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Awards and Appointments
December 2012
Awards, appointments, elections and honours
Dr Mark Hewitson (UCL German) has been awarded one of seven Arts and Humanities Research Council Fellowships. Mark received a £159,486 grant for 'The Violence of War: Images and Experiences of Conflict'.
November 2012
Awards, appointments, elections and honours
Professor David Colquhoun (UCL Pharmacology) is the joint winner of the UK Science Blog Prize for his blog, 'DC's Improbable Science'.
Two UCL PhD students - Kate Gibson, who is studying for a PhD in Security Science and Marco Fazio, who is studying for a PhD in volcano-related studies - have won PhD Scholarships 2012 worth £500 each to help them through their studies. The scholarships were awarded by FindAPhD.com and FindAMasters.com.
Professor Margot Finn (UCL History) has been appointed as a Trustee of the Victoria and Albert Museum.
Dr Chiara Franceschini has been awarded the first 'I Tatti Prize for Best Essay by a Junior Scholar' by the Harvard University Center for Italian Renaissance for "The Nudes in Limbo: Michelangelo's Doni Tondo Reconsidered." Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes 73 (2010, published in 2011): 137-180.
Professors Nora de Leeuw and Richard Catlow have been awarded £1.2m by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council as a Platform Grant for 'Integrated Computational Solutions for Catalysis'.
Sofie Pelsmakers, a PhD student at UCL Energy Institute has received a commendation in the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) President's Awards for her book The Environmental Design Pocketbook. The book, published in March 2012, was nominated within the Outstanding Practice-located Research category.
Professor Jane Dacre (UCL Medical School) has become a category award winner in the prestigious Woman of Achievement Awards ceremonies. She won the Medicine/Healthcare category and will now go head to head against other category winners in a ceremony on 23 November.
Professor Sir John O'Reilly (UCL Electronic and Electrical Engineering) has been appointed as the new Director General of Knowledge and Innovation at the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS).
Professor Stephen Porter (UCL Eastman Dental Institute) has been awarded an Honorary Doctorate in Medicine by the University of Gothenburg.
Dr Glenis Scadding, Royal National Throat, Nose and Ear Hospital, has won the 2012 Claus von Pirquet award of the European Academy for Allergy and Immunology for clinical research.
The following professors have been awarded Advanced Grants from the European Research Council: Sacha Stern (UCL Hebrew and Jewish Studies), Christian Dustmann (UCL Economics), Dimitri Rusakov (UCL Institute of Neurology), Max Telford (UCL Genetics, Evolution and Environment), Robin Ali (UCL Institute of Ophthalmology) and Dorian Fuller (UCL Archaeology).
Professor Lisa Jardine CBE (Director of the UCL Centre for Editing Lives and Letters) has been awarded the British Academy President's medal.
October 2012
Awards, appointments, elections and honours
Dr John Thornton (UCL Institute of Neurology), Consultant Clinical Scientist at the National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery, has gained a place on the NHS Leadership Academy's flagship clinical leadership programme.
Imachibundu Onuzo who is in the MSc Public Policy programme has had her novel The Spider King's Daughter shortlisted for the Dylan Thomas Prize. This is a prize for writers writing in English who are under 30. It has also been longlisted for the Desmond Elliott Prize for debut novelists. Her work has been highlighted in The Telegraph, which described the book as "a modern-day Romeo and Juliet set against the backdrop of a changing Lagos".
A team of undergraduates has won a Gold medal at the prestigious International Genetically Engineered Machines (iGEM) Synthetic Biology competition in Amsterdam. Supervised by Dr Darren N. Nesbeth (UCL Biochemical Engineering) and working in the Advanced Centre for Biochemical Engineering (ACBE), the Plastic Republic team set out to address the problem of plastic pollution in the world's oceans using Synthetic Biology approaches. The UCL team, called 'Plastic Republic', was also selected to advance to the 2012 iGEM Synthetic Biology World Championships hosted by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in Boston this November.
Dr Ana Tajadura-Jimenez has joined UCL Interaction Centre (UCLIC) as an Economic and Social Research Council Future Research Leader. She has been awarded a three-year fellowship to carry out research on the project: 'The Hearing Body: How auditory perception influences body representation'.
Congratulations to Professors Dmitri A. Rusakov (UCL Institute of Neurology), Sir Michael Pepper (UCL Nanotechnology) and Lars Stixrude (UCL Earth Sciences) upon their election to Academia Europaea in the 2012 nomination round.
