Staff Newsletter - Easter Term 2014

New digital future for medieval astronomy page 10

Want new skills? Think about secondment page 8

The magaziNe for The sTaff of The UNiversiTy of Cambridge easTer Term 2014

high score: Cambridge and computer gaming

2 | EASTER TERm 2014 | UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE NEwSlETTER

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NeWsleTTerThe Newsletter is published for the staff of the University of Cambridge and is produced by the Office of External Affairs and Communications. If you have a story, or ideas for other ways we can improve the Newsletter, please get in touch. Tel: (3)32300 or email [email protected] for articles for the next edition should reach the Editor by 15 July.Managing Editor: Paul HollandEditor: Becky AllenDesign: Creative Warehouse, CambridgePrinters: Labute PrintersContributors: Becky Allen, William Ham Bevan, Paul Holland, Jessica Penrose

NeWsleTTer oNliNewww.cam.ac.uk/for-staff

Kettle’s Yard lifts off: “When I was young I wanted art that would lift off – that would levitate, gyrate, bring together different – perhaps contradictory – aspects of my being,” said Gustav Metzger, whose auto-creative work is the focus of Kettle’s Yard’s latest exhibition. Metzger first presented some of his experimental work at the University and ‘Lift Off!’ includes his hypnotic, landmark piece, ‘Liquid Crystal Environment’, on loan from Tate. Runs to 31 August 2014.

Cast in stone: The scaffolding has come down from the Fitzwilliam Museum. Carried out by the contractors and overseen by the University’s Estate Management team, the delicate work included replacing impressive friezes damaged by rain. The lead covering of the portico was also repaired, copper drains replaced and improved lighting and pigeon deterrent systems installed. For more on this, including video, visit www. cam.ac.uk/for-staff

Keep on the grass: Lucy Cavendish has installed new signs inviting staff, students and visitors to ‘please walk on the grass’. “We are very proud of our gardens and they are a real hidden gem in the city centre,” said head gardener, Vince Lucas. “We recognise the benefits of the great outdoors playing a vital part within our college community and want people to rest assured that our gardens are to be lived in and enjoyed, year-round.”

CoverAs Cambridge-based Frontier Developments releases the latest instalment of its seminal space games series, Will Ham Bevan asks Elite co-writer David Braben what makes the city a magnet for the video games industry. Turn to page six.

2-5 News round-up

6-7 Cover feature

8-9 Know your university Secondments are good for employees, departments and the University. Becky Allen asks a selection of staff why they applied for secondment, and what they learned in the process.

10-11 Behind the scenes Thanks to the detective work of two PhD students, the Whipple Museum is giving a 600-year-old astronomical manuscript a new, digital lease of life. Jessica Penrose reports.

12 People

13 Small adverts

14-15 Prizes, awards and honours

Front cover illustration: Frontier Developments

New digital future for medieval astronomy page 10

Want new skills? Think about secondment page 8

The magaziNe for The sTaff of The UNiversiTy of Cambridge

easTer Term 2014

high score: Cambridge and computer gaming

Award-winning images: Two images by researchers at DAMTP won awards in this year’s EPSRC science photography competition. Taken by Dr Carola-Bibiane Schoenlieb, Joana Grah and Kostas Papafitsoros, Mathematical analysis can make you fly (right) won the People category, while Megan Davies Wykes clinched victory in the Discovery section.

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EASTER TERm 2014 | UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE NEwSlETTER | 3

WhaT’s NeW Your comments and contributions are always welcome. Please send them to the Editor at [email protected] deadline for the next issue is 15 July.

A SERIES OF COMPUTER-GENERATED images showing key areas of the North West Cambridge Development have been released.

The images are the first to be unveiled, and show the lots approved for planning. These include: • The local centre, incorporating the

supermarket, retail units, energy centre, police touchdown and key worker homes (pictured right)

• Postgraduate student accommodation buildings

• The Western Edge, a landscaped area of green, open space designed for public use

• The community centre • Accommodation blocks for the

University homes.Works on the site-wide

infrastructure are due to commence shortly. North West Cambridge is the largest single capital development project that the University has undertaken in its 800-year history.

Art open days will take place in June. One called ‘Tomorrow, Today’

will involve a huge, walk-through model of the paths and buildings of the development, and will be made entirely out of mud. The second installation called ‘One Billion Objects in Space’ is inspired by the Institute of

Astronomy’s role in the Gaia project, the first three-dimensional mapping of the Milky Way.

A MAJOR REVIEW has been launched into how the University can best manage its impact on the local and global environment.

The current environmental policy dates back to 2008 and needs modernising as the University continues to face up to the challenge of maintaining its global position while operating in a sustainable way.

The review committee hopes to create an environmental sustainability policy that covers teaching, research and administration.

With a student population of 19,000, more than 9,000 staff and an estate that produces an energy cost of £14.4m a year, Cambridge has a high environmental impact and large carbon footprint.

In the consultation phase, the

➔ For more information on the development and art open days, go to www.nwcambridge.co.uk

environmental policy review

committee has asked for the views of staff and students on key objectives, targets and how a successful policy might be implemented.

The committee will also decide if other, related policies such as the Travel Plan should be revised, and if new policies need to be created to complement the environmental policy. Examples of good and bad practice in sustainability will also be sought.

The committee is currently considering the results of an online questionnaire carried out in March and hearing verbal evidence from a range of people from across the University. Staff interested in taking part in focus groups can register their interest by emailing [email protected].

Future vision: the local centre and community facilities

New images offer vision of NWC future


WhaT’s NeW

gear up now for the arrival of le TourAS THE COUNTDOWN continues towards the arrival of the Tour de France in Cambridge on Monday 7 July, more information has been released on how the event will affect the local transport network.

Visitors to www.cambridgeshire.gov.uk/letourstage3 can see which roads off the route will be most affected, the position of stewarded pedestrian crossing points across the route and what the impact on local bus services will be.

Given the scale of the event Drummer Street bus station will be inaccessible. A bus hub will be created at the railway station in the south of Cambridge, and in the north buses will be stopping at Maids Causeway, in the Mitcham’s Corner area and at Queen’s Road.

In a change to previous plans Lensfield Road and Jesus Lane will now remain open until 7am to allow early access to the Grand Arcade and Park Street car parks.

With the race starting at 12.15pm, the roads on and connected to the route in Cambridge and South

rare roman pear comes to murray edwards – thanks to Charles darwinCAMBRIDGE COULD SOON be home to one of the UK’s oldest and rarest varieties of pear, thanks to some detective work and a new post funded by Murray Edwards garden.

This spring, gardeners at Murray Edwards and Christ’s joined the team at Trumpington Community Orchard for their annual grafting event, and this year’s knife work included grafts from the ancient Warden Pear, so-called because it grows only in the Bedfordshire village of Old Warden.

Grafting involves splicing together root stock with scion wood, the part of a fruit tree that bears the fruit, and the scion wood from the Warden Pear was brought to Cambridge by Murray

Cambridge roads will re-open by 6pm on 7 July after the Tour de France

Cambridgeshire will be closed at the following times:• In order to allow for the set up of

the start by Parker’s Piece, Gonville Place and Parkside will close on Sunday, 6 July from 5.30pm.

