Staff Newsletter - Summer 2016

The magazine for the staff of the University of Cambridge Summer 2016

Technicians: the bridge builders

First aid for mental health page 5

Watching tumours eat, breathe and die page 8

summer 2016 | UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE Newsletter | 1

snapshot contents

The art of conservation: street art can bring nature to parts of society that other conservation messages cannot reach, according to street artist ATM, one of the speakers at Nature Matters 2016: in Touch with the Wild. This year’s meeting – run in association with the Cambridge Conservation Initiative – is being held at the David Attenborough Building from 22-24 September 2016.

atm

Cover Technicians play an essential – but almost invisible – role in teaching and research. Becky Allen goes behind the scenes to discover more about life and work in the University’s workshops and laboratories.

The magazin

e For The

sTaFF oF

The univers

Technicia the bridg ns: builders e

iTy oF Cambrid

summer

First aid for mental healt h

page 5

summer

2-4 News round-up 5 Making a difference The Clinical School’s Wellbeing Programme is now in its second year.

Senior HR Adviser Caroline Newman talks about how it’s creating a culture of dignity around mental health.

Green and pleasant land: Madingley Hall – the only significant Lancelot ‘Capability’ Brown landscape owned by the University – is this year celebrating the 300th anniversary of the 18th century garden architect’s birth.

To mark the occasion, the Cambridgeshire Gardens Trust has produced a new leaflet to guide visitors around key parts of his Cambridge creation. For details, visit www.ice.cam.ac.uk/CB300.

6-7 Cover feature 8 The bigger picture Cambridge’s new hyperpolariser imaged its first patient this spring. In words and pictures, the team explains how it could help revolutionise cancer treatment.

9 People

Cubes and trees: artist Ai Weiwei has brought his much-loved trees to the Heong Gallery, where they form an uplifting habitable circle in Downing’s main quad alongside existing trees and the chapel. The exhibition includes a new film made on Lesbos, where Ai has been working with arriving refugees.

Ai Weiwei: Cubes and Trees runs to 9 October 2016. Open Wednesdays 10-8pm and Friday to Sunday 10-6pm.

10 Prizes, awards and honours 11 Small adverts

gao yuan

Front cover photograph: technician Lorna Roberts

by Chris Loades

Lifeboat on Lensfield Road: a replica of the James Caird has found a permanent home outside the Scott Polar Research Institute. This photograph from the SPRI archive shows Sir Ernest Shackleton setting off in the converted lifeboat on its epic 800-mile journey to South Georgia in 1916. SPRI staff attended a thanksgiving service at Westminster Abbey in May 2016 – 100 years after the boat’s safe arrival at Stromness.

newsletter

sPRI

The Newsletter is published for the staff of the University of Cambridge and is produced by the Office of External Affairs and Communications.

If you have a story, or ideas for ways we can improve the publication, please get in touch.

Tel: (3)32300 or email newsletter@admin.cam.ac.uk.

Managing Editor: Andrew Aldridge Editor: Becky Allen Design: Charlotte Sankey, Creative Warehouse Printer: Printerbello, Cambridge Contributors: Becky Allen and Andrew Aldridge Newsletter online www.cam.ac.uk/for-staff

2 | summer 2016 | UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE Newsletter

Newsletter online

www.cam.ac.uk/for-staff

ge

Watching eat, breat tumours he and die

page 8

2016 | UNIVERSITY

OF CAMBRIDGE

NEwSlETTER

|1

2016

WHAT’S NEW

Your comments and contributions are always welcome.

Please send them to the Editor at newsletter@admin.cam.ac.uk

Social innovation gets University boost Social innovation in Cambridge received a major boost this summer as Social Incubator East (SIE) transferred its management to Cambridge Judge Business School’s Centre for Social Innovation. The new organisation is called Cambridge Social Ventures.

Social ventures – businesses that aim to make social impact and whose mission, values and impact all align – have seen huge growth in the UK recently, according to the centre’s Executive Director Dr Neil Stott.

“If you want to change the world, there are entrepreneurial and non-entrepreneurial solutions; we focus on the former,” he explained.

“There’s a real zeitgeist around social innovation, particularly in Cambridge.”

The centre focuses on ‘social extrapreneurship’ – creating an

environment in which social entrepreneurs can flourish in the public, private and social sectors.

“We research, we teach and we do – that’s what makes Cambridge a leader in this field,” he said. “We are building an ecosystem of tools, ideas and investment that will help the private sector to be more virtuous and reinvigorate the public sector, as well as fostering the social sector.”

SIE was set up in 2014, funded by the Cabinet Office and Allia. Over the past two years it has provided mentoring and support to more than 60 social ventures, from Prison Voicemail – a cheap and easy way for prisoners and their families to keep in touch – to Zephx, a gaming solution that transforms the daily grind of physiotherapy for children with cystic fibrosis into a source of fun.

Microsoft software for staff Eligible staff can download popular Office programs thanks to a new agreement between the University and Microsoft.

The agreement allows more than 10,000 members of staff to download Office 365 ProPlus – a package including Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote, Publisher and Outlook – to their personal devices.

