Honours
Deputy Vice-Chancellor Professor John Fisher, director of Leeds’ Institute of Medical and Biological Engineering, has been elected a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering. The fellowship recognises the global impact of Professor Fisher’s research in mechanical and biomedical engineering, which has applications for prosthetic joints and regenerative medicine.
Professor Martin Levesley (School of Mechanical Engineering) has been awarded a £10,000 national teaching fellowship from the Higher Education Academy, to be presented on 23 September. National teaching fellowships are given to individuals who have made an outstanding impact on the student learning experience.
Professor Jouni Paavola (School of Earth and Environment), deputy director of the ESRC Centre for Climate Change Economics and Policy, spoke to the Council of Europe’s environment committee about climate issues at a special screening in the House of Commons of the new film Age of Stupid – likened to Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth.
Professor of rheumatology Paul Emery (Leeds Institute of Molecular Medicine) has become the first British person in the last 20 years elected as president of the European League Against Rheumatism.
Dr Andrew Nelson (Centre for Self-Organising Molecular Systems) is the winner of this year’s Brian Mercer Award for Innovation from the Royal Society. Dr Nelson received the £185,000 award for developing a new sensor device that can detect the presence of nanoparticles in the water supply. Dr Nelson says nanoparticles are commonly found in everyday products such as toothpaste, paint and suntan lotion, yet little is known about their toxicity or long-term effects on the environment. Watch the video online at http://tinyurl.com/nkzxd2
Professor Robert Marsh (School of Mathematics) has received a Whitehead Prize from the London Mathematical Society for his work on representation theory, in particular for his research on cluster categories and cluster algebras.
A new book by Professor Christopher Dent (White Rose East Asia Centre), East Asian Regionalism, has been awarded one of Japan’s most prestigious prizes for scholarship on the Asia Pacific, the Masayoshi Ohira Memorial Special Prize. The book sheds a penetrating light on the dynamics of the East Asian political economy. It discusses key regional issues such as free trade agreements, energy security, and international migration. For details see http://tinyurl.com/c4q3fg
Dr Terry Kee (School of Chemistry) has been awarded a three-year Aurora Fellowship from the Science and Technology Facilities Council to support research into understanding the chemical emergence of phosphate-based life – and ultimately the chemical mechanisms and environments by which life might also arise elsewhere in the universe.
Leeds University Union was named the ‘higher education union of the year’ at the NUS annual awards held in June, after coming runner-up in 2008. For details, see http://tinyurl.com/lt88ta
The University of Leeds won two Green Gown awards for commitment to sustainability from the Environmental Association for Universities and Colleges. The first award was for making continuous improvements to our transport plan (Dr Keith Pitcher and Steffi Hasse), resulting in a 30% reduction in car use since 2004.
The second Green Gown award was for best student initiative – Leeds University Union is the first student union in the country to vote to ban the sale of bottled water in its shops and bars by April 2010. Another volunteer initiative to collect unwanted goods from 12,000 student households, known as ‘Green Streets’, diverted more than eight tonnes of reusable items from going to landfill.
Dr Sophie Williams (School of Mechanical Engineering) has been awarded a Silver Medal by the Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining for her bioengineering research into friction, lubrication and wear in hip replacements.
Emeritus Professor John Turner, an evolutionary biologist (Institute for Comparative and Integrative Biology), received first prize in the John Dryden Translation Competition for translating seven poems by the 19th century French poet Paul Verlaine. The prize is awarded by the British Comparative Literature Association.
