Issue 483, 5 June 2002

Main news stories

• The ink is mightier than the pen – against forgery
  Ink which cannot be photocopied – to confound bank note forgers – are exciting printers of most of the world's major currencies.
• Leeds' teaching excellence recognised
  Geography lecturer Dr Pauline Kneale is one of the UK's higher education teaching élite, winning an ILT national teaching fellowship against a strong field of nominees from higher education institutions across the country.
• New research to run cars on flower power
  Will the oilfields of the future be full of sunflowers? They could be, if Leeds fuel and energy researchers succeed in producing hydrogen from sunflower oil.
• Beetle breeding breakthrough
  A six-year project to protect a rare beetle from extinction has had a major success with it's first generation of adults born in the wild.
• Got a masters – where next?
  What other benefits will a further year's study offer graduates beyuond a bigger overdraft?
• Spice and art make good business sense
  Curry spices in a carton and art in public spaces are the winners of the Forward Group's business plan competition.
• Using student brainpower
  Leeds undergraduates have been helping towns in England solve their local transport problems and plan for the future, as part of final year projects for the four-year MEng in civil engineering.
• What makes a happy student? The biggest ever survey at Leeds is finding the answers
  The happiest student of all lives at home, drinks only moderately, doesn't work to supplement their finances, has good friends, is being taught in a well-organised department and plans a career in the same field as their studies.
• Robot to speed gene cancer research
  Robots will be helping clinical scientists at St James's University Hospital to understand the causes of diseases like leukaemia, in the first facility of its kind in the country.
• Living longer in Yorkshire
  People across Yorkshire are living longer, but a regional north-south divide in health is widening – a reversal of national patterns of affluence and deprivation.
• Volunteer capital of the north
  The University is to create the largest higher education volunteering scheme in the country, helping to make Leeds the volunteering capital of the north.
• Staff roles and job content
  Support staff roles and job content are being analysed in a pilot scheme supported by Unison and amicus (MSF section).
• More on offer than you might imagine
  University staff could be missing out on a wide range of benfits and discounts, the staff well-being survey from last December has revealed.

---