Comment 191 - March 2010

The College newsletter Issue no 191 | March 2010

| 3 Somerset House – next steps | 5 King’s partners Cheltenham Festivals| 9 Profile: Professor Eeva Leinonen | 16 International partnerships update

Comment

King’s and the Cheltenham Festivals celebrated their new partnership at a launch event on the evening of 20 January in the Great Hall, Strand Campus, attended by more than 150 guests. King’s will partner all four of this year’s Festivals – science, jazz, literature and music. The launch celebration featured performances from jazz trio Curios (pianist Tom Cawley is pictured above). See page 5 for the full story.

THE COLLEGE HAS FORMED AN alliance with GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) to enable its world renowned Drug Control Centre to operate a World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) accredited satellite laboratory during the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games.

‘...excellent science can play a key role in ensuring the Games are conducted to the highest ethical standards.’

Professor David Cowan, Head of the Department of Forensic Science & Drug Monitoring and Director of the Drug Control Centre, will lead the partnership between GSK and King’s. He played a key role in the successful 2012 Olympic bid, and has been involved in the science of anti-doping for four Winter Olympic Games, two Summer Olympic Games and several Commonwealth Games. This partnership was brokered by King’s Business, the innovation arm of King’s.

The Drug Control Centre has a track record in anti-

King’s to run anti-doping facility for London 2012

continued on page 2

doping control, analysing samples collected from athletes competing in major sporting events and training worldwide. Working with UK Sport to implement the UK’s anti-doping policy in sport, the Centre carried out more than 8,000 tests across over 70 sports last year.

The Centre is well respected internationally and has a proven record of successfully delivering analysis services for major games. It was the first human sports drug-testing laboratory established outside of an Olympic Games.

There will be thousands of samples analysed throughout the Olympic and Paralympic Games and the laboratory will be in operation 24 hours a day for the duration. The facility will be based at one of GSK’s research and development sites in the UK, offering the capacity for King’s to run the laboratory independently, working with the International Olympic Committee and International Paralympic Committee during London 2012.

London 2012 Chairman Sebastian Coe commented: ‘Doping control is a requirement of any Olympic Games and Paralympic Games. We have taken a partnership approach

Cheltenham Festivals launchDAVID TETT

2 | Comment | March 2010 | www.kcl.ac.uk

News

King’s to run anti-doping facility for London 2012

to delivering it for London 2012 and I’m thrilled that GlaxoSmithKline is on board and its involvement with the King’s College London experts will see world-class facilities available for an independently run anti-doping operation throughout the Games.’

‘I’m delighted we’ve put this

Dear colleaguesSince I last wrote, Lord Mandleson has announced major financial cuts to the English university sector. Unwelcome as these are they are by no means completely unexpected, at least at King’s, and I would like to thank staff for their support in tackling unflinchingly our response to changed circumstances.

Every School, and area of Professional Services, now has plans, to ensure our financial and academic sustainability, which are either being discussed, out for consultation or in the process

of being implemented.These are sensitive issues,

so perhaps it was inevitable that these consultation documents have generated some controversy, not least in Arts & Humanities. What needs emphasis, internally as well as externally, is that the College is genuinely seeking, within the 90-day period for each consultation, ideas about viable alternative ways forward. These need to achieve required economies in ways that will enable the College as far as possible to maintain its academic momentum despite the difficult

financial circumstances in which UK higher education, like the country as a whole, now finds itself.

I would emphasise that plans have been developed in tandem with the firm intention to make significant improvements to the student experience at King’s, which demands our attention for a variety of reasons at this time of rising applications and increasing competition. Indeed, we have recently approved a substantial investment in teaching, audio visual and other student-related facilities across the College in support of this.

On a lighter note I was pleased to take part in the launch of the Cheltenham Festivals of science, literature, jazz and music in the Great Hall in January. The College’s partnership with these Festivals offers a real opportunity to reach new audiences for our research and scholarship which I would view as a core part of our mission to work ‘in the service of society’. And judging by the extraordinary performances we witnessed at the launch they will also be a great deal of fun!Rick TrainorPrincipal

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Principal’s column

continued from page 1 alliance with King’s College London together to ensure that excellent science can play a key role in ensuring the Games are conducted to the highest ethical standards and that athletes can lead healthier lives,’ said Andrew Witty, CEO of GlaxoSmithKline. ‘The Olympic and Paralympic ideals of people striving to

achieve their best are core to those of GSK, as we strive to deliver medicines and vaccines that help patients to do more with their lives.’

‘...we have the capacity to be able to help protect the health of the athlete and the integrity of the Games.’

Professor David Cowan, Director of the Drug Control Centre, added: ‘I am delighted that GlaxoSmithKline has chosen to make this important contribution to our ongoing work at King’s to help deter drug cheats from coming to the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games. With this significant partner we have the capacity to be able to help protect the health of the athlete and the integrity of the Games.’

For further information visit www.kcl.ac.uk/schools/biohealth/research/drugcontrol/

From left: Lord Coe, Chairman London 2012, Professor David Cowan, Director, Drug Control Centre and Andrew Witty, CEO, GlaxoSmithKline.

COURTESY OF GSK

• The Drug Control Centre was established in 1978 with the support of the Sports Council, now UK Anti-Doping, to analyse samples collected from human sports competitors.

• There are only 35 accredited anti-doping laboratories in the world; the King’s laboratory is the only one in the UK.

• The Drug Control Centre has 17 full-time staff; this will increase almost ten-fold during London 2012.

• Analysts test blood and urine samples; each bottle has a unique, anonymous identification code.

• Urine samples are kept at -20 degrees Celsius and stored in case additional testing is required.

• Athletes provide ‘A’ and ‘B’ samples. The ‘B’ sample is only tested if a prohibited substance is found in the ‘A’ sample

• Samples may be stored for up to eight years in accordance with the WADA Code.

