BA2 issue 21

THE MAGAZINE FOR ALUMNI AND FRIENDS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF BATH ISSUE 21 • JUNE 2014

Flying start

Golds at the Games

Light bulb moment

The global vaccine challenge

Science in the City

A night at the Bath Science Café

Welcome to this issue of BA2, in what has been a truly transformational year for our University.

If you took a flight over campus today, you might be forgiven for mistaking the surfeit of yellow, ‘hi-vis’ jackets you see for a swarm of bees. From the ground, I’m delighted to report that the fruits of their labour are becoming apparent. At the eastern end of campus we are making swift progress with the construction of new accommodation for more than 700 students – the Quads – and, of course, our new Centre for the Arts, which has been generously supported by alumni and friends; both will open later this year.

Back in November our newly-installed fifth Chancellor, His Royal Highness The Earl of Wessex, opened our latest campus landmark. An impressive teaching and learning space, with a striking ‘Skywalk’ connecting it to the Parade, it’s a fitting tribute to the University’s five chancellors after which it is named. You can find out more about the Chancellor’s Installation itself on page 18.

It has certainly been busy in the new Chancellors’ Building of late, hosting both our Scholarship Ceremony in February and our Alumni Reunion in May. As we build up to our 50th anniversary in just over two years’ time, I hope to welcome many more of you back to University so you can see what has changed, and reacquaint yourself with all of Bath’s pleasures – campus and city.

Professor Dame Glynis Breakwell DBE DL Vice-Chancellor

Even if you are unable to return to Bath in person, I do hope that you will indulge in a little trip down memory lane. In this issue of BA2 we open up our University archives (see page 14), in preparation for what we hope will be a deluge of alumni memorabilia. If you have any old posters, photos or other items from your time at Bath, which you would like to donate to our archives to help tell the story of our first 50 years, please do get in touch at alumni@bath.ac.uk.

With best wishes,

Contents 4. A flying start

22. Your alumni community

Bath’s golden moments at the Olympic and Paralympic Games

8. Making an impact How research at Bath is changing lives

Find out what we can do for you

26. Science in the City

A night at the Bath Science Café

29. Box clever

10. Light bulb moment

32. Class notes

Finding a solution to the global vaccine challenge

14. Memories are made of this

Alumnus helps young graduates launch business

Updates from your former classmates

What’s in the University archives?

18. A new era

Welcoming our new Chancellor, HRH The Earl of Wessex

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Editor: Rachel Skerry • Contributors: Molly Conisbee, Andrew Dunne, Katrina James • Design: Richard Box • Photography: Nic Delves-Broughton, unless otherwise stated, © University of Bath. Front cover image: Elizabeth Yarnold of Britain starts a training run for the women’s skeleton during the 2014 Winter Olympics © AP/Press Association Images

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A flying start How did 140 metres of concrete contribute to Olympic gold?

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A flying start

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n a soggy Valentine’s Day evening 2014, students, staff and sporting superstars alike gathered around the TV screens at the University’s Sports Training Village. What brought them together was Bath-based athlete Lizzy Yarnold’s final skeleton run which saw her storm to Olympic victory in Sochi, finishing almost two-tenths of a second ahead of her nearest rival. British Skeleton has its headquarters at the University; Yarnold trains here, following in the sled tracks of her landlady, graduate Amy Williams, who won gold in the same event at the 2010 Olympics in Vancouver.

Despite not having an ice-track in the country for athletes to train on, skeleton is now one of Britain’s most successful Olympic sports. How has the University helped this unlikely rise to dominance?

Tucked away beyond the playing fields at the eastern edge of campus is 140 metres of sloping concrete. The push-start track, built in 2001 with help from Lottery funding, is the only facility of its kind in the UK. It features wheeled sleds running on rails, and allows skeleton and bobsleigh athletes to work on their sprint starts all year round, away from the ice.

In a skeleton or bobsleigh run, the speed of the start is crucial. It’s calculated that any one-tenth of a second advantage you gain at the top of a run can become three-tenths by the time you reach the bottom. Successful athletes therefore need to have a perfect combination of power and sprinting speed.

The push-start track has an impressive track record (pardon the pun). Athletes who have trained here have won four skeleton medals in four successive Olympic Winter Games: Alex Coomber (bronze in 2002), alumna Shelley Rudman (silver in 2006), then back-to-back Olympic champions Williams and Yarnold.

Now the concrete track is becoming a star in its own right.

Since Yarnold’s golden achievement in Sochi, the University, British Skeleton and British Bobsleigh have been inundated with enquiries from people wanting to have a go on the track themselves.

The University’s sports facilities already attract 1.3 million visitors a year, ranging from members of the local community playing a game of tennis, to Olympic and Paralympic athletes such as alumni Samantha Murray and Ben Rushgrove.

Stephen Baddeley, the University’s Director of Sport, says, “Bath is such an attractive university for aspiring young athletes because they are able to combine study with sport, whether it’s swimming, hurdling or skeleton. Successes at the Olympics and Paralympics have raised the profile of what we do here.

“It was terrific to have the opportunity to cheer Lizzy on to gold. Her success was testament to her own effort and also that of her support team. And of course, we are proud to host the headquarters of both British Skeleton and British Bobsleigh.”

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Historic gold for graduate How visually impaired skier Kelly Gallagher (BSc Mathematics 2006) swept to success at Sochi.

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niversity of Bath graduate Kelly Gallagher made a piece of history this year by winning Britain’s first ever gold medal on snow. She took gold in the visually impaired Alpine Skiing Super G slalom event at Sochi with her guide Charlotte Evans.

Kelly, representing ParalympicsGB at her second Winter Games, says, “It is so good to have such a great reward for all my and Charlotte’s hard work. I couldn’t have done it without Charlotte’s constant determination and talent. She’s a star!

“I’m so delighted to be part of such a unique and historic moment for British Paralympic sport.”

Maths graduate Kelly, from Bangor in Northern Ireland, has taken a career break to concentrate on skiing, but still draws on the skills she learned at Bath in her day job as a statistician. “I definitely have fond memories of Bath,” she says. “I learned a lot at the University and I’m still using my degree.”

Kelly has oculocutaneous albinism, a condition which affects the pigment in her hair, skin and eyes. She started skiing for the first time when she was 17 on a trip to Andorra and began working with Evans in 2010, following a Winter Paralympics debut in Vancouver.

The pair communicate on their way down the slopes via bluetooth headsets – Kelly seeing only the vaguest orange blur of a bib in front of her as they travel at speeds of up to 100km an hour.

Dr Michael Proulx, from our Department of Psychology, says Kelly and Charlotte have had to learn to be highly dependent on each other when they compete on the slopes, with split second reactions required.

“There’s nothing slow about it. Their reactions have to be immediate. A high degree of trust is necessary and true teamwork. Both skiers are reliant on each other in many ways. They need a lot of practice and time to get close together in order to respond very quickly.

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“One of the most inspiring things about the Paralympic Games is that they show that even if people have a sensory impairment, they can still be a world class athlete, like Kelly,” he adds. “It shows how amazing the human mind is and how if someone has the will, they can find a way to do it.”

Our researchers are trying to understand how becoming blind affects the way we perceive the world and how other senses are able to gather information about what is around us. Working with computer scientists, they are using these insights to shape new technology that will help visually impaired people overcome some of the limitations of their surroundings.

This research could ultimately mean that athletes like Kelly will be able to ski alone in the future. For now, though, Kelly and Charlotte are inspiring examples of what trust and teamwork can achieve.

Testing a sensory substitution device that helps blind people use sounds to build an image in their minds of the things around them.

Historic gold for graduate

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Making an impact Some of the very latest research from across our University

Experts from our Department for Health are warning that policy-makers need to ‘wise up’ to the methods used by the tobacco industry in their attempts to influence marketing regulations. Using evidence from around the world the researchers have identified the tactics and arguments tobacco companies use to influence and prevent policy aimed at regulating the marketing of their products.

