Monthly Archives: October 2015

New routes to biofuels: Wain Medal Lecture

Finding new routes to biofuels is the theme of the Wain Medal Lecture 2015.

The Lecture by Professor David Leys, Faculty of Life Sciences, University of Manchester, takes place on Wednesday 14 October in the Woolf Lecture Theatre on Canterbury campus from 17.00 to 18.00. The lecture is free and open to all.

One of the main challenges our society faces is the dwindling level of oil reserves. We not only depend upon these for transport fuels, but also plastics, lubricants and a wide range of petrochemicals. Solutions that seek to reduce our dependency on fossil oil are therefore urgently needed. Modern approaches seek to provide an answer through synthetic biology: making organisms produce ‘oil’.

Our group uses state-of-the-art enzymology and structural biology to underpin laboratory evolution techniques aimed at application in synthetic biology. We will present an overview of the present approaches aimed at direct biological production of hydrocarbons, provide an account of some of our own results in this area, and speculate on the scope and limits of synthetic biology applications in this field.

For further information, please contact Dr Ian Blomfield, telephone 01227 823697/
email I.C.Blomfield@kent.ac.uk

Don’t use this app

Do not use this uniAPP Kent app available for iOS – it is made by a third-party company and is not condoned or supported by the University.

Why?

it doesn’t work properly (more detail below)
you’ll be compromising your University username and password which could be used fraudulently.

The Student Guide is mobile-friendly and has everything you need – for email on your phone/tablet click on email from the Student Guide for advice.

The app appears to misconfigure email to use the wrong email address – it’s also cutting off some of the message if you send emails using it.

Note that your University of Kent email address is username@kent.ac.uk – it is NOT @kentforlife which this app prompts you to use. Your email account changes to ‘@kentforlife’ when you graduate and leave Kent.

Kent student betters lives of others through fundraising

A University of Kent student has shown remarkable dedication to making the lives of others better by generously devoting the majority of their free time to fundraise for local and national charities.

Billy Yu Lok Ng (22), a law student from Hong Kong, has spent any spare time outside of his studies to fundraise for causes such as the Anthony Nolan Trust, the Kent Law Campaign and Cancer Research.

His outstanding fundraising efforts have included him running the London Marathon, the Reading half marathon, and participate in a 12,000ft skydive for charity.

Billy also led various projects to raise money for the Kent Law Campaign – a fundraising initiative culminating with a new building for the Kent Law Clinic, which provides free legal support to the local community. Billy’s contribution included producing and marketing seasonal greeting cards and calendars, helping to raise £10,000 for the campaign. His personal fundraising contribution for the Kent Law Campaign alone exceeds £3,300.

Billy’s dedication to making a real difference through his fundraising was recognised at the University of Kent’s annual Kent Student Awards ceremony. The Awards celebrate outstanding extracurricular student achievement and the positive impact students have on University life or on the community.

If you know an amazing Kent student like Billy, nominate them for a Kent Student Award. Nominations will open in January 2016.

JSNCC – committee papers now on website

The Joint Staff Negotiating and Consultation Committee is the main forum for consultation and negotiation between the University and its staff. Its membership includes management and union and staff representatives who meet each term. The first meeting of the academic year takes place on Wednesday, 21 October 2015.

There is a committee website which you are encouraged to go to and where the papers for this meeting and previous meetings can be found as well as meeting dates, membership, and terms of reference. If you would like to comment on any of the Agenda items/papers then please contact your Staff Representative (either Union, or Non-Union):-

UCU – Owen Lyne, O.L.Lyne@kent.ac.uk Paul Hubert, P.J.Hubert@kent.ac.uk
GMB – Robin Hornsey, R.K.Hornsey@kent.ac.uk Lou Cogger L.Cogger@kent.ac.uk
UNISON – Rob Chapman, R.D.Chapman@kent.ac.uk Phil Rogers p.rogers-89@kent.ac.uk
UNITE – Trevor Reece T.W.Reece@kent.ac.uk

Non-Union Representatives:-
Linda Lough L.M.Lough@kent.ac.uk
Sarah Hyde S.J.Hyde@kent.ac.uk

Maddy Withers
Secretary to the JSNCC

School of Psychology achieve Athena SWAN Award for their gender equality work

The School of Psychology has achieved an Athena SWAN Bronze Award which recognises the School’s commitment to the advancement and promotion of the careers of women in Science in higher education. Psychology has had to prove that it is serious about making their School a place where everyone is valued and all staff can progress.

Psychology had many great examples of good practice to articulate in their submission, including a policy of reduced workload to facilitate return to work post parental leave, and a growing proportion of women in senior decision making roles. Dr Georgina Randsley de Moura, Head of School said: ‘Psychology is proactively committed to equality and diversity, and our approach is one of inclusivity. We are delighted to achieve Bronze, and we look forward to putting in place additional steps to continue to improve our structure and culture’.

The Vice-Chancellor, Professor Dame Julia Goodfellow, responded to the news: ‘I congratulate the School of Psychology on their award. Their success reflects much hard work to improve the recruitment, retention and progression of women in the School; and the wide range of positive actions that are taking place. I want to thank all those involved.’

The Dean of Social Sciences, John Wightman, added his congratulations: ‘In November 2013 the University achieved an institutional Bronze Award. Since then, six schools of science have achieved awards and this new award for the School of Psychology shows how our ambition for real change is now being realised beyond the Faculty of Science. I attest to the excellent work that Psychology have been doing over the past few years. They joined the Athena SWAN Working Group in December 2013 and since then, have examined their practices and have an action plan to make real changes that are benefiting staff.’