Key facts

www.kcl.ac.uk | March 2010 | Comment | 3

News

Somerset House – next steps

THESE WORDS, FROM THE PRINCIPAL Professor Rick Trainor, greeted alumni, staff and students at a spontaneous reception, organised by the Alumni Office, held the day after the milestone agreement was signed with Somerset House last December.

‘A moment we have been waiting 180 years for’

Guests, who gathered at the Strand, were also given an advance preview of the innovative plans for the East Wing, which comprises six floors and more than 50,000sq feet of space. The Principal’s speech and clip reel featuring alumni and staff comments is now on iKing’s, the College’s multimedia gateway.

This acquisition will give King’s a new front door, opening up the site to the public, providing a new artistic hub for Londoners, and significantly improved facilities for the School of Law.

The agreement has been enthusiastically received by former students, including many famous names:

‘It’s a wonderful building, and it’s great news,’ says award-winning novelist Susan Hill (English 1963).

‘It does now open a most important and exciting new phase in the life of the College,’ commented His Honour Sir Frank White (LLB, 1950).

‘I’m delighted King’s is finally moving into the 19th century!’ was the enigmatic remark from satirist Rory Bremner (Modern Languages, 1984).

‘I am very proud to hear that King’s will now be associated with such a prominent and dignified London landmark,’ wrote Igor Stermsek (Law, 2006) on the Alumni website.

‘King’s has signed an agreement to take possession of the East Wing of Somerset House. It is a moment we have been waiting 180 years for. This is an historic day for the College, student and alumni community.’

Staff and alumni can tour the East Wing on ‘Open House’ Saturday (13 March). Tours will take place on the hour from 11.30-15.30, and the architects will be

answering questions. Organised by the Development & Alumni Office; booking is required for the tours, email [email protected]

The East Wing of Somerset House.

Staff and alumni tours of the East Wing

Alumni, staff and students at a spontaneous reception to celebrate the signing of Somerset House last December.

‘A most important and exciting new phase’

Part of the funding to develop the East Wing will be sought from philanthropic sources, led by the Development & Alumni Office. Those interested can join the Campaign for King’s in Somerset House, see: https://alumni.kcl.ac.uk/somersethouse

A King’s law alumna has established a supportive Facebook site (to which a link can be found at the above web address) and between this and those registered for the Campaign, almost a 1,000 alumni have signed up to show their support.


News

New Space Physiology programmeA NEW MSC IN SPACE PHYSIOLOGY & Health, the first of its kind in Europe, has been established at King’s to provide advanced theoretical and practical training in the physiology, psychology and operational medicine of humans in space.

The first of its kind in Europe

Students will gain in-depth knowledge of the physiological effects of the space environment upon humans, and of methods of mitigating these effects. They will be able to study disease and physical de-conditioning in space-faring humans, and learn how to counter and manage such events.

Dr David Green, Lecturer in Human & Aerospace Physiology who will direct the MSc in Space Physiology & Health, comments: ‘This new programme endorsed by the Crew Medical Support Office of the European Astronaut Centre, draws on King’s long-established research and teaching expertise in aviation

medicine and the physiology of extreme environments. Many of our visiting lecturers are space industry professionals, and global experts in the field.

‘Students will gain experience with our external partners, including the Crew Medical Support Office at the European Astronaut Centre in Cologne, and the RAF Centre of Aviation Medicine. The MSc will provide students with a range of multidisciplinary skills, and will help them to pursue a career in human physiology in its broadest

sense, whether in research, in industry, in defence, or in national or international space agencies.’

The programme will also develop students’ knowledge of conducting medical and physiological research in space, and its analogues in terms of instrumentation, calibration, data acquisition and the analysis of results. The programme comprises lectures, tutorials, visits to partner organisations, seminars and a substantial practical component. Students will gain personal experience and carry out

experimental studies of space-relevant environments, including flight, acceleration, heat and cold, noise, and spatial disorientation.

Dr Green explains: ‘Space subjects the human body to unique physical and psychological stresses. When in space one typically observes de-conditioning of a number of physiological systems. One of the greatest challenges which faces manned space flight is keeping people healthy and fully functional, both during space flight but also, critically, when re-exposed to gravity, such as returning to Earth or even landing on the surface of Mars. The MSc in Space Physiology & Health will provide an understanding of the effect of the space environment upon human behaviour and performance, and will equip students with the knowledge to be able to support current and future human space flight missions.’

King’s staff are actively involved in research related to aerospace physiology, building on the College’s long legacy, pioneered by Professor John Ernsting.

ESA Columbus Module.

GRAINGE PHOTOGRAPHY

Biomedical Research Centre Faculty launchTHE NIHR COMPREHENSIVE Biomedical Research Centre (BRC) based at King’s College London and Guy’s & St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust took another important step forward in December with the opening of its physical home on the 16th floor of Guy’s Tower and a keynote lecture for members of the Faculty of Translational Medicine.

‘An environment that fosters collaboration’

Professor Dame Sally Davies, Director General of Research and Development at the Department of Health, spoke about the

importance of research and development in the NHS in her presentation Translational medicine and the National Institute for Health Research: past, present and future. Around 300 doctors, nurses, allied healthcare professionals and scientists from the Trust, King’s, and the BRC’s other hospital and university partners attended the event.

Professor Robert Lechler, Vice-Principal (Health) at King’s and Executive Director King’s Health Partners, commented that: ‘The Biomedical Research Centre, and its Faculty, encompasses King’s Health Partners’ mission of integrating world-class research, clinical care and education and training to improve patient healthcare and outcomes. Since

the Centre came into being, it has also played a key role in strengthening of the ties between the Trust and the College. The Faculty will further support this ambition, by bringing together doctors, nurses, allied

health professionals and their scientist colleagues from all the Biomedical Research Centre’s partners and stakeholders. This collaboration is very exciting as it has the potential to drive forward the development of new diagnostic procedures and treatments, for a number of diseases and conditions, which we want to bring to our patients at the earliest opportunity.’