Professor Alan Thompson (Dean, UCL Faculty of Brain Sciences) has been honoured by The European Committee for Treatment and Research in Multiple Sclerosis (ECTRIMS) for his outstanding contribution to the field of MS, by the award of lifetime Honorary Membership at its 28th Congress on 13 October 2012 in Lyon, France. It is the first time such an award has been given in the 28 year history of the organization.
Professor Ali Zumla (UCL Infection and Immunity) has been awarded the 'Commander of the Order of Distinguished Services - first division' medal by Zambia's President Michael Sata for his contribution to the fight against TB, HIV/AIDS and other related diseases.
Professor Gabriel Aeppli (UCL Physics & Astronomy), who is Director of the London Centre for Nanotechnology at UCL, was among 180 influential artists, scientists, scholars, authors, and institutional leaders who were inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Sciences at a ceremony on Saturday 6 October.
Founded in 1780, the American Academy is one of the nation's oldest and most prestigious learned societies, and an independent research center that draws from its members' expertise to conduct studies in science and technology policy, global security, the humanities and culture, social policy and education.
Professor David Lowenthal (UCL Geography, emeritus) last month delivered the six inaugural Stockholm Archipelago Lectures, on 'Quest for the Unity of Knowledge', at the invitation of the Swedish Royal Institute of Technology in conjunction with Stockholm University.
Dr Jack Wells and Isabel Christie (UCL Centre for Advanced Biomedical Imaging) have been jointly awarded the British Chapter MRI Prize from the International Society for Magnetic Resonance In Medicine (ISMRM - British Chapter) for their paper 'fMRI response to blue light delivery in the naïve brain: implications for combined optogenetic fMRI studies'.
Professor Ali Zumla (UCL Infection and Immunity) has been given an award by the Karolinska Institutet, of the Sweden Annual Science Prize and Lecture. He will deliver the Prize Lecture in Stockholm on 8 November.
Professor Sir Michael Pepper (UCL Nanotechnology) has been elected as a member of Academia Europaea, and as an honorary Fellow of the Institute of Physics. The Institute has also appointed him this year's Cockroft-Walton Lecturer, in the course of which he will undertake a lecture tour of research institutes in India.
Professor Lewis Spitz (Emeritus Nuffield Professor of Paediatric Surgery, UCL Institute of Child Health) has been elected as an Honorary Fellow of the American College of Surgeons, and been awarded the Ladd Medal of the American Academy of Pediatrics.
Professor Brian Collins (UCL Engineering) has been elected to deliver this year's prestigious IET Mountbatten Memorial Lecture on the subject 'Modernising Britain's Victorian Infrastructure - an Engineering Opportunity.' Many of the previous lecturers have also been UCL alumni or staff, including Sir Michael Pepper and Sir Eric Ash.
The Portex Respiratory Unit, led by Dr Paul Aurora (UCL Institute of Child Health), has been awarded a £135,693 research grant from UK children's charity Action Medical Research for research reassessing lung function of pre-school children with cystic fibrosis.
Dr Christopher Arridge has been awarded one of the Royal Society's University Research Fellowships. Dr Arridge is researching mass and energy transport in giant planet magnetospheres throughout the universe.
Dr Lucinda Green has been awarded one of the Royal Society's University Research Fellowships. Dr Green is researching magnetic helicity evolution of solar active regions.
Dr Andrew Pilkington has been awarded one of the Royal Society's University Research Fellowships. Dr Pilkington is researching on establishing the nature of electroweak symmetry breaking.
Dr Anna Holin (UCL Physics & Astronomy) has been awarded one of the Royal Society's Dorothy Hodgkin fellowships. Dr Holin is researching into the properties of the neutrino.
UCL is pleased to announce that Professor Cheryl Thomas (UCL Laws) has been appointed as an Academic Bencher at the Inner Temple.
September 2012
Awards, appointments, elections and honours
Professor Duncan Craig has been appointed Director of the UCL School of Pharmacy, and Professor of Drug Delivery, with effect from 1 January 2013. Professor Craig is currently Director of Internationalisation and Chair in Drug Delivery at the University of East Anglia.
Professor Carol Dezateux (UCL Institute of Child Health) was awarded WellChild Researcher of the Year 2012 at an awards ceremony on September 3, 2012. According to WellChild, "Professor Carol Dezateux has shown great passion and motivation for Children's Health research and demonstrated unwavering support of young researchers embarking on this career path. She has given invaluable support over a number of years for the WellChild research programme, including chairing various panels and helping to improve what we do."
Professor Mark Emberton (UCL Urology) who has been awarded the Worshipful Society of Apothecaries' William Farr Medal for 2013. The William Farr Medal was instituted by the Society to recognise significant contribution by any medical practitioner to the management of elderly people and nominations are sought from within the Society and from all of the Royal Colleges.