• At 4am on Monday 7 July, the following roads on the route will be

closed: Regent Street, St Andrew’s Street, Sidney Street, Bridge Street, St John’s Street, Trinity Street, King’s Parade and Trumpington Street.

• Also at 4am, roads which link directly to the route will close. These are: Park Terrace, Parker Street, Emmanuel Road, Victoria Avenue,

Drummer Street and Emmanuel Street.

• Then at 7am, Trumpington Road, Jesus Lane, Lensfield Road and the A1301 will be closed.

These road closures will remain in place until 3pm when a phased reopening will begin.

Edwards’ new RHS trainee Louise Cook.

A horticulture student at Shuttleworth College in Bedfordshire, Cook is now a part-time apprentice at Murray Edwards. Her post at the college is funded by a legacy from Nora Barlow, who was the granddaughter of Charles Darwin.

As well as giving the house and land on Huntingdon Road for the building of New Hall (now Murray Edwards), Barlow also donated royalties from Darwin’s journals, which she edited, to New Hall garden.

Cook was recruited via the Women’s Farm and Garden Association – a direct descendant of

the Women’s Land Army. “Best eaten after Christmas and

cooked for a long time, the Warden Pear is probably Roman,” she said. “It was first

cultivated in Old Warden’s Cistercian Abbey by the monks

during the 13th century.”According to Jo Cobb, head

gardener at Murray Edwards: “I had all the fruit trees in the college identified by the National Fruit Collection at Brogdale, and was really excited to find that we had an apple called Golden Noble, an 1820 variety from Norfolk. If the Warden Pear grafts take, we will plant three of this wonderful old variety in the college orchard next year.”

iN BRiEf➔ THE MUSEUM OF ZOOLOGY has been awarded £1.8m by the Heritage Lottery Fund for major redevelopment.

As well as displays and new interpretation, the grant will help create new stores for the collections.

The project will cost a total of £4.8m. The museum has already launched a major public fund-raising appeal for £3m.

The museum will be part of the new Cambridge conservation campus, which will be the hub of the largest cluster of conservation organisations in the world. Work on the new campus is already underway and the museum plans to reopen in summer 2016.

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gear up now for the arrival of le Tour New head: my arts and humanities vision

move away from the desk!

PROFESSOR MARTIN MILLETT has been appointed Head of the School of Arts and Humanities.

He takes up the post having spent the past 13 years as the Laurence Professor of Classical Archaeology in the Faculty of Classics.

The Fitzwilliam College Fellow said he wants the school to focus on its high-quality research and teaching, and to build on its world-class reputation. According to Millet: “My perspective is that the Arts and Humanities are fantastic in Cambridge. They are very diverse and there are brilliant people in all areas. I want to enhance our ambition to match that quality.”

“I think across the Arts and Humanities community everywhere in the country there has been a

tendency to feel that we are under siege with pressures like cuts in funding. But I think that is in many ways a false perception and has led some to feel that simply continuing to exist is itself a victory.

“What I want us to do is to focus on the quality of our work and knowing

that we are one of the best research centres in the world.”

Millett added there were several challenges to face, including continuing to attract the very best school leavers into undergraduate studies in Cambridge and then to support the best of those into postgraduate research.

“This will be a challenge given the levels of student debt undergraduate students can expect. I very much hope we can develop much stronger funding schemes through philanthropic donations to give generous scholarships to the very best graduate students,” he said.

Among the things he looks forward to is seeing the career progression of talented people within the school: “I’m particularly interested

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in seeing where the early- and mid-career researchers in the departments are heading and giving them what support I can to fulfil their potential.”

Millett studied in London for his undergraduate degree before pursuing his post-graduate studies at the University of Oxford.

Having spent a year as a museum curator for Hampshire County Council he took up a lectureship at Durham where he rose to a professorship in 1998 before moving on to Southampton and then, in 2001, to Cambridge. For the last four years he has also been the vice-president of the British Academy Board for Academy Sponsored Institutes and Societies, which is responsible for the academy’s overseas schools and institutions programme.

STAFF ARE BEING encouraged to get away from their desks and get involved in People Matter Week, which takes place this June.

Whether you want to learn to sing during your lunch hour, increase fitness with a Bollywood dance workout or learn how to manage stress, there’s something for everyone, say organisers.

Originally started as a day of events, People Matter Week has grown in just three years to cover a full week and will this year include a special session aimed at encouraging staff to discuss family-care issues.

A key ambition is to promote the work of staff support services, and the week will offer an insight into the whole wellbeing agenda.

Sigrid Fisher, Head of Equality and Diversity, said: “We often find that staff work ethics are so strong they find it hard to convince themselves to get away from their desks, so we really want to stress this year that we

do want people to take time out and come and take part.”

She added that she was particularly pleased to have a session for parents and carers, which has been arranged in recognition of the challenges caring for others can present to staff.

“We want the session to offer a chance for them to come and talk about what issues they face. Sometimes just knowing it is okay to discuss these issues helps.”

Another important aspect of the week will be the new University of Cambridge Sports Centre’s involvement.

Situated on the West Cambridge site it is currently one of the few community facilities available to those who live there.

The People Matter Week launch event will be held on 23 June.

➔ For more information about People Matter Week visit www.admin.cam.ac.uk/offices/hr/equality/events

Millett: aiming to build on Arts and Humanities’ world-class reputation


Cover feaTUre

From OXO – the world’s first video computer game – to legends like Elite and RuneScape, Cambridge has been at the heart of the UK’s games development industry for more than 60 years. Will Ham Bevan finds out why it’s such a magnet for games talent

IN THE FIELD of computing, the University of Cambridge is scarcely short of global firsts. For example, its Electronic Delay Storage Automatic Calculator (EDSAC) of 1949 is considered the earliest practical general-purpose electronic computer; and in 1953, the Cambridge Diploma in Computer Science became the world’s first taught course in computing.

Between those two landmarks sits a lesser-known landmark. In 1952, PhD student Alexander S Douglas developed the world’s first computer video game – a noughts and crosses emulator that he titled ‘OXO’. The program ran on the EDSAC, which occupied more than 200 square feet of the Mathematical Laboratory. Competing against an artificially intelligent opponent, players would input their moves on a telephone dial, and follow the action on a flickering cathode-ray tube.

More than 60 years on video games are big business in the UK. According to industry body TIGA, the games development sector contributes

around £1bn to Britain’s Gross Domestic Product each year, employing 9,000 skilled workers of whom 80 per cent are graduates. What’s more, Cambridge is at the very heart of the industry, home to a cluster of companies including Jagex, Frontier Developments, Geomerics, Guerrilla Cambridge, Ninja Theory and many more.

“Cambridge is thought to have 18 per cent of the games market,” says Adrian Page-Mitchell of the Centre for Computing History. “And depending on who you talk to, it employs anything between 1,200 and 4,000 people.”

A trip to the centre, located off Newmarket Road, offers a crash course in how the city became a magnet for games talent. The museum’s most popular displays are almost certainly the 8-bit machines designed by Cambridge companies in the computing boom of the early 1980s, and particularly the Sinclair ZX Spectrum and Acorn BBC Micro.

