liu. The Principal, Professor Rick Trainor, comments: ‘The College has attracted talented students from Hong Kong for more than 60 years, and we enjoy strong links with the British Council

Hong Kong. I was, therefore, very sorry to miss the British Council event but was very glad that distinguished representatives from the College were able to attend.

King’s is very lucky to have so many active alumni in Hong Kong and elsewhere who can be such enthusiastic and well informed advocates for King’s.’

There are over 1,000 King’s alumni currently based in Hong Kong. For further information contact Nicky Power in the Development & Alumni Office on 020 7848 3991.

December 2008 | Comment | 9

Focus

Services for Students Jenny Briggs, Director of Services for Students, describes the Directorate and its work.

T

he Services for Students

(S4S) Directorate was created in 2007, bringing together a range of student-facing services including student enquiries, accommodation, welcome and orientation, careers guidance, counselling, health, fitness and wellbeing and student advice services. The Directorate provides catered, residential and sports facilities; and supports timetabling and event co-ordination.

Our main role is to provide support for, and to help enhance the student life experience, complementing and supporting the teaching and learning experience delivered by departments; by extension, a number of the services we provide also support staff, be it through encouraging health and wellbeing, co-ordinating a conference, overseeing teaching rooms, or providing support to personal tutors.

An intergrated approach We work with a number of key partners, to provide an integrated approach to student support, and to ensure that individual students and issues do not get ‘lost’. We aim to deliver services in the ways that students need and ask for, and at times and in ways students want.

This is why we have recently located two new facilities – the first of the College’s student centres, The Compass, and a new Careers Centre – in the Macadam Building at the Strand Campus. Here the services are co-located with King’s College London Student Union (KCLSU) facilities and with other S4S services such as Counselling, Student Advice and the Health Centre. The Accommodation Office is in the adjacent King’s Building.

Online access As far as possible we try to make information and initial communications accessible via the web, at times which suit applicants who may be overseas, and current students who may not be able to visit campus. We try to deliver services not only where students are studying, but also where they are living, and the management teams in residences are an integral part of the support network.

Balancing needs and resources Financial reality means that whilst doing our best to maintain high standards of service for students and staff, many S4S services are expected to generate income to cover both their operating costs as well as planned reinvestments.

In the case of Catering, Residential, and Sportsgrounds, this includes the maintenance and upgrade of the physical estate. This is 10 | Comment | December 2008

New students enjoy a Thames boat trip as part of the three-day International Welcome and Orientation programme organised by Services for Students in September 2008.

a major budgetary and service challenge, requiring a constant balancing of student and staff need, against available resources.

A range of support Working in collaboration with KCLSU and other key partners such as the Chaplaincy, Disability Support, Student Funding and of course, departments, S4S offers a range of services which are designed to inform, support and develop students. There can be many challenges for students as they grow and change as individuals: learning how to study in new ways, learning how to live with others; paying bills and meeting deadlines; making decisions – and managing the consequences. Whilst our services can help support when these challenges become a problem, we also offer a range of proactive and preventative advice – for example, advice on private sector housing; workshops on money management and budgeting; practical health advice and, of course, guidance in planning a career or further study.

Engaging students The welcome and introductory events organised

by the Directorate are some of the first occasions on which new students engage with the College in person. Events include welcome activities in residences and on sports grounds, and inductions are tailored to specific groups such as mature students and ‘study abroad’ students.

We also organise International Orientation, College Undergraduate Inductions and contribute to the Principal’s Family Programme day and Graduate School induction.

We understand that different cohorts of students may have different needs and requirements; whether undergraduate or postgraduate, UK-based or international, mature or live-at-home, we try to deliver specialist support and services as needed. However, all the College’s students are individuals and we aim to listen to them, and support them as individuals.

We believe that King’s is a great place to learn, and to learn how to live.

The Compass is located in the Macadam Building on the Strand Campus. Find out more at www.kcl.ac.uk/compass, email thecompass@kcl.ac.uk or call 020 7848 7070.

King’s people

International role Sir Lawrence Freedman, Professor of War Studies and VicePrincipal, has been appointed to the Advisory Board of the International Commission on Nuclear Non-proliferation and Disarmament.

The Commission, which has recently been established by the Governments of Australia and Japan, will discuss the three closely interconnected issues of nuclear disarmament, non-proliferation and the peaceful uses of nuclear energy, and produce reports that will make a substantial contribution to the debate on these issues in the context of the 2010 NPT Review Conference and beyond.

The College is also an Associated Research Centre for the Commission states and has been asked to contribute a research paper ahead of its next meeting in February 2009. It will be produced by the Centre for Science and Security Studies in the Department of War Studies, led by Professor Wyn Bowen.

Two King’s chairs Keith Newton, Director of

Administration for the School of Biomedical & Health Sciences and School of Medicine, has taken over the convening of the London Medical Secretaries’ Group which meets once a term. The Secretaries meet to discuss issues of common interest, and currently include King’s, Imperial, University College, Queen Mary and St George’s.

Jeremy Williams, Senior Assistant College Secretary for the Dental Institute, has also become Chair of the UK Dental Schools Senior Officers Group, a sub-group of the Dental Schools Council (the advisory body for education and research in UK dental schools).

Membership of the group is made up of senior Professional Services staff in each Dental Schools.

The group works in partnership with the Dental Schools Council on strategies and policies of significance to dentistry in the UK and provides a support

Apprentices qualify

Apprentices (seated) from left: Simon Lea, Mark Rosser and Martin Harris with David Carraher, the Principal, Ian Caldwell and Barry Wright.

An innovative scheme, launched by the Estates & Facilities Directorate in 2005, has reached fruition with the successful completion of the College’s first apprenticeship scheme in more than 50 years.