The applications can be downloaded free and installed on up to five personal desktop or laptop computers, five tablets and five smartphones (15 devices in total) through the University’s Enrolment for Education Solutions Agreement with Microsoft. The software will be available throughout people’s employment, after which they will have ‘read only’ access to files – unless they buy their own Microsoft licence to continue using the software.

The deal also gives staff access to

OneDrive for Business, which provides one terabyte of online storage for their personal files in the cloud.

Office 365 ProPlus is available to all University staff who are paid through CHRIS or CUFS and work for more than 200 hours per year, except for staff whose computing services are supplied by the Clinical School Computing Service or Cambridge Judge Business School, who already have access to Office 365 ProPlus through their own pre-existing departmental arrangements.

To find out if you are eligible for the software, and instructions on how to download it, visit www.uis.cam. ac.uk/ees/office-365-proplus.

Staff who need Microsoft Office 2016 on their work computers can download Windows and Mac versions of the software free from the University’s software distribution catalogue. For more information, visit http://software.uis.cam.ac.uk.

Kieran Ball and Alex Redston of Prison Voicemail

“Having Cambridge Social Ventures as part of the University will add value to our MBA and MSt in Social Innovation, and improve the service we offer to academics with ideas for new social ventures,” he said.

“It will help us build a generation of well-informed, critical-thinking students and practitioners and create licensed products that others can deliver, so that we can have even more impact globally.”

THIS IS

WHAT IT FEELS LIKE TO HAVE STAGED

A SUCCESSFUL EVENT

We’ll support you with: Identifying conferences in your field Venue-finding Bid production Photography and video Site visits Letters of support Finding a conference organiser Creating the Cambridge experience

Get your event off the ground: www.conferencecambridge.com

summer 2016 | UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE Newsletter | 3

what’s new New online home for CUP academic content This summer sees the launch of Cambridge Core, a new online home for academic content published by Cambridge University Press.

Cambridge Core replaces the publisher’s two main platforms – Cambridge Journals Online and Cambridge Books Online – offering researchers and librarians access to 19 million pages across 360 journals and 30,000 ebooks.

As well as bringing together this content for the first time, the new platform will be much faster and easier to search.

“Cambridge Core maximises the speed and ease of access to our content via library systems and search engines,” said Tristan Collier, Academic Library Marketing Manager at the Press. “There are also new keyword

in brief

and author search functions across books and journals on the site, which will be faster and more powerful.”

The new platform is the result of two years’ development and user testing. According to Caroline Tatam, Academic Platform Marketing Executive at the Press: “It’s been built with the user in mind, and is the result of exhaustive market research.

We surveyed almost 10,000 users, including librarians, researchers and authors, to ensure that they can access our content in a way that suits them best.”

University staff will be able to access academic content that their colleges or libraries have subscribed to through Cambridge Core. For more information, visit www.cambridge. org/gb/academic/cambridge-core.

Zoology is 150

Flying start for Centre for Teaching and Learning The University’s Centre for Teaching and Learning, which opened earlier this year, has hit the ground running with its inaugural Teaching Forum and a new round of project grants awarded under the Teaching and Learning Innovation Fund.

Nine innovative projects across seven departments won funding, from simulated medical emergencies to a 3D image library.

The fund, which each year provides grants of up to £20,000, helps teaching staff at Cambridge pilot projects that will enhance learning. The idea is that if successful, they could be scaled up across the University.

Among this year’s winners was an idea for a ‘flipped-classroom’

by Dr Michael Ramage from the Department of Architecture. Students will study new concepts online ahead of their lectures, allowing classroom time to be used to reflect on what they have learned.

Dr Nicola Jones and Dr Priya Sastry from the Department of Medicine are using the funding to create online role-playing scenarios for medical students and junior doctors that simulate real-life emergencies. And at the Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, Dr Chris Wingfield is creating a 3D image library of artefacts to supplement hands-on practicals.

Earlier this year the centre held its first Teaching Forum, bringing together staff wanting to share ideas, learn about innovative approaches to teaching and discuss wider higher education issues.

Professor Graham Virgo, ProVice-Chancellor for Education, who opened the event, said: “We are delighted that the collegiate University’s first teaching forum was such a great success. The collegiate University takes excellence in teaching and learning very seriously, and the forum provided an ideal

4 | summer 2016 | UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE Newsletter

opportunity to exchange best practice and ideas about what makes a great educational experience for our students.”

The centre was launched earlier this year to provide a strategic focus for educational enhancement at Cambridge. It draws together support and advice on training, professional development, funding and best practice – all of which can be accessed via a new website. It organises teaching fora and regular, informal, themed networking groups, and celebrates the many examples of outstanding teaching that contribute to the student experience at the University.

Next in its calendar is the annual Directors of Teaching event, which takes place on 29 September and this year focuses on examination and assessment. ➔ For more information on the Centre for Teaching and Learning, visit www.cctl.cam.ac.uk.

The Museum of Zoology is celebrating its 150th anniversary during 2016, and events culminate this autumn with a special weekend-long event from 23-25 September.