Today, the presence of technology giants such as Microsoft Research, Broadcom and ARM (a descendant of

game on!

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Elite, and its successor Elite: Dangerous, are games whose rich universe was the brainchild of Cambridge graduate David Braben


Acorn) makes Cambridge a particularly favourable location for software development, including games. This dates back to the 80s heyday of Sinclair and Acorn, says Page-Mitchell. “They were hardware people, and always on the lookout for software talent. So feelers went out to undergraduates, and you had these bedroom coders – of which the biggest ones were David Braben and Ian Bell, who wrote Elite.”

On its release in 1984, Elite was a startling piece of software: a space trading and combat game with revolutionary 3D graphics, open-ended gameplay and a vast universe. Co-writer David Braben has remained in Cambridge, where his company Frontier Developments is producing a 21st century reboot of the game, Elite: Dangerous, after raising a record £1.25m on the crowdfunding website Kickstarter.

Braben cites the close relationship between the University and the ‘Silicon Fen’ tech hub as a great advantage for games developers. It’s strengthened by organisations such as Games Eden and Creative Front, which organise events such as the annual Brains Eden gaming festival. “It all helps to cement the relationship between the town and the University in a very positive way, and give people opportunities to stay in Cambridge and work for Cambridge-based companies,” he says.

Teaching for gamingOne thing that the University lacks is any courses specifically geared to computer games, unlike institutions such as Anglia Ruskin, which runs a popular BSc in Computer Gaming Technology. However, Braben believes that a more generalist approach is best at undergraduate level: “You can pick up the vocational side very quickly. I’m not criticising any of the more specific courses, which teach some important things like team working, but I think it’s much more important to get a proper grounding

[in computer science].”It’s a view shared at Jagex, the UK’s

largest independent game developer. Co-founded by Cambridge Computer Science graduate Paul Gower in 2001, the current company is headquartered at St John’s Innovation Centre and is best known for RuneScape – the world’s largest free

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Above: You’re not in Cambridge anymore: RuneScape’s floating castles and dragonsBottom: A stylised view of Jagex’s RuneScape worldBelow: Star Tech: Frontier’s spacecraft take flight

“I want an opportunity to be using my computer science skills – I don’t want my degree just to be a ticket to something else”

MMORPG (massively multiplayer online role-playing game). Jagex is a regular recruiter from the University, both at graduate and doctoral level.

Chief executive officer Mark Gerhard says: “We value IQ and attitude over experience. A smart, ambitious, hungry graduate is best for us, as opposed to someone who has been in the industry for 20 years and either has a lot of bad habits or doesn’t want to learn anything new. But we’re competing for talent not just with Google and Microsoft but with Goldman Sachs.”

University talentYet despite the lure of chunky salaries in the City, the University’s brightest students are still drawn to gaming. Among this year’s Part 1B projects for undergraduates on the Computer Science Tripos are several within the sector. They include “Evolve a Pet”, which will create a game to teach school pupils about genomic sequencing, and a transport game project to enable users to explore the impact of their journeys around Cambridge.

Comp-sci students are also targeting firms concerned with gaming technology for their internships and work placements. Second-year student Sakunthala Panditharatne of Churchill College is looking forward to working with Oculus VR, developers of the Oculus Rift virtual-reality headset, who were recently acquired by Facebook for around £1.2bn. Already the winner of a Google technology prize at the age of 16 for her work in computer animation, she will be writing software to make the headset compatible with games.

Panditharatne plans to remain in the sector. “I think what I’ll end up doing in the next couple of years will be related to the 3D models that go into video games,” she says. “I want an opportunity to be using my computer science skills –

I don’t want my degree just to be a ticket to something else.”

It’s not just a matter of Cambridge talent flocking to established studios. Like the bedroom coders of the 80s, small, boutique games developers are

thriving again. The ability to distribute games online, and the need for simpler games for mobile platforms, means smaller outfits can flourish – and according to Jan Samols, who oversees the Computer Lab’s outreach activities, graduates are successfully going it alone.

She says: “I think Cambridge is unique in that it produces very entrepreneurial graduates, not only in gaming but in whatever area they may be interested in. I’ve catalogued more than 200 companies that have been started by Computer Lab graduates. Academically, we give them what they need to go it alone, and they can also draw inspiration from graduates who have gone before them and done extremely well.”

But it’s not merely as a graduate career choice that computer gaming permeates the University: it crops up throughout the faculties and departments, including in some unlikely quarters. In the Department of Education’s Centre for Children’s Literature, games are analysed alongside classic books to gain a more complete insight into what influences young people. Elsewhere, the High Performance Computing Service is employing a cluster of graphical processing units developed for game consoles to deliver vast computing power at a low operational cost.

What’s more, the Department of Engineering recently recruited a Senior Teaching Associate in Online Education and Computer Games Technology for an initiative to get school pupils interested in mechanics and engineering. Professor Richard Prager, head of the School of Technology, already maintains a website to help prospective students prepare for interviews. Now he hopes to take the project a step further using interactive games to capture teenagers’ interest.

He says: “I’ve noticed with my own kids and others that they spend a lot of time being enormously creative and ingenious in the way they play games such as Minecraft and Roblox. Now, suppose we could channel all that ingenuity into stuff relevant to engineering. That would be fantastic.”


kNoW yoUr UNiversiTy

TWO YEARS AGO, Cambridge Judge Business School (CJBS) HR Adviser Laura Whitehead took up a nine-month secondment in the HR Division’s Equality and Diversity team. After working at CJBS for six years she was keen to develop new skills and broaden her HR experience.

“The secondment appealed to me for lots of reasons,” shes says. “It was an opportunity to develop skills I’d identified through the Career Pathways process; it was a chance to gain experience in a different part of HR, a niche specialism; and because it was two grades higher.

“It meant I could find out what it’s like to perform at a higher level – but within the supportive

“Secondments cause a daisy chain effect, so we want to encourage departments to use these positions to generate more secondment opportunities”

The case for secondmentAs the University’s Secondment Development Initiative nears the end of its second year, Becky Allen finds out why secondments are good for staff, departments and the University

structure of a secondment.”Whitehead was one of the first

members of staff to benefit from the University’s Secondment Development Initiative, which was launched in 2013 to widen access to secondments among administrative staff.

According to Miranda Carr of the HR Division’s Personal and Professional Development team: “Secondments are widely used among administrative staff at the University, but they’ve tended to be local, informal arrangements. We wanted to give more people greater access to these opportunities and encourage departments to use secondments more, because they are a brilliant way to fill

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short-term vacancies at the same time as giving staff a way of developing their professional skills and experience.”

The initiative works by collecting and circulating details of potential secondments, and supports staff – and departments – interested in secondment. “The initiative isn’t about matching a discrete set of secondments with a select group of staff,” Carr explains, “but staff who are interested in secondment can join our secondment ‘pool’, and we’ll keep them informed about secondment opportunities or short-term vacancies that could fit the profile of a secondment. That means people in the pool don’t have to trawl the jobs site – we do that for them.”

