Comment 056 November 1991

King's College London newsletter

ACADEMIC PLAN

Chemistry set challenge at King's

The folloWIng press stalemenc about therevISion ofthe Academic Plan has beenmade at the suggestion ofa number ofstaffacross the College:

'King's responds to challenges of Queen'sspeech'

'In the context of the higher educationmeasure outlined in the White paper andthe Queen's Speech, King's College Londonis formulating a comprehensive academicand financial plan which will create anin titution well-placed to take advantage ofthe opportunities and challenges of the1990 .

'The planning process, which is expected tobe completed shortly before Christmas,review the whole scope of the College'sacademic activity in the light of the need to

maximise the number of students in highereducation in London, and in order to make

Girls from St Michael's School investigatingthe chemistry ofsoap films

the fullest possible use of the teaching,research and physical resources of theCollege. King's proposals will also achievethe kind of efficiency gains that the Govern­ment and the UFC are seeking throughoutthe higher education system.

'King's is one of the largest institutions ofhigher education in London and the second­largest college within the University ofLondon. Tt is a multi-faculty institution andits schools of study include Education;Humanities; Law; Life, Basic Medical andHealth Sciences; Medicine and Dentistry,and Physical Sciences and Engineering. Theplan adjusts the present academic balance ofthe College with a view to strengtheningstill further the international reputation ofthe areas of acknowledged excellence inKing's and ensuring that the points ofdevelopment have the resources to securetheir future and make an appropriatecontribution to the needs of the nation.

On 2 October the Chemistry Departmenthosted one of the regional heats in anational competition for schools to design achemistry set for 14-year-olds. Thiscompetition was instigated by theChemistry Club, a group set up by theSalters' Company to raise the popularity ofchemistry in schools. Several schools fromthe London area participated and around 60third/fourth formers and their teacherscame to King's to compete. The judgesspent well over an hour looking at theexperiments the schools had designed andquestioning the students. The visitors thenwent to a lecture-demonstration by Dr FredArmitage entitled 'Rocks to Rubber' whilethe judges made their decisions. At the endof the lecture Professor Maurice Wilkinspresented the prizes to the winning schools.

The winning school was St Michael'sCatholic Grammar School from North

'There are currently several options underdiscussion, and they are to be the subject ofa thorough programme of consultationwithin the College before the final decisionsare taken by the Council of King's in mid­December.

'The plan addresses difficult issues whichface a great many higher educationinstitutions. Among these are the decreasein funding per student (which is exacerbatedfor institutions in London because there hasbeen a restriction in the number of tudentssupported by UFC funds); the consequencesof the consistent underfunding of salaryawards by the Government; the requirementfor higher education to increase its outputwith a smaller unit of resource, and the needto make proper and prudent provision forthe maintenance of buildings in the face ofdeclining financial suppOrt.'

Finchley, who just pipped WoodlandsSchool from Basildon for the first prize,consisting of a cheque for £250 and a brandnew Minilab set of glassware. Mr AndrewCooper (Head of Science) and his teamfrom St Michael's now go forward to thenational final at the ASE meeting inSheffield in January 1992 where the firstprize is £1000. We wish them luck.

The element of competition certainlyexcited the school students who put a lot ofeffort and imagination into theirexperiments. My thanks to all theparticipants and to everyone who helped to

make the day enjoyable for the competitors,in particular the judges: Dr Philip Evans(Bedford School), Dr Frank Hibbert(King's) and Dr Barry Senior (AmershamInternational).

Keith Jones, Department of Chemistry

RESEARCH NEWS

Research Funding- the Principal writes:

NordifordResearch

Expedition

K C Wong Scholarships for China

Since 1987 King's College London has been able to offer five scholarships each year forChinese students to undertake research training for the PhD. Funding was for three yearsfor each student under a unique scheme supported by the KC Wong Education Foundationof Hong Kong, the FCO and the Chinese State Education Commission (SEDC).

After this year, the SEDC will no longer fund this programme and so will no longernominate the scholars. Accordingly, a new scheme has been devised by the Foundation andthe FCO to maintain these five awards, which are exclusive to King'S. Henceforth anystudent from the People's Republic of China who has been accepted by the College for PhDresearch will be eligible to apply.

On 21 October the Daily Telegraph carriedan article headed 'Universities face qualitytest for funds', claiming that a new HigherEducation Act was to be announced in theQueen's Speech which would split Britain'suniversities into three divisions. Thesewould be headed by a 'super league' of 12institutions, selected on the basis of theirexcellence in research. Another 12universities were destined for the bottomleague, and would lose about a third of theirresearch funding. University CollegeLondon, LSE and Imperial College were allsupposed to be in the 'super league'. King'swas not mentioned, but the assumptionwould be that it would be allocated to themiddle league, and therefore might losesome of its research funding.

rn view of the concern a number of staff inthe College have expressed to me andelsewhere about this article, I thought itwould be helpful if I quoted part of a letterfrom Alan Howarth MP, ParliamentaryUnder Secretary of State in the Departmentof Education and Science, to Andrew SmithMP, a copy of which was sent to the CVCP.The letter makes it clear that the Governmenthas no intention of enshrining a three­division distinction between universities inforthcoming legislation, and that its policieson higher education remain the same asthose outlined in the White Paper: 'HigherEducation: a new framework'.

At the same time it is as well to rememberthat the UFC is going to be much moreselective in its distribution to departments('cost centres' to be more precise) of fundsfor research. Given that it looks as if thefunding of basic research will be related to(J-1) where Jis the research rating, a depart­ment rated 5 may get twice as much as adepartment rated 3.

There is therefore going to be a critcalnumber of departments at which King's asan institution is going to be classified as R orX; what is vital - because it will so muchaffect our income, and hence our room formanoeuvre - is that we have as manydepartments as possible rated 4 andpreferably 5.

