Staff Distinctions 2004/05
Suzanne Alexander (Director of the International Office) has been elected to
membership of the UKCOSA Board of Trustees.
Sir Michael Atiyah (Chancellor of the University) has been awarded the Golden
Order of Merit by the President of the Lebanon.
Professor Richard Baker (Health Sciences) has been invited to deliver the
Patrick Byrne Memorial Lecture in General Practice at the University of Liverpool
in 2005.
Professor Martin Barstow (Physics and Astronomy) has been appointed for
three years as a European Space Agency representative to the Space Telescope
Users Committee. He has also been appointed to lead a DfES/BNSC/PPARC
initiative in Space Education.
Professor Martin Barstow (Physics and Astronomy) has been elected to the
Council of the Royal Astronomical Society for a three-year period.
Professor John Benyon (Institute of Lifelong Learning) has been re-elected to
serve for a further three-year term as Treasurer of the Political Studies
Association of the United Kingdom.
Dr Ann Briggs (Education and Continuing Studies) was awarded the BELMAS/
Toshiba prize for the best doctoral thesis at the annual Conference of the British
Educational Management, Leadership and Administration Society.
Professor Ray Bull (Psychology) has been awarded a Commendation Certificate
by the Metropolitan Police for assisting in the interview process associated with a
very difficult police investigation.
Vice-Chancellor, Professor Robert Burgess has been appointed as Chairman
of the Board of Directors of UCAS.
Professor Gordon Campbell (English) has been elected by the Milton Society of
America as its Honored Scholar for 2005 (he is one of only four English academics
to have received this award since World War II; one of the other recipients was C.
S. Lewis). He has also, at the invitation of the Iranian Ministry of Health and
Ministry of Science and Technology, given a plenary address to a Higher
Education conference in Ahwaz, South West Iran.
Professor Gordon Campbell (English) has been working for the Foreign and
Commonwealth Office, the British Council, the Department for International
Development, and the Department for Education and Skills on a policy paper on
education in the Islamic world.
Professor Andrew Colman (School of Psychology) has been elected as an
Academician of the Social Sciences by the Academy of Learned Societies for the
Social Sciences (he is the third member of the University to be elected, joining
the Vice-Chancellor and Professor Benyon).
Mr Neil Cox (Registrar’s Office) has been appointed to serve as one of only
fifteen Assistant Panel Secretaries for the 2008 Research Assessment Exercise.
Professor David Critchley (Biochemistry) has been appointed to the Scientific
Executive Board of Cancer Research UK and will chair the CR-UK Programme
Grants Committee.
Professor Nick Cull (Historical Studies) has been elected President of the
International Association for Media and History.
Professor Paul Cullis (Chemistry) has been invited to serve for two years on
the Royal Society of Chemistry’s Organic Division Committee as the Bio-organic
Group Representative.
Mr George Doukas (Cardiovascular Sciences – Clinical Research Fellow) has won
the Clinical Young Investigator Award at the 2005 Annual Meeting of the British
Cardiac Society.
Professor David Ekserdjian (History of Art and Film) has been made an
Honorary Citizen of the town of Correggio for the work he has undertaken on the
artist Correggio (one of only four people to have been honoured by the town in
this way).
Professor David Evans (Cardiovascular Sciences) has been awarded Honorary
Membership of the British Medical Ultrasound Society.
Professor Peter Fearon (School of Historical Studies) has been invited to
deliver the 2005 Bernard Bailyn Lecture at La Trobe University.
Mr George Ferzoco (Modern Languages) has been awarded an honourable
mention for his monograph on the Massa Marittima Mural in the competition for
the Inaugural Best Essay Prize awarded by the Society for Medieval Feminist
Scholarship.
Professor John Fothergill (Pro-Vice-Chancellor and Professor of Engineering)
has been recognised for his learning and teaching practices at The Higher
Education Academy Engineering Subject Centre Teaching Awards. He was one of
the six finalists for his work on ‘the implementation of an Optical Fibre
Communications Module in a Virtual Learning Environment’.
Professor John Fothergill (Pro-Vice-Chancellor/Engineering) has been elected a
Fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers for his contribution to
reliability methodology in the ageing processes of electrical insulation systems.