The anniversary weekend features: Sir David Attenborough and Dame Frances Ashcroft in conversation; a talk by BBC natural history producer Mike Gunton; insect-orientated family fun with zoologist and circus performer Tim Cockerill; Eureka! – a series of short films about members of the department’s moments of discovery; and ‘Just a marmot’ – where a panel of alumni try to talk without deviation, hesitation or repetition for one minute on a zoological topic. ➔ For more information, visit: http://tinyurl.com/ jb2927h

Porters in paint Local artist Louise Riley-Smith has been painting portraits of the head porters at Cambridge colleges since 2014. The collection – which celebrates the porters’ contribution to college life – is on show at Riley-Smith’s open studio at 18 Clarendon Street, Cambridge CB1 1JU, from 11am to 4pm on Tuesday 12 July 2016.

anna betts

making a difference

Mental health: changing minds Since its launch last year, the Clinical School’s Wellbeing Programme has heralded a culture change in attitudes to mental health and illness. Senior HR Adviser Caroline Newman tells Becky Allen about how the programme is helping to dispel enduring myths about mental health Even though she’s a passionate advocate for mental health, Caroline Newman, Senior HR Adviser at the Clinical School, has been taken aback by the success of the Raising Mental Health Awareness programme she launched in April 2015.

During its first 12 months, with a budget of £6,500 from the Clinical School, there have been 17 lunchtime briefings for staff on topics as diverse as depression and anxiety to bereavement and posttraumatic stress disorder.

Eighty-eight managers have completed Mental Health First Aid Lite training, delivered by mental health charity Mind, a half-day course enabling managers to deal more confidently with mental health issues at work.

“We wanted to embed a culture of dignity in mental health across the Clinical School”

The Clinical School has also signed the STOP Suicide organisational pledge – a Cambridgeshire-wide initiative for individuals and organisations.

“We set out with a clear plan of what we wanted to achieve,” Newman explains.

“That was to raise awareness across the School and embed a culture of dignity in mental health. This fitted well with our Athena Swan agenda, and we also said we’d adopt the STOP Suicide principles.”

Feedback has been overwhelmingly positive. More than 387 people attended events run during Mental Health Awareness Week alone, and the October 2015 staff survey showed that 71 per cent of respondents knew where to find support services for wellbeing and mental ill health. “That’s a powerful indicator that we are landing the programme well,” she says.

While the programme’s aim is about changing culture rather than sickness absence, data show that compared with 2012 there was a 6.5 per cent decline in overall sickness absence in 2015. Within that reduced rate, 16 per cent more staff reported being off sick due to stress or mental ill health. “It’s evidence of a change in culture,” says Newman, “and we have seen more people opening up to their line managers.”

As well as staff feeling more comfortable about raising mental health issues, training has also ensured that managers are more confident about dealing with them. “Before the training, managers wanted to support staff but told us they were anxious about it – unsure of what to say or concerned about

making matters worse,” she says.

“Mental Health First Aid Lite training isn’t about people becoming psychologists, it’s about managers gaining the confidence to talk about mental health in the same way they’d deal with physical health issues, and knowing where to signpost people.”

Based on its success, the budget for year two has been doubled to £13,500, and as the project’s remit has been extended to encompass physical health issues such as diabetes, nutrition and exercise, it has been rebranded as the Clinical School Wellbeing Programme.

Together with a new website and wellbeing newsletter, both already launched, this year’s plans include training two mental health first aiders for each department, and providing mental health crisis and suicide prevention training for all the School’s first aiders.

Keen to champion mental health, Newman is sharing the lessons learned at the Clinical School more widely. She now chairs the Biomedical Campus’ Wellbeing Network meetings, so that the University, MRC, AstraZeneca and the NHS can share best practice and coordinate activities on key national days. She has presented the programme to the University’s Wellbeing Steering Group and become a trustee for Mind in Cambridgeshire.

“Everyone wants to get involved, and that passion – as well as continual promotion and having a plan, but also being prepared to be flexible – has been crucial to our success.”

“We need to dispel myths about mental health and illness,” she concludes.

“We spend so much time at work that our wellbeing at work is intimately linked with our home life. We’re trying to cascade the message that whether you’ve got anxiety, or depression, or a more severe condition, it’s OK. We know people can function well but, at certain points, they may need more support. In the same way that we’d support someone with a physical illness or injury like a broken leg – we’d make adjustments or potentially allow home working.”

Find out more The Clinical School Wellbeing Week runs from 26-30 September 2016.

For more information, visit www.medschl.cam.ac.uk/humanresources/staff-wellbeing.

summer 2016 | UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE Newsletter | 5

Photographs: chris loades and Charlotte sankey

cover feature

Technical genius Technicians have been a pivotal part of Cambridge’s ground-breaking research for centuries, bridging the gap between ideas and reality. Becky Allen discovers more about these unsung heroes From gravity to pulsars, Cambridge ideas have changed the world, and from Isaac Newton to Jocelyn Bell, its scientists’ achievements are celebrated. But in the stories we tell about how this knowledge was made, a crucial collaborator in the scientific process is usually missing.

The technician.

Today, Cambridge has 800 technicians who play a vital role in teaching and research. Their work, however, remains largely invisible, says Dr Josh Nall, Curator

“I made humungous Tesla coils until my parents asked me to stop because it was disrupting the TV”

6 | summer 2016 | UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE Newsletter

of Modern Sciences at the Whipple Museum.

“Historians of science are like criminologists. We’re trying to understand – slightly removed from the process itself – how science works,” he explains.