Professor Graham Lord, Chair of the Faculty of Translational Medicine, said: ‘The physical home of the Biomedical Research Centre on the 16th floor of Guy’s Tower provides an environment that fosters collaboration, and where researchers can go for all the support they need to drive forward their research.’

From left: Professor Richard Trembath, Director of the comprehensive Biomedical Research Centre, Professor Dame Sally Davies, Professor Graham Lord, Ron Kerr, Chief Executive of Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust, and Professor Robert Lechler.

GRAINGE PHOTOGRAPHY


News

King’s partners Cheltenham FestivalsKING’S AND THE CHELTENHAM Festivals celebrated their new partnership at a special launch event on the evening of 20 January in the Great Hall, Strand Campus, attended by more than 150 guests. King’s will partner all four of this year’s Festivals – science, jazz, literature and music.

The Festivals have an impact on literally millions of people

Since the launch of the Cheltenham Music Festival in 1945 and the Literature Festival in 1949, Cheltenham has been at the forefront of contemporary British culture. With the introduction of the Jazz Festival in 1996 and the Science Festival in 2002 Cheltenham Festivals secured a reputation for innovation and excellence, attracting international attention with audiences and performers drawn from across the world.

A thriving education programme takes the Festivals out into schools and the community, so generating new audiences, and extensive media coverage for the Festivals means that they have an impact on literally millions of people. Some of the most distinguished men and women of letters, science and music have been involved with the Festivals over the years, including a significant number of academics from King’s.

‘Communicating the fruits of research and scholarship to a wider public’

In his welcome address at the launch event, the Principal, Professor Rick Trainor, said: ‘We are dedicated to the advancement of knowledge, learning and understanding in the service of society and so partnership with the Cheltenham Festivals

presents us with a perfect opportunity to fulfil this mission by communicating the fruits of research and scholarship to a wider public.’

Announcing the new relationship with King’s, Donna Renney, Chief Executive of Cheltenham Festivals, added that she was proud that the Festivals would be associated with such a prestigious university.

The launch celebration

featured an entertaining insight into the life of a writer, given by writer and comedian AL Kennedy, and musical performances from pianist James Rhodes and jazz trio Curios. King’s Dr Mark Miodownik, who sits on the advisory board of the Science Festival, provided an amusing interactive presentation on the science behind chocolate.

For further information visit: http://cheltenhamfestivals.com/

Guests at the launch of the new partnership in the Great Hall.

Writer and comedian AL Kennedy provided an entertaining insight into the life of a writer.

Dr Mark Miodownik, Head of the Materials Research Group, who provided an interactive presentation on the science behind chocolate at the launch.

Journalist Kate Adie OBE and Professor Andrew Lambert from the Department of War Studies.

A human statue played the music of the spheres throughout.

ALL PHOTOS BY DAVID TETT


News

HRH The Princess Royal speaksTHE HUMANITARIAN FUTURES Programme in the Department of War Studies and the international disaster relief charity RedR hosted more than 150 delegates in the Great Hall, Strand Campus at the end of last term. The event had a high-profile line up of speakers, including HRH The Princess Royal and Sir John Holmes, UN Emergency Relief Co-ordinator.

The conference entitled Hard Realities and Future Necessities: The Role of the Private Sector in Humanitarian Efforts provided an important platform for cross-sector discussion and debate by bringing together expert speakers and delegates from the private sector, humanitarian community and academia, to examine the current and future role of the private sector in meeting aid needs from a broad range of perspectives.

In his key note speech, Sir John Holmes said that aid organisations could not afford

to ignore the expertise and innovation residing in the private sector if they were to meet future challenges. He further called on the humanitarian community to overcome traditional suspicions and recognise the potential role the private sector has to play in humanitarian relief.

RedR President and Chancellor of the University of London HRH The Princess Royal gave a highly engaging and topical speech on the need for further co-ordination and co-operation to ensure better aid responses and to face future challenges. She spoke of the important developments within the sector over the last few decades and urged aid organisations to recognise the need to develop sustainable business in countries affected by disaster.

She further commended RedR’s role in developing sector expertise over the last 30 years, and especially noted recent

activities aimed at engaging with the private sector and developing commercial companies’ understanding of humanitarian response and principles.

The conference had a highly international profile with panellists such as Rudolf von Bernuth of Save the Children Alliance based in the USA, Les

Baillie of Kenyan mobile giant Safaricom, and Programme Manager of the Humanitarian Research Group at the French business school INSEAD, Rolando Tomasini.

HRH The Princess Royal was welcomed to King’s by the Principal, Professor Rick Trainor.

HRH The Princess Royal, RedR President and Chancellor of the University of London.

MAX ATTENBOROUGH/REDR

An action plan to tackle the over prescribing of antipsychotic drugs to dementia sufferers was announced by the Government in response to the findings of an independent review by Professor Sube Banerjee, Head of Mental Health and Ageing at the Institute of Psychiatry and co-author of the Government’s National Dementia Strategy.

The use of antipsychotic medication for people with dementia: time for action estimates that 150,000 people are inappropriately prescribed antipsychotic drugs to treat aggression and agitation. The National Institute of Health and Clinical Excellence guidelines stipulate that such drugs should only be used when a person is a risk to themselves or others and where

all other methods have been tried. Additionally, the drugs should be prescribed for a short period of three months only whilst a care plan is put in place. Professor Banerjee said: ‘Antipsychotics are used too often in dementia; up to two thirds of the estimated 180,000 people with dementia receiving these are prescribed them unnecessarily. This review identifies the potential risks and benefits of these medications in dementia and presents actions that we can take to address this problem. In doing so we would provide international leadership in this complex clinical area as well as improving the quality of life and quality of care for people with dementia and their carers in England.’

The review was commissioned by the Department of Health.

Centre of ExcellenceKING’S HAS BEEN DESIGNATED A new Jean Monnet Centre of Excellence in ‘European Law and Governance’ and awarded €71,000 for its establishment.