Simon Lea, Mark Rosser and Martin Harris have now all qualified as modern apprentices as designated by the Learning and Skills Council and in partnership with Bexley College. They were presented with their certificates by the Principal, Professor Rick Trainor at a ceremony in October.

Simon followed an apprenticeship in Heating Ventilation and Air Conditioning at the Strand, while Mark and Martin were electrical

network for peers in similar roles across the UK to complement local university support networks.

New Entrepreneur in Residence Dr Stephen Mitchell, Principal Research Scientist at the pharmaceutical company Eli Lilly, has been appointed as the second Eli Lilly Entrepreneurin-Residence at King’s.

The appointment is designed to provide King’s with a greater understanding of industry’s requirements from universities ranging from student placements

apprentices at the Strand and Denmark Hill respectively.

King’s re-established its apprenticeship scheme in response to the nationwide skills shortage. The scheme, which is externally monitored, encompasses both technical skills and personal development, with part of the training recognised with NVQs. David Carraher, Assistant Director of Estates & Facilities, commented: ‘We see the completion of the apprenticeship as the end of the beginning.

We pledge to support all apprentices to fulfil their potential with the expectation that they will become the professional staff of the College in the future.’

to licensing and technology transfer. Support is also provided in identifying areas of King’s research and expertise that could have potential for external collaboration.

For further information regarding this programme or for a discussion with Dr Mitchell, email Dr Rebecca Andrew, rebecca. andrew@kcl.ac.uk, Business Development Manager, King’s College London Business Ltd.

Top 100 Paul Ekins, Professor of Energy and Environment Policy in the Department of Geography,

has been voted 51st in the Independent on Sunday (IoS) list of the country’s top 100 environmentalists.

In his citation, the paper wrote: ‘Ex Green Party, now top green economist. Professor Ekins sits on Royal Commission on Environmental Pollution and other worthy bodies. Recently he set up Green Fiscal Commission to examine green taxes, but remains an activist at heart.’

The judges for the list were: Nicholas Schoon, editor, the ENDS Report, Britain’s leading specialist environmental journal; Alex Kirby, former environment correspondent of the BBC; David Randall, assistant editor, IoS; and Geoffrey Lean, environment editor at the IoS.

QNI Fellowship

Rosalynde Lowe, Chair of Trustees of the QNI and Alison While.

Alison While, Professor of

Community Nursing and Associate Dean (External Affairs), Florence Nightingale School of Nursing & Midwifery (FNSNM), has been awarded a Fellowship of the Queen’s Nursing Institute (QNI), joining two other School members in her new appointment: Sarah Cowley, Professor of Community Practice Development, and Professor Anne Marie Rafferty, Head of School.

The FNSNM is now the only nursing school in the country with as many as three QNI Fellows on their staff. Fellowships are awarded to known leaders usually from within primary care or community-based services – people with a high profile and the respect of their peers, from academic, policy and practice backgrounds. They are ambassadors that help to extend the reach of the QNI’s work.

December 2008 | Comment | 11

King’s people

NATO role Dr David Hall, Senior Lecturer in

the Defence Studies Department, based at the Joint Services Command and Staff College, was chosen as historical advisor for the NATO Rapid Deployable Corps – Italy (NRDC-ITA) Exercise ‘Eagle Tour ‘08’, a battlefield study tour of Operation Mercury, the German airborne invasion of Crete in May 1941.

The principle aims of the exercise were to identify enduring lessons relating to joint operations planning, to study the nature of high command and leadership in battle, and to enable the Commander to train his staff in decision-making.

EMBO Programme Dr Juan Martin-Serrano in the Department of Infectious Diseases has been elected as a member of the European Molecular Biology Organisation (EMBO) Young Investigator Programme.

Membership of the threeyear programme entitles young investigators to a range of academic and practical benefits. In addition to a financial award made available by the individual EMBC member states, EMBO also offers the possibility of topping-up funds for scientists from regions where funding is more limited.

Essay prize Philip Britton, Visiting Professor,

Centre of Construction Law & Dispute Resolution, has been awarded the Norman Royce Prize 2008 for his essay, ‘Alternative Dispute Resolution in Construction: Is it Ever Unfair?’.

The prize is the outcome of the annual essay competition run by the Society of Construction Arbitrators, an invitation-only group of senior practitioners which aims to promote best practice in construction dispute resolution.

Professor Britton comments: ‘The essay looks at possible challenges to statutory as well as contractual adjudication in construction, and to ADR 12 | Comment | December 2008

Royal Writing Fellow The College’s first ever Royal Literary Fund Writing Fellow has taken up her post. Jennifer Potter, an established author who has published both fiction and nonfiction titles, will be based within the Graduate School.

Jennifer will offer one-to-one sessions with students which will complement and support the academic writing courses now offered through the newly launched Graduate School Researcher Development Programme.

Director of the Graduate School, Professor Vaughan Robinson comments: ‘I am delighted that Jennifer has agreed to take up this post. As the College takes more PhD students, and recruits increasingly from overseas, it is going to become even more important that we have in place support mechanisms to assist students in writing worldclass theses.’

Of her new of her appointment Jennifer says: ‘By

within civil procedure, against the background of the European Convention and the law on unfair contract terms: I am honoured that the SCA considers the complex arguments worth airing in public.’

Jennifer Potter

helping students to look closely at how they write, I hope to encourage good writing across all disciplines, introducing students to the joys (and surmountable pains) of writing clearly, effectively and well.’

Jennifer is based in the Graduate School, Waterloo Campus. Appointments can be booked by contacting gradtrain@ kcl.ac.uk

National award for PR team

History award Dr Anne Goldgar, Reader in Early Modern European History in the Department of History, has been awarded the 2008 Leo Gershoy Award for her book Tulipmania: Money, Honor, and Knowledge in the Dutch Golden Age. The Leo Gershoy Award is presented annually by the American Historical Association to the author of the most outstanding work published in English on any aspect of the fields of 17th and 18th century western European history.