With the aim of furthering understanding ofthe glacial deltas, foreground and screes,seven third-year King's students planned afour week expedition to the Bl£breen glacialforeland in the Breirn region of Gloppen,South West Norway - the second exhibitionof its kind.

They established two basecamps at 540mabove sea level, 4km from the glacier, and at930m asl, overlooking the two proglaciallakes adjacent to the Bl£breen foreland.From here they carried out individualresearch projects which will contribute totheir degrees. They have written to thePrincipal to thank him for the College'Ssupport and described the event as 'techni­cally and logistically an outstandingsuccess...with great memories'.

'As you know,' Alan Howarth says, 'theWhite Paper announced greater selectivityin the distribution of research funds, with amove away from student number-relatedfunding. But the UFC's approach is toassess the quality of research in individualuniversily departments, not whole universi­lies [my italics]. Some departments will getno public research funding, but otherswithin the same university will do better.There is no intention to create a usuperleague" ... '

Applications may be made direct to me by the student, or by their supervisor. They shouldprovide evidence of proficiency in English (TOEFL 600), and a letter of support from theirhome university giving permission for leave of absence. The scholarships pay a monthlystipend of £435 per month plus tuition fees at the home student rate. It is unlikely that anaward will be given unless the applicant has other support (such as an ORS award) to payfor the balance of the tuition fee for overseas students.

Since the start of this programme 30 awards have been made to students of King's CollegeLondon by the K C Wong Education Foundation.

Or Abraham S-T Lue, Assistant PrincipalEuropean Representative, KC Wong Education Foundation

Department of Electronicand Electrical Engineeringresearch news

Ro al ociery Research GrantA Rezazadeh (Electronic and ElectricalEngineering, Physical Electronics ResearcbGroup) has received £7,00 towards a studyof advanced heterojunction bipolar transis­tors (HBTs) for high temperature electronicapplications.

Espirit III Research ProposalsIn tbe last round of ESPRIT-Ill call forpropo al the Physical Electronic ResearchGroup of the Department of Electronic andElectrical Engineering proposed threeresearch programmes, listed below.I) Reliability assessment of advancedmicrowave heterojunction transistors(acronym: RELIABILITY); 2) Collector-upadvanced transistor structures (acronym:

ATS); and 3) Silicon Oxy-nitrides formedby remote PECVD-growth andcharacterisation (acronym: DEACO ).

In addition, the Signal and Informationprocessing Research Group have submittedtWO re earch proposals from the incollaboration with the MechanicalEngineering Department: 1) CooperatingRobotics with assisted task organisation(acronym: COOPERATOR); and 2) Sensoraided fetding in an integrated roboticsystem (acronym; SAFIR).

Planning Research: theOptions Ahead

At the recent launch of the journalNature's manifesto for British Science, heldat the Royal Institution, Sir Mark Rich­mond, Head of Britain's largest ResearchCouncil - the SERC - focussed much of hisspeech1 on the need to consider fundingand management of teaching and researchseparately in Higher Educational Institu­tions (HEIs). Much of what Richmond saidis relevant to the research planning processat King's and fits in well with my ownapproach to the relevant issues as Chair­man of the School of Life, Basic Medicaland Health Sciences Research Committee.As the ColJege continues with the planning

process, there are two key issues raised byRichmond which are worthy of furtherdebate: the relationship between the undingand management of teaching and research,and the balance and organisation of re­search. This article lays out a personal viewof how these issues relate to planning ofresearch at lUng's as we enter a new periodof academic planning and a new Collegestructure and discusses the relationshipbetween teaching and research managementand funding.

Separating teaching from reseach? ­Undergraduate and Graduate Schools.

When I first came to King's as a lecturer in1979 it was never clear to me why academicstaff numbers and UFC funding were linkedexclusively to student numbers. The fte(now student load) was some kind of God,fought over endlessly and protected at allcostS, often in defiance of academic(certainly research priority) logic. Gradually,and I think inevitably, the government hastried to separate the funding of teaching andresearch. Their current views are summedup in the recent letter from the Chairman ofthe UFC, Prof Graeme Davies, whichconcludes its introduction as follows: 'Theallocation of any element of researchfunding purely by reference to studentnumbers is to be phased out.' (Thankgoodness for that! Now we can start to planresearch management based on researchexcellence and research potential.) What isto be phased in is a combination of twothings: transfer of the DR funding compo­nent from the UFC to the Research Coun­cils with effect from next year, and a UFCrating for every cost centre in every HEI,which governs the]R input. We know thelatter scheme from the first time round; theeffects of the former are yet to be felt,although its logic is clear; the more ResearchCouncil grants we get the better.

The separation of teaching from researchfunding has focussed attention on theorganisation of these two traditionallylinked activities. In the government's eyesthe UFC ratings exercise sorts out groupswith research excellence from groups whichshould be teaching only; indeed, they havemumbled, and continue to mumble, aboutresearch and teaching only HEIs. There area number of points here important for our

own planning process. I am a firm believerthat, certainly for the first year and formost, if not al~ of the second year ofundergraduate teaching, we can learn toteach just about anything, and teach it well.(As a trained Botani t I now teach humananatomy and neuroanatomy - tolerablywell!). The only requirement for a directlink between teaching and research comes inthe final undergraduate year. The oppositeside of the coin is that we introduce greaterflexibility in teaching in terms of bothsubject and load. It then becomes amanagerial decision as to how these twoparameters (subject and load) are decidedupon for anyone member of staff.

How does this relate to research planning?The answer is, given flexibility in teachingsubject and load, the system can easily andbeneficially aIJow those members of staffmore active in research to do what they dowell. This system creates a continuumwithin a cost centre, where the extremes aremembers of staff with a 'Polytechnicteaching load' (at least 400 contact hours ayear) and doing no research, whereas othersdo a lot of research and relatively littleteaching (presumably all to final yearstudents). This system can also workbetween cost centres, where an institutionsuch as King's could have purely teachinggroups and purely research groups. Suchresearch (and teaching) planning is thedecision making process that creates anappropriate balance in teaching and researchand, by definition, it abolishes thetraditional right of every academic to do alittle of both; those days have gone.