Our Institute for Policy Research and Centre for Death and Society’s annual ‘Cost of Dying’ report focused on the problems people over the age of 60 face when confronted by financial shocks. The research found that those people already struggling financially with day to day expenditure have no reserves to draw on in the face of funeral costs. The paper received global media attention and continues to influence government policy.

Unwanted sea shells could solve waste water problems according to research from our Department of Chemical Engineering. Researchers used waste mussel shells, a catering by-product, to create a cheaper and more environmentally friendly way of cleaning waste water, removing substances like hormones, pharmaceuticals and fertilisers.

With forecasts for the world’s population estimating an extra two billion people by 2050, there is increasing demand from the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation to double global grain production, despite threats from climate change, and other negative factors. Researchers from our Department of Biology & Biochemistry have developed a method to increase the size of cereal seeds resulting in an increased crop yield. This technology is now licensed and ready to go into production.

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Research impact

Our Department of Economics has warned that global water shortages are likely to affect food security in Britain and other countries in the near future. Their research looked at the water required to produce imports from water-poor nations and compared this with data for climate change. The economists warn that even in a time when water is of huge abundance within Britain, its scarcity in other parts of the world is likely to have negative consequences.

Our low carbon building experts in the Department of Architecture & Civil Engineering have reported energy cost savings of 90 per cent for residents of a unique housing development in Yorkshire that was built using straw bale technologies developed here at Bath. The residents have also reported improved soundproofing and heat retention compared to traditional brick and mortar homes.

© modcell

Our Department of Physics is collaborating with other universities to offer 70 PhD studentships to develop solar panel technologies – the equivalent of 280 years of research time! The PhD students will create new types of competitive technologies, able to withstand market fluctuations, but sustainable in terms of the raw materials and manufacturing methods used.

Our Department for Health’s Rugby Science team has developed a new scrum engagement technique that markedly reduced the forces exerted on players’ bodies. The ‘Crouch, Bind, Set’ technique reduces injuries but doesn’t influence the level of sustained force a player can exert during the pushing phase of a scrum. It was adopted globally by the International Rugby Board in September 2013, with analysis from this year’s Six Nations Championship revealing that scrum resets were reduced compared to the previous year.

Check out more of our latest research at www.bath.ac.uk/research 9

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Feature: Light bulb moment

Light bulb moment inspires vaccine project to save lives More than 2.5 million children under five die every year from diseases that could be prevented by vaccination. Now one researcher from our Department of Chemistry thinks she may have found a solution to the long-standing challenge of transporting and storing vaccines without refrigeration. Andrew Dunne finds out more.

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t was taking her new-born daughter Melinda for routine inoculations at the local doctors’ surgery in 2011 when Dr Asel Sartbaeva experienced her ‘light bulb’ moment for an innovative research idea. Observing that vaccines had to be taken out of a fridge and used almost immediately, she identified a challenge facing public health officials worldwide.

“Vaccines need to be kept between 2˚C and 8˚C. Above or below these temperatures they degrade. So, how do you store and transport vaccines, especially to remote parts of the world where they are so needed?” she explains when we meet.

The answer, she discovered, is a costly and often impractical process of constant refrigeration, otherwise known as the ‘cold chain’. This challenge leads to wastage and leaves vulnerable patients without the life-saving treatments they need. Recent estimates suggest that more than 6 million people around the globe, of whom 2.5 million are children under five, die every year from vaccine-preventable diseases. A recent UNICEF report suggests that transportation costs for vaccines can run to as much as $300 million a year.

“My trip to the doctors really got me thinking,” she tells me. “What if I could use my knowledge of inorganic materials to make vaccines stable at room temperature?”

Drawing on her experience and expertise working with silica-based materials, Asel envisaged an idea for a new nano coating that could protect a vaccine from its environment both in transit and for storage. Using the latest chemistry advances, she set out to show how a protective substance could be grown around individual vaccine molecules, enabling it to be taken anywhere in the world without refrigeration.

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Publicising on the world stage I catch up with Royal Society Research Fellow Asel in the University’s Department of Chemistry, refreshed and invigorated having delivered one of the keynote presentations at a recent Google X Conference in California. “I think it was partly the effect of the Californian sun, and partly the interest and enthusiasm in my project!” she tells me, explaining how her talk, one of only 18 from around the world and one of only two from the UK, generated a lot of interest from both Google X and other organisations globally.

“Google X is about promoting moon shot ideas – ideas that, in a traditional sense, might struggle to get funding but have the potential to make a real impact globally or internationally. I was delighted to be invited, to share a platform with innovative thinkers across different disciplines, and to meet business leaders and policymakers who expressed great interest in my plans.”

Her idea for nano-coating vaccines, which also saw her as runner-up last year for the prestigious L’OrealUNESCO Women in Science Fellowship, would produce a lightweight, easy-to-transport, solid material packed with vaccine. “Once doctors were ready to administer the vaccine substance, the protective coating could be broken using either chemical or physical methods such as acids or microwaves,” she explains.

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“My trip to the doctors really got me thinking,” she tells me. “What if I could use my knowledge of inorganic materials to make vaccines stable at room temperature?”

Collaboration with colleagues By collaborating with colleagues from the University community, including Dr Karen Edler in Chemistry who has provided advice and guidance on using this technique and keeping proteins alive, and Dr Jean van den Elsen from our Department of Biology & Biochemistry who has provided specific expertise on vaccines, Asel has been able to progress her plans quickly.

“It’s true to say this project would not have started had I not come to Bath,” she explains. “I have really benefitted from working together on this with colleagues with expertise in different areas who have helped me to challenge ideas and save a lot of time.” Asel is also supported by postgraduate students Tristan Smith, whom she supervises as part of his MRes, and Yun-Chu Chen, a PhD student.

Thanks to a gift from a Bath graduate, Asel has now been able to get the project off the ground. With further funding, her next challenge is to obtain data from initial tests to prove the concept and to apply the coating to small-body insulin, antibodies and other drugs which currently require cold chains for storage and transport.

Feature: Light bulb moment

A global journey Originally from Kyrgyzstan, the daughter of an arty family, Asel has always challenged conventions. Her father’s background was in design and architecture, her mother’s in social science. Asel’s parents expected her to study philosophy at university, but instead she saw her future in physical science.

While at high school, the Soviet Union broke up, resulting in immediate economic hardship in her country.

Her family could not afford to pay university fees with the only option to get a state scholarship, which she received with a place at Kyrgyz-Russian Slavic University, the best in Kyrgyzstan. An up-side of the break up of the Soviet Union was the fall of the Iron Curtain, when it became possible to travel. “There were very limited opportunities, particularly in research, when I graduated, but I knew I wanted to do a PhD to continue my studies”, she says.

Instead, Asel worked for the British Council where by chance she saw an advert which would set her on course for a new life overseas. “At the British Council we had deliveries of various international publications.

Everyone always went for the Economist; I was the only one interested in reading the New Scientist. It was in an edition one week that I found a PhD opportunity in Cambridge. I emailed and within four months was on a plane for the first time travelling to the UK.” At Cambridge, Asel worked in a research group with physicist Dr Stephen Wells – now also at Bath – whom she married in 2002. After other academic appointments at Arizona State University (2005-2007) and Oxford (2007-2012), Asel joined the team at Bath in 2012.

Inspiring a future generation Asel is passionate about using her experiences to inspire future generations of women scientists, and in particular those working in higher levels of academia.

She is currently involved in a number of initiatives in this area, including Springboard workshops, mentoring early career scientists and encouraging young women to take up a career in science.

“If my experiences can help future female scientists to succeed, my mantra would be to believe in yourself and to never give up.”