Dr Giandomenico Iannetti (UCL Neuroscience, Physiology and Pharmacology) who has been selected as the recipient of the 2012 Patrick D. Wall Young Investigator Award. The award is presented at each biennial IASP (International Association for the Study of Pain) Congress. It was initiated in 1987 and honours individuals who have achieved a level of independence as a scholar in the field of pain. Patrick Wall conducted his research as Professor of Anatomy in JZ Young's Department at UCL for more than 25 years (1967-1992).
Dr Frances Rice (UCL Division of Psychology and Language Sciences) for receiving an MRC Centenary Award. The award has just been launched by the MRC to mark its 100 years, supporting the very best of its early career researchers to accelerate their research and their career development. The award will serve as a top-up to her MRC new investigator award "neurocognitive predictors of adolescent depression."
Dr Simon Walker-Samuel (UCL Centre for Advanced Biomedical Imaging) who was awarded the coveted Mansfield Prize from International Society for Magnetic Resonance In Medicine (ISMRM - British Chapter). The award was given for 'innovative technical developments in the field of magnetic resonance in medicine and biology'. Dr Walker-Samuel has developed novel methods to image barriers to drug deliver in cancer known as convectionMRI and another to measure tumour metabolism, glucoseCEST, publish in Nature Medicine.
Dr Roland Schaette and Professor David McAlphine (UCL Ear Institute), who have been awarded the Marie & Jack Shapiro Prize from the British Tinnitus Association for their paper 'Tinnitus with a Normal Audiogram: Physiological Evidence for Hidden Hearing Loss and Computational Model'.
Professor Anthony Finkelstein (Dean, UCL Engineering Sciences) and Professor Paul Wrobel (UCL Naval Architecture), have both been awarded Fellowship of the Royal Academy of Engineering.
Professors Chris Brewin (UCL Psychology and Language Science); Chris Carey (UCL Greek and Latin); Julian Hoppit (UCL History) and Bencie Woll (UCL Deafness, Cognition and Language Research Centre - DCAL) how have been awarded Fellowship of the British Academy, also Peter Mack, Director of the Warburg Institute and Professor of the History of the Classical Condition at UCL.
Professor John O'Keefe upon his election as the Royal Society's Ferrier Lecturer for 2013.
Professor Alywn Seeds (UCL Electronic and Electrical Engineering and the London Centre for Nanotechnology), who has been awarded the Gabor Medal on the Institute of Physics for research into microwave photonic devices that has led to their commercial exploitation in wireless optical communication systems.
Dr Meera Parish (UCL London Centre for Nanotechnology), awarded the Maxwell Medal and Prize by the Institute of Physics for her pioneering work in the theory of cold fermionic matter and magnetotransport in highly disordered media.
Professor Ronald Dworkin, Emeritus Bentham Professor of Jurisprudence, on the award of the 2012 Balzan Prize, for jurisprudence. The prize amounts to 750,000 Swiss Francs (approx. £500,000), half of which must be applied by the winners to research projects.
Professor Geoff Thornton (UCL Chemistry) on his election to a Humboldt Research Award, in recognition of his lifetime achievements in research. In addition, the awardee is invited to carry out research projects of his own choice in cooperation with specialist colleagues in Germany, in order that the international scientific cooperation will be further promoted.
Professor Neill Lochery (UCL Hebrew and Jewish Studies) on the opening of the photographic exhibition in Lisbon, "Lisbon: Bottleneck of Europe in World War II, 1939-1945", compiled from the results of the photographic research conducted for his latest book, Lisbon: War in the Shadows of the City of Light. The exhibition focuses on one aspect of the book - the refugees who passed through city during the war. The exhibition has been organised by the Mayor of Lisbon and is in his gallery at City Hall - a magnificent building and exhibition space.
The UCL Chemistry Department on the award to it of the John William Draper medal. When UCL opened in 1828, the first Professor of Chemistry was Edward Turner. One of his students was John William Draper who later emigrated to the United States and became professor of chemistry at New York University. He had a distinguished career, particularly in the new field of photography. He was the first to photograph the moon (1840) and the Great Orion Galaxy (1880), and he is known as the first astrophotographer. In 1876, Draper was the Founding President of the American Chemical Society; this happens to be the same year as our Chemical and Physical Society was founded. To commemorate the 125th anniversary of their founding, and as part of their National Historic Chemical Landmarks programme, the ACS struck a medal carrying Draper's image, and they have presented one to our department.