Richmond took the separation in researchand teaching management a step furtherand created Graduate and UndergraduateSchools. These structures fall out of theseparate management of teaching andresearch finance and planning. My guess isthat we will see the more active researchuniversities and col1eges begin to make thesedistinctions in the near future. If King'swi hes to be seen in this company weshould be thinking hard about our options.

Nigel Holder

1 Published in full in Nature 353,379-382(Oct 3rd issue) 1991.

problems for you, we would be glad to hearfrom you as soon as possible.

Christine Kenyon JonesDirector of Public Relations

Once our research is complete the projectwill be taken forward by a College WorkingGroup, who will appoint a designer tooperate on the basis of our thorough brief.When a design for a logo has been chosenwe will hold meetings to present it to staff.The basic design will then be developed forstationery, publications and other uses, andit is expected that materials in the newidentity will be available from the beginningof the 1992-93 academic year. The Pressand Publications Office will be available to

give assistance and guidance to colleagues inthe production of their own informationand publicity materials using King's newvisual identity. Additionally we plan to

develop computer templates for staff whowish to produce their own materials in thenew style. There will, evidently, be a periodof overlap between the new and the oldmaterials, but the aim is that this should beas short as possible, and if you are orderingnew stationery or publications in thecurrent identity, please bear in mind thatyou will only need enough to last you untilsummer 1992.

Obviously, King's cannot afford to spendlavishly on this exercise. The multi-millionpound stories that emerge about Briti hTelecom or Shell's change of image arewholly inappropriate for us. We aretherefore tackling most of the research partof the project - findLng out what peoplethink and what their needs are· ourselves.Christine Jamieson, the College's newPublications Officer, and myself will bemeeting people from all areas of the Collegebetween now and the end of term, and JohnMuir, Vice Principa4 External Relations, isjoining many of the meetings. If you have aview about a visual identity for King's, orwish to draw our attention to a specificusage of the current logo which presents

between Lnstitucions and erode the differ­ences between them. The old images whichheld the universities together as a group areno longer adequate. The almost identical­looking crests, LatLn tags and lengthyLnstitutional names that preserve long-agomergers mean very little to today's students,who have been brought up Ln a highlyvisua:Iy-oriented world and often have avisual sophistication far greater than that oftheir parents. King's College London isfortunate in having a strong, characterfulname that says some definite things aboutthe College, and we need an image that canmatch this.

A New Image for King'some staff wLll have already heard that we

are reviewLng the College's 'corporate visualidentity'- that is, the way the Collegepresents itself visually through publications,stationery, signs, advertisements, van livery,and in many other ways through its logoand characteristic colours.

We believe this is vitally important forKing's for several reasons. One is that,although the current logo of the Collegecrest has worked well in some ways, itundoubtedly also has severe limitations. Ithas never really established itself as the stylefor King's, and a wide range of other styles(including, of course, Reggie the lion) stilllurks in some people's minds - and on theirletterheads. This creates an image of theCollege which is confusing and disjointed:as if King's itself did not know what it waand where it was gOLng. In times when theCollege does indeed have to face painfuldecisions about its future shape, size andacademic offering, it is all the moreimportant that it should present a coherent,consistent and easily-recognisable face to

the world.

Another reason for being clear about ourimage, and stating it strongly, is that currentpolitical changes in higher education (suchas giving polytechnics the option to use thetitle 'university') will Lncrease competition

College Christmas cardswill be on sale shortly from the following outlets

Strand Porters' DeskMain Entrance

Chelsea(Manresa Road)

John Wornhamecurity &Dome tic Service upervlsor

CornwaU House Porters' Desk andAlurnnus Office (Room MBIO)

Kensington Philomena D'SouzaMain Entrance and Campus Services

Further Education:Seminar at King's for representatives of FE Colleges

meetin on 22 October at n 's waor ani ed by the Colle e's Schools andColle e Liai on 0 fice, Department 0

E' ernal Relation . It was attended byeleven repre entative 0 FE colleges and ten'10 ' member. Introductory talks werei ·en b' Kin's ice-Principal John 1uir

on the implications of the recent HE hitePaper and by Or Bridge, Principal of outhThame College, on the FE hite Paper. Alivel and con tructive discussion occupiedthe remaining hour of the formal sessionand continued through the informal lunchthat followed, which was attended by thePrincipal. There was general agreement thatthe meeting had been most useful and theFE repre entatives wiU be sending detailedcomments to r Muir which could formthe ba is for the programme of a secondmeeting which will be held at K.ing' on 21January, 1992.

Some of the main point that emerged fromthe ir t meeting were:

• FE college now account for 40 per centof A level entries nationally, and for 65per cent of the science A-levels in theGreater London area, and theseproportion are likely to grow in future.

• A new framework of vocationalqualifications ( VQs) is proposed, andpart of the scheme will be an AdvancedDiploma, equivalent to a universityentrance requirement. BITC qualificationswill probably fit into this framework.The position of access courses is unclear.

• Sixth form coUeges will be stronglyencouraged to commit themselves to

Qs. Together with FE colleges theywill be funded independently of localauthoritie and so form a new sectorwhich will supply an increasingproportion of higher education students.

• There is scope for collaboration betweenKing's and FE colleges to our mutualadvantage. FE colleges will benefit fromincreased placements of their graduates inhigher education. Universities seek extrastudents. At present there appears to be atendency to find extra recruits among lessable middle-class candidates. FE collegeshave many students of high ability butrelatively low academic achievement,

man of whom are from di advantagedbac ground with no tradition of hi hereducation. If we can help FE college 0

motivate such students and providereali tic pathwa s to higher education,K.ing's department may be beneficiariesof uch altrui m.