Asel’s work is certain to inspire the scientists of the future, and has the potential to improve the lives of millions of people around the world.

Watch Asel’s Google X presentation online: youtu.be/PHD_rBfgZvw. If you would like to find out more about supporting this project, or any other area of research at Bath, please contact Stephanie Lear at s.lear@bath.ac.uk

60%

Over 60 per cent of vaccines are flown around the world. UNICEF (the biggest distributor of vaccines worldwide) states that almost 95 per cent of the costs of their vaccination programme are in ‘cold chain’ and transportation.

Bath scientists making vaccines more effective Dr Jean van den Elsen and Dr Andrew Watts, from our Departments of Biology & Biochemistry and Pharmacy & Pharmacology, have developed a technology to enhance vaccines using a protein that activates a part of the human innate immune system called the complement system. Including this activator in the vaccine significantly boosts the body’s immune response to it, making a vaccine more effective.

One of the targets for this research is Dengue fever, which kills around 25,000 people a year. Our researchers have teamed up with counterparts at the University of São Paulo, Brazil, to find ways to improve vaccine effectiveness against the disease.

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Memories are made of this Did you know that in an overlooked corner of the Library is a treasure trove of University history, which tells the story of our campus and its inhabitants over almost 50 years? Molly Conisbee finds out what’s in the University Archives and Research Collections.

University Archivist Lizzie Richmond and Archives & Records Assistant Adrian Nardone

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Feature: Memories are made of this

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ucked away at the back of the University’s Library is a veritable treasure trove: from photographs, magazines, old exam papers, student newspapers and letters, to official records, meeting minutes, payroll and pension files, prospectuses and more. All of this is overseen by University Archivist, Lizzie Richmond, who, since 1998, has been the guardian of this fantastic repository.

Lizzie is responsible for managing, maintaining and properly cataloguing the University’s archives. In doing this she must draw on her training as an historian to make decisions about what actually constitutes a valuable and ‘archive worthy’ object or document.

“There are certain routine official documents that must be kept for legal, regulatory or operational reasons,” explains Lizzie, “but we also get sent lots of more unusual things that need to be sifted and assessed, to establish their value as an historical record of the institution.”

One of the hardest things to capture in an archive is some of the more ephemeral paraphernalia that might seem trivial at its moment of production, but can actually tell you volumes about how life on campus felt during certain eras. Amateur photographs, protest posters, information about gigs and concerts and sporting events, leaflets, flyers and student magazines are often amongst the best expressions of their zeitgeist.

An exciting new project hopes to digitise and catalogue a collection of old footage of campus life, mainly taken from former student TV recordings. These offer fascinating glimpses – not just at the fashions and phraseology of yesteryear – but also the changing physical features and landscape of campus as we have aged and expanded. As Lizzie remarks, “Understanding the experience of being a student here 20 or 30 years ago is much better expressed through a few short moments of film than any number of meeting minutes.

That’s one of the reasons I’d love to track down the keen photographers and film-makers within our alumni community, to see if they have footage or pictures we can add to the collection. They offer an amazingly evocative glimpse of the campus through its history.

And every year the student magazine had an ‘official’ photographer, so we know you’re out there!”

Some of the photographs in the archives – such as students swimming in the Roman Baths, or pushing a Fiat-500 around the city streets (this was apparently a popular game) – show the way that, for example, health and safety regulations have changed over time.

Some of these larks clearly date from before the city was designated a World Heritage Site. Nowadays the University is very proud of its strong connection to the beautiful city of Bath, but as Lizzie notes, “It’s interesting to see how the external face of the University has changed. In the late 1960s and 1970s we were really proud of our cutting edge and modern campus and this

“I’d love to track down the keen photographers and filmmakers within our alumni community, to see if they have footage or pictures we can add to the collection. They offer an amazingly evocative glimpse of the campus through its history.” was reflected in printed institutional publications that tended to be quite formal. Over time our relationship with the City, which was always important, has come to feature more prominently. Now the University produces a huge amount of promotional material in a wide variety of media – most of it is heavily design-based and a bit more relaxed. This tells you lots about branding and changes in marketing techniques and how the University’s image has evolved.”

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As well as being a repository of University records, the archive has been the lucky recipient of some research collections of wider, national and international importance. Hockey’s national governing body chose Bath to host the archives of the All England Women’s Hockey Association documenting the beginnings and early development of organised hockey played by women in the UK. The collection is fascinating not just to those who play the sport, it also offers an insight into social history and women’s experiences, because it tells the story of the changing ideas of acceptability in women’s dress; the practicalities of where women could (and could not) tour; the fact that the organisation was kept – deliberately – an all-women’s affair.

“It’s a wonderful resource,” recounts Lizzie. “I hope a student or academic here will explore it more thoroughly at some point, as this is an important piece of social, sporting and cultural history.”

The University also holds research collections relating to judo, rightwing politics, underwater acoustics, modern pentathlon, regional architecture, steam engines, botanical ecology, spelling reform, the SS Great Eastern, phonetics and Pitman’s shorthand.

“The archives are the University’s memory,” says Lizzie. “There are inevitably gaps in the collection, and we can’t really ever have enough things to go in it – especially the ‘off-the-record’ stuff, the things that capture the experience of studying or teaching here.

“I hope our latest project digitising film footage will bring the memories of studying and living here flooding back for former students and staff. And better yet if that encourages people to send us some of their pictures or memorabilia.”

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Feature: Memories are made of this

Police on campus Alumnus Neil Jarman (BSc Building Engineering 1982) was kind enough to share some of his memories with the University archive. In his first term in 1978 he went to a concert at University Hall (many alumni remember amazing gigs they attended on campus in the 1970s and 1980s). Neil recalls, “The main act was a comedy trio called ‘Alberto y Lost Trios Paranoias’.

The support act was a then little-known band who called themselves ‘The Police’. The support band duly impressed all of us who attended.

“Sure that they would make the big time, I acquired one of the few posters put up for the concert. It was on my wall for a few years, including the Students’ Union President’s office during my sabbatical year.”

Neil has kindly donated his precious poster to the archive, where Lizzie has carefully stored it for future generations to enjoy.

Fashion statement Alumna Sue Fairbairn (BSc Applied Biology 1978) has sent us a wonderful University sweatshirt she bought as a fresher in 1974. She writes, “It has somehow survived student days in the 1970s and my kids’ dressing up box in the 1990s, to be found again as I attempt to declutter our house now the kids themselves have graduated from university and work away from home. I hope lots of other memorabilia from the last 50 years finds its way to you too.”

Can you help us tell the story of our first 50 years? If you have any posters, photos or other memorabilia that you would like to donate to or share with the archive as we approach our 50th anniversary, please contact the Alumni Relations team at alumni@bath.ac.uk.

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Our honorary graduates

A new era

In November, alumni from around the world helped welcome our fifth Chancellor and celebrate the best of our University.

On 7 November 2013, the formal ceremony to install His Royal Highness The Earl of Wessex as the University’s fifth Chancellor took place at Bath Abbey.

A procession of 240 dignitaries and senior members of University staff led the Chancellor, escorted by the Vice-Chancellor, Professor Dame Glynis Breakwell, to the Abbey.

Staff, students and alumni then joined our new Chancellor and the Countess of Wessex at a special event in the Sports Training Village on campus. The programme included hands-on exhibitions of our latest research, performances from societies and sports demonstrations and taster events.

The Earl and Countess of Wessex also toured the new Chancellors’ Building – a state-of-theart teaching space for nearly 2,000 students which is the biggest single building on campus – and led the ceremony to officially open the building, unveiling a plaque to mark the event.

Don’t miss out!