“As a result, technicians are very important. If you look in labs, technicians are everywhere, but when you look at published papers, you never see them.”

Looking at the Whipple’s collection provides some clues – like the hundreds

of intricate evacuated tubes made by glass blowers at the Cavendish Laboratory for JJ Thomson’s research.

But they only offer a fleeting glimpse of the technician’s skill. “The material we have has the fingerprints of technicians all over it. But it doesn’t take us very far, because we have no way of knowing which technician made it,” says Nall.

“Historians of science in 100 years would be incredibly grateful if we interviewed or filmed today’s technicians at work.”

From his eyrie high above the workshop, Alistair Ross, manager of the Design and Technical Services Division in the Department of Engineering, has a bird’s eye view of the dozens of machines and the 25 technicians for whom he is responsible – and in whose work he takes great pride. “The skills we have here are extraordinary,” he says. “These main workshops are a central resource, and the range of things we make is – well, the sky’s the limit.”

Current projects range from aero engine blades for the Whittle Laboratory to components for earthquake research at the Schofield Centre. “Anyone can come and ask me for a rig to be made – very often something that’s never been made before – and we find a way to do it,” Ross explains. “That’s where we win: our quality, our cost-effectiveness and our huge versatility compared to outside companies.”

During 30 years in the job he has developed a keen nose for a good technician. “I’m less impressed by qualifications and more interested in people’s enthusiasm for life and for engineering, their hobbies and interests,” he says. “That tells me they have an enquiring mind.”

Ross’s own hobbies include classic cars, restoring furniture and repairing watches. “I love machines, and I can’t stop making or mending things. I’d always rather buy something broken and fix it – there’s nothing worse than buying something that works,” he says.

One of Ross’s recruits is Barney Coles, a manual machinist who arrived at the University with little on paper but bags of enthusiasm. “I learned lots from my Dad – he builds model locomotives – and I started looking into digital ignition for a jet engine when I was in my early 20s,” he says. “That evolved into making humungous Tesla coils in my bedroom, until my parents asked me to stop because it was disrupting the TV. I don’t own a telly now, but I watch machining videos on YouTube.”

He is currently making exquisite aluminium aero engine blades (“works of art”, Ross calls them) for Rolls-Royce experiments at the Whittle, turning single blocks of the shining metal into complex blades with extraordinary precision.

“What’s really annoying is that there are no flat edges on them,” Coles explains.

“Nothing’s parallel, so you can’t just put them in a vice. So I designed a unique fixing and holding system that lets us make these parts in one operation.”

“The skills we have here are extraordinary; the range of things we make is, well, the sky’s the limit”

Above: Alistair Ross (Department of Engineering) takes huge pride in technicians Left: techniciam Barney Coles with his Rolls-Royce aero engine blade

It’s hoped that using the blades in experiments at the Whittle will enable Rolls-Royce to produce more efficient engines, cutting fuel costs and carbon dioxide emissions. “Before I came to Cambridge, no-one was doing this. I’ve been on the project for two years and am quite proud to be a part of it,” he adds.

From silver to concrete Lorna Roberts arrived in the Structures and Concrete Lab in 2015. One of only two female technicians out of 90 in the Department of Engineering, she decided to become a technician after studying jewellery making – a craft she thinks has much in common with engineering.

“Lots of the tools are similar – although they’re larger here,” she says.

“But the practicalities are the same: you’re given a design and you’ve got to make it work, fit pieces together to make something happen. I’m a problem solver – that’s what I’ve discovered here.”

She works with postdoc Dr Pieter Desnerck, who is studying the way that the reinforced concrete bridges built around the UK in the 1960s are deteriorating. Concrete is poured into large wooden moulds and fitted with strain gauges. “Then we apply the load,” says Roberts, “take all the readings, and continue until the concrete fails, which can be quite loud and quite dramatic.”

The research is giving her ideas for jewellery, too: “I found some old concrete samples the other day that were being thrown away, and when you chop them open they’re really beautiful, so I kept a piece and I’m thinking about making some concrete jewellery.”

Chief laboratory technician Franco Ussi also joined the University last year.

Brought up in Carrara, Italy, he has a degree in mechanical engineering and has worked in many industries, from robotics to medical devices.

At the Institute for Manufacturing he supports researchers and PhD students, fixing machines and designing instruments for experiments, and is now developing reactors to create carbon nanotube fibres in the Department of Materials Science & Metallurgy.

“My job is mainly about helping others to solve problems. My interdisciplinary experience means I can usually help them find better solutions – I’m like the link between their ideas and the final prototype,” he explains. “It’s interesting to start from theoretical ideas, add practical problems and then together we find a solution – that’s what’s so amazing about working here with researchers.”

As well as being skilled makers and creative problem solvers, Ussi thinks good technicians also have a passion for learning and is planning a PhD of his own, based on the carbon nanotube reactor project. “One of the things I love about working here is that I learn something every day,” he says. “The University puts a lot of importance and opportunity to help people develop their careers.”

Aware that its technicians are essential to its research, but that these skills are scarce in the wider workforce today, the University’s new technician development and apprenticeship project will ensure that Cambridge scientists and technicians can continue to change the world.