• e can enthuse FE tudents by arranginga programme of visits from our ownstudents who reached u from FE. Suchstudents can be easily identified throughthe College Database.

• We can attempt to ease the pathway fromFE to King's by local arrangements withindividual FE colleges. For example, thiscould be through 2 A levels, perhaps ofslightly lower grades, taken inconjunction with VQ modules whichgive training in relevant skills and whichwould be devi cd by King's and the FEcollege. Increasing experience may helpus to devise a general policy for attractingapplicants from a wider range of the FEector.

• Other institutions, eg Sussex andLiverpool, have already developedrelationships with FE colleges. Featuresof their schemes include special entrytests, and slightly relaxed entrancerequirements.

• It may be possible to share resources suchas laboratories as part of collaborationwith individual colleges. Moreambitiously we have the possibility of'franchising' where, for example,induction courses for HE might be runby FE colleges. There are many currentexamples in the polytechnic sector.

The eleven FE colleges repre ented at theseminar were Barking College, City andEast London College, City of WestminsterCollege, Hackney College, Hammersmithand West London College, HampsteadGarden Suburb Institute, LewishamCollege, orth London College, SouthThames College, Southwark College andWestminster College.

A summary of the main proposals in the FEWhite Paper is available from the Schoolsand Colleges Liaison Office, in CornwallHouse, ext 3003/3050.

Or Michael Clarke, Conservative MP forRochford and Chairman of the EnergySelect Committee, graduated from King'swith first class honours in Chemistry in1956, and won the Samuel Smile Prize in1955. He has been a Fellow of King'sCollege since 1987 and returned on 29October to the annual presentation of prizesto students in the Chemistry Department tospeak on 'Science at Westminster'. He ispictured here in front of the Samuel SmilesPlaque.

Advent carol Services

This year's Advent Carol Services are on11, 12 and 13 December at 17.30 in theChapel. Contact the College Chaplaincy,ex! 2373 or Josephine Bell in the Dean'sOffice, ext 2333 to reserve your tickets.

Please note that the service on Friday 13December is primarily reserved for mem­bers of staff who wish to attend ErnieWarrell's leaving pany at 18.45 in the GreatHall. Ticket for this event are availablefrom Josephine Bell at £5 per person.

Grants in support of publicunderstanding of science -

are available for new or continuing activitiesor initiative directly concerned with thepromotion of the public understanding ofscience (including mathematics, technologyand engineering). Applications should bemade as soon a possible on forms obtain­able from Or A Evans, The Royal Society,6 Carlton I louse Terrace, London SW1YSAG. (Tel: 071-839 5561)

5

Summer at TanglewoodCandice Wood, a second year Musu: studentat King's spent her summer at Tanglewoodwith support from the Col1ege. She recordedher impressions of this experience forComment.

The stage door opens, the applause begins,the orchestra stands; out walks Seijii Ozaw,and another concen by the BostonSymphony Orchestra (BSO) at Tanglewoodbegins. The 5,000 people seated inside themusic 'shed' are transfIXed by theConductor's every movement. Outsidethousands more lie back and look at thesky, filled with stars, and listen. This mayalmost seem too good to be true, but inreality this is only a fraction of the magicsurrounding the nine week Summer Seasonat Tanglewood.

Tanglewood is a country estate inMassachusetts, the summer home of theBSO. In 1937, the legendary Music Direc­tor of the BSO, Sergi Koussevitsky,revolutionised the place by bringingtogether young musicians from all over theworld to concentrate their effons for theentire summer (the equivalent of a universityterm) on intense music making, amidst thebreathtaking surroundings of the Berkshirehills.

The schedule is rigourous, with rehearsalsrunning from 7.30 am, to 2.00 am on somedays. After that no instrument must betouched until 7.00 am the next morning - a

violation of the 'quiet hours' is a seriousoffence. evenheless on some occasionsthis rule is broken, as it was by the cellist inour quanet, who at 4.30 am woke the wholequartet insisting that we practice the 3rdMovement of Beethoven's Op 59, No I inthe open pavilion overlooking the lake. Hethought it would add something to ourspiritual understanding of the work; it wasto say the least a unique experience.

Perhaps one of the most memorableconcens was a performance we gave of theRavel String Quanet in front of the well­known conductor Maurice Abravanel, whowas present at the first performance of thequartet and was a friend of Ravel. This isone of the many links that are formedbetween composer and performer atTanglewood.

Despite the sheer volume of works beingproduced, the level of perfection Iexperienced at Tanglewood is very differentfrom anywhere else. At times, we would bemade to work with a cassette recorder so wewould be able to identify, and correct, anyunevenness in our bow strokes that coulddisturb the unity of the quartet. This slowedour performance down by up to 70%.

One of the most difficult aspects ofTanglewood was continuously workingwith the same three people for six to eighthours a day, and trying to forget theinevitable personal differences. Sadly it was

only by the final week that we mastered thetechnique of learning to love each other'splaying, and were able to give encouragementin spite of our personal feelings towardseach other.

It was not until I had returned fromTanglewood that I fully appreciated theexperience. Tanglewood is a place whererecord sleeve names have time to sit downand talk and work with you. People whommusicians see as the 'untouchables' and'unapproachable' become teachers andfriends. These have included Yo Yo'ma,Peter Serkin, Joshua Bell and Itzak Per/man,not to mention the numerous professorsfrom Juilliard, Eastman and Curtis whoworked with us on a more regular basis.

In many ways, this season was very sad forthose who had been at Tanglewood formany years as two of Tanglewood's guidinglights, Aaron Copland and LeonardBernstein, were extinguished. They wereboth present at the first Music CentreSession, and remained on its faculty for 50years as two of its most persuasive,productive and characteristic forces.Though Tanglewood mourns these losses toAmerican music, it is now passing into anew era, where each member is compelledto search within themselves and take theinitiative tore-dedicate their energies in the pursuit ofthose ideas and ideals that Bernstein andCopland championed so passionately.