It also offers practical help with the process, from advice on how secondments can support personal development plans to tools designed to help staff and their managers ensure that secondments deliver their development goals.

“If people come to us we’re able to reassure them that they will have the opportunity to return to their substantive position on completion of the secondment unless they’ve agreed otherwise,” she says. “And as this is a University-wide initiative encouraging departments to support secondments, we also want to give staff the confidence to approach their manager to discuss secondment.”

And there are good reasons for everyone to support the initiative, because everyone profits. “Secondments benefit staff by developing their skills. The host department benefits by being able to fill a short-term vacancy with someone who knows the University already but can bring a fresh approach, and the home department benefits when staff return with experience from a different environment,” says Carr.

Secondments are also good for the University as a whole, she believes: “Retaining people is a major plus. When people want new challenges, they often look for jobs elsewhere, so secondments mean we don’t lose their expertise and knowledge. We have so much talent in the University, the fact that we can harness it in different environments is a great way of managing that talent.”

Whitehead’s experience is a case in point. “It’s been very positive. I’ve grown in confidence, and it’s raised my profile – particularly with senior staff in the HR Division – so if other opportunities arise I’d be able to take advantage of them,”

she explains. “I also got experience of project management, which I’ve used since I returned to CJBS. And because I came back with more confidence and a different outlook – the things you get from working in a challenging environment – my manager can delegate more to me.”

There have been knock-on benefits along the line too. Whitehead’s role at CJBS was covered by a school’s HR administrator (who has since joined CJBS’s HR team permanently, thanks to the experience she gained via the secondment), while the school’s post generated a third secondment opportunity, this time for someone in a finance role who wanted to try a different specialism (one which she found suited her better).

According to Carr: “The interesting thing about secondments is that there’s a daisy chain effect; you have someone taking up a secondment and that means their post is available, so we want to encourage departments to use these positions to generate more secondment opportunities.”

Administrative staff, however, aren’t the only members of the University using secondments to widen their horizons. From 2010 to 2013, Dr Catherine Rae of the Department of Materials Science & Metallurgy was a Royal Society Research Fellow, spending 50 per cent of her time at Rolls-Royce in Derby.

Unlike many academics, Rae is not new to industry, having collaborated with Rolls-Royce since 1982. For her, the Industrial Fellowship was about building on a long-standing relationship and getting under the skin of Rolls-Royce as a business. “It was more about deepening that relationship and seeing Rolls-Royce from the inside rather than from the perspective of a researcher,” she explains.

That insider status – and the insight it affords – proved invaluable. According to Rae: “It gave me the opportunity to sit on more nuts and bolts committees at Rolls-Royce, which let me see the complexity of a business that produces one of the most complex manufactured items in the world.”

And although the experience wasn’t without its challenges – not least the amount of travel involved and issues associated with teaching and study leave – she believes it transformed the way she sees herself.

“It gave my self-confidence and my career a great boost. Being granted an Industrial Fellowship was probably

the deciding factor in applying for a Readership,” Rae says. “And when I look back at the things I’ve achieved over the past five years, many of them stemmed from that.”

And for industrial colleagues, spending time in University departments through secondments can be equally productive.

Dr Gary Tustin, scientific adviser at Schlumberger, spent a year in the Department of Chemistry in 2012. Through the secondment the company built a long-term relationship with the University, paving the way to sharing equipment as well as raising the profile of Schlumberger – a local employer – among staff and students.

Now back at Schlumberger, Tustin says he wouldn’t hesitate to recommend secondment to others. “Even though it was weird going to the pub with 23 year-olds – who do lots of discussing of their projects over a pint – it was lovely to be in that environment again,” he says. “I got much more out of it than I thought I would. I got a whole load of interesting new ways of looking at, and doing, things. We all develop habits, and it’s only by being in a new environment that you learn there may be better ways of doing some things.”

More information about the University’s Secondment Policy and the Secondment Development Initiative is at www.admin.cam.ac.uk/offices/hr/ppd/pdp/secondment/

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The term ‘secondment’ refers to the temporary movement or ‘loan’ of an employee to another part of an organisation.

Secondments can be full or part time, and last from a few weeks, for example working on a specific project, to a year, for example covering maternity leave.

There may be changes to terms and conditions. These will be agreed in a secondment agreement drawn up by the host department’s HR business Manager team.

A recent best practice study on academic-industry secondments for knowledge transfer, undertaken with support from the University’s EPSRC Impact Acceleration Account, is available at www.admin.cam.ac.uk/offices/rso/iaa

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“Being granted an Industrial Fellowship was probably the deciding factor in applying for a Readership”


SOMETIME IN THE 15TH CENTURY, a manuscript giving intricate details of how to build a device to measure the movements of the planets found its way into the Perne Library at Peterhouse. Despite the excellent record-keeping of the librarians of the time, no-one knows who it was written by, or how it came to be there.

By the 1950s, a PhD student at Christ’s College, Derek de Solla Price – a colourful character forging his own path in the newly evolving subject of the history of science – believed he had found some of the answers. As part of his research into early scientific manuscripts, he had come across a book, dated 1393, which he named the Equatorie of the Planetis. The manuscript was believed to be just another medieval discussion of astrolabes, instruments that had been widely used since antiquity to observe the positions of the stars. “It was a rather dull volume, traditionally attributed to an obscure astronomer, and it had probably hardly been opened in the last 500 years,” Price later wrote. “As I opened it, the shock was considerable. The instrument pictured there was quite unlike an

heavens above

A 600-year-old astronomical document, claimed by some to be written by Geoffrey Chaucer, is now moving into the modern era. Jessica Penrose explores the fascinating story of how successive Cambridge academics have discovered and rediscovered its mysteries

behiNd The sCeNes

astrolabe – or anything else immediately recognisable.”

Combing through the manuscript to try to find out more about the mysterious device described there, Price came across the word ‘Chaucer’ partly obscured in the margin. Could this be an as-yet-undiscovered work by Geoffrey Chaucer? After all, he had written the well-received Treatise on the Astrolabe only a year before, and it was arguable that the handwriting could be his. Price dearly wanted to believe it, and his, albeit cautious, claims that it could well be Chaucer’s work quickly caught the imagination of the world’s press.

Now thoroughly fascinated by the manuscript and its purpose, Price decided to try to recreate the instrument so carefully described in its pages. Enlisting the help of technicians in the Cavendish Laboratory, he followed the instructions step by step, fashioning a six-foot-wide wooden disk, with complex measurements around its edge, and a similarly sized brass ring and pointer. It was clearly designed to be a computational device, assisting a medieval astronomer to accurately

calculate the position of the five known planets at the time (Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn), together with the sun and the moon, all of which were believed to orbit around the Earth against a background of ‘fixed’ stars.

For a time, the equatorium was prominently displayed in the newly opened Whipple Museum, but eventually it was moved into storage to make way for refurbishment. And from there, it slipped into obscurity, only emerging in 2012 thanks to the efforts of PhD candidate Seb Falk, who stumbled across its hiding place almost by accident.