Dr Goldgar’s book delves into the ‘tulipmania’ of the Netherlands in the 1630s, making use of extensive archival research to dispels the myths surrounding this turbulent period.

has done to promote scientific and medical research and teaching at the College, which has embraced such areas as levels of paranoia in the general public, the effect of exercise on longevity, stem cell research, gene links to baldness and the extended medical degree programme.

Melanie Gardner, Senior Public Relations Officer, commented: ‘We are very proud to have won this award but it is as much a tribute to the academics we work with, as us, as we can only promote and publicise the research they undertake. This is as much their success as the PR Department’s.

It is very inspiring to work in an institution that is continually producing groundbreaking research.’

NARSAD prize Eric Taylor, Professor of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry at the Institute of Psychiatry, has won the 2008 Ruane Prize for Outstanding Achievement in Child and Adolescent Psychiatric Research for his research on conduct disorder and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.

The prize was part of the 2008 NARSAD awards for Outstanding Achievements in Research on Mental Health Disorders. The prizes celebrate major advances in understanding and treatment of schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, depression, addiction, and childhood disorders.

IoP appointment

Press Officer Kate Moore (left) and Director of Communications Chris Coe collecting the award.

The King’s PR Team won a national Public Sector Campaign award at the PRCA (Public Relations Consultants Association) awards ceremony held at the London Marriot Hotel last month.

The event was attended by more than 500 members of the public relations industry and the award reflects the work the team

Mr Richard Barnard has been appointed as the new Director of Administration and Institute Secretary at the Institute of Psychiatry, and will take up his post on 19 January.

Richard comes to King’s from Imperial College where he has had management remit over the support for the delivery of undergraduate teaching programmes within the Faculty of Medicine, involvement with the educational arm of Imperial’s Academic Health Sciences Centre and has led on the restructuring of Imperial’s Academic Registry.

Flashback

Peter Higgs & the Higgs Boson King’s alumnus Professor Peter Higgs FRS FKC has given his name to the elusive Higgs Boson or ‘God particle’: the primary object of enquiry for CERN’s Large Hadron Collider in Geneva.

P

© CERN

eter Higgs was born in

Newcastle-upon-Tyne in 1929 but moved a lot as a child, his father being a sound engineer for the BBC. Having gone to the same school in Bristol as another luminary of 20th century physics, Paul Dirac, he came to King’s in 1947 to read natural sciences in the field of physics. He chose King’s as opposed to Oxford or Cambridge because of a family attitude that Oxbridge was ‘for the children of the idle rich to go and waste their time and that of their tutors’. After graduating with a firstclass BSc in 1950 he took an MSc in physics in 1952 and completed his doctorate in molecular physics in 1954 with a thesis entitled ‘Some problems in the theory of molecular vibrations’.

He had published four papers by the time he left King’s.

Deeper questions In 1954 he moved to the University of Edinburgh, and subsequently held fellowships there and at UCL and Imperial, before returning to Edinburgh in 1960. During this six-year period, his research moved away from molecular physics towards some of the deeper questions beginning to emerge in the field, such as quantum gravity and quantum field theory.

A key period seems to have been the summer before taking up his lectureship in Edinburgh, when he helped organise a school in particle physics attended by the Nobel physicists Sheldon Glashow and Martinus Veltman, amongst others.

In 1960, scientists were trying to explain the origin of the mass of protons and neutrons, which at the time they assumed were elementary particles. Chicago physicists Giovanni Jona-Lasinio and the 2008 Nobel Prize winner Yoichiru Nambu imagined a particular kind of quantum field that filled the whole of space. They imagined that protons and neutrons would, a bit like a person wading through water, be slowed by the interaction with this background field making them effectively more massive.

didn’t seem to work.

Higgs doesn’t give many interviews, but it appears he spent the next four years contemplating these issues, his publication rate effectively dropping to zero. Then, in 1964, prompted by a paper by the US physicist Philip Warren Anderson, Higgs came up with a theory whereby the mass-field itself could obtain a mass. Instead of us thinking of the mass-field as calm water in which we can create ripples, when it obtains a mass via Higgs’s mechanism, we should think of the medium turning into a big cast-iron church bell. It is perfectly possible to create ripples in such a medium, but we have to hit it a lot harder than we do the water, meaning that ripples/particles of the background mass-field could be created, but not so easily, as it would cost more energy.

Ripples

Bosons

However, it was also known that if such a background ‘mass-field’ existed, then, just as one does when one wades through water, one would create ripples or vibrations in that field very easily. In the quantum world, a vibration in a field is a particle, but no such particle had been observed, even during high energy collisions at proton accelerators. The model

Higgs sent his paper to Physical Review Letters, only to learn from the editor (Nambu) that the US/Belgian team of Robert Brout and Francois Englert had sent in the same idea from Brussels a few weeks earlier. Nambu therefore encouraged Higgs to add something to his paper and Higgs pointed out more clearly that one should be able to produce these difficult-to-

Peter Higgs watches the final touches being made to the Atlas experiment at the Large Hadron Collidor, which may detect his elusive boson.

create vibrations in the background mass-field during collisions at particle accelerators. These particles became known as ‘Higgs Bosons’.

Originally aimed at protons and neutrons, the theory is now used to explain the mass of particles such as quarks, and is a cornerstone of the standard model of particle physics. One of the details of the theory is that when the Higgs Boson becomes massive, another photon-like particle also obtains a mass. Remarkably, it turns out that this massive photon explains the weak nuclear force. So while that other King’s Physics alumnus James Clerk-Maxwell united electricity and magnetism, Higgs played a key role in uniting electromagnetism and the weak nuclear force.

While the Higgs Boson is a particle that has been predicted but has not yet been found, physicists at Kings also work on something which seems to be out there but was never predicted: namely dark matter and dark energy.