The Centre is a collaborative project between three schools: the School of Law which hosts the Centre of European Law; the School of Arts & Humanities, home of the European Studies Programme and Centre for European Studies; and the School of Social Science & Public Policy, which includes the Department of War Studies and the new King’s Institute for the Study of Public Policy.

Drawing upon a world-renowned wealth of experience and expertise, the Centre aims to strengthen interdisciplinary teaching, research and outreach activities at the intersection of legal, social and political science approaches to the study of law and governance within the

European Union. The Centre proposes an

ambitious programme of initiatives and activities, including: an annual Jean Monnet lecture, conference and postgraduate workshop; a new working paper series; a regular research seminar series of guest speakers; an annual ‘European Week’ of public events organised by students, and a new Jean Monnet blog to stimulate discussion and debate.

Jean Monnet

Action on antipsychotic drugs


News

THE CENTRE FOR LIFE-WRITING Research hosted a discussion about autobiography and fiction between two of Britain’s most distinguished novelists, Hilary Mantel and Fay Weldon, at the Strand Campus.

‘Bringing together academic life-writers with autobiographers’

Hilary Mantel won the 2009 Booker Prize for her novel Wolf Hall and is the author of a poetic and strange autobiography, Giving Up the Ghost (2003). Fay Weldon has followed her 2002 autobiography Auto Da Fay with a series of brilliantly misleading autobiographical novels.

The two came together as part of the high-profile series of Dissecting the Self discussions, which are taking place in the appropriate setting of the newly-refurbished Anatomy Theatre. The conversation was chaired by The Observer’s associate editor Robert McCrum, who is also the author of his own memoir, My Year Off (1998).

The discussion kicked off with Hilary Mantel reading an extract from Giving Up the Ghost, and

Fay Weldon reading from her recent autobiographical novel, Chalcot Crescent (2009). Robert McCrum then asked the speakers a range of questions addressing the relationship between autobiography and fiction including the ways in which memoir relates to posterity, how their sense of self is influenced by

Booker Prize winner at King’s

the supernatural and the role of psychoanalysis in their work.

Afterwards visitors and students had a chance to talk to the speakers, who were signing books. Dr Lara Feigel, Lecturer in English, who is organising the discussions, commented: ‘The series as a whole is really exciting for students, who have a chance

to meet some of the writers they are studying. It’s also a great way to bring together academic life-writers with autobiographers.’

This is the second in the Dissecting the Self series, and speakers this term include Michael Bracewell, Michael Frayn, Andrew Kotting, Michael Kopelman and Stephen Romer.

Novelists Hilary Mantel (left) and Fay Weldon.

Large Hadron Collider producing resultsTHE NEW PARTICLE COLLIDER AT CERN in Geneva, called the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), is now running well and has produced its first scientific results. One of the most anticipated results is the discovery of the Higgs boson that gives mass to particles and is essential for describing one of the four forces, the weak nuclear force. It is this force which explains, for example, radioactivity and why the sun shines.

Peter Higgs, who predicted the particle that bears his name, carried out his BSc, MSc and PhD at King’s (1947-54) and returned last year to receive an

honorary degree (see page 13).One of the other major reasons

for the construction of the LHC was that it might discovery supersymmetry. The universe is made up from elementary particles, one of whose main distinguishing features is the spin they carry, a bit like a spinning top. For example, the electron and the quarks have spin one half while the photon and W-bosons have spin one.

‘Supersymmetry relates particles of different spin but, it turns out that it relates all the known particles such as the electron, the photon, the quarks, the W bosons we see to particles

we have never seen. There are theoretical reasons to believe that these new particles will be found at CERN,’ says Professor Peter West FRS who came to King’s in 1978 and leads the theoretical physics group in the

Mathematics Department.Supersymmetry was

discovered independently in Russia and America in 1972. Its development, which laid the foundations for its application to particle physics, was pioneered by a small number of mainly Europeans which included Professor West FRS. Supersymmetry is thought to be one of the key ingredients, together with strings, in a theory that describes all four forces and its discovery would be a very important step in the quest for such a theory. This goal is one of the main areas of research of the group at King’s.

CERN

Simulated supersymmetric event.

MARCEL FEIGEL


News

An independent group designed to give ‘politically neutral’ information about the risks of drugs launched last month. The Independent Scientific Committee on Drugs (ISCD) is lead by the Government’s former chief drugs adviser Professor David Nutt. Professor Nutt’s sacking from the Government’s Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs (ACMD) by Home Secretary Alan Johnson last October followed widespread media coverage of a Centre for Crime and Justice Studies (CCJS) news briefing. This was based on Professor Nutt’s Eve Saville Lecture Estimating drug harms: a risky

business, which he gave at King’s in July last year.

In this lecture Professor Nutt said that alcohol probably posed the biggest drugs harm challenge today. He argued that the relative harm of legal drugs such as alcohol and tobacco is greater than those of a number of illegal drugs.

The ISCD consists of about 20 specialists including Dr John Marsden, Senior Lecturer at the Institute of Psychiatry, who stepped down from the ACMD following Professor Nutt’s departure.

The panel is being supported by CCJS who will provide its secretariat.

Rival to drug advisory panel

Early modern theatre items go digitalTHE FIRST STAGE OF A PROJECT AIMING to create the world’s single most important digital archive on early modern English theatre has been completed.

Visit www.henslowe-alleyn.org.uk

Experts from King’s and the University of Reading are currently making the largest collection of material on professional theatre and dramatic performance in the age of Shakespeare and many other leading playwrights available online.

Fascinating and extremely rare items are now available to view free at www.henslowe-alleyn.org.uk. These include the only surviving records of theatre box office receipts for any play by Shakespeare, and the 1600 contract to build the Fortune Theatre in London, listing the layout and design of the Globe Theatre, where Shakespeare’s company performed.