One of our exceptionally distinguished alumni, Professor David Jewitt who shares (with Jane Luu) the 2012 Shaw Prize for Astronomy (US$1million) for "for their discovery and characterization of trans-Neptunian bodies, an archaeological treasure dating back to the formation of the solar system and the long-sought source of short period comets"; and also the 2012 Kavli Prize in Astrophysics(another US$1 million), shared with two others, for his work in "discovering and characterizing the Kuiper Belt and its largest members, work that led to a major advance in the understanding of the history of our planetary system", including the discovery of the first such object in 1992. He is currently Professor of Astronomy at the University of California Los Angeles.
UCL is pleased to report the following recent senior appointments and to welcome these new colleagues:
- Renaissance Studies - Professor Lisa Jardine (with effect from 1 September 2012)
- Infectious Disease Epidemiology - Professor Ibrahim Abubakar (with effect from 1 August 2012)
- Law - Professor Piet Eeckhout (with effect from 1 September 2012)
- Law - Professor Ben McFarlane (with effect from 1 July 2012)
- Management of Projects - Professor Andrew Davies (with effect from 1 October 2012)
- Medicinal Chemistry - Professor Paul Fish (with effect from 1 July 2012)
- Chair of Medicine - Professor Bryan Williams (with effect from 1 June 2012)
- Quantitative Neuroscience - Professor Kenneth Harris (with effect from 1 August 2012)
- Real Estate - Professor Patrick McAllister (with effect from 1 September 2012)
- Risk and Disaster Reduction - Professor David Alexander (with effect from 1 October 2012)
- Urban and Regional Planning - Professor John Tomaney (with effect from 1 September 2012)
- Urban Design - Professor Peter Bishop (with effect from 1 June 2012)
- Built Environment Foresight - Professor Tim Broyd (with effect from 1 October 2012)
- Law and Professional Ethics - Professor Richard Moorhead (with effect from 1 September 2012)
- Readership in Biological Psychiatry - Dr Elvira Bramon (with effect from 1 August 2012)
August 2012
Awards, appointments, elections and honours
Congratulations to all the latest UCL Honorary Fellows and Graduands.
Honorary Graduands 2012
- Baron Peter Piot CMG, FMedSci Honorary Doctorate of Science (DSc (Med)) Director and Professor of Global Health, London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine
- Sir Cyril Chantler Honorary Doctorate of Science (DSc (Med))Chair, UCL Partners
- Professor Dame Julia Higgins DBD, FRS, FREng Honorary Doctorate of Science (DSc) Research Investigator (Emeritus Professor) of Polymer Science in the Department of Chemical Engineering, Imperial College London
- Alan Hollinghurst Honorary Doctorate of Literature (DLit)Novelist
- Professor Donald Dingwell Honorary Doctorate of Science (DSc) Secretary-General, European Research Council
- The Rt Hon Lady Justice Hallett DBE Honorary Doctorate of Law (LLD) Judge, Royal Court of Appeal
Honorary Fellowships 2012
- Professor AK Azad Khan President, Diabetic Association of Bangladesh; President, Bangladesh Endocrinology Society; Honorary President (for life), Bangladesh Gastroenterology Society
- Dr Mary Cotes Former Member, Scientific Staff (MRC) Clinical Research Centre
- Professor John Morton OBE Honorary Member, UCL Institute of Cognitive Science and former Director, MRC Cognitive Development Unit
- Professor Patricia Woo CBE Emeritus Professor of Paediatric Rheumatology, Division of Infection and Immunity, UCL Faculty of Medical Sciences
- Dr Lorna Wing OBE Medical School alumnus; Founding Member, National Autistic Society; Consultant Psychiatrist, the NAS Lorna Wing Centre for Autism
- Mr Charles Peebles Conductor and Music Director, UCL Union and University College Opera
- H.E. Sheikh Mohamed Bin Issa Al Jaber Founder and Chairman, MBI Al Jaber Foundation
- Professor Andrew Holmes Chemistry alumnus; Laureate Professor of Chemistry, University of Melbourne; CSIRO Fellow, CSIRO Division of Materials Science and Engineering; Emeritus Professor and Distinguished Research Fellow, Imperial College London
Dr Robin Simon (UCL English Language & Literature) has been appointed Paul Mellon Lecturer in British Art for 2013. He will give a series of public lectures next year (dates to be confirmed) on the relationship between British art and the theatre from 1700-1960. These will take place at the National Gallery in London and at the Yale Center for British Art, Yale University.
UCL has been awarded over £1.5 million from The Economic and Social Research Council funding for the Centre for Longitudinal Study Information and User Support (CeLSIUS).
Directed by Dr Nicola Shelton, the Centre's main team will be based in the Health and Social Surveys Research Group, UCL Epidemiology & Public Health, working with the UCL Centre for Advanced Spatial Analysis, UCL Information Studies and the Department of Geography, University of Cambridge.