We look forward to welcoming you to a special event at St James’s Palace hosted by the Chancellor in 2015 – please look out for booking information by email nearer the time. If we do not have your current email address, please let us know at alumni@bath.ac.uk

Our honorary graduates During the Chancellor’s Installation ceremony at Bath Abbey, the University awarded three honorary degrees: HRH The Prince Edward, The Earl of Wessex (Honorary Doctor of Laws) is the third son and youngest child of The Queen and The Duke of Edinburgh.

On his marriage to Sophie Rhys-Jones in 1999 he was created The Earl of Wessex.

He joined the Royal Marines as a University Cadet, leaving in 1987 to move into theatre production through the Theatre Division and Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Really Useful Theatre Company. In 1993 he formed the independent television production company Ardent Productions.

HRH The Earl of Wessex is heavily involved with the Duke of Edinburgh’s Award both as a UK and an International Trustee, and as Chairman of the International Council. In 1999, he established the International Special Projects Group to provide a capital fund to broaden the reach of the Award by supporting young people at risk around the world.

The Right Reverend Peter Price (Honorary Doctor of Laws) was ordained into the Church of England ministry in 1974. A commitment to peace-building and human rights has taken him around the world, from Ireland, to Latin America, Africa and the Middle East. Peter was elected as the 78th Bishop of Bath and Wells in 2002, until his retirement in June 2013.

Ellie Simmonds OBE (Honorary Doctor of Laws) is a four time Paralympic champion swimmer with five world records to her name.

She was the youngest ever Briton to win an individual gold medal at a Paralympic Games, in Beijing when she was just 13, and she inspired a nation at the London 2012 Paralympic Games, winning a medal in each of her four events.

Turn over to see who else received honorary degrees in 2013 >

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The following people also received honorary degrees in 2013.

We would like to welcome them all to our alumni community.

Malcolm Arnold OBE (Honorary Doctor of Education) is one of the UK’s most successful coaches. He is currently Head Coach for the UK Athletics Regional Performance Centre, based at the University. In a 40-year career, the athletes he has coached – including Jason Gardener, Dai Greene and Colin Jackson – have won more than 60 medals at European, Commonwealth, World and Olympic competitions.

Anthony Best (Honorary Doctor of Engineering) is Managing Director of Anthony Best Dynamics (ABD), which specialises in noise, vibration, and suspension engineering services to the automotive industry. Based in nearby Bradford-upon-Avon, ABD has been involved in many prestigious projects, including the design of the McLaren F1 car.

Ron Dennis CBE (Honorary Doctor of Engineering) is Executive Chairman of McLaren Automotive and McLaren Group.

He was also Team Principal of McLaren’s F1 team for nearly 30 years and was instrumental in transforming the team into a regular world championship contender.

Graham Hoare (Honorary Doctor of Engineering) is a leading figure in the UK’s automotive industry, with a background in Powertrain Engineering spanning 25 years.

He is Ford Motor Company’s Chief Engineer, heading a global team of 4,500 employees. Ford has long been one of the University’s key research partners.

Beatrice Mtetwa

Beatrice Mtetwa (Honorary Doctor of Laws) is a human rights lawyer known worldwide for championing human rights and free speech in Zimbabwe.

She is particularly noted for her defence of arrested journalists and human rights workers who have spoken out against the country’s political situation. Her bravery and integrity in defending freedom of the press have led to her recognition internationally through many awards.

Professor Ann Buchanan MBE (Honorary Doctor of Laws) has been at the forefront of developing research that incorporates the perspectives of children and young people. Prior to entering academic life in 1990, Ann spent 10 years working as a child psychiatric social worker in an inner urban area.

She is regularly involved in government policy discussions as a parenting expert.

Air Chief Marshall Sir Stephen Dalton GCB, ADC (Honorary Doctor of Science) joined the RAF in 1976 after graduating from Bath with an Aeronautical Engineering degree.

As commanding officer of XIII Squadron, he deployed on Operation Jural, enforcing the NoFly Zone over Southern Iraq.

In 2009, he was appointed Chief of the Air Staff, the professional head of the Royal Air Force.

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Andrew Moss (Honorary Doctor of Business Administration) is Global Human Resources Director of GKN Driveline, a major supplier to the automotive industry and a recognised industry leader. Andrew joined GKN in 1994 following careers with the National Health Service, Clarks Shoes, BP and others. The GKN Group co-funds a prestigious Royal Academy of Engineering Chair at the University.

Dr Jonathan Milner

Dr Jonathan Milner (Honorary Doctor of Science) is the founder and CEO of Abcam, the world’s leading antibody company.

Jonathan graduated from Bath in 1988 with a degree in Applied Biology. A noted philanthropist, he founded the Evolution Education Trust, a charity that funded the Darwin Correspondence Project as well as other initiatives at the University.

Dr Colin Murray-Parkes OBE (Honorary Doctor of Laws) is one of the world’s most influential bereavement researchers. He challenged the idea that psychiatry is only for the mentally ill, collaborating with social workers to develop community-based preventive psychiatry. Since retiring from the NHS he has spent 20 years working with communities in trauma including Rwanda, New York after 9/11, and most recently survivors of the Japanese tsunami.

Our honorary graduates

Professor Michael Otlet (Honorary Doctor of Engineering) is Regional Director at Atkins Ltd in Oxford, one of the UK’s leading construction companies. He has led a number of high-profile construction jobs, including the first retractable roof stadium in the UK at Cardiff’s Millennium Stadium.

Professor David Philips CBE (Honorary Doctor of Laws) is one of the foremost chemists of our generation, fundamentally advancing our understanding of photochemistry, the interaction of light with matter. From 2010 to 2012 he was President of the Royal Society of Chemistry.

Professor Gordon Plotkin (Honorary Doctor of Science) has influenced every aspect of the global field of programming language. A Fellow of the Royal Society, he works at the University of Edinburgh’s School of Informatics and is best known for developing Structural Operational Semantics, which has become the tool of choice in programming language research.

Philip Pullman

Philip Pullman CBE, FRSL (Honorary Doctor of Arts) is one of the UK’s most critically acclaimed and successful British authors.

His most famous work is the His Dark Materials trilogy. The first book, Northern Lights, won the 1995 Carnegie Medal in Literature and the final instalment, The Amber Spyglass, became the first children’s book to win the overall Whitbread Award in 2001 (now known as the Costa Award).

Sir Peter Ricketts GCMG (Honorary Doctor of Laws) is the British Ambassador to France, having previously served as National Security Advisor. He began his career in the diplomatic service in 1974 when he joined the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and has subsequently been posted all over the world.

Professor David Spiegelhalter OBE (Honorary Doctor of Science) is Winton Professor for the Public Understanding of Risk, and Professor of Biostatistics, at the University of Cambridge. He led the statistical team in the Bristol Royal Infirmary Inquiry into the deaths of babies undergoing heart surgery and had a major impact on the way the health service was regulated and monitored.

He is a regular media commentator on risk issues.

Professor Sarah Springman CBE, FREng (Honorary Doctor of Science) is both an accomplished engineer and a leading athlete. She is Professor in Geotechnical Engineering at ETH Zurich, modelling and solving geotechnical problems relating to soil-structure-interaction and natural hazards. As an athlete, Sarah represented Great Britain at elite level in triathlon from 1983 to 1993. She was President of the British Triathlon Federation from 2007 until 2012.

Our honorary graduates come from all walks of life and have made significant contributions in their field. If you know someone who you think should be awarded an honorary degree, you can nominate them by contacting the Alumni Relations team at alumni@bath.ac.uk.

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Your alumni

community A fond farewell…

from Stuart Appleton (BSc Social Sciences 1976) By the time you get the next copy of your alumni magazine, I will have stepped down as your Convocation Representative to University Council, and Chair of the Alumni Advisory Group, so I hope you will indulge me in a few closing thoughts and reminiscences.

Of course, as alumni, we never really leave our university – it is such a formative time in life, and for me, studying at Bath was no different. Not only did I grow through my studies, I also made some lifelong friendships. That’s partly why I was so keen to keep active in the life of the University long after I had left.