Six new apprentices are joining the University this autumn. For more information on technician development and apprenticeships, visit http://tinyurl. com/hbm5em8.

summer 2016 | UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE Newsletter | 7

the bigger picture

Enter the hyperpolariser Cancer patients in Cambridge this year became the first in Europe to be imaged using the hyperpolariser. Here, the team that for more than a decade have helped develop the technology explain how it could revolutionise cancer treatment watching tumours eat, breathe and die For patients and their doctors, finding out whether a cancer treatment is working is crucial. The faster this can be done, the better the outcome should be.

With current imaging techniques it takes weeks to see if a tumour is shrinking – wasting valuable treatment time – but Cambridge’s Hyperpolariser Project hopes to speed things up.

Professor Kevin Brindle of the Department of Biochemistry and the Cancer Research UK Cambridge Institute has been developing the technology with GE Healthcare since 2003. As a

result, Cambridge this year became the first place in Europe to use the hyperpolariser on patients.

The machine works by cooling carbon-13-labelled molecules to very low temperatures (-272°C) and ‘hyperpolarising’ the 13C nucleus, which makes it very sensitive to detection in the MRI scanner.

The labelled molecule is taken up differently by tumours and this changes when the tumour cells die. “It’s like watching a tumour eat, breathe and die,” says Brindle.

PHOTOGRAPHS: CHRIS LOADES

Hyperpolarising the molecules makes them up to 100,000 times more sensitive to detection

by MRI SPEED IS OF THE ESSENCE For patients, the process is like having a ‘contrast agent enhanced’ MRI scan.

They lie on the bed in the scanner while it takes conventional images to locate the tumour. The hyperpolariser is running in the room next door. The hyperpolarised material it produces is rapidly warmed, loaded into a syringe, passed through a hatch into the scanner room and quickly injected into the patient’s arm. This must be done within two to three minutes before the hyperpolarisation – which is what makes the technique so sensitive – decays.

SUPER COOL TECHNOLOGY Conventional MRI images tissue anatomy by mapping the distribution of water in the body, but cannot reveal how active a tumour might be. The hyperpolariser is used with a conventional MRI scanner, but hyperpolarising the 13C-labelled molecules makes them – and the molecules they are converted to in the body – up to 100,000 times more sensitive to detection by MRI.

8 | summer 2016 | UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE Newsletter

Right: the hyperpolariser project is supported by the Wellcome Trust, Cancer Research UK, MRC, Addenbrooke’s Charitable Trust, the Cambridge Cancer Centre, Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, GE Healthcare and the University

SUPER SENSITIVITY PhD students James Grist and Surrin Deen (above) and Project Manager MarieChristine Laurent (far left) are part of a team led by consultant radiologist Dr Ferdia Gallagher doing clinical trials on patients with lymphoma, glioma, breast and ovarian cancer, plus pilot studies in prostate cancer and multiple sclerosis to find out how the hyperpolariser can help improve treatments.

people

New heads of house at Christ’s and St Catharine’s Christ’s and St Catharine’s welcome new heads of house in September. Professor Jane Stapleton, a distinguished academic lawyer, will be the first female Master of Christ’s when she succeeds Professor Frank Kelly.

Stapleton currently holds posts at the Australian National University and the University of Texas. She began her academic career as a scientist before moving to law, completing a DPhil at Oxford and specialising in the law of torts.

According to Professor David Sedley, who chaired the search committee: “Jane’s wide intellectual interests will ensure she is a Master who can engage fully with the whole College community and who can represent Christ’s in the University and beyond.”

The Fellows of St Catharine’s have elected Professor Sir Mark Welland as the College’s next Master, where he succeeds Professor Dame Jean Thomas.

Sir Mark is currently Professor of Nanotechnology and Head of Electrical Engineering at Cambridge, where he established the Nanoscience Centre. His academic interests include using nanotechnology in human

disease and in green technologies.

As well as his thorough understanding of the University, he brings to the College wide national and international experience. Sir Mark was Chief Scientific Adviser to the UK Government Ministry of Defence from 2008 to 2012, and was awarded a knighthood in the Queen’s Birthday Honours list in 2011.

April saw Professor James Gazzard take up his new post as Director of the Institute of Continuing Education.

He joined the University from the University of East Anglia’s Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences. The focus of his academic expertise is on supporting scientists and clinicians to become more innovative and entrepreneurial. He has also worked at the Royal Veterinary College, GlaxoSmithKline and the Medical Research Council, where he led a range of projects including graduate internship schemes and enterprise education courses. He has a PhD in genetics, an MBA in entrepreneurship and a postgraduate certificate in higher education.

Gazzard said: “Personal enrichment learning and professional studies have never been more important as we all try

Obituary: Professor Sir David MacKay, 1967–2016 As many members of staff will have heard, Professor Sir David MacKay, Regius Professor of Engineering, died aged 48 from stomach cancer in April this year.

Variously described in obituaries in the Telegraph and Guardian as a polymath, an ascetic and a frisbee player, MacKay was a hugely popular lecturer at the Department of Physics, where he taught information theory and machine learning, and made major contributions in many fields.

His book Sustainable Energy – Without the Hot Air gained a huge following, selling 40,000 copies and being downloaded nearly half a million times within two years.

In 2009 he was appointed Chief Scientific Adviser in the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC).