Computing CentreDiscounts

The Computing Centre is offeringsubstantial discounts on a range of softwarefor educational use on PC (and compatible)

and Macintosh microcomputers. See thetable on the right for current discounts andcontact Jean Davey on ext 4260 for more

information.

Sofe-are for sale Prograrnrn,e details Price and ot.herinforJnation

Sutistical Packages Minitab PC & Mac, £35 includingmanual

SPSS-PC £100 plus cost of discsand manual

SAS-PC £175

Graph Plotter CricketGraph PC and Mac, £35including manual

Bibliography Soft""are Papyrus PC £25 including manual

Programming Fortran PC, £140 includingmanual

Pascal PC, £25 includingrnanual

Terminal Emulator EmuTek PC, £5, Manual, £6

THE CYPRUSFOUNDATIONA Major Gift to King's

On a recent trip to Cyprus arranged by theBritish Counci~ Mr John Muir, Vice­Principal (External Affairs) visited MrGeorge Paraskevaides, the joint head of oneof the world's largest civil engineeringfirms, and his son Mr EfthyvoulosParaskevaides who took his degree inengineering at King's. Mr Paraskevaidessenior is a staunch friend and a Fellow ofthe College and, whenever King's staff havevisited Cyprus, he has always offered verywarm hospitality in his beautiful Nicosiahome and has been eager to hear Collegenews. Since meeting Professor AverilCameron and Professor Roderick Beaton,who have lectured in Cyprus and have anumber of academic contacts there, he hasbeen particularly interested in the livelyactivities of the College Centre for HellenicStudies and in our provision of ModernGreek Studies. Now, he has mostgenerously supported this interest with an

endowment of £200,000 to establish aKing's College London Cyprus Foundationto support both the Centre and ModernGreek studies and to promote connectionsbetween the College and Cyprus. ProfessorCameron and Professor Beaton regard thisendowment as a landmark in their develop­ment programme, and it will enable theCollege to strengthen its teaching andresearch in an area in which we already havean international reputation and in whichthere are very few centres of real excellence.

Mr Paraskevaides has already beenextremely generous to the College. He hasestablished nine scholarships which helpvery able students to come to us fromCyprus (which until recently has had norecognized university of its own), and hehas also provided the College with anattractive modern office in the centre ofNicosia. It is to be serviced by one of hisstaff and provides both an administrativebase for KC LA Cyprus and an information!recruitment centre for King'S. It will beformally opened and blessed in the NewYear and we very much hope that it will bea significant help to our recruitment and to

George Paraske'Uaides

the extension of our scholarly contacts onthe island.

Mr Paraskevaides and his son anticipate thatthe establishment of the Foundation may bethe spur to further developments, and it wasa happy coincidence that, on the sameevening that John Muir received the offer ofthe endowment, the President of KCLACyprus, Mr Theodoros Nicolaides, was ableto announce that Mr Paraskevaides hadbeen elected an Honorary Life Member ofthat Association.

New College Organistappointed

A new post has been created at King's,incorporating the role of College Organistand Director of Music with lecturing in theDepartment of Music. This post will befilled at the beginning of January by DavidTrendell, joining King's from Oriel College,Oxford.

Mr Trendell has spent the past five years inOxford, where he is University Organist,and Organist of the University Church ofSt Mary the Virgin, and has lectured inmusic for several colleges. His broad­ranging practical experience is epitomizedby his recent recitals at Southwark andWestminster Cathedrals, Oxford TownHall and the University Church Oxford,and his role as conductor of the Nave Choirat the Edington Festival which involved twobroadcasts for BBC Radio 3. He is also asinger himself, as an alto at ChristchurchOxford and for the Clerkes of Oxenford,and is currently music critic for The Tablet.

We look forward to welcoming him toKing's.

Malcolm Gavin Hall win WandsworthFood Hygene Awards 1991It is a pleasure to inform Comment readers that Malcolm Gavin Hall has won its category inthe Wandsworth Food Hygene Awards for 1991. Minnie Nabali, the Assistant Manager!Catering Manager entered the hall for the competition and after several inspections we wereinformed that we had won.

Minnie and the Head Cook, Merinda Hines, went to the evening award ceremony to receivea plaque from Prue Leith (Business Woman of the Year) on 24 October.

Hopefully next year we shall Wln the overall competition for all categories!

The line up in the photo from left to right is as follows - Terry Smith (who sneaked into thepicture!) Jean Lindo, Esther Peters, Merinda Hines and Hilda Salter

"

IS YOUR COMPUTER A PAININ THE NECK?

I u in our DU is literally a pain in theneck then something is wrong. It may notbe the actual computer screen itself that isthe problem but the work stationenvironment (ergonomics) that is at fault.Poor eating, a desk at the wrong height orbad positioning of computer hardware canall lead to serious health problems such asR I (repetitive strain injury), which if nottreated is not only painful but can bedisabling. VDUs have been suspected ofcausing or aggravating a number of otherhealth problems including eye strain.epilepsy, cataracts, dermatitis andmiscarriages. Much of the evidence forthese problems is inconclusive and furtherresearch i currently under way aroundthe world, often as a result of the pre suretrade unions have placed on governmentsand management.

The potential health risks involved in usingcomputers have been recognised by the ECin its Health and Safety Directive on the u eof 'Display Screen Equipment'. Thelegislation was passed in 1990 and must beimplemented by member states by January1993. W orkstations installed after 1992 willhave to conform to the new regulations, andby 1997 all workstations then in use willhave to reach the EC's minimum standards.

ew UK regulations incorporating the ECdirective are due to be published soon.

The e are some highlights of the EC VDUdirective:

TREAT ME RIGHT

1. 'Employers shall be obli ed to performa risk analysis of all workstations withregard to eyesight, physical problems andproblems of mental stress, and must remedyany risks found.'