“As well as studying the Equatorie manuscript, I’d been reading about the history of the Whipple, and had come across a reference to a model being made by Price. I wanted to find out more, so I asked for the related paperwork from the curatorial staff,” says Falk, who is researching medieval astronomical instruments in the Department of the History and Philosophy of Science. “I wasn’t expecting to find the actual model, but the curators took me to the storeroom, and tucked away in there was the equatorium... I was able to make

“I wasn’t expecting to find the actual model, but when the curators took me to the storeroom, tucked away in there was the equatorium”


the connection with Price – and it was wonderful to see it as so few examples of equatoria have survived.”

So why is it so hard to find an original equatorium, when there are many examples of astrolabes in museums and private collections? Scott Mandelbrote, Director of Studies in History at Peterhouse and the Perne Librarian, explains: “Astrolabes were generally made entirely of brass, and were small and pretty to look at, so they were popular collectors’ items – whereas the greater size of equatoria meant that they were more likely to be made at least partly from cheaper, less durable materials like wood. This could more readily be reused for other purposes – as indeed their maker may have intended all along.”

Falk adds: “In a way, astrolabes were the iPhone or Swiss Army knife of their day – a potentially useful device which was also a status symbol. You might not understand how to use all of its functions, but owning one would lend you an aura of sophistication and knowledge.”

Now a new programme, which involves a unique collaboration between Peterhouse, the Whipple Museum and

the University Digital Library, will see the development of an electronic working model of the equatorium, as well as full digitisation of the Equatorie of the Planetis manuscript. Visitors to the museum will be able to use the computer generated model to find out the positions of the planets on any given date from 1393, and will also be able to see the original model built by Price.

“As there are not many working examples still in existence, we felt that it was important to make a model for the modern age,” explained Mandelbrote. “I’m sure that if the original writer of the manuscript had been able to construct a digital model, he would have done. ”

And was that writer Chaucer? The general feeling amongst current scholars is that it was not. The handwriting might be similar to known works by Chaucer, but it was of a style that was widely used in formal writing at that time.

So the debate still rages, which Mandelbrote sees as a positive factor, “It allows you to put the manuscript into context. Rather than just attributing it to someone we already know a lot about, it actually opens up possibilities.”

Above: Price’s equatoriumLeft: Falk with astrolabe and his own equatorium

Falk agrees. “For me, the far more exciting thing is that this shows that there was a whole community of astronomers at the time, who were using documents like this to help them carry out calculations with a high degree of accuracy. We still do not know exactly how it came to be in Cambridge, but we believe it may have been brought here to teach students who were interested in astronomy and astrology, which were inseparable areas of study at the time.”

Huw Jones, Metadata Specialist for the Digital Library, welcomes the debates surrounding the manuscript. “It is a common misconception that the old and rare material we hold in our special collections is somehow dead, and that while the items might be attractive or interesting to look at they have nothing new to tell us. The story of the Equatorie document tells us that this isn’t true. This 600-year-old manuscript was little known until Price’s rediscovery of it in 1951, and since then has been the source of an important and exciting academic debate which is still going on today.”

The Whipple Museum launches the digital equatorium this month.

Whipple Museum: www.hps.cam.ac.uk/whipple

See Seb falk building his own equatorium: http://astrolabesandstuff.blogspot.co.uk

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people

The Revd Dr Jeremy morris has been elected as 44th Master of Trinity Hall. He takes over from Professor Martin Daunton in October 2014. Currently Dean, Fellow, and Director of Studies in Theology at King’s College, Morris was Dean at Trinity Hall from 2001-2010.

After studying Modern History at Balliol College, Oxford, he worked in management consultancy and university management before reading Theology at Clare College, Cambridge. He trained for the Anglican ordained ministry at Westcott House and became curate at St Mary’s, Battersea, before returning to Cambridge in 1996 as Director of Studies and then Vice-Principal of Westcott House.

Morris is a Senior Associate of the Cambridge Theological Federation, and an Affiliated Lecturer at the Faculty of Divinity at the University. Amongst his Church of England commitments, he is

New masters at st edmund’s and Trinity halldeputy chair of the Church of England’s Faith and Order Commission, and Director of the Archbishop’s Examination in Theology.

Commenting on his election Morris said: “I’m delighted and deeply honoured to have been invited to serve Trinity Hall as its next Master, and look forward to reacquainting myself not only with the current students, Fellows, and staff, but also of course the wider college community.”

matthew Bullock has been elected Master of St Edmund’s, where he succeeds Professor Paul Luzio in October. An economist and banker, Bullock has a long connection with Cambridge and the University. He read History at Peterhouse, was a founding member of Cambridge Judge Business School’s Advisory Board and its longest serving member, and from 1999-2012 was a member of the University’s Audit Committee.

iN BRiEf➔ Craig Brierley has joined the University’s Office of Communications and External Affairs as Head of Research Communications. Brierley, who was previously Media Relations Manager at the Wellcome Trust, will be leading the team responsible for showcasing the University’s research via media relations, print and online. “It’s an incredible opportunity and privilege to be working with academics at one of the world’s leading universities,” he said. “Cambridge has so many fascinating stories to tell and I look forward to getting out and about with my colleagues to meet our academics and help them raise the profile of their work.”➔ Dr Joya Chatterji is the new Director of the Centre of South Asian Studies. She takes up her post from October 2014.➔ Neil Stott has been appointed Senior Teaching Faculty in Social Innovation at Cambridge Judge Business School. He founded Keystone Development Trust, a charity working with socially excluded communities, and was recently part of a successful funding bid to set up and grow social ventures in the East of England.

He was a non-executive director and chairman of the Audit and Business Development Committees of the Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, and in 2013 was appointed Chairman of Transforming Pathology Partnership.

Earlier in his career, as a local bank manager in Cambridge and creator of the bank’s international technology financing team, he was heavily involved in the ‘Cambridge phenomenon’. During the 1980s, he was a member of the UK Cabinet Advisory Committee on Applied Research and Development.

Bullock said: “I am delighted and honoured to have been elected to serve as Master of St Edmund’s College. I look forward to working with the Fellows, staff, students, and the wider college community, in taking the college forward through its next stage of development.”

other appointments➔ Professor Roel Sterckx of the Faculty of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies is the University’s new Race Equality Champion. Three equality champions were established in 2009 to demonstrate senior leadership and support for equality and diversity. “The University has become more diverse than ever across all categories of staff. Our success therefore depends on our ability to draw on the best possible contributions made by staff members from all backgrounds,” he said.

“Ethnic minorities and staff members who have come to Cambridge from elsewhere not infrequently have a different experience of the University as a workplace. We are keen to identify these distinct experiences, see how they influence aspirations, and explore how the University can provide the best possible platform to allow this diverse talent pool to flourish.” ➔ Professor Richard Prager has been appointed Head of the School of Technology. Prager was Deputy Head (Teaching) at the Department of Engineering until 2012 when he took a sabbatical to work on a website to help school-leavers compete for engineering places at leading universities.

“The school represents an amazingly adaptable group of academics who like challenges which are important to society,” he said.