July 2012
Awards, appointments, elections and honours
Four UCL academics have been elected to the British Academy Fellowship.
- Professor Julian Hoppit (UCL History)
- Professor Chris Brewin (UCL Clinical, Educational & Health Psychology)
- Professor Chris Carey (UCL Greek & Latin)
- Professor Bencie Woll (UCL Cognitive, Perceptual & Brain Sciences)
Read the British Academy press release.
The Bentham Project and Transcribe Bentham have been awarded a grant of $538,000 from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, under their Scholarly Communications programme. The grant will help build on the ongoing successes of Transcribe Bentham, and continue the collaboration between the Bentham Project, UCL Centre for Digital Humanities, UCL Library Services, UCL Creative Media Services, the University of London Computer Centre and new partner the British Library. Read the Transcribe Bentham blog.
June 2012
Awards, appointments, elections and honours
The Institute of Physics (IOP) has awarded Dr Meera Parish (London Centre for Nanotechnology) the Maxwell Medal and Professor Alwyn Seeds (London Centre for Nanotechnology) the Gabor medal as part of their 2012 awards.
Professor Sir Michael Pepper (London Centre for Nanotechnology) has also been awarded an Honorary Fellowship to the IOP. Read the full list of IOP 2012 Award Winners.
Professor Richard Bellamy (UCL Political Science) has been awarded the Serena Medal by the British Academy. This is awarded annually for eminent services towards the furtherance of the study of Italian history, literature, art or economics'. Read the UCL European institute story.
Dr Matt Powner (UCL Chemistry) is co-winner of a $50,000 prize from the Origin of Life Challenge with John Sutherland at the Medical Research Council Laboratory in Molecular Biology, Cambridge. They also received a $150,000 one-year grant to pursue their research, which is focused on understanding the chemistry of the replication mechanism of first life.
Professor Cathy Price (Wellcome Trust Centre for Neuroimaging at UCL) has been awarded the Neuropsychology Prize for 2012 (€20,000) by the jury of the IPSEN Foundation.
Professor Mark Maslin (UCL Geography) has been awarded the Royal Society Industrial Fellowship. The Fellowship with be for four years and will cover 50% of his salary, allowing him to spend that time developing Carbon Associates Ltd., a new spin out company.
Robert Ludlow (UCL Institute of Neurology) has won the overall Wellcome Trust Image Award for 2012, for an image of the human brain captured during a surgical procedure to treat a patient with epilepsy. Read the UCL events blog.
Two members of the UCL community have received national honours:
- Professor Uta Frith (UCL Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience) has become an honorary Dame Commander of the British Empire.
- Anne Bulford, our Treasurer (an alumna and currently Chief Operating Officer of Channel 4), has been appointed as OBE.
Five UCL scientists have won Wellcome Trust senior investigator awards:
- Professor Ray Dolan (Wellcome Trust Centre for Neuroimaging at UCL) The neurobiology of motivation in health and disease
- Professor Annette Dolphin (UCL Pharmacology)
- Professor Gabriel Waksman (UCL Structural and Molecular Biology/Birkbeck College)
- Professor Elizabeth Fisher (UCL Institute of Neurology)
- Dr Karen Page (UCL Mathematics)
May 2012
Awards, appointments, elections and honours
The Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard University has selected Dr Katherine Ibbett (UCL French) to be a Radcliffe Institute fellow for the 2012-2013 academic year. Read the Harvard Gazette news story.
Dr John Hurst (UCL Academic Unit of Respiratory Medicine) has been awarded the 2012 ERS (European Respiratory Society) research award of €50,000 for work in the field of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. This is an annual award given by the ERS Scientific Committee to an outstanding academic researcher from Europe below the age of 45.
Dr. Tarit Mukhopadhyay (UCL Biochemical Engineering) has won Gates Foundation funding as part of the Grand Challenges to Global Health agenda in partnership with Dr. Stephen Ward (Stabilitech Ltd) to research radical alternatives for vaccines manufacture.
UCL Qatar has won two Qatar National Research Fund awards. One is for Dr Rob Carter, Senior Lecturer, on excavating Doha's origins and the other for Professor Thilo Rehren's project for fieldwork in Meroe/Sudan. The total value is just under US$2 million over 3 years.
Professor Trevor Smart, Schild Professor of Pharmacology in UCL Neuroscience, Physiology and Pharmacology, has been awarded the prestigious Gaddum Memorial Medal from the British Pharmacological Society for important contributions to the field of pharmacology over the last 15 years.
