Monthly Archives: March 2015

Winners of University’s first Research Prizes

Winners of the University’s first Research Prizes have been announced.

The new annual award scheme was launched in 2015 to recognise excellence in research as part of our 50th anniversary celebrations. 40 applications from across all three Faculties were received and judged by a research panel led by Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Research & Innovation Professor Philippe De Wilde.

Winners are:

University Research Prize: Professor Jon Williamson, School of European Culture and Languages.

Faculty Research Prizes: Professor Theresa Gannon (and team), School of Psychology; Professor Colin Robinson, Centre for Molecular Processing, School of Biosciences; Professor Nicola Shaughnessy, School of Arts.

University Early Career Research Prize: Dr Harmonie Toros, School of Politics & International Relations.

Faculty Early Career Research Prizes: Dr Helen Brooks, School of Arts; Dr Nikolas Rajkovic, Kent Law School; Dr Jeremy Rossman, School of Biosciences,

University Postgraduate Research Prize: Giovanni Travaglino, School of Psychology.

Faculty Postgraduate Research Prizes: Emily Dennis, School of Mathematics, Statistics & Actuarial Science; Igor Merheim-Eyre, School of Politics & International Relations; Ada Nifosi, School of European Culture and Languages.

Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Research and Innovation, Professor Phillipe De Wilde said ‘The standard was extremely high, and reflects the diverse, exciting and vibrant research culture across the University.

‘These prizes celebrate the exceptional achievement of our staff and students, and the panel had to make some tough choices between excellent candidates.

‘I would like to thank all of those who took part; the winners are the touchstones for all the world leading researching taking place at the University.’

The second round of the scheme will open for applications in the autumn.

For further information, see the Research Prizes webpages.

Gavin Esler to chair Europe debate

University of Kent Chancellor Gavin Esler will chair a debate on the UK’s role in Europe on Saturday 21 March.

The debate, titled Does Britain’s future lie in the EU? is free to attend and open to all. It will take place in the Woolf lecture theatre at the University’s Canterbury campus between 6-7pm.

Panellists confirmed so far are: British diplomat, Baron Hannay of Chiswick; Chairman of Business for New Europe, Roland Rudd; former Chief of Staff to David Cameron, Alex Deane; and columnist at the Independent newspaper, Mary Dejevsky.

The event will begin with the panellists discussing the issues surrounding Britain’s membership of the EU and include an opportunity for audience questions and comments after this.

Photo by Chris Close

Patience Agbabi: reading from Telling Tales

Patience Agbabi, sought-after poet, performer, mentor and Fellow in Creative Writing at Oxford Brookes University will be reading from her poetry collection Telling Tales at the University later this month. The reading (followed by a Q&A) will take place in Grimond Lecture Theatre 2 at 6pm on Tuesday 24th March. All are warmly welcome.

The School of English is delighted that Patience, a former lecturer in the School, has returned as ‘Poet in Residence’ for 2015. English Literature was one of the University’s founding subjects and the Festival of English, which Patience’s residency forms a central part, celebrates the University’s 50th Anniversary. Earlier this month her poetry collection Telling Tales was shortlisted for the prestigious Ted Hughes Award for New Work in Poetry 2014. Canterbury Laureate from 2009 to 2010, she received a Grant for the Arts to write this contemporary version of The Canterbury Tales, which has been described by Professor Helen Cooper as: ‘Responsive to their models in endlessly inventive ways, they are a treat to read, and even better if you know the originals. Chaucer would have been proud of what he has inspired.’

Law student shortlisted in national competition

Congratulations to second year Kent Law student Abla Seckley, who has been shortlisted for the Future Legal Mind 2015 competition run by National Accident Helpline and CTTS-Colemans Solicitors.

Dr Karen Devine, Senior Lecturer in Law, commented:

‘Kent Law School is extremely proud of Abla’s achievement – it is testament to the hard work and dedication that she has committed to her competition entry. Abla is in her second year of the LLB and came to our Canterbury campus as a direct-entrant having successfully completed the Certificate in Law programme at our Medway campus in June 2014. By being shortlisted for the National Accident Helpline’s Future Legal Mind award 2015 this award, Abla has shone a beacon on the Certificate in Law programme and to Kent Law School as a whole. Abla should be very proud of her shortlisting, as are we of her, and we wish her every success as she continues in the competition. Good Luck Abla!’

Winners will be announced at an awards ceremony on 30 March.

The winner will receive £5,000 in cash, a week’s work experience at Colemans-ctts Solicitors and will see their winning essay published on the Laywer2B website.

Good luck Abla!

Image credits

Author: Snap
Licence: CC BY 2.0
Link: https://flic.kr/p/HgoTx
Source: Flickr

Paintballing Champions

UKC Chimera takes the top spot on the podium in the National Paintball Student Cup!

The Cup held at CPPS in Birmingham is a chance for university teams across the UK to play against each other in a tournament.