“My vision is that the school should help the departments to develop and deliver strategic plans that are consistent with the goals of the University and help the central services to support the exciting work going on in the departments.” ➔ Christopher Page, Professor of Medieval Music and Literature, has been appointed as the next Gresham Professor of Music at Gresham College, London. Author of The Christian west and its singers: the first thousand years, Page also founded the Gothic Voices ensemble with whom he recorded a series of award-winning discs on the Hyperion label. Founded in 1597, Gresham College is London’s oldest higher education institution, providing free public talks in the City of London for over 400 years.

As Gresham Professor, a three-year appointment supported by the City of London Corporation and the Mercers’ Company, Page will deliver six public lectures a year. For details, visit www.gresham.ac.uk

Matthew Bullock

Professor Sterckx

Professor Prager

Professor Page

The Revd Dr Jeremy Morris


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adverTisemeNTs

The University of Cambridge accepts no responsibility for the advertisements or their content.

hoUses To reNT (Uk)

➔ Dunoon, ArgyllCharming, four-star self-catering cottage on shore of Holy Loch in Strone near the seaside town of Dunoon in an area of outstanding natural beauty. The coastal village in the Cowal Peninsula, in Scotland’s first national park, is surrounded by rugged glens and forests. Fantastic for wildlife, walking, cycling, touring, sailing, fishing or golfing. Within the Lomond and Trossachs National Park. Sleeps up to four. Call Linda and John on 01480 880395 or email [email protected]. More information at www.strathspeyholidaycottage.co.uk.➔ Butley, SuffolkComfortable, spacious, well equipped cottage with piano in Butley, Suffolk. Available for Aldeburgh Festival, weekends and short breaks throughout the year. Close to Orford, Sutton Hoo, Snape and Minsmere. Sleeps up to eight. Call Miranda on (01223) 357035 or email [email protected]. More information at www.butleycottage.co.uk.➔ CornwallTraditional granite cottage in peaceful countryside between St Ives and Penzance. Sleeps five in three bedrooms, with comfortable sitting room, kitchen-breakfast room and bathroom. Sunny garden and off-road parking. Close to beaches and coves, coastal path, sub-tropical gardens, historic properties. Email Penny on [email protected] or phone (01638) 507192. Details and photos at www.tinminerscottage.co.uk.➔ North Yorkshire coastComfortable, Georgian house available for holiday lets in Robin Hood’s Bay. Large garden, sea views, central heating and private parking. Sleeps nine plus but special rates for couples and small parties. On the ground floor there is a kitchen, dining room and sitting room. On the first floor there are three bedrooms (one en-suite), family bathroom and a further sitting room. There are two further bedrooms and a bathroom on the second floor. For further information contact Val Everton on 07592 590727 or [email protected].➔ Southwold, Suffolk17th century Leman cottage, three bedrooms, well equipped, wifi, in peaceful countryside. Off-road parking, enclosed sunny garden. Weekly lets in school holidays, flexible short breaks rest of year. Easy walk, cycle or drive to explore

Heritage Coast, historic churches and more. Personally managed. One hour 40 minutes drive from Cambridge. More info and for more cottages sleeping two to eight see www.suffolkcoastalcottages.co.uk or phone Trish Gower on01502 478078.

hoUses To reNT (overseas)

➔ languedoc, franceBeautiful apartment B&B near Pézenas. Explore and unwind. Mountains, sea, domaines, markets, restaurants, properties. Independently accessed B&B apartment in a 17th century circulade village house with a tower. Sleeps two in comfort. Only 30 mins from Beziers, 60 mins from Montpellier, 90 mins from Carcassonne airports.Whet your appetite, visit: www.lapetitetour.co.uk.➔ languedoc countrysideHistoric village house in beautiful Languedoc countryside, with spring-fed lake, river swimming, walks, Cathar castles, markets and vineyards close by. Stylishly renovated, with panoramic views of Corbières hills from roof terrace; use of garden. Sleeps four or five with two bedrooms, bathroom and ensuite; state-of-the-art kitchen; separate dining and living rooms. 40 minutes from Carcassonne airport. Car essential. Available now for short (€550-€750) and long lets. Email [email protected] for more information or visit www.corbiereshouse.com/index.php/contact.➔ Dordogne, franceA perfect holiday choice in a beautiful setting. Explore the ancient bastides, the vineyards and the superb countryside of the Dordogne valley and Lot et Garonne. Modern, well-equipped gite. Sleeps two. Sunny terrace with panoramic view. Garden. Garden furniture. Private parking. Cool bedroom. Light, airy living room. Kitchen area. Bathroom with shower. Washing machine. BBQ. All-inclusive rates with linen. Available all year. Bergerac airport (Ryanair) 25 minutes. For more information visit www.lecabanon.co.uk.➔ Provence, franceLarge, comfortable flat in famous Côte Bleue resort of Carry-le-Rouet, close to the Camargue, Marseilles (European capital of culture 2013) and all Provençal places of interest such as Arles, Avignon, Aix-en-Provence, St Rémy-de-Provence. Seafront, beach and coves within 100 metres. Excellent for swimming,

snorkelling, scuba diving, sailing, walking and cycling. Thirty minutes from Marseilles airport or Marseilles TGV railway station. Sleeps six comfortably. Private parking. WiFi network. Contact Anita Ogier on [email protected].➔ Hydra, GreeceHistoric 1810 mansion lovingly restored by family of original owners and converted into a beautiful boutique hotel. Located on a car-free island opposite the Peloponnese and only 200 metres from the port (where sea taxis to beaches and coves can be taken). Cafes and restaurants a short walk away, although the house is situated in a quiet area with courtyards, garden and veranda with lovely views. High-quality suites/rooms with authentic furnishings. Jacuzzi/internet available. Email [email protected] or visit www.cotommatae.gr/en-us/home/cotommatae-hydra.➔ Umbria, italyHouse to rent in Umbrian countryside in Italy. Equidistant between Cortona and Perugia, close to Lake Trasimeno. Traditional old farmhouse, refurbished to high standard in 2013, overlooking beautiful valley. Large, mature and shady garden with an olive grove. Swimming pool with glorious views. Walking trails direct from the house. Sleeps eight. Still some availability for 2014. Price ranges from £900 to £1800 per week. Contact [email protected] or 07771 700501.➔ Amalfi Coast, italySmall B&B in peaceful, traffic-free mountain village above Positano. Ideal for those seeking a quiet mountain retreat with modern conveniences. All rooms ensuite with panoramic sea views of the Amalfi coast. Situated on famous Sentiero degli Dei (Footpath of the Gods). English speaking host. Double room and breakfast from 70 euros per night. Easyjet flights to Naples from Stansted. Phone Penny Marrone on 01954 210681. Further information and photos at http://ninobb.moonfruit.com.

serviCes

➔ Cambridge Regional College art classesArt classes at Cambridge Regional College: Pottery, Digital Photography, Printmaking, Stained Glass, Start with Art, Creative Metal Craft, Jewellery, Creative Woodcraft. Classes start throughout the year. Visit www.camre.ac.uk or call 01223 226315.