Five medical researchers from UCL have been recognised for excellence in medical science by election to the Fellowship of the Academy of Medical Sciences.
The new fellows are:
- Professor Michael Hausser (Wolfson Institute for Biomedical Research at UCL)
- Professor Marie-Louise Newell (UCL Institute of Child Health)
- Professor Kathy Pritchard-Jones (UCL Partners & UCL Institute of Child Health)
- Professor Sophie Scott (UCL Institute for Cognitive Neuroscience)
- Professor Jane Wardle (UCL Institute of Epidemiology & Health Care)
Academy Fellows are elected for outstanding contributions to the advancement of medical science, for innovative application of scientific knowledge or for their conspicuous service to healthcare. Read the UCL news story
Professor Volker Sommer (UCL Anthropology) has been awarded the North of England Zoological Society's Gold Medal, for outstanding lifetime achievement in the fields of natural science, conservation and the environment.
Professor Steven Bramwell (UCL Physics & Astronomy) has been awarded the 2012 European Physical Society Condensed Matter Division Europhysics Prize. Read the EPS news announcement
April 2012
Awards, appointments, elections and honours
Professor Steve Jones (UCL Genetics, Evolution & Environment) and Professor Gabriel Waksman (UCL Structural & Molecular Biology) have been newly elected as Fellows of the Royal Society. Read the Royal Society press release.
Professor Gabriel Aeppli (London Centre for Nanotechnology) has been elected as a new member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Read the LCN news story.
Shabbir Merali (2nd Year Economics) won the Accountancy & Economics Undergraduate of the Year. Further information here and details of the awards here.
UCL would like to warmly congratulate:
- Professor Patrick Maxwell (Dean of UCL Medical Sciences) on his appointment, now confirmed by HM The Queen, as Regius Professor of Physics at Cambridge from 1 October 2012.
- Two Environmental Engineering students - Alexa Bruce and Giulio Ferrini - on winning Royal Academy of Engineering Leadership Advanced Awards. The Academy makes 40 awards to second year engineering students (of a 4-year degree programme) who have shown exceptional evidence of leadership potential.
- Professor Paul Higgs (UCL Mental Health Sciences Unit, Faculty of Brain Sciences) on his election to the Academy of Social Sciences.
- Professor Andrea Sella (UCL Chemistry) on his election as an honorary fellow of the British Science Association.
- Professor May Cassar (UCL Bartlett) on the award to her of this year's Plowden Medal, awarded annually to the individual who has made the most significant contribution to the advancement of the conservation profession.
- Dr Ajoy Velayudhan (UCL Biochemical Engineering) on winning one of only four pilot EPSRC Manufacturing Fellowships, to work with Head of Department Professor Nigel Titchener-Hooker.
- Professor Murray Fraser (UCL Bartlett School of Architecture) on his nomination as a Council Member of the European Association for Architectural Education (EAAE), which is the highest tier group in the architectural academic field.
- Professor David Price, Vice Provost (Research) on his appointment to the board of the Science and Technology Facilities Council.
- Professor Terence Stephenson (UCL Institute of Child Health) on his election as Chair of the Academy of Royal Medical Colleges, for a term of three years with effect from July.
- Professor Mohan Edirisinghe (UCL Mechanical Engineering) on the award to him of the 2012 President's Prize of the UK Biomaterials Society which "aims to recognise outstanding contributions to the UK Biomaterials field." The prize will be presented to Professor Edirisinghe at the society's annual convention on the 27th of June 2012, when he will deliver the President's Prize lecture on his research, titled 'Bioinspired Advanced Processing and Forming'.
- Professor Michael Batty (Bartlett Professor of Planning and Chair of the UCL Centre for Advanced Spatial Analysis) on the award of the University Consortium for Geographic Information Science Research Award for 2012.
- Professor Hiroshi Oda (UCL Laws) on the award of the Order of Friendship, conferred on him personally by Russia's President Medvedev. The award marks Professor Oda's contribution to Russian law.
March 2012
Awards, appointments, elections and honours
Dawn Oliver, Emeritus Professor of Constitutional Law and Principal Research Associate at UCL Laws, has been appointed Honorary Silk (Queen's Counsel honoris causa). Laws alumnus Suzanne Ornsby (LLB 1985) has been appointed Queen's Counsel (QC). Read the UCL Laws news story
UCL is pleased to announce the following senior appointments:
- Professor Richard Catlow reappointed Dean of Faculty of Mathematical and Physical Sciences from 1 November 2012 to 31 August 2014
- Professor Aroon Hingorani appointed Director of Institute of Cardiovascular Science from 1 November 2011 to 31 August 2016
- Professor Claire Warwick appointed Head of Department of Information Studies from 1 January 2012 to 31 August 2016.