2. 'Every worker shall receive training inthe use of the workstations before com­mencing this kind of work.'

3. 'The employer mu t...ensure work on adisplay screen i periodically interrupted bybreaks or changes of activity reducing theworkload at the display screen.'

4. 'Workers shall be entitled to an appro­priate eye and eyesight test. .. beforecommencing VDU work, and at regularintervals thereafter.'

5. 'Complying with the e regulations mayin no circumstances involve workers inadditional financial co t'.

There are a number of booklets availablewhich deal with VDU hazards in somedetail: A Guide to Health Hazards ofVDUs, issued by the MSF safety office, andthe College's own guidelines (which will bereviewed once the new UK VDU regula­tions are published) are both available fromthe safety office. The TUC Guidelines onVD Us (ISB 1850060843) costs just £1and is available from Congress House,Great Russell St, London WC1 B 3LS.

Gold Medal AwardProfe sor J Gorrod has been awudedThe Gold edal of Comenius Univer itor 'his research, co-operation and publica­

tions in the field of metabolism of drug .'He ha recentl been awarded grant of£4, for one year to study aromaticamine drugs and £66, over three years tostudy the metabolism of tobacco alkaloid.

He has also been elected Honorary Fellowof the Bohem lovakia PharmaceuticalSociety, and the Chinese Academy ofPreventive edicine has conferred the titleof Visiting Professor upon him; he iscurrently supervising three PhD studentsfrom China.

Inaugural Q'Byrne Lectureon law, Medicine and Ethics

The Univer ity of Alberta and the Univer­sity of Calgary have jointly establi hed thisLecture under an endowment of r Ju ticeO'Byrne of the Alberta High Court. TheInaugural Lecture was delivered by Profes­sor Ian Kennedy of the Law School andCentre of Medical Law and Ethics on 1October in Edmonton, Alberta.

Chelsea Campus StaffChristmas Lunch

Reception drink at middayfollowed by

A traditional Christmas mealfor

£5.95

This popular event will take place in theRefectory at Manresa Road on Wedne day18 December 1991. Booking forms will beavailable shortly, and you are urged to bookearly to avoid disappointment.

Ian Kennedy, Professor of Medical Law and Ethics at King's College London, is the authorof Treat Me Right - Essays in Medical Law and Ethics, newly published as a paperback inSeptember by Oxford University Press.

The new paperback is a collection of work in the field of medical law and ethics by Profes­sor Kennedy who is well-known as a broadcaster and is a former Reith Lecturer. Many ofthe articles have appeared in journals, but have been annotated and updated for this book,while some are published for the first time.

The book has 400 pages and is available as a Clarendon Paperback for £14.95, or for £40 as ahardback from OUP.

Staff Keep FitAre you feeling 'wintery'? Regain thatsummery glow by coming along to StaffKeep Fit - a 45 minute class for all staff:male or female and all levels of fitness. OnWednesdays at 12.15 in Room B2 (next toReprographics), Strand Campus. Wearcomfortable clothing and trainers and comeand re-invigorate your life!

8.:.:.:.'

STAFF DEVELOPMENT AND TRAININGA new name and a new faceat the King's Training Unit

In order to meet the challenge in highereducation during the next decade we musten ure that our teaching, research and theervices we provide are of the highest

quality. We also realise that quality must beimproved and maintained with fewerresources. There are many ways in which

the College will develop to face the futurebut a vital ingredient is to ensure that allstaff are well equipped and motivated.

King's has been active in encouraging itsstaff to improve their skills and competencebut we must ensure that our scarceresources are used to greatest advantage.

Mike Llewellyn, the Academic StaffDevelopment Officer has been closelyinvolved in devising professional develop­ment programmes for scientists for sometime. He has now joined forces with KenBromfield and Janine Morton to form thenewly integrated Staff Development andTraining Unit.

We already have a varied programme oftraining courses for 1991-92 in place.During the next two months we shallcomplete the task of identifying the coreskills needed by every group of staff. Wewill then ensure our development andtraining courses are tailor-made to meet theneeds of all staff so that everyone has afulfilling and apposite role in the future ofthe College.

We will publish a detailed policy implemen­tation document in Spring 1992. If anymember of staff would like to be involved indiscussion and help us to decide how theprinciples of staff development and trainingcan be put into practice, we would bedelighted to hear from you. Contact us onext 2760.

We shall adopt a systematic approach to

staff development and we need informationto do this successfully. Later this term allstaff will be asked to provide informationabout courses they have attended. We arealso intending to compile a 'skills map' forthe College. We hope to obtain informationabout individual's professional skills and

knowledge which will be a very valuablesource of help and advice on a wide range oftopics.

Course Programme

Please note that departments will not becharged for the courses listed below unlessindicated. However full costs will be levied

when enrolled staff fail to attend withoutreasonable justification.

All courses will last for one day, unlessindicated.

Problem Solving and Creative Thinking3 and 4 December

This course will provide an excellentopportunity for participants to acquireessential skills and an open and positiveattitude to deal with problems and change.The seminar starts with the individual andfinishes by building up team work.

Applications for this course are invited fromacademic staff and all staff who havemanagerial responsibilities.

The course will be lead by KathrynRedway. She has worked extensively foruniversities, having gained a high reputationas a staff development consultant for privateand public enterprises.

Academic and academically-relatedstaffFinancial Management for Administrators(Federal)29 November

This course is of particular value to middlegrade administrators in large departmentswho have significan.t financial responsibility.Departmental charge £10.00 per applicant.

Clearing the Fog (Federal)3 December, 14.30-17.00

Intended primarily for middle gradeadministrative and academic staff whosework involves writing papers and reportsfor committees. Departmental charge £ 10.00per applicant.