MacKay read Natural Sciences at Trinity College and returned to Cambridge after his PhD at Caltech. He became Professor of Physics in 2003, was

elected a fellow of the Royal Society in 2009, and knighted this year.

After being diagnosed with terminal stomach cancer in 2015, he blogged about his treatment in typically honest and pragmatic style in Everything is Connected. The Department of Engineering said: “We will remember him as an intelligent, principled, enthusiastic and engaging colleague who left us with an inspiring legacy.”

He is survived by his wife, Ramesh, and their children, Torrin and Eriska. ➔ MacKay’s blog Everything is Connected can be found at itila.blogspot.com.

Professor Jane Stapleton

Sir Mark Welland

Professor James Gazzard

to make sense of the rapidly changing and complex environments in which we live and work.”

At the Isaac Newton Institute for Mathematical Sciences, David Abrahams will succeed John Toland as Director, and as NM Rothschild and Sons Professor of Mathematics, in October 2016.

John Arnold also joins the University in September as the next Professor of Medieval History. Nicola Buckley has moved from heading the University’s public engagement team to become Associate Director of the Centre for Science and Policy.

Emma Stone has been appointed Director of Human Resources with effect from 1 April 2016. She will be supported in her role by Sarah Botcherby as Acting Deputy Director of HR and Angela Paradise as Interim Director of Operations, HR. Dr Jason Matthews has been appointed Director of Estates Strategy.

Matthews, who joined the University on 1 June, is an internationally respected real estate strategist with more than 25 years’ experience in international property development and investment companies.

Celebrating long service Peter Zawada, Deputy Squire Law Librarian, has retired after 47 years’ service. He joined the Squire as a junior assistant in 1968, and made a major contribution to its collections as well as to academics and students.

Paying tribute to his long service, the Squire said: “Peter’s knowledge of the Squire’s legal collections is immense and, over the years, many law academics have paid tribute to his tenacity and the assistance he has given them. His helpfulness, devotion and reliability have been essential to the reputation of the Squire as a law library of national importance.”

Another long-server, Jean Michel Massing, Professor of History of Art and Director of Studies at King’s, retires from the University in September.

And in March of this year, the Department of Chemical Engineering and Biotechnology hosted a special celebration to mark Emeritus Professor John Davidson’s 63 years in Chemical Engineering.

Peter Zawada

Nick Brooking

Professor John Davidson

summer 2016 | UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE Newsletter | 9

prizes, awards and honours

Awards ➔ Professor Chris Abell (Department of Chemistry) has been elected a Fellow of the Royal Society. ➔ The Prehistoric Picture Project P.I.T.O.T.I.: Digital Rock-Art led by Dr Frederick Baker and Dr Christopher Chippindale of the Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology has won a 2016 European Union Prize for Cultural Heritage/Europa Nostra Awards, Europe’s highest honour in the heritage field. The project used film, photography, dance, animation, music, 3D printing and scanning technology to record and re-present rock art in Valcamonica, a UNESCO World Heritage site in the Italian Alps, helping to preserve the prehistoric images as well as bringing them to life. ➔ The late Professor Sir Christopher Bayly (Faculty of History) has been named as the honorary recipient of the the 2016 Toynbee Prize for global history, the first time that the Toynbee Foundation has awarded the prize posthumously. ➔ Dr Nicholas Bell and Dr Ulrich Keyser (Cavendish Laboratory) have been awarded the Helmholtz Prize by the Physikalisch-TechnischeBundesanstalt and Helmholtz Fond – one of the most important honours for research in applied metrology – for their groundbreaking combination of DNA nanotechnology with nanopore-based detection of single molecules for the multiplexed identification of antibodies. ➔ Dr Michael Blome-Tillmann of the Faculty of Philosophy has won a British Academy Rising Star Engagement Award. ➔ Professor Donald Broom of the Department of Veterinary Medicine has been awarded the degree of Doctor Honoris Causa by the University of Buenos Aires. ➔ Professor Jason Chin (MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology) has been elected a Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences. ➔ Professor Sir Partha Dasgupta (Faculty of Economics) has been awarded the 2016 Tyler Prize for Environmental Achievement for his contributions to environmental economics. The prize committee highlighted his continued commitment to problems of population and poverty, loss of biodiversity and conservation. ➔ Margaret Faultless (Faculty of Music) has been made an honorary member of the Royal Academy of Music. The award

Margaret Fautless

Professor David Wales

Professor Angela Roberts

Professor Steve Jackson

Dr Markus Ralser

10 | summer 2016 | UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE Newsletter