When the Large Hadron Collider begins to operate fully (hopefully soon) it will set about trying to create dark matter; but first and foremost its goal will be to ring the bell and create an elusive Higgs Boson.

Dr Malcolm Fairbairn, a CERN fellow and member of the Department of Physics since 2007.

December 2008 | Comment | 13

Around the College

Vargas Llosa lectures at King’s Greg Funnell

Mario Vargas Llosa, one of

Latin America’s most significant novelists and leading author of his generation, as well as a former member of staff and Fellow of the College, delivered a keynote speech at King’s in October.

In a lecture entitled Literatura e historia en América Latina, Vargas Llosa analysed the reality of Latin America in the light of its history, the origins of the concept of Latin America as a form of fiction in the European imagination and as a continent ‘which has no identity because it is made up of all identities’.

With reference to a wide range of literature and political contexts, Mario Vargas Llosa made a passionate defence of a continent which ‘has not yet managed to fully

From left: Professor Keith Hoggart, Mario Vargas Llosa and Professor Robert Archer.

take on board what it really is’.

Robert Archer, Cervantes Professor of Spanish and Head of the Department of Spanish &

£100k development fund

Spanish-American Studies, said: ‘This was an exciting event which attracted huge interest among the general public, and

members of the King’s community.

‘Vargas Llosa spoke passionately and cogently of his vision of the continent which has been at the centre of his work for nearly five decades. The audience of nearly 400 people, including some 75 alumni and several Ambassadors, all packed into the Great Hall, gave the writer an enthusiastic reception both before and after the lecture.

Many of them did not agree with all he said, but all valued highly the articulate exposition of his ideas, and his wonderful mastery of the Spanish language.’

Mario Vargas Llosa was Lecturer in the Department of Spanish & Spanish-American Studies in 1969-70, just before he decided to become a full-time writer.

New Muslim Prayer Room Greg Funnell

As part of the College strategy to help drive commercialisation of research King’s Business has launched an Innovation Development Fund.

The fund has a total value of £100,000 and will make awards, up to a maximum of £15,000 that ‘pump prime’ the early stages of research in order that an opportunity is better positioned to seek funding, investment, collaboration, or commercialisation.

Activities that can be funded include a variety of research, R&D, consultancy, training,

marketing and travel activities which contribute to developing early stages of research. Examples include undertaking data generation and collection to provide evidence of an unmet market need.

All applications to this fund need to be identified and made by academic staff working in conjunction with their respective Technology Transfer Manager.

The Funding Panel will not accept any applications directly.

For further information about the fund and how to apply please visit www.kcl.ac.uk/business/fund

Exploring modern religious history Fascinating insights into the

history of modern religion in the UK will be revealed by a unique knowledge exchange partnership between The Open University, King’s, and the Church of England.

The project, funded by a £234,000 Knowledge Transfer grant from the Arts and Humanities Research Council, should bring the Church a better 14 | Comment | December 2008

understanding of lessons from its own history and so help to inform Church interactions with wider society.

The project, which began in November, will be lead by Arthur Burns, Professor of Modern British History at King’s, and John Wolfe, Professor of Religious History at the Open University, and will take three years to complete.

A new Muslim Prayer Room has

been established on the lower ground floor of the Hodgkin Building at the Guy’s Campus.

The project has been a joint venture between the College and KCLSU Islamic Society (ISoc).

The new facilities include a brothers’ and sisters’ prayer room, divided by a folding partition, separate sisters’ and brothers’ Wudu (washing facilities), and a disabled persons’ unisex Wudu. A particular feature is the new carpet orientated to align with Mecca, installed in the main room. There is also a public address system.

Mubin Choudhury, third year

medical student and Secretary of ISoc, comments: ‘It is a privilege to be able to pray in comfort at such a facility. We are indebted to King’s in providing us with such a wonderful provision and would like to thank all those involved.

‘It is also important to remember students Sultan Syed and Ahmed Abdul-Ghani who were intimately involved in the consultation and construction periods, unselfishly contributing their time. This new prayer room serves as a reminder to us all of King’s dedication to its students and its reputation as a College welcoming and encouraging faith and religion.’

Around the College

Centralising services: CATS greg Funnell

THe new ConferenCe & TIMeTaBle

Service (CATS), under the leadership of Helena Smith and Alison Langridge, has been launched.

This follows the co-location of Room Booking & Timetabling Services and the Conference & Vacation Bureau at Strand Bridge House, and provides an opportunity to offer a single point of contact for colleagues and visitors wishing to book a room, organise a conference or event or plan their academic timetable.

The new service forms an important step towards the provision of a centralised service to manage the booking and coordination of activities held in College centrally timetabled rooms.

the new cAtS team: from left, seated; Ian Hughes, alison langridge; from left, standing: Jack allison, lisa shone, Jo Bearup, emma Ballard, Helena smith, simon nesbitt.

CATS will have a strong focus on facilitating events organised by members of the College

Santander scholarships

community and Alison Langridge will be working with colleagues to develop comprehensive booking

Green Award for King’s greg Funnell

King’s has won a Green Business Award in the Best Construction or Property Business category for the ‘comprehensiveness of its green construction programme in a physically and politically complex environment’.

This award adds to the growing recognition of King’s for its environmental strategies.

Ian Caldwell, Director of Estates & Facilities, comments: ‘I am delighted that the College has won this important antónio Horta-osório, Abbey’s ceO and principal Professor rick Trainor seal the scholarship agreement.

KIng’s College lonDon anD aBBey

National plc, the UK subsidiary of Banco Santander, signed a three-year agreement in October to set up scholarships and support research and international collaboration in the area of Iberian and Latin-American Studies.

The funding will support bursaries for students from Iberia or Latin America; funds for King’s students studying in Iberia or Latin America as part of a King’s degree, and support for a research fellow in Brazilian Studies.