Rapid Reading and Memory Skills (Federal)

16 and 17 December

Designed for academic, administrative andlibrary staff at middle and senior levels.Departmental charge £20.00 per applicant.

Non-Academic staffSupervisory Skills (six days)

ovember 21, 22, 28, 29December 5 and 6.

This event has been set up in collaborationwith Imperial College. The course will beof great benefit to staff who have recentlyattained or are about to acquire supervisoryresponsibilities. It will also help experi­enced supervisory staff who have receivedlittle or no training for their role and whowish to perform more confidently andeffectively.

Over 30 King's staff have attended thiscourse in the past and the course evaluationhas been exemplary.

Effective Writing14 November

The course will enable participants to writemore clearly, more efficiently and present abetter image through their written work.This course will be useful for up to gradeCR3 clerical, technical and manual/ancillarystaff.

Coping with Stress18 November

Thi course will help anyone who wishes to

avoid the undesirable consequences ofstress, now or in the furore.

Dealing with Demands and Priorities(Time Management)

26 November

This course will help participants dosomething positive about the barriers toeffective time management. They willexamine a system for planning the use oftime, based on clearly determined andmaintained priorities. They will also beinvited to reflect upon personal communi·cation skills and their importance foreffective time management.

Staff Training and DevelopmentcontinuedAssertrueness Sk,lls (for Women)I~ December

Assem mess Sk,lls for Men and Women)Janwry 1992

Application for both the e course areneeded as oon as possible. The Januarydate is provisional. e shall confirm ifthere is sufficient demand.

Pr07Jlding a Quabty Service11 December

King's College is in competition with otherhigher education institutions. Our successwill depend on our reputation in providinga high quality service to our clients whetherstudents, users of our wide range of ervicesor providers of research grant funds.

Thi cour e will enable participants to:recognise the importance of promotingKing's image; measure the quality of ourcustomer care; identify our main concernsor areas for improvement; put customercare into practice by improving those skillswhere good per onal presentation ises entia!.

The course is offered to all categories ofstaff. We shall repeat the course accordingto demand.

Safety CoursesTesting PortabLe ElectricaL Equipment(14.00-17.00) 11 December

Word ProcessingI BM Word 5.0 Basics (one day)early Lent term

For those with little or no experience ofMicrosoft Word 5.0 on the IBM (orcompatible) system

Information Technology workshopsA programme of short courses on EXCEL,lotus 1-2-3 and SYMPHONY are soon tobe scheduled for the lent term. They willbe pre ented by Sukai N'Dure and AndyPerrin of the Administrative ComputingUnit of the Computing Centre. Pleasecontact Janine Morton, ext 2760 for furtherdetails.

Ken Bromfield, Dr Mike Llewellyn,Janine Morton.

I SEMINARSDepartment of History andPhilosophy of Science SeminarsHeld on Thursdays at 14.15 in Room 1 C,Strand Campus

21 0 emixr 1991RepresentaClonaL Trajectories InConnectlomst LeamlngDr Andy Clark, Univer ity of Sus ex

28 ovemeixr 1991ew Aspects of Wave-Particle Dualism In

eutron InterferometryDr Harvey Brown, Oxford University

5 December 1991Descartes on ScientIfic MethodDr Stephen Gaukroger, Sydney University

12 Decemixr 1991Handbng Uncertainty In ArtifiCIaLIntelligenceMr James Cussens, King's College London

Age Concern Institute ofGerontology SeminarsHeld on Tuesdays between 16.00 and 17.00in Room 3/8, Cornwall House Annexe

19 ovember 1991The OPCS Disability Surveys:Methodological IssuesDr Howard Meltzer, OPCS

26 ovemixr 1991Glaucoma and BirthdaysProfessor Robert Weale, ACIOG

3 December 1991Medicine, the Media and Elderly PeopleDr Robert Smith, Editor, British MedicaLJournaL

Department of GeographyResearch SeminarsHeld on Tuesdays at 17.00 inRoom 102, orfolk Building

19 ovemixr 1991CentraL Europe and the EuropeanCommunity: prospects for economic andpoliticaL integratIOnDr Richard Gibb, Department ofGeography, Polytechnic South West

26 Novemixr 1991The size and shape of desert dunes: recentprocess research

Dr Andrew uren., Department ofGeography, UCl

3 Decemixr 1991Gender construalOns and the state:low-Income women In PeruOr Sarah Radcliffe, Department ofGeography, RHB C

1 Decemixr 1991RIft valleys - cracking crusts andsedImentary sandwichesDr lan Reid, Department of Geography,Birkbeck College

Biomolecular Sciences DivisionSeminarsHeld on Fridays at 13.15, in the lectureTheatre, Drury lane

29 ovemixr 1991Understanding the details ofchromatetoxiCItyDr P O'Brien., Department of Chemistry,Queen Mary and Westfield College

6 December 1991Fertlbty, morbidity and mortaLity withinbreeding (or - why not your sister?)Dr A Bittles, Division of BiomedicalSciences, King's College

Department of Electronic andElectrical Engineering ResearchSeminarsHeld on Thursdays at 13.00 in Room ItA,Strand. Contact Or lan Robertson, ext 2523for more information.

14 ovemixrSecond Generation Mobile and PersonalCommunications SystemsOr Hamid Aghvami, Head ofCommunications Research Group.

21 ovemberRecent DeveLopments in NeuraL NetworksOr Trevor Clarkson., CommunicationsResearch Group.