is limited to 300 living distinguished musicians who were not educated at the academy. Previous recipients include Mendelssohn, Liszt and Stravinsky. ➔ Professor Iain Fenlon of the Faculty of Music has been elected a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society. ➔ Professor Robin Franklin (Cambridge Stem Cell Institute) has been elected a Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences. ➔ Professor Daan Frenkel of the Department of Chemistry has been elected a foreign member of the National Academy of Sciences. ➔ Professor Bernd Siebert of the University of Hamburg and Professor Mark Gross (Department of Pure Mathematics and Mathematical Statistics) have won a Clay Mathematics Institute Research Award for their groundbreaking contributions to the understanding of mirror symmetry. ➔ Professor Steve Jackson of the Gurdon Institute has been awarded the King Faisal International Prize for Science. ➔ Dr Alexander Jones (Sainsbury Laboratory) has been awarded the New Phytologist Tansley Medal for excellence in plant science. ➔ Professor Frank Kelly (Department of Pure Mathematics and Mathematical Statistics) has been awarded the David Crighton Medal of the London Mathematical Society and the Institute of Mathematics and its Applications. ➔ Professor Clément Mouhot of the Department of Pure Mathematics and Mathematical Statistics has been awarded this year’s Adams Prize by the Faculty of Mathematics and St John’s College. ➔ Dermot Mallon, a PhD student and trainee doctor at the School of Clinical Medicine was the joint winner of the Young Scientist prize at this year’s British Society for Histocompatibility and Immunogenetics conference. ➔ Professor Brian Moore (Department of Psychology) has been elected a Fellow of the Audio Engineering Society for his significant contributions to understanding human auditory perception, particularly in relation to sound reproduction and hearing aids. ➔ Dr Sherzod Muminov (Faculty of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies) has won the inaugural Murayama Tsuneo Prize for the Promotion of Research into the Siberian Internment. The prize was

established in 2015 to honour the work and achievements of the late Murayama Tsuneo, a former Japanese prisoner of war in the Soviet Union who spent years documenting the internment of Japanese former soldiers in the Siberian camps. ➔ Principles of Neural Design by Professor Simon Laughlin (Department of Zoology) and Peter Sterling has won the Association of American Publishers’ Prose Award for Excellence in Biological and Life Sciences. ➔ Professor David Owen (Cambridge Institute for Medical Research) has been elected a Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences. ➔ Dr Markus Ralser of the Department of Biochemistry has won the Biochemical Society’s Colworth Medal. ➔ Professor Sylvia Richardson of the Cambridge Institute of Public Health has been elected a Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences. ➔ Professor Angela Roberts of the Department of Physiology, Development and Neuroscience has been elected a Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences. ➔ Professor David Rubinsztein of the Cambridge Institute for Medical Research has won the Biochemical Society’s Thudichum Medal. ➔ Professor Austin Smith of the Cambridge Stem Cell Institute has been awarded – jointly with Dr Qi-Long Ying of University of Southern California – the 2016 McEwen Award for Innovation by the International Society for Stem Cell Research for their “enormous contributions to our fundamental understanding of pluripotency and how this knowledge can be leveraged to develop new tools that advance our understanding and treatment of human disease”. ➔ Professor Colin Taylor (Department of Pharmacology) has been elected a Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences. ➔ The University of Antwerp has awarded a honorary doctorate in Education Sciences to Professor Jan Vermunt (Faculty of Education) for his ground-breaking contribution to the educational sciences. ➔ Professor David Wales (Department of Chemistry) has been elected a Fellow of the Royal Society. ➔ Professor Alan Warren (Cambridge Institute for Medical Research) will receive a FEBS National Lecture Award at the Austrian Society for Molecular

advertisements Biology and Biotechnology annual meeting in September. ➔ Professor Peter Whittle of the Department of Pure Mathematics and Mathematical Statistics has been elected a Foreign Member of the National Academy of Engineering. ➔ Dr Lauren Wilcox of the Centre for Gender Studies has won the International Studies Association Theory Section’s Best Book Award for Bodies of Violence: Theorizing Embodied Subjects.

Pilkington Prize

In June 2016 the Environment and Energy Section hosted the fourth Green Impact awards ceremony

The 2016 Pilkington Prize winners are: Dr Christof Schwiening (Department of Physiology, Development and Neuroscience); Dr Sandra Fulton (Department of Biochemistry); Dr Noel Rutter (Department of Materials Science & Metallurgy); Dr Emma Mawdsley (Department of Geography); Dr Matei Candea (Division of Social Anthropology); Dr Carl Watkins

(Faculty of History); Dr Karen Ottewell (Language Centre); Dr Sophia Connell (Faculty of Philosophy); Dr Keith Seffen (Department of Engineering); Dr Robert Harle (Computer Laboratory); Dr Nicola Jones (Papworth Hospital) and Dr Ruchi Sinnatamby (Cambridge Breast Unit).

Green Impact Awards THIS YEAR’S Environmental heroes in the 2015-16 Green Impact Awards are Fiona Rigall of CISL and Emma Cook from Obstetrics & Gynaecology who have

both encouraged their teams to do even more for the environment.

Other awards went to teams from 43 departments and colleges, including Clare’s zero carbon May Ball and the Maintenance Unit, where staff are using bikes rather than cars to get around Cambridge. Deborah Hoy at Clare won this year’s environmental improvement award for re-thinking college heating, cutting gas use by seven per cent and saving £30,000 a year.

For a list of winners, visit: http:// tinyurl.com/zj9rkdp. To enter the awards, email greenimpact@admin.cam.ac.uk.

Advertising on this page is open to University staff. The cost is £15 for a single insertion or £75 for six insertions. Send your copy – up to 70 words – to the Editor at newsletter@admin.cam.ac.uk. We reserve the right to edit contributions.

HOUSES TO RENT (UK)

➔ Butley, Suffolk Comfortable, spacious, well equipped cottage with piano in Butley, Suffolk. Available for Aldeburgh Festival, weekends and short breaks throughout the year.

