| Leeds
graduate Mark Byford was appointed acting
director general of the BBC in the wake of
the Hutton report. In an interview with the
University’s Review
magazine he explained how he had met his wife
at the student law society’s St Valentine’s
disco in 1978 and got his date home thanks
to the loan of a car by young law lecturer
Geoff Hoon, now defence secretary. The Press
Association circulated the story
which was picked up by news outlets across
the country.
Leeds
will be the base for a new distributed institute
for atmospheric composition, reported the
Guardian, BBC Radio Leeds
and BBC online.
A
new British Library online database of Northern
dialects will draw on pioneering work by Leeds
University researchers, reported the Guardian,
Daily Telegraph and local
papers across the UK. Recordings
of native Yorkshire voices made in the 1950s
are included.
Professor
Peter Walker’s mission to create an
artificial glass liver (Reporter 495) caught
the attention of the Yorkshire Post,
Yorkshire Evening Post and BBC online.
The mechanical engineer has won £320,000
of funding to develop the organ and ‘improve
understanding of how the liver works,’
reported the Yorkshire Evening Post.
British
Heart Foundation research into cholesterol-lowering
drugs, statins, concluded that they can also
have an impact on heart tissue. Cardiovascular
research fellow Dr Karen Porter explained
how statins help reduce the chance of heart
failure on the BBC 10 o’clock
news. Her team’s findings were
also reported in the Yorkshire Post.
French
lecturer David Looseley was interviewed on
BBC Radio 4 Woman’s
Hour about Edith Piaf. He discussed her image
as a woman: “Her songs paint a picture
of a woman completely given over to love of
a man, yet her life suggests someone
much more pro-active about love, who
moulded her men (Charles Aznavour, Yves
Montand) and transformed them into stars.”
Channel
4 viewers voted Leeds graduate David
Kelly the most important figure in British
politics in the annual political awards.
Professor Alastair Hay paid tribute to the
weapons expert. Writing for the Yorkshire
Post, Professor Hay recalled how he came to
know Dr Kelly and described his friend as
‘someone very much at the peak of his
profession’. Professor Hay was also
interviewed by the Guardian, BBC Radio
4 and Channel 4 news.
Stunts
by the Fathers 4 Justice campaign were used
to highlight the issue of shared residency
in the Sunday Times. The
50/50 custody arrangements following divorce
is increasingly popular but research by Dr
Bren Neale in the University’s centre
for research on family, kinship and childhood
found that it can be hard on the children.
See the press releases at www.leeds.ac.uk/media/press_releases.htm
and details of press coverage at http://wwwnotes2.
leeds.ac.uk/cuttings.nsf/today
|