The official agreement was

arrangements so that all associated services, including catering and audio visual support, can be arranged through the team of Event Co-ordinators.

Helena Smith will continue to lead the development of a centralised, student-led timetabling system for the College.

The new web pages and web enquiry form are currently being developed and will be available from early in the new year 2009.

In the meantime, further details of all of these services can be found via the existing web links.

To contact CATS call 020 7848 1700 (Conference Services) and 020 7848 7177 (Timetabling Services) or email conference@kcl. ac.uk and roombookings@ kcl.ac.uk.

signed by Professor Rick Trainor, Principal, and António HortaOsório, Abbey’s CEO. Following the signing ceremony, Professor Trainor commented: ‘This partnership provides a very welcome investment in an area in which King’s enjoys a very high international reputation and an outstanding research record. This agreement with Santander will enable us to support our students and enhance not only their experience at King’s but give them unique opportunities beyond the College.’

award. Our aim at King’s is to promote environmental best practice throughout the College community, both in building projects and operations. This award reflects the contribution of many members of staff across the College.’

The Green Business Awards, sponsored by Haymarket, aim to highlight and reward leadership on environment, sustainability and climate change by British companies.

College Christmas card QUanTITIes of THe

College Christmas card are still available to order from the King’s website and from the College shop at the corner of the Strand and Surrey Street. This year’s card features the flowers of the Pohutukawa (Metrosideros excelsa or New Zealand Christmas tree) which were used by European settlers

to decorate their homes at Christmas.

The illustration is part of the Foreign and Commonwealth Collection held by the Special Collections Library.

Cards can be ordered in multiples of 25 by using an online form. Visit the staff section of the Corporate Design web pages www.kcl.ac.uk/design December 2008 | Comment | 15

Around the College

MP joins Presidential debate Diane Abbott MP (Hackney North

and Stoke Newington) joined King’s students and staff in October to watch Chisholm ’72: Unbought & Unbossed about the first African American woman candidate to run for a major party’s nomination for US President.

Following the screening, Dr Kimberly Springer, Lecturer in the Department of American Studies, chaired a debate with Diane Abbott and Johanna Gjersvik, a King’s PhD student who spent the primary season travelling with the Hillary Clinton campaign

and attended the Democratic and Republican conventions.

Dr Springer said: ‘It’s fitting that Diane, as the first Black woman to be elected to the UK’s Houses of Parliament, should join us, to comment on the film and the Clinton and Obama campaigns.’

Diane Abbott was welcomed to the event by Professor Keith Hoggart, Vice-Principal (Arts and Sciences) and Professor John Howard, Head of the Department of American Studies. The event was made possible by the King’s Annual Fund.

Army head at King’s

dominic turner

Dr Kimberley Springer, Diane Abbott and Professor John Howard.

Centre highly commended Greg Funnell

The King’s Centre for Military

Health Research (KCMHR) has been highly commended at the inaugural Military and Civilian Health Partnership Awards, held at the Royal Chelsea Hospital in October. The ceremony was attended by HRH The Duchess of Cornwall and Defence Secretary John Hutton.

The Awards recognised health workers who provide outstanding care for the Armed Forces and highlighted the work of exceptional individuals and teams

from across the UK. The Health Improvement and Promotion Award commendation for KCMHR was for improving health protection against biological warfare and research on the side effects of the anthrax vaccine which led to changes in administering of vaccinations.

The second commendation was for their work showing an increase in mental health problems in UK Reservists, which was instrumental in launching the Reservists Mental Health Progamme.

King’s hosts Prospect Awards Incoming head of the British Army, General Sir David Richards, spoke at the College last month.

The incoming head of the British

Army, General Sir David Richards, gave an important lecture at King’s last month. In his lecture, General Richards’s stressed the breadth of the counter-insurgency campaign that needs to be conducted in Afghanistan and pointed to the importance of reconstruction, development, governance and security as key elements leading to success.

An essential part of the process must involve multi-agency collaboration under structures such as the Policy Action Group, and the Joint Afghanistan/Pakistan Action Group. Building confidence 16 | Comment | December 2008

and gaining and keeping the psychological ascendancy will require proper resourcing and top people, he said.

General Richards is currently Commander-in-Chief Land Forces, and will take up his appointment as head of the British Army from next year.

The lecture was organised by Anne-Lucie Norton, Executive Director of War in the Modern World, Department of War Studies, and was chaired by Theo Farrell, Head of Military Studies for the King’s War Studies Group.

The lecture was held under Chatham House rules.

david tett

The 2008 Prospect Magazine Think Tank of the Year Awards were hosted at King’s in October. George Osborne MP (right), Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer, presented the awards to the winners including Michael Clarke (left), Visiting Professor at King’s, and Director of the Royal United Services Institution (RUSI), who collected the award for Think Tank of the Year on behalf on RUSI.

Research

Midwife-led care report A recently published Cochrane

Review entitled Midwife-led versus other models of care for childbearing women, led by the Florence Nightingale School of Nursing & Midwifery, has concluded that midwife-led care benefits pregnant women and their babies, and that all women should be encouraged to ask for this option.

Jane Sandall, Professor of Midwifery and Women’s Health at the School, led a team who reviewed trials of over 12,000 women, and found that women who had midwife-led models of care had a reduced risk of losing

a baby before 24 weeks gestation and their babies had a shorter length of hospital stay.

Women were also found to have fewer episiotomies, instrumental births and regional analgesia, and an increased chance of a spontaneous vaginal birth and initiation of breastfeeding, with more women feeling they were in control during labour.

‘The underpinning philosophy of midwife-led care is normality and being cared for by a known and trusted midwife during pregnancy and labour,’ said Professor Sandall.

‘There is an emphasis on the natural ability of women to experience birth with minimum intervention. By contrast, other models of care are where an obstetrician or family physician is primarily responsible for care.’