Further information http://www.kent.ac.uk/human-resources/athenaswan/index.html

Challenges and perspectives for the European Union

As part of the School of Politics and International Relations Beacon Project, Diplomacy @ Kent is pleased to welcome Ambassador Poikans, Ambassador for Eastern Partnership, MFA Latvia.

Juris Poikans began his diplomatic career with the Latvian Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 1996 and has since held several important postings at the Ministry and at Latvia’s Embassies across Europe and in the USA. He is presently serving as Latvia’s Ambassador-at-Large for the Eastern Partnership as well as the Ambassador to the Republic of Moldova. In his role as Ambassador to the Eastern Partnership he was responsible for co-ordinating Eastern Partnership related policies during Latvia’s recently completed EU Presidency (January – June 2015). His previous postings include Deputy Chief of Mission at Latvia’s Embassy to the USA and as Latvia’s Ambassador to Slovenia, BosniaHerzegovina and Kosovo.

Juris Poikans will be presenting ‘The EU’s Eastern neighbourhood: challenges and perspectives for the European Union’. The talk will take place on Wednesday 14 October 2015 at 17.00 in Grimond Lecture Theatre 2, followed by a drinks reception in Aphra Foyer.

All are welcome to attend and we look forward to seeing you there.

Fundraising success at KIE Mini Fete and Coffee Morning

Staff from Kent Innovation & Enterprise (KIE) would like to thank all University staff and students who donated cakes, prizes and helped raise money for Macmillan Cancer Support. We are delighted to announce 3400 was raised for the charity!

KIE staff pitched a marquee up on Senate Lawn on Friday September 25 for the mini fete which included two tombolas and a delicious variety of cakes, baked treats and refreshments on sale.

The weather remained warm and sunny throughout the day with many staff and students taking part in the games and enjoying sweet treats during the height of Fresher’s Week.

The prize for the best decorated cake went to Frances James, Employability and Placements Officer from the School of Psychology who baked a superb number of floral inspired cupcakes and has won a £20 Macknade Fine Foods voucher for her efforts.

This success could not have been achieved without the kind donations from University staff and local companies, so we would like to thank everyone who offered support and came along to raise money and join in the fun!

#KentSelfie winners

This year we asked our new students to send us their excited selfies as they got ready to join the University of Kent.

Selfies ranged from new students receiving their A-level results to packing nightmares and fun at Welcome Week. View some of the brilliant entries on Flickr.

The winning selfies belonged to:

Katie Nelson, a first year Journalism student studying at our Medway campus. Katie won a £50 Amazon voucher for her selfie wearing a University hoodie.
Caroline Emmanuel, a first year studying Biological Anthropology, who won a Kent Monopoly for her selfie.
And even our returning students joined the fun, with Arianna Longworth a second year Architecture student winning a Kent onesie for her selfie outside the new library wing.

Thank you to everyone who took part!

SEPnet Nominated for Outstanding Employer Engagement Initiative THE Award

We are delighted to announce that the School of Physical Sciences (SPS) has been included in a shortlisted nomination by the Times Higher Education (THE) Awards 2015 as part of the South East Physics Network (SEPnet). The award is for Outstanding Employer Engagement Initiative with winners to be announced in November.

SEPnet is a consortium of nine Physics departments (including the University of Kent) working together to engage with employers, providing a platform for employer input into student training and delivering a range of employer engagement activities for undergraduates and postgraduates. The nomination is for all the Universities working together as a whole via SEPnet, though needs to be submitted under the guise of a single university so will be accepted by the University of Surrey if won.

As part of this initiative, partner institutions have appointed Employer Engagement Officers (EEOs) to build and maintain relationships with local businesses/industries. In Kent, EEO Steph Astro has worked alongside colleagues within Kent and across partner universities to lead engagement activities for undergraduates and postgraduates and to provide a link between employers and SPS. As part of this initiative, SPS now boasts an Industrial Liaison Committee, and students have access to a wide range of activities including industry visits, employer talks and workshops tailored to their needs. In 2014, sixty students participated in SEPnet summer placements, with employers reporting SEPnet-supported students to be highly beneficial to their companies.

The full shortlist for all 18 categories is published in Times Higher Education and is also available on the awards website: www.the-awards.co.uk.

Amalia Arvaniti publishes on speech patterns of bilingualism

Professor Amalia Arvaniti, from the Department of English Language & Linguistics, has just published a paper in the Journal of Phonetics, entitled ‘Voice Onset Time in SpanishEnglish Spontaneous Code-switching’.

Code-switching is the use of two languages in a single utterance, a common practice among bilingual speakers. Voice Onset Time (VOT) is the length of time between the end of a stop consonant, such as [p] or [t], and the onset of the next speech sound. In the research published, VOT duration was affected when speakers were code-switching rather than speaking in one of their two languages only. Phonetic changes when bilingual speakers are about to switch from one of their languages to the other had been reported before but this is the first study to document the phenomenon in spontaneous speech. The results argue in favour of theories advocating that bilinguals do not completely switch off one of their languages when speaking in the other, only suppress its activation; as a result, each language is affected by the other during speech.

The article, which is co-authored with Page Piccinini from the University of California San Diego, is published in Volume 52 of the journal, pp 121-137.