Professor Harold Fox (Centre for English Local History, School of Historical
Studies) has been appointed Chairman of the Landscape History Society.
Dr Richard Gornall (Biology and Director of the Harold Martin Botanic Garden)
has been elected President of The Botanical Society of the British Isles for a
three-year period.
Dr Sarah Hainsworth (Engineering) has been appointed to the Board of the
Engineering Technology Board, which is one of the major engineering bodies in
the UK, working in partnership with business and industry, Government,
education and the engineering profession to improve the perception of science,
engineering and technology.
Dr Sarah Hainsworth (Engineering) has been invited to serve on the editorial
board for the new International Journal of Forensic Engineering.
Dr Joanna Herbert (Centre for Urban History, School of Historical Studies) has
been awarded the Ratcliff Prize ‘for an important contribution by an individual to
the study of folk life in Great Britain and Ireland’, with an award of £3,000.
Professor Carol Jagger (Health Sciences) has been appointed to serve as joint
chair of a working group to prepare a world ageing survey.
Dr Simon James (Archaeology and Ancient History) has been chosen by the
Archaeological Institute of America as the Samuel H. Kress Lecturer in Ancient Art
for 2005/06.
Professor Sir Alec Jeffreys (Genetics) has been elected as an Associate Fellow
of the US National Academy of Science. He has also been inducted into the US
National Inventors Hall of Fame, which is a rare honour for a researcher working
outside the US.
Dr Don Jones (Cancer Studies and Molecular Medicine) has been nominated by
the Education Board of the Faculty of Clinical Oncology of the Royal College of
Radiologists, to serve as an Examining Board Member for the first examination for
the Fellowship in Clinical Oncology. He has also been awarded the first Allison
Wilson Memorial Fellowship of a £15,000 grant to study the effects of
radiotherapy on cancer of the bladder.
Ms Sara Kenyon (Cancer Studies and Molecular Medicine) has been appointed to
the Chair of the National Institute for Clinical Excellence’s Guideline Development
Group for Intrapartum Care.
Dr Kamlesh Khunti (Health Sciences) has been selected as the Mary
Mackinnnon Lecturer for the Diabetes UK Annual Professional Conference in 2006.
This is the most important national conference on diabetes in the UK.
Dr David Lambert (Cardiovascular Sciences) has been invited to lecture in
Japan as a Visiting Professor at Hirosaki and Kyushu Universities.
Professor Ian Lauder (Dean of the Faculty of Medicine and Biological Sciences)
has been elected as Treasurer of the Academy of Medical Sciences.
Dr John Lees (Physics and Astronomy) has been appointed to PPARC’s Industrial
Programme Support Scheme Assessment Panel for three years from September
2004.
Professor Joe Lunec (Cancer Studies and Molecular Medicine) has been
appointed to serve for a further three years on the Committee on Toxicity of
Chemicals in Food, Consumer Products and the Environment.
Professor Kilian Mellon (Cancer Studies and Molecular Medicine) has been
awarded the 2004 Karl Storz-Harold Hopkins Golden Telescope Award and the
sum of £1000. The award is given to members of the British Association of
Urological Surgeons who within ten years of their first consultant appointment
have made a significant and lasting contribution to Urology.
Professor Steve Nahorski (Cell Physiology and Pharmacology) has been elected
to a Fellowship of the British Pharmacological Society in recognition of his
commitment and distinction in pharmacology through scholarship and service to
the Society.
Professor Marilyn Palmer (Archaeology and Ancient History) has been elected
Chairman of the Association for Industrial Archaeology for a three- year term and
Chairman of the Buildings Archaeology Group of the Institute of Field
Archaeologists.
Dr Jonathan Prag (Archaeology and Ancient History) has been awarded the
Premio di Studio Guiseppe Nenci prize by the Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa,
for his Ph.D. thesis on the archaeology and ancient history of Sicily. Dr Prag is the
first non-Italian to win it this annual prize.
Professor Stewart Petersen (Medical and Social Care Education) has been
awarded a Medal of Honour by the University of the Free State in South Africa for
his services to medical education in that country.