Cochrane Reviews are internationally regarded as the highest level of independent evidence on which to base clinical decision-making.

Midwife-led versus other models of care for childbearing women, via available from The Cochrane Library www.mrw.interscience.wiley. com/cochrane

Scientist receives HIV grant Dr Barry Peters has been awarded

a grant from Microsoft’s Gates Foundation for his research project Determining the potential role of tolerance as a novel HIV vaccine strategy.

The current strategies in HIV vaccine development attempt to develop or enhance immunity to HIV infection. Dr Peters project reverses these approaches, by attempting to contain instead of eradicating the viral infection, as indeed is the objective of most of the other viral vaccines.

Dr Peters explains: ‘Many of the complications of HIV appear to result from a highly ‘activated’ immune system, suggesting that a ‘tolerance’ of the immune system

by HIV might confer advantage.

We will be exploring whether this mechanism of ‘tolerance’ to HIV occurs in patients with HIV in whom disease does not progress.

‘These exceptional patients appear to develop natural immune responses which may be a balance between immunity and tolerance. Thus, the ‘experiment of nature’ may show us the way to identify the mechanism that nature employs to prevent the virus causing AIDS. Confirmation of this concept would then enable translation to an early phase clinical trial of a novel HIV vaccine in humans.’

The investigating team will be based within the College.

New trial for MND research

Nigel Leigh, professor of clinical

Neurology and Director of the Motor Neurone Disease (MND) Care Centre at King’s, will undertake a new clinical trial funded by the MND Association to investigate the effects of lithium carbonate (lithium) as a possible treatment.

There are around 5,000 people living with MND in the UK. The cause of over 95 per cent of cases is still unknown, and there is currently no cure or effective treatment. MND attacks the nerves that control movement.

As these nerves die, muscles

weaken and waste.

Professor Leigh comments: ‘Randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled trials are the gold standard in this situation, as they are the only proven way to remove bias from a trial. Here in the UK, we decided that this approach will best serve our patients by providing clear and unequivocal answers to the questions – does lithium help, do nothing, or do harm?’

The trial is being supported by NIHR DeNDRoN, the Dementias and Neurodegenerative Diseases Research Network.

Emerging public sector roles Dr Rod Dacombe, Lecturer in Public Services Policy and Management in the Department of Management, has published a major report examining the emerging job roles of public sector employees.

The result of a two-year project, funded by the Department for Communities and Local Government, the research identifies the core elements of work for public sector employees who work supporting lay-people and elected officials in ‘public scrutiny’ functions, such as probation boards and police authorities.

The first study of its kind, the work is based on more than 60 in depth interviews across a range of different areas of the

public sector. The research suggests that important skills for the participants included the ability to build and maintain relationships, carry out research, communicate effectively, and to act as ‘diplomats’, solving problems when they arise.

It also identifies a lack of coherent training available and, in some cases, difficulties in engaging the public adequately in ‘public scrutiny’ work.

The research is already having an impact on debates around the nature of public sector work, and has been featured in the national press. It is also prompting improvements in practice. Details of the research can be found on the website of the Centre for Public Scrutiny, www.cfps.org.uk

December 2008 | Comment | 17

Media watch

Baldness pattern

MND

Barack Obama

HE cost

Scientists have discovered a genetic link to baldness that helps explain why some men may inherit their shiny pates from their fathers. Professor Tim Spector, Head of the Twin Research & Genetic Epidemiology Unit, reported these findings in the Nature Genetics journal. This was reported in The Guardian, The Daily Mirror, The Daily Telegraph, The Times, Daily Star, Daily Mail, Independent, Evening Standard, The Daily Express and in international papers including The Wall Street Journal and Sydney Morning Herald. Professor Spector also spoke to the BBC Breakfast News and members of his team including Dr Veronique Bataille took part in interviews with BBC Radio Shropshire, BBC Radio Stoke, BBC Radio Scotland and BBC Radio Wales.

Lives of people suffering from motor neurone disease could be extended by taking a lithium tablet daily, usually used for patients with depression. Nigel Leigh, Professor of Clinical Neurology, advises against taking the drug until its effects are better known. This was reported in The Guardian, The Telegraph, Financial Times, The Herald, The Metro and BBC News Online.

Dr Harvey G Cohen, Lecturer from the Centre for Cultural, Media & Creative Industries, discussed the US Elections and Barack Obama’s lead ahead of the US Presidential election on BBC Radio 5 Live’s Simon Mayo show. Dr Kimberly Springer, a Senior Lecturer in the Department of American Studies, discussed Obama’s foreign challenges on the BBC News following the election.

Professor Alison Wolf, Sir Roy

Water wasted

Armed Services

The giant coffee chain Starbucks wastes enough water to sustain the entire population of Namibia by instructing all its branches to leave a cold tap constantly running. Paul Ekins, Professor of Energy & Environment Policy, Department of Geography, was interviewed in the Channel 4 news feature.

Dr John Gearson, Reader in

Dimming down Michael Shayer, Professor of Applied Psychology in the Department of Education & Professional Studies, led a study that believes that exam standards are ‘edging down’.

His team of researchers tested 800 13 and 14-year-olds and compared the results with a similar exercise in 1976. The research was reported widely including in the Daily Mail, The Guardian, The Daily Mirror, BBC News Online and The Sunday Times.

Age of paranoia

Money men Keith Ewing, Professor of Public

Law, contributed to a Channel 4 Dispatches programme investigating the wealthy donors backing David Cameron within the Conservative party and the political significance of their financial clout.

Dead Cert Revd Alister McGrath, Professor

of Theology, Ministry & Education, spoke on doubt and politics on Radio 4’s Analysis: Public Inquiries.