The original collection, housed at Dulwich College Archive

in London, holds thousands of pages of manuscripts relating to its founder, the celebrated and eminent actor and entrepreneur Edward Alleyn (1566-1626), and his father-in-law Philip Henslowe (d. 1616), the most successful theatre impresario of the age.

The Henslowe-Alleyn Project, which began in 2004, has two objectives; first, to protect and conserve the increasingly fragile manuscripts in Dulwich College, and second, to make their fascinating contents freely and more widely available in an electronic format.

Professor Grace Ioppolo from the University of Reading is the Founder and Director of this project. She said: ‘Most of what historians know about the invention of the English professional theatre, both as a financial enterprise and artistic endeavour, comes from the evidence in the Henslowe and Alleyn papers.

‘This website and electronic archive were not primarily designed to suit the needs of specialist scholars but to enrich and enhance the study of all those interested in early modern

English drama and theatre and social history.’

The project’s Technical Manager, Paul Vetch, from King’s Centre for Computing in the Humanities (CCH), said: ‘CCH has been involved in the Henslowe-Alleyn Project since 2006, and has provided secure storage for this substantial image archive in addition to developing a web-based resource allowing the archive to be seen and explored by the public for the first time.

‘CCH’s work has included the development of an online catalogue which allows users to easily navigate the images and to view them at a very high resolution. This is sufficient to allow detailed palaeographical study better than could be achieved with the naked eye. CCH has also supported the development and publication of online contextual materials and essays by leading scholars in the field, which illustrate the importance of the collection.’

A Henslowe-Alleyn manuscript.

HapTEL Virtual Dental LabTHE DENTAL INSTITUTE IS LEADING the integration of virtual reality haptic systems, systems that allow human touch and interaction with the external environment in the dental undergraduate curriculum, with the launch of a new hapTEL Virtual Dental Lab.

The hapTEL project (Haptic Technology Enhanced Learning) is a £1.5 million four-year project funded jointly by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council and the Economic and Social Research Council involving King’s, Reading and Birmingham City universities.

The four-year project is one of eight large Technology Enhanced Learning projects whose overall research goal is to improve the quality of formal and informal

learning, and to make accessible forms of knowledge that would not have been possible without these new virtual systems.

Professor Nairn Wilson, Dean of the Dental Institute, said: ‘The Dental Institute is delighted to be the centre leading the integration of virtual reality haptic systems in undergraduate dental education. This innovative work complements the e-learning initiatives which have given the Institute international standing in the field of flexible learning. The hapTEL project is anticipated to revolutionise core aspects of dental education.’

The overall aim is to develop and evaluate haptic and synthetic online devices which can be used by students and professionals.

Profile


Professor Eeva LeinonenProfessor Eeva Leinonen joined King’s last September as Vice-Principal (Education).

GREG FUNNELL

Tell us about your career.I started my academic career as a research assistant to Professor Pamela Grunwell who was a pioneer in Clinical Linguistics/Phonology. As a young researcher it was exciting working with a person who was quite literally creating a new field of enquiry, and through that work I gained my PhD in Clinical Phonology. Prior to that I completed an MPhil in Linguistics at Exeter.

The main bulk of my working life I have spent at the University of Hertfordshire, nearly 20 years, starting as a Senior Lecturer and ending as a Deputy Vice Chancellor, with various roles in between, including Head of two different academic schools (Humanities; Psychology) and Dean of the Faculty of Health and Human Sciences. Hertfordshire was an excellent place to work and develop in and we had some interesting times creating our identity and finding our niche in the UK higher education scene.

I have also worked on various projects nationally, mainly relating to quality and learning and teaching. There are some developments afoot in the sector at the moment that I am particularly interested in: reviews of the external examiner system and the academic infrastructure. I will be looking to ensure that King’s will make its contribution to these national developments.

What are your areas of expertise?In my research I have been pioneering work in the area of clinical pragmatics which is the study of use of language in context (production and comprehension) by populations of children (and adults) who have particular difficulty with this area of language functioning. Such people have syntactically and semantically well-formed language but difficulties arise when they are using language in real communicative situations. Pragmatic impairment manifests in different clinical populations, and I have spent some time working with children who can be said to be on the autistic continuum or have specific language impairments. As a theoretical framework I have found relevance theory of particular value.

I have also spent a large part of my career thinking about and tackling issues relating to higher education leadership and management, particularly focusing on education, learning/teaching, quality and the student experience. I have accumulated experience and knowledge in the past 25 years or so and I

look forward to drawing on some of that for the benefit of the College in my new role.

What are your key priorities?When one arrives in a new place and a somewhat different educational context I think it is important to spend time observing, listening and learning. I am trying to do that albeit that there have been a number of priorities to work with from the outset. King’s is quite simply a great place to study and work in, but what we are learning from surveys such as the National Student Survey, is that we have some further work to do in relation to education and the student experience.

The recent QAA Institutional Audit also highlighted some areas of quality assurance and enhancement that we need to strengthen. I look forward to working with colleagues and students on issues relating to learning, teaching, quality, academic programmes, and some more specific items relating to assessment, blended/e-learning, communications with students, and academic programmes, to name but a few.

It also appears that it would be beneficial to find further ways of valuing the teaching function. The College has some excellent platforms to work on, not least the outstanding staff and students and their commitment to the College.

What lessons do you expect to learn from the National Student Survey at King’s?Quite simply, that students and their learning experience is important and matters; that the student population and their expectations are changing and that students (and their funders) are becoming increasingly focused on value-for-money issues and consumer thinking. Students have an increasing expectation to be more intrinsically involved in their own educational process and experience, in partnership with the College. These kinds of realities of the student of today provide both opportunities and challenges for modern higher education.

How did King’s do in the Institutional Audit?King’s did well with confidence judgements (top grade) in both standards of awards and quality of learning opportunities provided for students. A key findings letter which we received before Christmas highlighted some examples of good practice, including the Graduate School, the Committee Zone and

information for tutors on the personal tutor system.