The event was attended by 16 teams from 12 universities, who competed in Masters’ or Bachelors’ divisions. It is not only the first time that UKC has participated in the Student Cup throughout the ten years it has been running, but it was also Chimera’s first official tournament.

Paintballing Society President Alexander Long said: “The team couldn’t have achieved this tremendous win without the superb coaching received from Gary Maker, financial support provided by Kent Union, and sponsorship from Empire and Just Paintball.”

Kent Union Vice President (Activities) Tom Currie said: “We are incredibly proud of the Paintballing Society for winning the Paintball Student Cup; it is testament to the hard work and effort they put into running their society. We look forward to seeing their future achievements.”

New Kent Extra Courses

There’s still time to book your place on this Kent Extra course starting from Monday 16 March (week 21):

KE060: Woodland Coppicing – Understanding and Practice
This course will comprise of a field workshop in which students will be given a brief introduction to the history, value and practice of coppicing as a productive form of woodland management, instruction in coppicing tool use, and hands-on practice in collaboratively coppicing several trees.

There are three sessions running for this course – you will only need to attend one as the course material will be repeated at each session.
Session 1: Monday 16 March: 12:00pm-16:00pm
Session 2: Monday 23 March 2015: 12:00-16:00pm
Session 3: Wednesday 25 March 2015: 10:00am-14:00pm

Please have a look at the Kent Extra website for more information together with details of how to sign up for this course.

Kent llm info session

Playwriting with Prof. Brean Hammond

On 31 March and 1 April, Paddy Bullard (English) and Helen Brooks (Arts) are hosting a visit from Emeritus Professor (Nottingham) Brean Hammond as part of the KIASH visiting experts scheme.

Brean is currently writing a fascinating play about witchcraft, Ben Johnson, and politics and is going to be developing it as part of his visit here.

There are a number of events that may be of interest to you. You are welcome to attend as many, or few as you like.

More information and booking to reserve seats can be found at the following Eventbrite website links:

Rehearsed Reading

Open Rehearsal

How to write a play

Jill Andrews’ funeral arrangements

The funeral arrangements for Jill have now been finalised. This will take place at Barham Crematorium at 2.40pm on Tuesday 31st March 2015. There will be tea and sandwiches available after this at nearby Broome Park for those that want to stay on.

Jill’s husband Grahame has confirmed that this is an open invite to any colleagues of Jill’s from the University that would like to attend. Please RSVP to d.bowman@kent.ac.uk so that arrangements for catering can be made.

Jill in her own indomitable way had specified that she would like this to be a celebration of her life and had asked that the following be observed:

  • That there are no flowers; and
  • No wearing black.

If anyone would like to make a donation in her memory, these can be made to Pilgrims Hospice, who treated her with such kindness in the last few weeks of her life. You can do this here: http://www.pilgrimshospices.org/donation/donate.

Whilst Grahame has asked that flowers are not sent to his home, condolence cards can be sent to his home address. Please email  d.bowman@kent.ac.uk if you would like to know the address.

Record Turnout at KBS’s Enterprise Day 2015

Kent Business School’s highly anticipated Enterprise Day received a record number of attendees in 2015. 160 students and guests filled the lecture theatre to hear three award-winning Kent alumni guest entrepreneurs speak about starting a business and participate in creative workshops on start-ups.

The Vice Chancellor, Dame Julia Goodfellow was also in attendance to present prizes to the winners of the University of Kent’s 50th Anniversary Pitch It! t-shirt competition along with the Pro-Vice Chancellor, Professor Phillipe de Wilde.

The afternoon featured presentations from three entrepreneurs and alumni of University of Kent, Bal Sandher, Young Business Entrepreneur of 2014; Sebastian Brock, Chatoo App Developer and Neil Westwood, BBC Dragons’ Den winner.

Neil Westwood, the brains behind Magic Whiteboard ™  , coined by Theo Paphitis as ‘most successful Dragons’ Den investment of all time,’ shared top tips on how to make £1 million profit with aspiring entrepreneurs. He commented, “It was good to come back to Kent and interesting to hear from [other enthusiastic young entrepreneurs].”

The feedback received from the audience was also encouraging as one student reported, “I wasn’t sure how to start my business, but after today it became clear.”

The workshops and Q & A session with the panel members also proved successful as students discussed their own business start-up ideas including a cooking app for students on a budget.

Another participant said, “I feel it will help me in my future career. Meeting successful entrepreneurs and doing workshops has really helped to develop my commercial awareness.”

This year’s successful Enterprise Day was also part of the University’s 50th anniversary.

As competition winner, Jacob Roberts-Mensah of KBS was awarded the top prize of £500. His t-shirt design will be available to purchase as official University merchandise this year.  Shanell Grandez-Vitaliano and Manuel Crepin were also congratulated for their designs and received a £100 prize.

“Enterprise Day gets bigger and bigger each year,” said David Williamson, the School’s Director of External Services. “More than ever before, our students are showing an interest in starting their own business and this reflects a growing national trend. Perhaps the key takeaway from this year’s event was the importance of market research and anticipating customer demands”