Professor Ian Postlethwaite (Engineering) has been invited to Chair the
Defence Technology’s Research Advisory Board, in the context of the
establishment by the MOD of the Systems Engineering for Autonomous Systems
(SEAS) Defence Technology Centre (DTC).
Sir Martin Rees (Visiting Professor of Physics and Astronomy, Honorary DSc,
Leicester) has been awarded the Crafoord Prize 2005 by the Royal Swedish
Academy of Sciences for ‘contributions towards understanding the large-scale
structure of the universe’. The prize recognises research in areas not covered by
the Nobel Prizes.
Professor Richard Rodger (Historical Studies) has been elected to the Academy
of the Social Sciences (this brings the total of Academy members in the
University to four).
Dr Rosie Sage (Education) has been selected to head the Tertiary Level
Universalization Programme in Cuba and Latin America for teachers of students
with special needs and special educational needs; she will initially train all the
Heads of Schools of Education in the sixteen universities in Cuba, as well as
others from the Latin American countries. This project is being funded by the
Cuban Government.
Jon Shears and Carl Vivian (Audio Visual Services) have received a Technical
Achievement Award for the Best Camera Work in the Non Broadcast category for
Formal Education at this year’s Learning On Screen Conference.
Dr Mark Sims (Physics and Astronomy) has been appointed by PPARC as
Chairman of the Aurora Advisory Committee, which will coordinate and define the
case for the future European programme in planetary science, and the UK’s
involvement in this.
Professor Robert Smith (Biology) has been invited to serve for a further twoyear term as Deputy Chairman of the Advisory Committee on Pesticides and
Chairman of the Environmental Panel. He has also been invited by the Pesticides
Safety Directorate to serve as a Research Programme Advisor for the DEFRA R&D
Programme in Pesticide Risk Assessment to Non-Target Organisms and the
Ecological Impact of Pesticides.
Professor Sarah Spurgeon (Engineering) has been invited to serve on the
editorial board for the new International Journal of Forensic Engineering. She has
also been elected to the grade of Senior Member of the Institute of Electrical and
Electronics Engineers Inc.
Richard Taylor (Director of Marketing) and Ather Mirza (Director of Press and
Publications) have received on behalf of the University the Heist Gold Award for a
Marketing and Public Relations campaign for a promotion relating to the
Department of Genetics.
Mrs Diane Thomason (Safety Services Office) has been awarded the grade of
Credit for her National Examination Board in Occupational Safety and Health
(NEBOSH) Diploma in Health and Safety. This is in the context of there being only
a 40% pass rate for the diploma.
Dr Jonathan Thompson (Cardiovascular Sciences) is Assistant Editor of the
British Journal of Anaesthesia, and has recently been elected to its Editorial
Board.
Professor Elaine Treharne (English) has been elected Chair of the Teachers of
Old English in Britain and Ireland for a three-year period of office.
Professor Greg Walker (English) has won the Times Higher’s ‘campus novel
opening chapter competition’ (published in the Higher on 14 October).
Emeritus Professor Alan Wells (Physics and Astronomy) has been elected by
the Council of Institutions of the University Space Research Association to serve a
three-year term on the USRA Board of Trustees.
Dr John Williams (Cardiovascular Sciences) has been recognised as having
delivered the best trainee presentation at the Spring meeting of the UK
Anaesthetic Research Society, and has separately won the Royal College of
Anaesthetists’ Jubilee Medal for a presentation which has subsequently been
published as an abstract.
Professor Peter Williams (Genetics) has been appointed to the Board of
Experts for the Committee for Research Evaluation (CIVR) set up by the Italian
Ministry of Education for its triennial assessment of research quality in Italian
universities.
Dr Chris Willmott (Biochemistry) has been invited to edit the Learning and
Teaching Support Network Centre for Bioscience’s e-journal Bioscience Education.
Dr Gillian Youngs (Centre for Mass Communication Research) has been elected
as a Non-North American Representative to the Governing Council of the USbased International Studies Association for the 2006-07 term. She has also been
appointed to the editorial board of a new journal Global Ethics, which will be
launched in the Summer of 2005.