UCL is pleased to announce the following appointments to established Chairs and Readerships:
- Professor Rosemary Varley, Chair of Acquired Disorders of Language Communication from 6 February 2012
- Professor Byron Cook and Professor Peter O'Hearn, Chairs of Computer Science both from 1 March 2012
- Dr Andrew Green, Chair of Condensed Matter Physics from 1 October 2011
- Lord Collins of Mapesbury, Chair of Laws from 1 October 2011
- Dr Mark Miodownik, Chair of Materials and Society from 1 January 2012
- Professor Martin Kilduff, Chair of Organisational Behaviour from 1 July 2012
- Professor Charles Hulme, Chair of Psychology from 1 October 2011
- Professor Patrick Wolfe, Chair of Statistics from 1 January 2012
- Dr Alvaro Cartea from and Dr Carlo Marinelli, Readerships in Financial Mathematics from 1 May 2012 and 1 July 2012 respectively.
UCL Faculty of Engineering Sciences has been awarded £18 million from the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC). UCL Engineering is leading the three successful projects, also involving collaborations with other universities.
Within UCL Electronic and Electrical Engineering the programme grant of £4.75 million goes to the Optical Networks Group led by Professor Alwyn Seeds. The Department's Photonics Group led by Professor Polina Bayvel has received funding of £6.6 million.
The Centre for Research on Evolution, Search and Testing within UCL Computer Science led by Professor Mark Harman received the third programme grant of £6.80 million. Read the UCL news story
UCL colleagues have received awards from the national Senior Investigator competition run by The National Institute for Health Research:
- Professor David Goldblatt (Immunology and Infectious Diseases)
- Professor Graham Hart (Public Health)
- Professor Michael King (Psychiatry)
- Professor Tony Schapira (Clinical Neurology)
Three other colleagues were awarded reappointment:
- Professor John Collinge (Clinical Neurology)
- Professor Mervyn Singer (Critical Care Medicine)
- Professor Adrian Thrasher (Immunology)
Professor Mark Handley (UCL Computer Science) has been awarded the 2012 Internet Award by IEEE - the world's largest technical professional association for the advancement of technology. The award will be presented on 27 March 2012 at the IEEE International Conference on Computer Communications in Orlando, Florida. Read UCL news story
Dr Matthew Powner (UCL Chemistry) was awarded the Gold prize at a competition in the House of Commons for the excellence of his chemistry research, receiving a £3,000 prize. Renata Gomes, currently studying for a PhD at UCL Medicine, won Silver (£2,000) in the Biological Sciences section of the same scheme. Read UCL news story
UCL Laws' Dean, Professor Dame Hazel Genn DBE QC, and Professor Philippe Sands QC have been acknowledged as amongst the most influential lawyers in the UK on The Times Law 100. The list also contained UCL's 2012 Bentham Association President, Lady Justice Heather Hallett, and UCL Judicial Visitors, Lord John Dyson and Lord Justice Robert Carnwath. That's 5% of UK lawyer power. Read more in The Times (£)
UCL is pleased to announce the following:
- Dr Kate Jones has been appointed to a Chair in Ecology and Biodiversity, based in the Division of Biosciences, with effect from 30 April 2012.
- Dr Judith Mank has been appointed to a Chair in Evolutionary and Comparative Biology, based in the Division of Biosciences, with effect from 2 April 2012.
- Professor Paul Ruyssevelt was appointed to a Chair of Energy and Building Performance, based in the Energy Institute, with effect from 1 January 2012.
February 2012
Awards, appointments, elections and honours
The Grant Museum of Zoology at UCL has received a £70,000 grant from the Museums and Galleries Improvement Fund, which is jointly funded by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport and the Wolfson Foundation. Jack Ashby, Manager of the Museum, said: "We're thrilled to been selected for this award. The Grant Museum played a key role in the way that zoology was taught throughout its history, and this project will enable us to make unusual but beautiful displays with some of the hidden objects in our collection including wax models and intricate microscope slides. We will also be spending some of the money to enhance many of our existing displays, and to renovate the entrance with new art installations inspired by the museum." Read the DCMS press release
James Lawrence, a PhD student from the Department
of Biochemical Engineering has been named as the second successful
applicant for the Ashok Kumar Fellowship. The Fellowship, jointly funded by
IChemE and the North East of England Process Industry Cluster (NEPIC), will
see Lawrence spend three months at the Parliamentary Office for Science and
Technology (POST) where he will produce a short briefing paper, contribute
to a longer report or assist a select committee in a current inquiry
relevant to the process industries.