➔ lovely food, sensible pricesThe University Social Club (USC) in Mill Lane is the ideal place for lunch and to unwind after work. It boasts real ales, delicious, affordable food at lunchtime, and snooker, pool, darts and table tennis. The club has function and meeting rooms available for hire, and is open to all University staff, students and affiliates. The USC is open from 12 to 2pm and 5pm until 10.30pm Monday to Friday. Various dancing classes (salsa, tango and ceroc) are held most week nights. For further information phone 38090 or email [email protected].➔ Bottisham GarageFriendly, independent garage servicing all makes and models of car. MOT tests, diagnostics, brakes and tyres all catered for. Free courtesy car by arrangement. 10 per cent discount on labour to University card holders when mentioned at time of booking. Free MOT test last Thursday of every month. Phone 01223 811666 for appointments.

volUNTeers

➔ Volunteer for Open CambridgeExciting opportunity to volunteer with Open Cambridge 2014. Running in conjunction with the National Heritage Open Day scheme, Open Cambridge celebrates the history, heritage and culture of Cambridge with a programme of open events. It aims to provide members of the community with special access to some of the most important places in the city which they would not usually be able to visit or enjoy. For more information on how to get involved, visit www.cam.ac.uk/open-cambridge. ➔ Volunteer with the University of Cambridge museumsThinking about trying something with a difference and meeting new people? Whatever your experience and interests you’ll find a range of volunteering opportunities at the eight University museums and Botanic Garden. The next call out is for Summer at the Museums family programme. Or why not sign up to our bank of Events Volunteers? Keep an eye on our Get Involved webpage: www.cam.ac.uk/museums-and-collections/get-involved.➔ BioBlitz volunteers neededWe need volunteers for our BioBlitz, the 24-hour survey of biodiversity which this year is taking place at Madingley Hall between 5pm Friday 27 and 5pm Saturday 28 June 2014.

To take part, please contact Ros Wade, Zoology Museum Education Officer by email: [email protected].➔ Volunteers neededRainbow Saver Anglia Credit Union needs volunteers to staff the information point at Mandela House. We also need people with specific financial skills on an ‘as and when basis’, and finally we need a web designer/manager.For further information contact Cambridge co-ordinator Jan Howieson on 01223 244478 until 9pm or 07434 940739 or [email protected].

oTher NoTiCes

➔ Chesterton Rowing ClubFriendly Cambridge rowing club recruiting men of all ages and abilities. Chesterton Rowing Club could be for you – whether you want to row to win races, get fit or to meet new people. With a cheap initial training fee and a low monthly fee it’s cheaper than joining a gym and you get to row on the River Cam. The club takes part in the annual Town Bumps and in 2013 won the coveted John Jenner Trophy. The men’s crew also take part in off-Cam races and regattas. To enquire about joining email training co-ordinator Simon Emmings: [email protected].➔ CAmbens CarsFrom 1 April Tusker is providing the University’s CAMbens Cars salary exchange employee benefit. CAMbens Cars is a salary exchange car scheme enabling eligible employees to lease fully insured cars for two years, together with maintenance, tyre and glass replacement, road fund licences, servicing, breakdown assistance and accident management. The salary exchange arrangement means employees can receive tax and National Insurance savings, as well benefiting from attractive discounts. For further information visit www.admin.cam.ac.uk/offices/hr/staff/benefits/cars/


prizes, aWards aNd hoNoUrs

awards➔ Professor michael Akam (Department of Zoology) has been awarded the Zoological Society of London’s highest award, the Frink Medal.➔ Dr Abir Al-Tabbaa of the Department of Engineering has been elected Fellow of the Institution of Civil Engineers.➔ PhD student Tiina Annus and liam Reese Wilson of the Department of Psychiatry won the poster prize at the Alzheimer’s Disease in Down Syndrome conference.➔ Professor Donald Broom (Department of Veterinary Medicine) has won this year’s Sir Patrick Moore Award from the RSPCA for his outstanding contribution to animal welfare science.➔ Professor Christopher Clark (Faculty of History) has won the 2014 Bruno Kreisky Prize for Political Literature from the Karl Renner Institute, the academic foundation of the Social Democratic Party of Austria. The prize recognises the impact of his book, The sleepwalkers: how Europe went to war in 1914.➔ Stuart Conibear from Downing College has been named Elior UK Chef of the Year. The award was presented at an awards ceremony at the Imperial War Museum Duxford.➔ Against a field of 250 entries, PhD student megan Davies Wykes of the Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics has won first prize in the Discovery category of the EPSRC science photography competition for her image of salt water accelerating into fresh water. The image illustrates mixing of two fluids of different densities, known as Rayleigh-Taylor instability, which is of great interest to oceanographers in their quest to understand the ocean and its effect on climate.➔ Professor Christopher Dobson (Department of Chemistry) has won the 2014 Heineken Prize for Biochemistry and Biophysics – one of science’s most prestigious awards – for his work to identify the root causes of disorders including Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s diseases.➔ Professor Emeritus of Radiology and Master of Peterhouse Adrian K Dixon has been awarded the Gold Medal from the European Society of Radiology for his lifetime contribution to medicine and radiology. According to Dixon: “This award represents a major recognition for all the exciting work in radiology which has emanated from Cambridge over the last few decades. It has been a large team

effort and we should not forget the extraordinary fundraising within the community which made much of it possible.”➔ Professor Dame Ann Dowling (Department of Engineering) has been awarded the American Society of Mechanical Engineers’ Kate Gleason Award. The award recognises her contributions to engine technology, and her leadership in industry-university research and engineering education.➔ Finding my way, an animated film about what it’s like leaving care, has won a BFI Future Film Award. The film was made by young people leaving care and led by Valerie Dunn of the Department of Psychiatry.➔ Professor Robin franklin of the School of Clinical Medicine has been awarded the International Prize in Canine Health for his world-leading work in how healing and repair in the central nervous system works.➔ The Automatic Statistician, a project led by Professor Zoubin Ghahramani of the Department of Engineering, has won a $750,000 Google Focused Research Award.➔ Professor Phil Gibbard has been awarded the André Dumont Medal by Geologica Belgica, the Belgian national geological society. The medal was presented in Ghent on 1 April 2014 in recognition of his contribution to Quaternary geology.➔ Dr meritxell Huch (Gurdon Institute) has won this year’s 3Rs Prize. Awarded by the NC3Rs, the prize is for a piece of scientific research with the greatest potential impact on the replacement, refinement and reduction of animal use in research.➔ Cambridge spin-out XO1 has won the Business Weekly Startup of the Year Award. Founded by Professor James Huntington of the Cambridge Institute for Medical Research last year with $11 million investment from life sciences investor Index Ventures, XO1 is developing a new anticoagulant drug, ichorcumab. ➔ The Science Council’s list of top 100 UK scientists includes many Cambridge names: Professor James Jackson (Department of Earth Sciences), lord martin Rees (Institute of Astronomy), Professor Christopher Bishop (Centre for Science & Policy), Sir Alan fersht, Professor Shankar Balasubramanian and Dr Peter Wothers of the Department of Chemistry, Professor Andy Hopper (Computer Laboratory),