Close to Orford, Sutton Hoo, Snape and Minsmere. Sleeps up to eight.

Call Miranda on (01223) 357035 or email info@butleycottage. co.uk. More information at www. butleycottage.co.uk. ➔ Cornwall Traditional granite cottage in peaceful countryside between St Ives and Penzance. Sleeps five in three bedrooms, with comfortable sitting room, kitchen-breakfast room and bathroom. Sunny garden and off-road parking. Close to beaches and coves, coastal path, sub-tropical gardens, historic properties. Email Penny on pb29@cam.ac.uk or phone (01638) 507192. Details and photos at www.tinminerscottage.co.uk. ➔ Minnis Bay, Kent Two bedroom well equipped bungalow in a quiet seaside village on the north Kent coast within easy reach of Whitstable, Canterbury and the Turner Gallery in Margate. Offroad parking and an enclosed sunny garden five minutes walk from the sea. Sleeps four comfortably but

flexible enough to sleep seven.

Available for weekends and weekly breaks throughout the year. For details contact Gill on (01223) 360541 or email Vince at vrw10@ cam.ac.uk. ➔ Scottish Highlands Highland holiday cottage with sea view near Helmsdale. Palm Tree Cottage Retreat. Sleeps four to six people (two double bedrooms and two small chair beds suitable for small children). £350 per week or £820 per month (mention this advert). Sit in front of an open fire, 10 minutes walk to the beach, Wifi, washing machine, dishwasher and breadmaker. Ideal for a writing retreat, golf or fishing holiday. To find out more visit www. palmtreecottageretreat.com, telephone 07954 358174 or email carandlor@yahoo.co.uk. ➔ Southwold, Suffolk 17th century Leman cottage, three bedrooms, well equipped, Wifi, in peaceful countryside.

Off-road parking, enclosed sunny garden. Weekly lets in school holidays, flexible short breaks rest of year. Easy walk, cycle or drive to explore Heritage Coast, historic churches and more. Personally managed. One hour 40 minutes drive from Cambridge. For more information and for more cottages

sleeping two to eight see www. suffolkcoastalcottages.co.uk or phone Trish Gower on (01502) 478078. ➔ Yorkshire Dales Beautifully refurbished cottage at Pateley Bridge on the borders of Yorkshire Dales National Park.

Very comfortably furnished. Sleeps up to six in three bedrooms.

Underfloor heating and log burner. Courtyard garden with studio. Linen and towels provided.

Excellent local amenities, spectacular countryside and many wonderful places to visit nearby.

Prices are £425-£695 per week with short breaks available. For further details and booking visit www. cuckoocottageyorkshire.co.uk, email cuckoocottageyorkshire@ gmail.com or phone 07528 595295.

HOUSES TO RENT (OVERSEAS)

➔ Athens, Greece Beautiful fourth floor apartment with veranda in the city centre furnished to a high standard.

Double bedroom, study/living/ dining rooms, kitchen, bathroom.

Close to amenities with easy access to University and historical centre. Available January-June (negotiable). Price £400 per month

for one, £600 for a couple, including bills. Contact am934@cam.ac.uk.

Prodromi, Cyprus Large, spacious, well equipped townhouse in the village of Prodromi, between Latchi and Polis.

Small complex (13 properties) with shared pool and private parking.

Two double bedrooms. Available for short and long-term lets. Prices start from £300 per week. For further details and bookings email Bridget on bridgetwoodley@tiscali.co.uk.

Amalfi Coast, Italy Small B&B in peaceful, traffic-free mountain village above Positano.

Ideal for those seeking a quiet mountain retreat with modern conveniences. All rooms ensuite with panoramic sea views of the Amalfi coast. Situated on famous Sentiero degli Dei (Footpath of the Gods). English speaking host.

Double room and breakfast from 70 euros per night. Easyjet flights to Naples from Stansted. Phone Penny Marrone on 01954 210681. Further information and photos at http:// ninobb.moonfruit.com.

SERVICES

➔ Light removals service A friendly, family-run light removals service, we specialise in single room and office relocations, but offer

excellent rates on everything from small house clearances to lugging large eBay purchases. Clean van, graduate staff. Drop us an email with what, when and where for an initial quote: boxcat@cantab.net. ➔ Cambridge lip-reading group Do you have difficulty hearing?

Why not learn some lip-reading in an informal group who really enjoy meeting together. Our qualified teacher is helped by a few of our members. We meet for 30 evenings a year on Wednesdays between 6.45 and 8.45pm during school terms at Mayfield School off Histon Road. Car parking is available. The group is supported

by Cambridgeshire County Council.

Email enquiries to am148@cam. ac.uk or anh1000@cam.ac.uk. ➔ Would you like to improve the treatment of different diseases?

Cambridge BioResource provides a unique resource of local volunteers for researchers to investigate the links between genes, the environment and different diseases.

We need volunteers who are willing to consider helping in different research studies. Take part in health research – sign up today.

For more information email cbr@ bioresource.nihr.ac.uk, call 01223 769215 or visit our website: www. cambridgebioresource.org.uk.

summer 2016 | UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE Newsletter | 11

www.cam.ac.uk/YoursCambridge