Dr Daniel Freeman, Senior

Lecturer in Clinical Psychology, who has spent a decade conducting pioneering research into paranoia, believes one in four people regularly suffer irrational fears of being threatened or in danger. This was widely reported in The Independent, THE, The Mail, The Times (Body & Soul), The Daily Telegraph and Sky News.

18 | Comment | December 2008

‘Racist’ force Ben Bowling, Professor of

Criminology & Criminal Justice, discussed The Metropolitan Black Police Association boycotting all drives to attract black and minority recruits on the BBC News Channel and BBC 5 Live.

Terrorism Studies and Director of the Centre for Defence Studies, took part in a BBC Radio 4 You and Yours discussion about the Armed Forces and the role of the British Legion. Dr Gearson also spoke to the BBC News Channel about Gen Sir David Richards appointment as the head of the British Army and BBC Radio Wales about the government’s plans to extend terror detention limits to 42 days.

Dentist fear An article in the Daily Mail explains that changes to dentistry in the future look promising. Professor Nairn Wilson, Head of the Dental Institute explains that there are things in the pipeline that will revolutionise the way we care for our teeth.

Antisocial behaviour Forensic psychiatrist Professor Sheilagh Hodgins comments on new research linking low levels of the hormone cortisol to antisocial behaviour in boys in an article on BBC News Online. She suggests this study might help experts maximise therapy for these boys by working harder to engage them.

Griffiths Professor of Public Sector Management, defended and lost the proposition that individuals, not the state, should pay for higher education in The Economist online.

Fatal disease An article in The Sunday Times says that a spate of deaths from motor neurone disease has rocked the game of football in Italy. Christopher Shaw, Professor of Neurology, comments that there has been a suspicion for a long time that sportsmen are susceptible.

London’s influential Professor Rick Trainor, the Principal, and Dr Stephen Minger, Director of the King’s Stem Cell Laboratory, were included in The Evening Standard’s list of influential people. The Principal was also quoted in The Guardian and BBC News Online about universities seeking out potentially top students.

Baby food allergies Professor Gideon Lock, Head of Paediatric Allergy, is quoted in the Sunday Telegraph discussing new data from a study at King’s which has added to the growing body of evidence that the development of childhood peanut allergy is influenced by whether a child consumes or avoids peanuts during infancy.

See www.kcl.ac.uk/headlines for the latest media coverage or on Campus noticeboards.

Comment is keen to know of any staff featured in the media, email pr@kcl.ac.uk

Student news King’s student has the X Factor A Theology & Religious Studies student is in the finals of ITV1’s X Factor.

Jonathan Gill, 21, known as JB, and his group JLS are performing weekly in front of judges Louis Walsh, Dannii Minogue, Cheryl Cole and Simon Cowell and millions of television viewers to secure their slot.

JB is taking a year off to focus on the X Factor and came back to the College recently to film for the programme. He said: ‘JLS and especially me, are enjoying themselves so much and really loving the experience. Hopefully we can take it all the way to the top with the College’s support.’

Ben Quash, Professor of Christianity & the Arts and Jonathan’s personal tutor said: ‘Jonathan is proving how immense energy can work hand in hand with immense discipline and creative skill. And I think the same ability to ‘think big’ which we’re seeing in him on the X Factor is also part of his interest in theology’s great questions.’

The other members of JLS are Marvin Humes, 23, from South East London, Ortise Williams, 21, from Fulham, and Aston Merrygold, 20, from Peterborough. Follow the band’s progress at xfactor.itv.com

Supporting children London awards in Cambodia finalist Lydia Pink, a graduate of the

King’s student Adeola Oyewo

King’s College London Dental Institute has recently come back from a trip to Cambodia where she was part of a programme supported by the Global Child Dental Health Taskforce at King’s to provide dental treatment to orphaned children suffering from HIV. Before her trip Lydia (with support from Professor Raman Bedi, Director of the Global Child Dental Health Taskforce) raised £3,000 to cover the cost of fluoride needed to give the children dental treatment.

This was enough to provide 70 orphanages with the fluoride needed to treat the children.

The Global Child Dental Health Taskforce was established in January 2006 to significantly improve the dental health of children by developing Public Private Partnerships, to coordinate services, national educational programmes and to promote evidence-based oral health messages.

Lydia (with support from the Taskforce) hopes to set up a regular system where students from the Dental Institute can have the opportunity to go out to Cambodia and support the orphanages dental needs.

was a finalist, from a field of 400 students, in a scheme recognising the achievements of young black people in London. She was in the final three of the ‘Girls Higher Education Category’ and attended the awards ceremony at the House of Commons.

The London Schools and the Black Child Academic Achievement Awards, were set up

by Diane Abbott, MP for Hackney North and Stoke Newington, to highlight the achievements of London’s top black students.

Adeola Oyewo is a student on the Extended Medical Degree Programme (EMDP) and is just starting her clinical years. She was nominated by Dr Pamela Garlick, the EMDP Course Director.

Adeola comments on the event: ‘It was truly inspiring to meet other students from similar backgrounds to mine who were doing brilliantly in their chosen fields. I felt truly privileged to be at such a gathering it was indeed a great night, one that I’m sure I will never forget.’

New centre A new Student Learning Centre has

been opened in St Thomas’ House,

Theology and Religious Studies student Jonathan Gill has made the X Factor finals with his band JLS.

at St Thomas’ Campus. The facility provided comprises of new learning space to accommodate students on computer-aided library research facilities, as well as a new storage facility for books and journals, as well as refurbished welfare facilities. The new facility is located in the ground and basement levels of St Thomas’s House.

Muslim advisors Last month 22 new advisors were

chosen for the Young Muslim

Advisory Group including two students from King’s. They are Aziza Al-Yassin, a second year medical student who is also chairwoman of Noor Youth, and former member of a subcommittee of the Ahlul Hayt Society at King’s; and Mohammed Shafiul Amin, a first year medical student who was President of Tower Hamlets College Islamic Society.