There were also a number of recommendations, relating to external examiners, student data and programme approval and monitoring processes which the College will need to address and this work will be formally co-ordinated by the College Education Committee, which I chair. However tedious, frustrating and time consuming QAA audits may be, I believe that they have improved and enhanced practices in HEIs enormously. This is the context within which I view the King’s audit too: a useful driver for enhancement.

Fact fileBook on my bedside table I have a number of books always on the go. At this moment, Sylvia Plath’s The Bell Jar (an all time favourite); Gloria Naylor’s The Women of Brewster Place (a recommendation from a friend) and Louise Cummings’ Clinical Pragmatics (a new book in my research area).

Favourite holiday destination I have no favourites but I have had the good fortune to have lovely holidays in so many wonderful places, including Finland and Lapland (perhaps, unsurprisingly), New York, Bermuda, Cornwall, many European cities and camping in Sardinia. Those holidays come to mind first. As does the Åland archipelago between Finland and Sweden which is simply stunning.


Research news

Health fears for returning soldiersRESEARCHERS AT KING’S HAVE FOUND that common mental health disorders such as depression and alcohol misuse are the top psychological problems amongst UK troops post-deployment and not post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) as is widely believed. The study published in the open access journal, BMC Psychiatry, also finds that reservists remain at special risk of operational stress injury.

Since the beginning of the Iraq conflict, more than 100,000 UK Service personnel have been

deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan. These personnel are at increased risk of operational stress injury, such as mental health problems. However a detailed clinical picture of their specific health needs has previously been lacking in the UK.

A study conducted by Dr Amy Iversen and colleagues from the King’s Centre for Military Health Research and the Academic Centre for Defence Mental Health, Institute of Psychiatry, reports that alcohol abuse is the most common mental health

disorder amongst UK Service personnel returning from Iraq and Afghanistan, with disorders such as depression and anxiety being second most common.

Dr Iversen said: ‘Although our perception is that PTSD symptoms are the main source of psychiatric illness in Service personnel, alcohol misuse and depressive disorders are actually much more common. Prevention and intervention in these areas should be a priority.

‘This research has helped build a detailed picture of the

specific heath needs of the UK military. This data should be particularly valuable for health service planners, providers and policymakers.’

The King’s Centre for Military Health Research is a joint initiative between the Institute of Psychiatry and the Department of War Studies in the School of Social Science & Public Policy. The Centre has three main strands of research: war and health; war and psychiatry; personnel issues and social policy.

Cause of diarrhoea

SCIENTISTS AT KING’S HAVE BEEN involved in a study which has uncovered that a common type of chronic diarrhoea may be caused by a hormone deficiency, according to new research published in Clinical Gastroenterology and Hepatology.

‘A fast, easy and cheap way of diagnosing bile acid diarrhoea’

In collaboration with authors from Imperial College London and the University of Edinburgh, the researchers say their results will help more doctors recognise this type of diarrhoeal illness, and may lead to the development of more effective tests and treatments to help improve the lives of many people suffering with chronic diarrhoea.

Chronic idiopathic bile acid diarrhoea affects an estimated one in 100 people in the UK and it can cause people to have up to ten watery bowel movements a day, often for months at a time. This type of diarrhoea occurs when an overload of bile acid reaches the colon and causes excess water to be secreted into the bowel.

The study suggests that bile acid diarrhoea is caused by the body producing too much bile acid, because of a deficiency in a hormone called FGF19, which normally switches off bile acid production.

The authors of the study say that new hormone-based treatments could be developed in the future to treat the condition and doctors could potentially test people’s hormone levels to diagnose it leading to a fast, easy and cheap way of diagnosing bile acid diarrhoea.

The Government’s Skills for Life initiative has not significantly improved literacy or the economic performance of participating companies, despite what policymakers believe. These are the findings of the UK’s first study of basic skills learning in the workplace by an academic at King’s.

The £5 billion Skills for Life programme is based on the assumption that an improvement in literacy and numeracy will increase people’s earning potential, as well as their productivity and employability. However, according to Professor Alison Wolf who led the study, workplace basic skills courses are having little impact, in their current form. The study was funded by the Economic and Social Research Council.

‘It is clear from our research that policymakers are mistaken in expecting immediate and major effects on productivity,’ says Professor Wolf, Sir Roy Griffiths Professor of Public Sector Management, Department of Management.

Professor Wolf believes that one of the main reasons for the failure of the initiative is that courses were not long enough. While school children receive over 200 hours of

direct instruction every term, over many years, participants on the Skills for Life courses received, on average, a total of 30 hours teaching. The study also showed that the workplace does not support formal learning. Firms and public sector organisations find it hard to fit classes in with work patterns and are unable to provide the long-term stability necessary for effective learning.

Indeed, the study finds that the Skills for Life strategy has left no permanent legacy of workplace training. None of the employers who received free on-site courses continued them after Government funding ended. A year after students had taken the Skills for Life course; statistically there were no significant improvements in literacy for English-speaking employees. Professor Wolf notes that people’s jobs can be far more important for boosting literacy skills than a short formal course.

The research team is explaining to policymakers how funding and entitlement rules stop adults with poor basic skills from obtaining the extended tuition they need and suggesting ways in which the problem might be addressed.

Literacy schemes too short

www.kcl.ac.uk | February 2010 | Comment | 11

Research news

www.kcl.ac.uk |March 2010 | Comment | 11

SCIENTISTS AT KING’S HAVE developed a vaccine treatment for Leukaemia that can be used to stop the disease returning after chemotherapy or bone marrow transplant. The vaccine is due to be tested on patients for the first time. Eventually it is hoped the drug, which activates the body’s own immune system against the leukaemia, could be used to treat other types of cancers.

‘Rolled out to treat other leukaemias and cancers’

Leukaemia is a cancer of the white blood cells and bone marrow affects around 7,200 patients a year. Around 4,300 die from the disease annually. Treatment comes in two stages – chemotherapy to rid the body of the disease, then to prevent it returning either further chemotherapy or a bone marrow transplant. Latest survival rates

show that more than half the people with leukaemia die within five years of diagnosis.