The future looks bright: we’re expanding the campus, welcoming new cohorts of talented young people to further their education and committing to extending opportunity through support for scholarships. I’m doing my bit by supporting a Biology postgraduate student

from Uganda, who hopes to apply the knowledge he’s gaining here at Bath to improve food security in his own country. I hope that through our community of alumni and friends we are able to offer even more scholarships to bright and deserving students in the years to come.

2016 will see us reach our half century – a chance to celebrate past achievements but also to look forward to the next 50 years and where that will take us. Our University has formidable roots in practicebased education, placements for students and realworld application of our research, which will be ever more important in tackling many of the global challenges ahead.

I wish every success to the next alumni Convocation Representative, and hope that they find the experience as rewarding and engaging as I have done.

Sound advice Our Alumni Advisory Group, now with around 20 members, meets twice a year to discuss how the University can best support our graduate community. Here’s a progress update: Helping students and recent graduates get ahead. We are piloting our new Professional Alumni Contact programme, which will make it easier for experienced alumni to offer advice and mentoring support to those starting out on their career path. The group has provided invaluable feedback, which has helped us to progress the programme, ready to launch online in autumn 2014. Go to page 29 to read about alumni mentoring in action.

Promoting the University as a research partner. The group has discussed how we can engage members of the alumni community to be advocates for research partnerships between the University and their own industry or business. Watch out for updates in the coming months.

Anniversary

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Bath at 50. Almost five generations of graduates have made our University what it is today. The group is helping to shape the alumni celebration at the heart of our 50th anniversary in 2016/17, which you’ll be hearing more about soon. Read about how alumni are helping to build our commemorative archive from page 14.

Your alumni community

Keeping the flame alive Joining the alumni network in your area is a great way to meet like-minded people, try new activities and expand your social and professional circles.

Our overseas networks are supported by alumni volunteers, such as Christos Papaellinas, who has been keeping the Bath flame alive in Greece.

Christos (left) with the Chancellor. He says, “It was a huge honour to be invited to the Chancellor’s Installation. It gave me the chance to come back to Bath after 30 years, and discover the immense advances that have been made. But what I enjoyed seeing most was how Bath has not lost its ‘family feeling’ that I felt when I was studying here.”

Christos Papaellinas (MSc Business Administration 1983) is stepping down after leading the Greek Alumni Chapter – one of our largest and most active international networks – for four years.

With Christos at the helm, the Greek Alumni Chapter Board, made up solely of volunteers, ran events throughout the year for the alumni community in Greece.

These ranged from informal social events to professional skills-building workshops, to speeches by luminaries such as philosopher Apostolos Doxiades and journalist Alexis Papahelas, to activity tasters, including a cooking demonstration from Greek patisseur, Stelios Parliaros.

The Chapter promotes lifelong learning and the continued success of Bath graduates in Greece. It enables members to make connections, exchange knowledge, opportunities and resources and, most importantly, preserve the Hellenic social spirit, experienced on campus by Greek students, following their return home.

Christos says,“I am emotionally connected to, and proud of, my University. The best universities have popular and well organised alumni networks in Greece. Here, networking works both ways: alumni get

to connect with each other and exchange ideas and knowledge and, at the same time, the University is promoted in Greece.

“It has been a fulfilling four years leading the Greek Chapter, seeing it grow from nothing to the 300 registered members it has today. I would specifically like to thank Dimitris Houstoulakis, Roula Bahtalia, Theodoros Papadopoulos, Veronika Deleti, Alexia Koutroulia, Katerina Oikonomakou, Thodoris Kalogeropoulos, Dimitris Fouskakis, Nondas Virvidakis, Konstantinos Tsapralis and Ivan Koumoundos. They all got involved with great enthusiasm and passion, and spent a lot of their free time organising successful events, not to forget registering the Chapter legally, looking over our finances and making everything run smoothly.

“What lies ahead? New members always have fresh ideas, and I am really happy that they all share a dream: to get all 1,000 Greek alumni involved in the Chapter, be able to attract sponsorship and put on events that no other university’s alumni group can match. I therefore believe the Bath network will flourish in the years to come.”

Get involved with the Greek Alumni Chapter If you live in Greece but do not already receive email updates, please email alumni@bath.ac.uk The Greek Alumni Chapter is on Facebook: www.facebook.com/BathGreekAlumni or contact the Board directly at greecechapter@bath.edu.

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Want to get involved?

Our alumni are our best ambassadors and we are grateful for any help that you can give to your University. If you have a little time to spare and would like to reconnect with us, there are lots of ways for you to do so.

As everyone has different skills and strengths, we have gathered all of our current volunteering opportunities in one place to make it easy for you to get involved in a way that suits you. From promoting our alumni events through social media, to becoming a Professional Contact to a current student or recent graduate (see Laurence’s experiences on page 29), we hope you will find something that encourages you to reconnect with your University.

Go to www.bath.ac.uk/alumni/ help/latest to see all our current volunteering opportunities.

First round’s on us!

We’ve revamped our AlumNites! Now called ‘Get Connected’, these events offer new graduates careers insights from top Bath alumni over a free drink. Our alumni volunteers provide everything from application and networking advice to tips on how to get into your profession of choice.

The Get Connected events focus on a range of careers from finance to engineering; most recently graduates enjoyed an evening at ITV Studios to glean what it’s like to work in the media (and catch a glimpse of Michael McIntyre filming in the studio below). Thanks are due to our panel of alumni experts for a brilliant insight into their respective areas of success: Ash Atalla (BSc Business Administration 1994), Simon Pitts (BA MLES French & German 1997), Sue Ryan (BSc Sociology 1972) and Nigel Sharrocks (BSc Chemistry 1978).

The next Get Connected event will be a Politics and Third Sector special in the autumn. Look out for your invitation by email – as ever, the first drink will be on us.

If you would like to become a Get Connected volunteer, please contact Julie in our events team: j.contreras@bath.ac.uk

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New ways to read BA2

BA2 Onlin e

For several years you have been able to read BA2 online as well as in print.

We’re pleased to let you know that we are improving how you can read the magazine and, indeed, all our news on our website.

You can now find BA2 features, enhanced with photo galleries and video clips, in our new blog, On Parade: blogs.bath.ac.uk/on-parade.

You can comment on the features, share with your friends through social media and, if you have a great story to tell about our alumni network, volunteer to blog about it for us by emailing alumni@bath.ac.uk.

If you like reading BA2 in ‘magazine’ form online, don’t worry, you can still do so – simply select the BA2 Online link from our website.

We hope that you love getting BA2 magazine through your letterbox, but if you would rather not receive it this way in future please let us know, as we like to save paper where we can.

Email alumni@bath.ac.uk to opt out of receiving your magazine by post – please include your name, degree details and a current email address though, so we can send you an alert when BA2 is available to read.

Your alumni community

Record response to Alumni Survey Thank you to more than 4,000 graduates who completed the Alumni Survey – a record response. Your feedback will help us to identify ways to improve the alumni experience.

A strong connection

Building a global network

We received a big thumbs-up about how you feel about your University:

We hosted, or helped to organise, more than 30 events worldwide in 2013. That’s one every two weeks. We concentrate on areas where we have a high population of alumni, so we’re sorry if we didn’t manage to make it to where you are.

96 %

of respondents agreed or strongly agreed that you are proud of your connection with the University of Bath.

94 %

agreed or strongly agreed that your overall experience at Bath was excellent.

91 %

agreed or strongly agreed that you are interested in the University’s achievements.

96 %

of respondents said they would like to get more involved with alumni where they live or in the countries where they travel for business.

We have alumni networks in more than 40 countries which hold regular activities to welcome graduates new to the area.