The national Young Muslims’ Advisory Group (YMAG) has been established with the aim of talking directly to the Government on issues, aspirations and concerns that informs the lives of young Muslims in England.

Shafiul has high hopes of his role on the YMAG: ‘I would like to work to prevent biased, misinformed perceptions of Islam and Muslims being put forward in the media, inform the Government of what young Muslims feel about many items of legislation that seem to be targeting them, and create a greater awareness of Islam amongst the British public, as it is the fastest growing religion in the West.’

Aziza Al-Yassin explains how she sees her role: ‘I hope to highlight the forgotten achievements of the Muslim community in Britain, as well as the areas where improvement is needed, not only with regards to tackling extremism but also in helping develop our interaction with the wider community.’

KCLSU celebrates 100 years

To mark the occasion a number of events will be held over the academic year for students, staff, alumni and friends of KCLSU and of King’s. The highlights include a prestigious Centenary Dinner to be held at Lincoln’s Inn in February, and the return to King’s of BBC Radio 4’s political show Any Questions? in March. For more details please visit alumni.kcl.ac.uk/events or contact Karen Bearman on karen.l.bearman@kcl.ac.uk

December 2008 | Comment | 19

Books Three favourite...

Shopping emporia near Denmark Hill Campus As recommended by Louise Pratt, R&D/NIHR BRC Communications Officer, Institute of Psychiatry sugarMomma, 47 Denmark Hill

Henry VIII

Early Psychosocial Interventions in Dementia: Evidence-based Practice

Oxford Handbook of Gastrointestinal Nursing

Dr Lucy Kostyanovsky (neé Wooding), Lecturer in Early Modern History, Department of History

Edited by Professor Jill Manthorpe, Director, Social Care Workforce Research Unit and Professor Esme Moniz-Cook (University of Hull)

Edited by Professor Christine Norton et al, Associate Dean (Research), Florence Nightingale School of Nursing & Midwifery

For the increasing number of people diagnosed with dementia each year, care, support and treatment in the early stages can make a significant difference to their quality of life. This book provides examples of psychosocial interventions: taking into consideration the individual, social and environmental aspects of the person’s life.

It looks at ways of providing support at the time of diagnosis and explores a variety of interventions and services for the treatment and care of people with early dementia.

This book will be essential reading for practitioners, researchers, educationalists and commissioners working with people with early dementia and will be extremely useful in both professional development and for those new to dementia care.

At a time when the new Dementia Strategy by the Department of Health is being launched, this book emphasises the value of multidisciplinary and evidence-based approaches to providing good quality support.

Jessica Kinpsley Publishers

The role of the gastrointestinal (GI) nurse has changed considerably over recent years.

The development of endoscopic equipment has resulted in a demand for skilled nurses to perform procedures which, in the past, were carried out by doctors.

The Oxford Handbook of Gastrointestinal Nursing summarises the current state of knowledge in gastrointestinal nursing and provides user-friendly, evidence-based guidelines on the management of patients with gastrointestinal disorders.

Organised into three sections covering the principles of gastrointestinal nursing, the book offers a wealth of information on how to plan, implement, manage, and evaluate nursing care for gastrointestinal patients. Written by practising nurses and subject experts, the Oxford Handbook of Gastrointestinal Nursing is a unique and invaluable companion for practising nurses, and for all health care professionals who are involved in the care of patients with gastrointestinal disorders.

OUP Oxford

Henry VIII was one of the most dominant figures of the 16th century, yet remains one of the most enigmatic. He was popular with the public and charismatic, yet behaved brutally in his private life and brought about England’s break with the Catholic Church in order to get himself out of his first marriage.

Dr Wooding’s timely study provides an insightful and original portrait of this larger-than-life figure, and of the many paradoxes of his character and reign. The book examines the strong medieval and Old Testament influences on the way Henry conducted his kingship, his obsessive concerns about the Tudor succession and the inescapable legacy bequeathed to his children and his country.

This book gives a fresh portrayal of Henry VIII, cutting away the misleading mythology in order to provide a vivid portrayal of this passionate, willful, intelligent, and yet fearful king. Dr Wooding tells a gripping story that also gives a sense of the complexity of the reign and the period.

Routledge

SugarMomma is a firm favourite of IoP fashionistas. The ladies of Camberwell are seduced like magpies by the reasonably priced jewels, bags, shoes and fine garments. The shop is a world of off-the-wall designers like ART from Holland and Desigual from Barcelona.

The owners are always on hand to advise with styling and tell it like it is, in the most charming way! SugarMomma is a real gem. gXgallery, 43 Denmark Hill

Just down from SugarMomma is the classy GXgallery. As well as showing modern, British and international fine art, GX stocks an eclectic selection of cards. The gallery has frequent exhibitions and the owner will happily show you around, but beware, he will tempt you with his interest-free art-buying scheme where you pay in instalments… I am currently experiencing commitment issues with a bronze trumpet player. odie & amanda, grove lane

At the other side of the Campus is Odie & Amanda, decked out like a Parisian boudoir it’s a treasure trove of girlie paraphernalia, with shoes, bags, clothes, gifts and jewellery. As well as designing and making beautiful clothes at high street prices, they offer a made to measure service – music to the ears for all us ‘ab fab’ individuals out there!

Let us know your three favourite things related to a Campus. Email kate.saunders@kcl.ac.uk

Comment is the College’s regular newsletter, edited by the Public Relations Department and designed by the Corporate Design Unit | Comment is printed on paper produced with 80 per cent recovered fibre | Articles are welcomed from all members of the College, but please note that the Editor reserves the right to amend articles | Copy for the next issue can be sent to the Internal Communications Officer, Public Relations Department (ext 3075), James Clerk Maxwell Building, Waterloo Campus, or emailed to kate.saunders@kcl.ac.uk by 14 January.

20 | Comment | December 2008