The first patients to be treated as part of the clinical trial at King’s College Hospital, have the form of the disease known as Acute myeloid leukaemia, the most common form in adults. Even with aggressive treatment half would usually find the disease returns. In the initial stages of the trial patients will be enrolled in the trial if they have had chemotherapy and a bone

marrow transplant. If early trials are successful the vaccine may be tested in patients who cannot have a bone marrow transplant because they are unsuitable or a match cannot be found.

The study, led by Professors Ghulam Mufti and Farzin Farzaneh and Dr Nicola Hardwick, has involved intricate work to develop a man-made virus, which carries the two genes into the immune system.

Farzin Farzaneh, Professor of Molecular Medicine in the Department of Haemato-oncology, said if the trials are successful then the vaccine could be rolled out to treat other leukaemias and cancers. ‘It is the same concept as normal vaccines. The immune system is made to see something as foreign and can then destroy it itself. This has the chance to be curative.’

The cells are given two genes which act as flags to help identify the leukaemia. It effectively focuses and boosts the immune system’s ability to seek out and

destroy cancer cells. The research is due to be published in the Journal of Cancer Immunology, Immunotherapy. The study follows successful experiments on experimental tumour models showing that injection with the gene modified tumour cells results in the induction of immune mediated tumour rejection.

The work, which has taken 20 years to develop, has more recently been funded by the Department of Health and charities including: Cancer Research UK, the Leukaemia Research Fund and the Elimination of Leukaemia Fund.

The research was carried out at King’s Experimental Cancer Medicine Centre, which is one of 17 new centres across the country launched to develop basic science into treatments for patients as quickly as possible.

King’s Health Partners members King’s College London and King’s College Hospital are jointly sponsoring this groundbreaking research.

Leukaemia vaccine being developed

A SIX-YEAR-OLD BOY HAS SUCCESSFULLY had a valve in his heart widened using an MRI scan rather than x-ray imaging. This groundbreaking technique has been developed by a team that included clinicians and scientists from King’s Health Partners.

Jack Walborn was born with the heart condition pulmonary valve stenosis, which obstructs the outflow of blood from the right side of the heart, resulting in a reduction of blood flow to the lungs. Having monitored his condition since birth, it was decided Jack needed an intervention called valvuloplasty to widen the valve and allow more blood to flow. In this operation, a cardiac catheter is inserted into a blood vessel in the arm or groin and then guided through the body towards the heart. At the tip of the catheter is a balloon which is inflated to

widen the narrowed heart valve. Traditionally, interventionalists would use x-ray imaging to track the progress of the catheter through the body, but the new technique uses MRI.

Performing the catheterisation under the guidance of an MRI scan means that patients are not exposed to radiation, something

that is especially important for paediatric patients who are at an even higher risk from long-term side effects of the radiation from x-rays. The MRI scan also provides a clearer image that contains information about the different tissues in the body in real time throughout the surgery.

Dr Aphrodite Tzifa, a Clinical

Research Fellow at King’s, said: ‘We were faced with a problem because an MRI scanner uses a powerful magnetic field to construct images of the body. This magnetism not only caused the guide wire to move around but also resulted in the tip of the wire heating up to 70ºC. We have been working for the last three years to develop a new guide wire that can be used with MRI and have come up with a fibreglass wire that has small iron markers along it that can be seen on the scan.’

Professor Reza Razavi, Professor of Imaging Science and Consultant Paediatric Cardiologist at Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust, said: ‘We are delighted with Jack’s surgery. After years of research and development we have performed the procedure safely and successfully.

World’s first heart operation using MRI

Jack Walborn had a valve in his heart widened using an MRI scan.

GEMMA PEERS

A white blood cell.


King’s people

Dr Alison Campbell, managing director of King’s Business Ltd, made history as the first person to be rewarded in the New Year’s Honours List for services to knowledge transfer, being appointed an Order of the British Empire (OBE).

Knowledge Transfer is the process of engagement by the academic base with its external sectors that enables innovation and the application of research for societal and economic benefit.

Dr Alison Campbell said: ‘I am thrilled to receive this award in a field which is important to King’s and in which the College community is increasingly engaged to great effect. As the first such honour for Knowledge Transfer, I feel that it is also recognition for the significant achievements by the profession in the university sector to support innovation and the translation of research into public benefit. I am fortunate to work with great colleagues within King’s and nationally within the profession who are passionate about delivering innovation.’

The Principal, Professor Rick

Trainor, warmly welcomed the award: ‘On behalf of King’s I am delighted that Dr Alison Campbell has received an OBE in the New Year’s Honours List. This is a particularly special accolade as it represents the first in the field of knowledge transfer at any UK university. Such primacy accurately reflects Alison’s stellar contributions to the field nationally.’

Dr Campbell has been involved in Knowledge Transfer and Technology Transfer since 1991.

OBE in New Year’s Honours

Dr Alison Campbell

AWARDS

MLA Prize

The Modern Language Association of America (MLA) has announced the winner of the eighth Modern Language Association Prize for a Distinguished Scholarly Edition. The prize was presented to John Lavagnino, Reader in Digital Humanities in the Centre for Computing in the Humanities and the Department of English, and Gary Taylor, Florida State University for Thomas Middleton: The Collected Works and its companion volume Thomas Middleton and Early Modern Textual Culture.

The committee’s citation reads: ‘This monumental two-volume set affords the writings of Thomas Middleton the sustained and respectful editorial attention that to date has been offered, among early modern dramatists, only to William Shakespeare and Ben Jonson. The work sets the bar high for subsequent collected editions in its field and will remain the definitive Middleton for a long time to come.’

John Lavagnino comments: ‘We sought to create an edition that would allow readers and performers to see Middleton's work clearly, in a way that was never possible before. This was a project that took 20 years and the work of 74 scholars to complete. I had trouble finding support for my work in the mid-1990s, but it’s all been different since I came to King’s in 1998, and I don’t think the edition would have been completed without the College’s backing.’