Keeping you up to date

Helping students get ahead

of respondents find BA2 interesting and informative – we’re glad to hear it. For those of you less enthused about what you have in your hands right now, we’re exploring ways of making it better as we count down to our 50th anniversary.

We have been inundated with responses to help current students.

Engaging through events

93

35 %

% of respondents who have attended an alumni event said they enjoyed it, which is great news. We put a lot of work into organising an events programme to suit our graduates’ diverse interests and locations.

40 %

of you said you would be happy to offer careers or professional advice to students.

27 %

of you expressed interest in mentoring.

Thank you.

We will soon be launching a new Professional Alumni Contact programme. Read about how one alumnus’ experience is helping recent graduates on page 29.

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Science in the City Many of the great things our University campus provides – world-class sporting facilities, public lectures and evening classes – still involve a hike up the hill for Bath citizens and visitors. But the good news is that we are also at the heart of life closer to the centre of town. Molly Conisbee explores how University science is infiltrating the city.

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Feature: Science in the City

T

he University takes its role as a member of the City of Bath’s wider community very seriously. Whilst the campus buzzes with student life, we are also very much part of the city that hosts us.

It may surprise some to learn that our strong science and engineering tradition is mirrored by the City of Bath that was once famous for the Griffin Engineering works, Stothert & Pitt engineering, mining and other manufacturing and today hosts a thriving tech and digital start-up sector. This means there is a creative backdrop for exciting town and gown collaborations that bring together academics and invited guests to host open public events on matters scientific and technical. These include science cafés, debates and children’s workshops – all organised to enthuse and engage non-expert audiences with some of the big scientific questions and challenges of our time.

Science Cafés – which take place in The Raven pub on Queen Street – offer a diverse take on everything from fracking to food production for a growing world population.

Professor Rod Scott, Head of our Department of Biology and Biochemistry, chairs the organising committee. Rod explains that the events were established in part to create a forum for non-experts to learn about and discuss scientific issues.

“We see the cafés as helping to develop understanding for people who are interested in science but don’t necessarily hold a science degree. So that when they are discussing issues such as GM crops or green energy with their friends and colleagues, they feel they have some tangible, evidence-based information to build their opinion on.”

“The Science Café has grown and grown,” adds Professor Saiful Islam, one of Rod’s colleagues on the organising committee. “The audiences we get along are genuinely engaged and interested in the issues under discussion.”

“One of the challenges of the way in which science is presented in the media, is that controversial issues like fracking are often polarised into ‘pro’ or ‘anti’ discussions.

The cafés are much more nuanced and don’t tend to get monopolised by lobby groups in that way. We are often blown away by the quality of the questions asked during audience discussions.”

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The cafés are usually packed out; a great testament to both the quality of speakers, as well as the genuine interest in matters scientific in the community. February’s discussion, which I went along to, featured the BBC’s Sky at Night presenter Chris Lintott, who talked about ‘Tales from the Zooniverse’ – which explored how astronomers are using citizen scientists to help them document the night skies. Aside from being a witty and engaging presenter, Chris made the point very well that often scientists rely on enthusiastic amateurs in order to process the vast amounts of data their work involves. Citing the RSPB, who use members and the public in their annual bird surveys, Chris pointed out that understanding the universe better needs millions of us to record what we see and where and when we see it.

The cafés have a loyal following. Bath resident Nick Moss said, “I find the cafés really fascinating. I’m not a scientist but I’ve always had an interest. I’ve been coming to these for the last three or four years and never experienced a dud talk.”

Nick’s friend Ian Clarke added, “I don’t know any more about science than what I learned at school. I’m interested in the issues though; I find the talks here are pitched exactly right for the non-expert like myself.”

It’s not just those of pub-going age who can experience science in the city. Professor Chris Budd, from our Department of Mathematical Sciences, is the engine behind the annual ‘Bath Taps into Science’ fair, which reaches out to more than 1,500 school children and young people across the city every March. Events take place on campus and in the city centre, with a wide range of talks and activities aimed at different age groups to enthuse and inspire about science in general. This year’s fair included an exploration of Enigma-style ‘codebreaking’ as well as short talks from academics about their exciting new research projects.

Chris notes, “Bath Taps works on so many levels, to enthuse young people about science but also to be a two-way exchange between the University and the city.

“We’ve been delighted by the response from the community which is why we’re growing every year, hosting science talks and events across the city.

But getting students and schools on to campus to experience science in labs and – uniquely – to get students to co-present with scientists has to be one of my favourite parts of the festival. It’s open, democratic and reinforces the message that science belongs to all of us.”

Local schoolchildren enjoying the University’s Bath Taps into Science events

The University’s Head of Public Engagement, Dr Joanna Coleman, sees a key role for citizens in both promoting understanding of science and involving people more in the research that takes place – and also celebrating the achievements of researchers and the benefits of having a university in the city. She believes that “sometimes academic life can appear quite isolated from the wider community – but the high quality research at the University impacts on us all. That’s why we’re committed to getting our researchers into the public domain, and also inviting people to come and explore what’s going on in research, and to get involved with it both in the city and on the campus.”

“We see the cafés as helping to develop understanding for people who are interested in science but don’t necessarily hold a science degree.”

Responsible for an annual Images of Research exhibition, which happens both on campus and as part of the Fringe Arts Bath Festival, Joanna really sees the value of greater University involvement in city life.

“Ultimately, we are funded by the community, we live in this community and we want the community to be proud and part of what we do.”

If you live in or around Bath, come along to the next Science Café – they take place on the second Monday evening of every month. www.bathsciencecafe.org

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Feature: Box clever

Box clever

Mentoring students is a great way to reconnect with your University and provide practical help that brings benefits all round, as one alumnus volunteer is finding out. Rachel Skerry meets the team behind Our Honest Foods, and their mentor.

Left to right: Giles, Laurence, Charles and Joe

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T

he last BA2 magazine showed just how connected our alumni and students are, through a diverse support network which provides scholarships, offers work experience, supplies placement grants and invests in student enterprise projects.

Leafing through the magazine last year, graduate Laurence James (BSc Mathematics 1976) was inspired to get in touch to find out how he could help current students. He says, “I’ve always had a connection with the University. I’d never lost touch but, equally, I’d never felt particularly engaged.”

Laurence – who has almost 40 years of business experience behind him – leapt at our suggestion that he volunteer to mentor a student enterprise group, partly because it spoke to his own inner entrepreneur. “If I’m honest, it’s something I wished I had been able to do, but in 1976 if you were a maths graduate you either became an accountant, a teacher or you went into business on a graduate trainee scheme. I can’t recall anyone thinking ‘I’ll be an entrepreneur’– I don’t think the word had even been invented!”

The enterprise group in question were final year students Charles, Giles and Joe. Each had aspired to run their own businesses from an early age, cutting their teeth on enterprising schoolboy ventures. Giles sold sweets, Charles went door-to-door mowing lawns and Joe made smoothies in the Food Technology classrooms at lunchtime, recalling, “I was usually late to classes because I was scraping strawberry pips off the ceiling”.

Thrown together by the University’s highly competitive BSc Business Administration programme, they quickly sought to channel their different talents into a shared ambition. Fast forward to 2013 and, with a fledgling business plan, the soon-to-be graduates were looking for guidance.

The University’s Student Enterprise team arranged for Laurence to meet the group and he was bowled over: “I could see I would benefit from all their passion and energy – it’s infectious. I was very excited about the whole prospect.”

The team’s initial business idea was to supply Bath Freshers with a welcome pack when they arrived on campus, filled with essentials such as toothpaste, shower gel and Cup a Soup. ‘My Student Box’ hit the rocks when they discovered that they couldn’t get access to a sufficient number of company contacts to pitch their idea. Thankfully, they were brimming with other ideas, and with Laurence’s guidance, they changed course.