28 ovemixrHigh Temperature Superconduaors inMicrowave CircuitsProfessor C W Turner, Director of Research,Dept of Electronic and Electrical Engineering

5 DecemixrMicrowave CAD using FieLd-BasedSimulatorsOr Manook SoghomonianCommunications Research Group

10;.;

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LECTURES

The British Institute of HumanRights LectureTuesday 3 December 1991, 13.00Thomas Paine and The Rights of ManProfe sor Paul O'Higgins, Department ofLaw

ew Theatre, Strand Campus

The Halliburton LectureTuesday 26 ovember 1991,17.30Reversals of Fortune in NeurobiologyProfessor S Zeki, Department of Anatomyand Developmental Biology, UniversityCollege LondonThe ew Theatre, Strand Campus

Inaugural Lectures

Tuesday 19 ovember 1991,16.30Values in prtUtice: can studies in primarycare help to put health into a nationalservice?Professor R Higgs, Head of the Departmentof General Practice and Primary Care,Lecture Theatre 1, The Dental School,King's College London

Wednesday 20 November 1991, 17.30Religion and Empire: British Expansion inthe Long 19th Century, 1780-1914Professor A N Porter, Department ofHistoryThe New Theatre, Strand Campus

The Runciman LectureThursday 28 November 1991,18.00The Battle of ManzikertProfessor Speros Vryonis, JrThe New Theatre, Strand Campus

Lecture in Pharmaceutical SciencesMonday 11 November 1991, 18.30What is so special about the 4-quinolineantibaeterials ?Professor J T Smith, School of Pharmacy,University of LondonCollege House, Manresa Road

The King's College Lectures inAmerican Literature and CultureThese are a new series of open publiclectures recently instituted by the Englishdepartment. Distinguished scholars andwriters will be invited to lecture on majorissues in the field of American Literatureand Culture. The emphasis will be inter­di ciplinary and cross-cultural.

The forthcoming lectures in the flfst seriesare on the following theme:Law in America: Acceptance and ResistancesProfessor Eric MottramAt 17.15 in Room 27C, trand Building on19 ovembeT,3 December

CONFERENCE

Women, Discipleship, and Spiritual PowerSaturday 14 December, 09.15-17.30Council Room, Strand Campus

For more information contact Peter Clarke,Director, the Centre for New ReligiousMovements

COLLOQUIA

Institute of Advanced MusicalStudies ColloquiaHeld on Wednesdays at 17.00 in RoomGOl, 152-153 Strand Campus

20 ovember 1991Literature, philosophy and the rise ofamusical canon in eighteenth-centuryEnglandWilliam Weber, University of California

27 November 1991Towards a theory of the Mozart cadenzaWilliam Drabkin, Southampton University

Wednesday 4 December 1991Music drama at the Paris Odion 1824-1828Mark Everi t, King's College London

Department of ComputingColloquiaHeld on Wednesdays at 13.15 in Room 3D,Strand Campus

20 November 1991Compiling a lazy functional language to CSimon Croft

27 November 1991Functional DatabasesAlex Poulovassilis

CONCERT DIARY

Monday 18 ovember, 13.05Derick Kane, euphonium and Peter Jones,organ: to include works by Weber andMendelssohnSt Mary-le-StraDd

Monday 25 ovember, 17.30Sharon Choa, violin and Simon Morris,cello: to include music by Beethoven andBrahmsGreat Hall

Thursday 28 November, 13.05Philip Bonser and friends: clarinet quartetsRoomGOl

Friday 29 ovember, 19.30To celebrate the new BMus course and theestablishment of the Centre for AdvancedPerformance Studies between King's andthe Royal Academy of Music a concert willbe held in the Great Hall.

The Royal Academy of Music Sinfonia willplay a programme of music by Rossini,Nielsen and Beethoven. Seats will beallocated on a first come first served basis.

Tuesday 3 December, 17.30Concert given by the Departmental Choirand the Twentieth Century Workshop: to

include music by Gombert, Janacek, Berioand LumsdaineGreat Hall

Thursday 5 December, 13.05Chau Yee Lo, Lik Ling Chua and DaphneTeo: music for two pianos to include worksby Darius MilhaudRoomGOl

Tuesday 10 December, 19.30King's College Orchestra performs worksby Mozart, Schubert, Dvorak, Copland andProkofievChapel

Thursday 12 December, 13.05Jeremy Thurlow, piano: to include music byJ S BachRoomGOl

)11 IT Lond Hl

-IT' 0' LO 110

Why King's?

Farewell to Ken Groves

WHY KING'S?In respon e to the findings of the recentmarket rese;lrch on King's applicants (seeComment 055), the External RelationsDepartment has produced an attractive, fullcolour leaflet for potential recruits toKing'S. The leaflet Why Kmg's? wasdesigned to be sent to students at the pointof offer of a place, or invitation to aninterview for a place, at King's. It is hopedthat it will al 0 be of interest to applicants'parents who have proved to be veryinfluencial in their sons' and daughters'choice of university.

The leaflet will serve as a useful publicitytool for King's staff to take along to anypotential recruitment or promotional event.Copies of the leaflet can be obtained fromthe Schools and College Liaison Office inCornwall House Annexe, ext 3003.

A leaving party for Ken Groves, Director ofKCL Research Enterprises, was held on 31October in the Council Room. He wasthanked for his work for the College by thePrincipal, who also made a presentation tohim.

Ken Groves wrote to Comment:

'Could I express my thanks to members ofthe College for the friendship I havereceived during my time here. I would alsolike to thank those who have written ortelephoned messages of goodwill andcontributed to the handsome present Ireceived.

'[ shall remember King's with affection.Good wishes for its future successes.'

Professor Barry Cox, Assistant Principal inthe External Relations Department, will betaking over some of Ken Groves's responsi­bilities, and plans to outline his new role inthe next edition of Comment.

Comment is the College's regular staffnewsletter, issued by the Press and Publica­tions Office (telephone 53202) three times aterm, with special editions if required.Contributions are welcomed from anymember of staff of the College. These maytake the form of, for example, news ofevents or people, views on College matters,photos, items for sale. Please note, theEditor reserves the right to amend items asnecessary.

If possible, please send your piece on anApple Macintosh 3.5" Micro Floppydisk,using Microsoft Word programme.

The next Comment will be published inmid-December and contributions shouldbe received by mid-day on 5 December.