Professor Dame Ann Dowling

Dr Abir Al-Tabbaa

Professor Martin Johnson

Professor Robert Mair

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and Professor Dame Athene Donald (Department of Physics).➔ The Society for Reproduction and Fertility has awarded Professor martin Johnson (Department of Physiology, Development and Neuroscience) the Marshall Medal for 2014. This is the Society’s highest honour and is awarded for outstanding contribution to the study of fertility and reproduction.➔ Professor Brian Josephson (Department of Physics) and Professor John loughlin of the Department of Politics and International Studies have been elected Fellows of the Learned Society of Wales.➔ Professor Vassilis Koronakis (Department of Pathology) has been elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Microbiology.➔ Professor Peter St George-Hyslop of the Cambridge Institute for Medical Research has been chosen as laureate of the 2014 Dan David Prize for his work on memory disorders.➔ Professor Azim Surani of the Gurdon Institute has been named one of the first five scientists to take part in the Jawaharlal Nehru Science Fellowship. The new scheme is aimed at boosting India’s research base, and fellows will work part time in a laboratory of their choice in India for a total of 12 months, spread over three years.➔ Professor Robert mair (Department of Engineering) has been appointed Chair of the Department for Transport’s Science Advisory Council.➔ PhD student Jan mertens (Department of Physics) has won silver at the SET for Britain poster competition in the House of Commons. The event helps politicians understand more about the UK’s thriving science and engineering base and rewards some of the strongest scientific and engineering research being undertaken in the UK.➔ Professor Sir John meurig Thomas of the Department of Materials Science and Metallurgy has been appointed President of the Royal Eisteddfod of Wales. This year’s Eisteddfod is in Llanelli on 1-9 August.➔ Professor David Reynolds (Faculty of History) has won the 2014 PEN Hessell-Tiltman Prize for History for his book The long shadow: the Great War and the twentieth century. One hundred years on from the war’s outbreak, this year brought strong competition for WWI books but the chair of judges, Anne Chisholm said: “If you only read one book about the First World War in this

Dr Meri Huch


Cambridge’s two new doctoral training centres for sensors and analysis

TWO NEW CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY Centres for Doctoral Training (CDTs) are to be funded as part of a package unveiled in March by Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne MP.

The new centres are the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) CDT in Sensor Technologies and Application and the EPSRC CDT in Analysis (Cambridge Centre for Analysis).

The CDT in Sensor Technologies and Application builds on CamBridgeSens, the University’s strategic network in sensor research. Professor Clemens Kaminski of the Department of Chemical Engineering and Biotechnology, and Director of the CDT, said: “Sensors are a pervasive technology now, impacting on every aspect of our lives, and markets are already thought to exceed £300bn globally.

“There is enormous potential here for UK industry and academia to capitalise on these developments, but there are challenges too. Sensor innovation requires foundations in incredibly diverse fields. Traditional,

single-discipline PhD programmes are not suited for this task. The CDT will act like a ‘virtual superdepartment’ in sensor technologies to educate the next generation of sensor champions.”

The Cambridge Centre for Analysis also comes on the back of previous high achievement in this area. “We are happy to be able to build on the success of the last four years – and look forward to training some of the best mathematical talent around in the next five cohorts of our CDT,” said Director of the CDT, Professor James Norris of the Department of Pure Maths and Mathematical Statistics.

The EPSRC and other research councils have been able to fund these new centres, a total of 22 across the country, following a £106m investment announced in the budget. According to EPSRC chief executive Professor David Delpy: “The CDT model has proved highly popular with universities and industry and these new centres will mean that the UK is even better placed to maintain the vital supply of trained scientists and engineers.”

anniversary year, read The long shadow. David Reynolds writes superbly and his analysis is compelling and original.”➔ Professor Trevor Robbins (Department of Psychology) is one of three European scientists to share Denmark’s one million euros Brain Prize, the world’s largest prize for brain research, for their pioneering research on higher brain functions.➔ Dr Rosemary Rodd of the Computing Service has been awarded the RSPCA’s Queen Victoria Bronze Medal for her work as a volunteer for the charity over 30 years.➔ Dr Philippa Steele (Faculty of Classics) has been awarded the 2014 Evans-Pritchard Lectures at All Souls College, Oxford. Her lectures, on society and writing in ancient Cyprus, will be given in May and published as a monograph.➔ Dr Keith S Taber of the Faculty of Education has been awarded the Royal Society of Chemistry’s 2014 Education Award, which recognises a major, high level contribution to education in the chemical sciences over a sustained period of time.➔ Courtney Gill (Department of Land Economy) has won Female Undergraduate of the Year in the national TARGETjobs competition. Her prize includes a placement with Rolls-Royce.

prizes, aWards aNd hoNoUrs

Dr Philippa Steele

Professor Michael Akam

Valerie Dunn

THREE CAMBRIDGE COLLEGE buildings have been singled out in the 2013 Cambridge Design and Construction Awards. The mcGrath Centre for St Catharine’s College was awarded best Alteration or Extension of an Existing Building, providing the college with a new auditorium and courtyard space.

Designed by Cambridge-based RH Partnership, the centre incorporates a beautiful auditorium with retracting seating and wall, as well as a new student bar and JCR, additional meeting rooms and a courtyard space. The building is named after college alumnus Harvey McGrath whose generous gift helped fund the project.

The restored Divinity School at St John’s College won the 2013 Award for Conservation of an Existing Building. More than three years of planning, archaeological excavation and refurbishment went into the restoration of the Victorian building to provide a

Cambridge buildings win awardslarge central hall, several teaching rooms and a 180-seat theatre.

The Divinity School was built for the University on land owned by St John’s in 1878 by the architect and author Basil Champneys, who also designed Newnham College and Manchester’s John Rylands Library. The school served as the location for the Faculty of Divinity until the year 2000, when the Faculty moved to its current home on the Sidgwick Site. After this, ownership of the building went to the college.

Michael Vanioli, lead architect on the project, said: “I am very pleased that the Divinity School won the Cambridge Design and Construction Award. Congratulations to everyone who was involved in the restoration. This project was a true team effort.”

The People’s Choice Award for Best Building of the year was won by the new student accommodation block at Corpus Christi College’s leckhampton site,

off Grange Road, which was designed by Bland Brown and Cole architects. Second in the public vote was the new home for Materials Science and Metallurgy at West Cambridge.

The awards are co-sponsored by the Cambridge Forum for the Construction Industry and Cambridge City Council.

Susan Smith, the city council’s senior conservation and design officer, said: “The awards celebrate the more recent, high-quality developments that have been built in the city, and promote continued design excellence.”

Two University buildings are shortlisted for awards from the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors (RICS).The University of Cambridge Sports Centre is shortlisted in the RICS East of England Awards in both the Community Benefit and the Tourism and Leisure categories, while the new home for materials Science & metallurgy is also shortlisted in the Community benefit category.

The RICS award winners will be announced this summer.

Shortlisted for RICS award: Materials Science & Metallurgy

The Divinity School wins conservation award


Staff Newsletter - Easter Term 2014

Documents

university secondments

secondment page

new skills

selection of staff

medieval astronomy page

new signs

delicate work

detective work