In autumn 2013 Charles, Giles and Joe launched Our Honest Foods, delivering boxes filled with snacks to offices and homes. They’re called Honest because they started off by leaving an ‘honesty box’ in each office where they delivered, so customers could pay for each snack individually. All the snacks in the boxes are British and most are sourced from small companies,

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“I could see I would benefit from all their passion and energy – it’s infectious.” which is something they are passionate about. They do everything from designing the packaging and marketing and sourcing the products, to making the office deliveries and selling at markets.

The group agrees that having a mentor has been invaluable, and the dynamic of their relationship with Laurence has changed as the business itself has evolved. Early formalities were soon abandoned in favour of a more relaxed approach: “Now we just go for beers!” observes Charles.

In a nutshell

The mentor:

The entrepreneurs:

Laurence James (BSc Statistics 1976)

Charles Arnold, Giles Mitchell, Joe Seager (all BSc Business Administration 2013)

The connection: The University’s Student Enterprise team and the Department of Development & Alumni Relations

The business: Our Honest Foods, or ‘Honest’ for short, supplies gourmet snack boxes to homes and into offices and the hospitality sector Visit www.ourhonestfoods.com to request a sample box or email chow@ourhonestfoods.com

Feature: Box clever

Laurence agrees. “I don’t think we’ve had many formal meetings. It’s more on demand. They say ‘We’ve got some things we want to talk through, can we get together?’ and we’ll perhaps spend an hour at my place and go for a beer. But it works.”

Joe says, ”We joke that it’s like counselling, but at the same time keeping that informality makes it cathartic for us. What comes up in conversation after just five minutes is usually the biggest issue that’s facing the business at the time.”

Each member of the group brims with confidence, acquired in part by coming through a tough business degree with flying colours. So what does their mentor add to the equation? Charles reckons, “The business degree teaches you the language of business, but not necessarily the strategic side. You do get taught theoretical strategy but when you’re in the real world, it’s different.”

On Laurence’s part, he feels he is contributing the benefit of his business experience: “Having been in corporate life for so long, it’s difficult to suddenly think as an entrepreneur. I tried to do it myself and went through a big learning curve. Also if you’re going to be an entrepreneur there is no better time than when you’re fresh from university because you don’t have the commitments you have later in life.”

So what’s next for Our Honest Foods? Thanks in part to local publicity, they recently secured a deal with the Bath Abbey hotel for a snack box to be left in every guest room, and they’re thinking up ever more innovative ways to get their tasty products out into the market place. Making Bath their business base is also helping them to open doors locally and, as Giles says, “Having the University of Bath tag is a real advantage for us.”

Accolades are coming thick and fast. Recently they won a Shell LiveWIRE award and in April they won the University Business Plan Competition, sponsored by Deloitte, which will see them head to New York this summer to meet leading alumni in business.

Whatever the immediate future holds, they and Laurence have no intention of parting company. Giles says, “The University has been brilliant because it set us up with a great mentor and then let us be. There hasn’t been a necessity to fill out a form saying ‘We met on this day’, or have a regular monthly catch-up.

It has been in ours and Laurence’s hands.”

And, as Laurence says, self-effacingly, “I would hope that they remember me when they go public!”

Claverton Down to Silicon Valley Students competing in the University’s Apps Crunch, kindly supported by JP Morgan, flew out to California’s Silicon Valley in April to network with alumni from leading tech companies such as Google and Facebook.

Apps Crunch is the University’s tech enterprise competition, where students compete to design an original app. The teams work on all aspects of design, from market research and financial analysis to developing the app software and creating a functioning prototype.

Alumni specialising in tech and innovation are involved every step of the way, testing students’ technical know-how and commercial awareness.

In the grand final, teams pitch their app idea to a panel of industry experts, including alumni from leading local tech companies.

Tristan Kemp (Computer Science 2016), from the winning team, who spent a week in California, said, “We met alumni who gave us tremendous insights into the business of making apps for real.

“Thanks to JP Morgan for giving us such an incredible opportunity and the University’s Alumni Relations team for introducing us to so many influential Bath graduates. I hope I can emulate their achievements when I graduate.”

Are you inspired by what you have read?

We have a variety of ways in which you can help current students and recent graduates, including becoming a mentor like Laurence. Please get in touch at alumni@bath.ac.uk to find out more.

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Share your news Tell us what you’re up to If you’re moving house, welcoming a new family addition, changing careers, or just want to say hello to old friends, writing a class note is a quick and simple way to share your news.

shows and moved to central London, so the arts are now also an important part of my life. At the same time I became Master of the City of London’s Worshipful Company of Marketors.

As for the future, despite passing three score years and ten, there still seems to be no shortage of business opportunities to keep me busy.

How can I send in a class note?

Go to go.bath.ac.uk/ share-your-news (you need to register with the alumni website first) or simply email alumni@bath.ac.uk

What happens next?

Once approved, your class note will appear on our website under your year of graduation and we will include what we have space for in the next BA2 and BA2 Online, which can be viewed from the public pages of our website.

BSc Sociology 1974 I was presented with a Lifetime Achievement Award from the President of the International Psycho-oncology Society in Rotterdam in November 2013

Mike French BSc Physics with Geophysics 1980 Having left in 1980 I started working in the oil and gas exploration business.

After 30 years travelling the world in search of the black stuff I have finally decided to take a slower pace of life. I now own and run a boat hire business on the canals of France.

I only work for five months of the year leaving seven months to enjoy life sailing and relaxing with friends and family. The life is slower, warmer and totally different to whizzing everywhere. My final position in the oil business was Global Business Development Manager and great fun.

Ian Ingram BSc Business Administration 1980 I am now in my 27th year living and working in Jakarta, Indonesia, where I’m the CEO of the Infracell group that I co-founded in 1994. I’m also very active in the jazz music scene – both as performer and event organiser – in Indonesia and Singapore.

Andy McPhail

1970s

1980s

John Flynn

Elton D’Souza BSc Chemistry 1982 I was a Gamesmaker based at the Riverbank arena in the Olympic Park during the 2012 Games. I was awarded a University full blue for hockey in 1981 and, ever since, hockey has remained my passion, first as a club player then as a coach. The whole experience was

MSc Industrial Marketing 1978 Having read in the last BA2 of the addition of a Centre for the Arts to the campus I reflected on the changes in my life since graduating and particularly as there is a recent link. While still involved in marketing and education, I recently became an angel for “On and Off West End”

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Maggie Watson

fantastic. I had the joy of watching Harry Martin represent Great Britain having coached him as a 10-year-old, and met many old hockey-playing friends from Bath who managed to secure tickets for matches. A couple of weeks I’ll never forget!

BSc Mathematics & Computing 1989 After spending seven years working for British Gas in the Midlands, I took the big leap into the unknown and headed for London. I have now lived in Harrow for 12 years, married for 11 with a daughter aged 10 (and cat, still hanging on, aged 15). I work in software development for a company providing specialist software for TV broadcasters, and have travelled to our clients in Rome, Sydney and Rio. My course was Maths and Computing, and I can safely say I’ve applied only the latter in my career. I house-shared with Greg and Nick during second year. I remember it snowed quite a lot!

Class notes

Stephen Wood

Matt Harris

BSc Mechanical Engineering with German 1986 After graduating, I moved to London and worked for Thorn Ferguson, Ford Motor Co. and RAC. I married Fiona Brooks (BEng Manufacturing Engineering 1986) in 1991. I completed an Executive MBA at Cranfield School of Management in 1994, and left Potters Bar Herts in 2005 to migrate to Melbourne, Australia where we now live. I run a boutique management consulting business, Roaring Success Pty Ltd. In August 2013 I attended the first (that I know of) Bath Alumni Drink Up in Melbourne. It was good to catch up with other alumni.