Congratulations to UCL student Anna Rose (UCL Medical School) on the award of the Tony Jackson Memorial Prize for 2011 for her work with HIV positive children in Zambia. Anna was selected for her work in Zambia with local healthcare providers, communities and children affected with HIV.
UCL is pleased to announce the following appointments to Headships of Department:
- Professor Michael Hanna appointed Director of UCL Institute of Neurology from 1 January 2012 to 31 August 2016
- Dr Brian Pearce appointed Acting Director of UCL School of Pharmacy from 1 January 2012 until a date to be confirmed
- Professor Paul Snowdon reappointed Head of UCL Philosophy from 1 September 2012 to 31 December 2013, and Professor Mike Otsuka appointed Head from 1 January 2014 to 31 August 2018
- Professor Mark Emberton appointed Director of UCL Division of Surgery and Interventional Science from 1 April 2012 to 31 August 2016.
The recipients of the Provost's Awards for Public Engagement at UCL this year are:
- Professor Clare Elwell (UCL Medical Physics and Bioengineering) Public engager of the year - academic/research staff grade 8 and above
- Karin Charles (UCL Scandinavian Studies) Public engager of the year - support staff
- Steve Gray (UCL Centre for Advanced Spatial Analysis) Public engager of the year - academic / research staff grade 6 or 7
- Claire Ross (UCL Centre for Digital Humanities) Student public engager of the year
- Dr Joe Cain (UCL Science and Technology Studies) Head of Department who has displayed the strongest commitment to culture change with respect to public engagement.
January 2012
Awards, appointments, elections and honours
The Royal Astronomical Society have awarded Andrew Fazakerley (UCL Space & Climate Physics) their Chapman Medal which recognises investigations of outstanding merit in solar-terrestrial physics. Hiranya Peiris(UCL Physics & Astronomy) has won the society's Fowler award in recognition of her particularly noteworthy contribution to astronomy at an early stage of her research career.
Professor Vincent Walsh (UCL Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience) has been awarded the prestigious and highly competitive Royal Society Industry Fellowship. UCL Enterprise have also selected Professor Walsh as a 2012 Knowledge Transfer Champion. Read the UCL news story
Dr Nora Pashayan (UCL Epidemiology & Public Health) has been awarded a Cancer Research UK Clinical Scientist Fellowship. She will receive £542,000 from Cancer Research UK to support her clinical academic research to calculate a 'risk score' for the chance of a man developing prostate cancer using the patient's genetic information.
Three UCL staff and several members of UCL's alumni community have been recognised in the 2012 New Year Honours list.
Professor Sir Mark Pepys (UCL Medicine) has received a knighthood for services to biomedicine. Professor Clare Fowler (UCL Institute of Neurology) and Dr Eileen Vizard (UCL Mental Health Sciences Unit) have been appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) for services to uro-neurology and for services to children and young people respectively. Read the UCL news story.
Professor Ray Dolan (Wellcome Trust Centre for Neuroimaging at UCL) has been elected a Fellow of the Association for Psychological Science (APS) for "sustained outstanding contributions to the science of psychology". Read the UCL news story.
The EpiPGX Consortium, involving 15 partners from 8 countries, has received almost €6 million funding from the European Union FP7 programme to investigate the genetic basis of responses to antiepileptic drugs (AEDs) in epilepsy. The Consortium is coordinated by Professor Sanjay Sisodiya (UCL Institute of Neurology). Read the UCL news story.
Dr Tanja AJ Houweling (UCL Centre for International Health and Development (CIHD)) has been awarded £393,551 by the ESRC-DFID Joint Scheme for Research on International Development to lead a project entitled Socio-economic inequalities and the MDGs: building evidence to support equitable improvement in maternal and newborn health in Asia & Africa. Read the CIHD news story.
Two linked clinical studies are underway following the award of €11.7 million funding from the European Commission via the Seventh Framework programme (FP7).
Professor John Martin (UCL and University College Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust) and Professor Anthony Mathur (Queen Mary, University of London and Barts and the London NHS Trust) have received the combined funding to establish the two international trials, which will be led by their respective institutions in London.
The first study (BAMI) is a 3,000 patient trial involving 21 partners in 11 European countries. It will involve patients having their own stem cells taken from their bone marrow and injected into their heart within five days of suffering a heart attack. This trial is an expansion of a smaller clinical study performed at UCLH and Barts that demonstrated the safety of this technique.
The second study (BIOMAGSCAR) involves eight partners in five countries and is led by Professor Martin and Professor Ian Zachary (UCL Centre for Cardiovascular Biology & Medicine). It aims to build a new lining of the artery in the heart after heart attack by using a novel magnetised stent.
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