BA MLES German ab initio Russian 2005, PGCE German 2006 I got married in Easter 2011 to a Loughborough graduate, Stephanie Ross, in our church in Belvedere. After selling my old flat and moving into our new house just before Christmas 2011, we discovered Stephanie was pregnant. Our daughter was born a little later than planned in August 2012 – she’s doing really well and has, of course, inherited her daddy’s long legs!

1990s Natalie Vladi BPharm Pharmacy 1997 After 13 years of product management and business development in the pharmaceutical industry (GSK and MSD) I now work for Deutsche Telekom as “Senior Market Manager Pharma”. The role of technology and IT in the healthcare sphere is becoming increasingly important, and it is an exciting time to be working for a leading global technology provider and health care enabler.

2000s Dave Fleet BSc Business Administration 2003 after graduating I moved to Canada (where I did my final year exchange), and began a career in communications and marketing. After working on the client side for five years, I moved to the consulting side in 2008, joining a small agency to build their digital practice.

In 2010, I joined the Toronto office of Edelman, the world’s largest public relations agency, as Vice President of Digital. In 2012 I was promoted to Senior Vice President, leading the North American team on one of Edelman’s largest accounts. In 2013 I shifted focus, leading the Edelman Digital team across Eastern Canada.

Iain Inglis PG Cert Taught Interpreting & Translating 2003 I moved to Japan where I stayed until 2004, and then moved to China. I am currently living in Sanya, in the south of the tropical island of Hainan. I was ‘working’ as a singer of Chinese songs until recently, and now in the process of searching for job opportunities in the UK or Europe.

Anthony Lambert Ext Cert/Dip Sports Medicine for Doctors 1996, MS Postgraduate Medicine 1998, MSc Sport & Medicine 2008 I was awarded an OBE in the 2013 Queen’s New Year’s Honours.

Nick Young MEng Electronic & Communication Engineering 1999, PhD Electrical & Electronic Engineering 2003 Whilst finishing my PhD I worked as a lecturer at a FE/HE College, until being made redundant in 2008. In 2009 I set up my own IT services including consultancy, training and web development. None of this would have been possible without the support of my housemates, classmates and lecturers at the Uni. Since leaving I have kept in touch with some of the staff at the Uni and have still managed to write academic papers in conjunction with my PhD supervisor, Dr Adrian Evans. I have also been writing local history books on Thatcham and Newbury and am involved in local community events such as Thatcham Festival of Art and Leisure. I am vice chair of Thatcham

Vision and was chair of Thatcham Historical Society, for which I was awarded a Gold Civic Award in 2011.

Last year I set up Heartstart Thatcham, a British Heart Foundation initiative, run independently, to teach the public emergency life-saving skills such as CPR and the recovery position.

James Irvine MEng Mechanical Engineering 2009 I first met Nicola Broadbent (BA Coach Education & Sports Development 2007, PGCE 2008) in Freshers’ Week when we lived in neighbouring Eastwood houses on campus. On graduation I moved to Groningen, The Netherlands to work for Shell whilst Nicky lived in Bath and worked at St Augustine’s Catholic College, Trowbridge. The distance didn’t hinder our relationship thanks to countless Easyjet flights, and we got married on 30 July 2011, after which Nicky also moved to Groningen, and started work in the local international school. On 14 November 2013 Nicky gave birth to our first son Jack. In December 2013 I became a Chartered Engineer (MIMechE) and we are now preparing to move to New Zealand for new challenges and to embrace the outdoor lifestyle.

We still own a property in Bath and would love to come back one day!

The University of Bath reserves the right to amend submitted articles and text where necessary due to space constraints, content or other reasonable considerations. The views expressed in BA2 are those of the authors and are not necessarily representative of those of the University of Bath.

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Notices of death

We are sorry to record the deaths of the following people: Alumni Mr David Barton BSc Social Sciences 1977

Mr Henryk Smiga BSc Applied Biology 1973

Mr Amos Batsyamuka BSc Electrical

Mr John Starling BSc Engineering 1973

& Electronic Engineering 1973

Mr William Stringer BEng Aeronautical

Mr Simon Beck BSc Social Sciences 2003

Engineering with French 1999

Mr John Bloss MSc Numerical Analysis 1977

Mr Ian Thompson BSc Architecture 1972,

Mr Bill Colwill MBA Full Time 1992

BArch 1975

Mr Gerard Connolly MSc Construction

Mr Simon Waterhouse PGCE 2006

Management 2003

Ms Margaret Welch BPharm Pharmacy

Dr David Farmer PhD Management 1973

1989, Diploma Clinical Pharmacy 1993

Miss Sarah Fortune MSc International

Ms Elizabeth Wilkinson MSc Applied

Development 2010

Social Studies 1983

Mr Charles Frewin BSc Economics

Mrs Pat Witty (née Ramsey) BPharm Pharmacy 1972

with Econometrics 1994

Mr Richard Wood BSc Mathematical Studies 1977

Mr Chris Geoghegan BA MLES French & Russian 1993

Mr Robert Wreford MEd Education 1981

Mr Matt Hales BSc Computer Science 2009

Mr Jim Yandall PG Diploma Conservation

Mr Mark Holloway BSc Architecture 1978, BArch 1980

of Historic Buildings 2012

Mrs Christiane Howey (née Prosper) MSc Horticulture 1977 Mr Stian Ikdal BSc Business Administration 2003 Mr Colin Jepson BSc Electrical & Electronic Engineering 1969 Mr Christopher Knott HND Audio Visual Technology 2002 Mr Gary Lloyd BSc Sociology 1982 Mr Oliver Menhinick MSc Horticulture 1979 Air Commodore Alun Morgan BSc Economics & Politics 1989

Honorary graduates YBhg Datuk Khoo Eng Choo Honorary MBA Malaysian 1988 Dr Glyn England FREng FIEE FIMechE Honorary DSc 1981 Sir John Keegan OBE FRSL Honorary DLitt 2002 Dr Geoffrey Kellaway Honorary DSc 1990 Mr Brian Roper MBE Honorary DBA 2009

Mr John Moroney BSc Pharmacology 1979, CPD 1987 Dr Firouz Pouya BSc Electrical & Electronic Engineering 1974, PhD 1980 Mr Edwin Reimer Visiting student Business Administration 1999 Mr Munawar Reta BSc Building Technology 1974 Mr Brian Richardson BSc Economics & Government 1979

Former staff Dr Jack Dunham Department of Psychology Dr Lesley Palmier Department of Social & Policy Sciences Mr Ted Wheeldon Department of Electronic & Electrical Engineering

In Issue 20 of BA2 we listed Miss Faye Bellamy (BSc Business Administration 1999) as deceased. To borrow the words of Mark Twain, reports of her death were greatly exaggerated – we would like to apologise for the error and any distress it may have caused.

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“My scholarship has allowed me to get involved with university life, rather than worrying about earning money to pay my way. Thank you for supporting me.�

Flavia

Chemical Engineering undergraduate and scholarship recipient

Our alumni and friends inspire brighter futures for our students, our researchers and our University.

See for yourself at: go.bath.ac.uk/impact

You can make a difference today

Inspire brighter futures

Classes of 1970, ’75, ’80, ’85, ’90 and ’95 Saturday 9 May Come back to campus to celebrate the memories of your time at Bath.

Meet with friends and former lecturers, tour your old classrooms and labs, and reminisce with a pint or two at the Students’ Union bar. You’ll also find out about the exciting things happening at the University – from research breakthroughs to new buildings and facilities.

Save the date!

Alumni Reunion 2015

We hope to see you there!

Find out more about our upcoming events and book at www.bath.ac.uk/alumni or by phoning the Alumni Relations team +44 (0)1225 383984

Planning your own alumni event or reunion?

We can put you in touch with your classmates and help spread the word. Please email alumni@bath.ac.uk for more information.

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www.bath.ac.uk/alumni