The MLA, the largest and one of the oldest American learned societies in the humanities, exists to advance literary and linguistic studies.

Strategy award Dr Harsh Pant, Department of Defence Studies, was awarded the 2009 K Subrahmanyam Award for ‘Excellence in Research on Strategic and Security Issues’ by the Indian Minister of Defence, A K Antony, in Delhi for his ‘outstanding contribution to the field of strategic studies’.

Dr Pant, currently on secondment, was invited by the Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore (IIM-B), India to visit faculty in their Department of Social Sciences from September to December 2009. One of the pre-eminent institutes of higher education in India, IIM-B has emerged as the global centre for management research and education.

Dr Pant spent January and February this year at the Centre for the Advanced Study of India, University of Pennsylvania – the first and only academic research centre in the United States for the study of contemporary India.

The aim is to enhance King’s links with global educational institutions and help raise its profile in India and the US.

BMA book prize A guide to toxicology, prepared by a team from King’s and the Health Protection Agency (HPA), has won a top book award. Essentials of Toxicology for Health Protection: a handbook for field professionals was awarded the first prize in the Public Health category at the BMA Medical Book of the Year Awards 2009.

The King’s team consisted of: Norman Parkinson, Senior Lecturer in the Department of Public Health Sciences; Catherine Keshishian, Researcher at the Institute of Psychiatry; Virginia Murray, Visiting Professor, and Lakshman Karalliedde, Visiting Senior Lecturer.

Norman Parkinson said: ‘It was a real team effort, and a pleasure to work with the King’s team and David Baker and Robin Fielder of the HPA. There is a skills shortage in toxicology in the public health agencies, and in partnership with the HPA, we developed a toxicology module for our Master of Public Health programme that would be open to ‘outside’ students who need to develop their professional skills. We couldn’t find a suitable text, so we decided to produce it ourselves. The idea was to provide an introduction to toxicology as well as its application to real-world acute and chronic chemical incidents.’

ERC Advanced GrantProfessor Tim Spector, Head of the Twin Research and Genetic Epidemiology Unit, has been awarded The ERC Advanced Investigator Grant (ERC Advanced Grant) from the European Research Council for his research into epigenetics to uncover complex disease traits that are associated with diseases such as Diabetes, Hypertension, Osteoporosis and Asthma.

Professor Spector has been awarded 2.5 million euros for the ‘EpiTwin’ project. The project will measure epigenetic signals across the genome in 6,000 twins to find the genes modified in 10 common diseases.

John Lavagnino

Professor Alan Read


King’s people

At the end of last term, the Chairman of Council, the Marquess of Douro, and the Principal, Professor Rick Trainor, conferred Honorary Degrees on seven highly-distinguished

recipients at a ceremony in the College Chapel at the Strand Campus. The Hon Justice Edwin Cameron was also awarded an Honorary Degree on 18 January at The Barbican.

Twin studies traditionally have been used to assess the relative contributions of genetic and environmental factors. Nearly all common diseases and traits have now been found to be heritable and genome-wide association studies are discovering many novel genes. However 95 per cent of the heritability is not yet identified and discordances within identical twin pairs cannot be explained by known environmental factors. The missing heritability could be due to epigenetic factors which are ideally studied with twins.

Professor Spector says: ‘Epigenomics is a major future growth area. This study will enable us to maintain a European lead and act also a valuable future epidemiologic resource and enable important collaborations with other European researchers and cohorts.’

Leverhulme FellowshipsTwo members of the School of Arts & Humanities have won prestigious awards from the Leverhulme Trust.

Alan Read, Professor of Theatre in the Department of English, has been awarded a three-year Leverhulme Major Research Fellowship to run from October 2010 until 2013 for his project: Engineering Spectacle: Inigo Jones’ Past & Present Performance at Somerset House. This award marks an unusual consecutive success for a single university Department following the Award to Professor Max Saunders in 2008-10.

Professor Read says: ‘Exploring and applying Inigo Jones’ legacy as an architect-engineer of the 17th century stage, anatomy theatre, masque and spectacle,

this project will research his built and planned schemes sited at Somerset House while he was ‘Surveyor to the King’s Works’ (1625-40). Building on this research, the intention is to publish three volumes critically to enhance the work of a team of architects, designers and theatre artists operating between King’s College London and Somerset House, who will develop three new contemporary theatre/research spaces on the Strand between 2010 and 2013 – the

Anatomy Theatre, Double Cube and Dancing Barn.’

Professor Madawi Al-Rasheed of the Department of Theology & Religious Studies has also been awarded a Leverhulme Major Research Fellowship for her project: The masculine state: gender, religion and politics in Saudi Arabia. She says: ‘Combining the methodologies of history, social anthropology and political science, this project aims to investigate the connection between gender, politics and religion in Saudi Arabia. The combination of authoritarian rule and religious dogma will be investigated in order to shed light on how both have been important factors in shaping gender relations.’ These awards enable researchers to devote themselves to a single project capable of completion within two or three years.

Top row from left:Professor Peter Higgs FRS FRSE,Professor Lap-Chee Tsui FRS, Professor Marina Warner CBE FBA, Professor Lucia Santa Cruz

Bottom row from left:Lord Sainsbury of Turville FRS, Professor Eamon Duffy DD FBA,Professor M Qasim Jan, Hon Justice Edwin Cameron

College bestows Honorary Degrees ALL IMAGES BY TEMPEST PHOTOGRAPHY

Professor Alan Read


King’s people

APPOINTMENTS

Composer-in-Residence Renowned Irish composer John Browne swapped the opera house for the Health Service when he became the first-ever Composer-in-Residence at the Florence Nightingale School of Nursing & Midwifery last term.

The one-year residency has been made possible by a £10,000 grant and expert advice from the PRS Foundation (PRSF), the UK’s largest independent funder of new music. The PRSF led the drive to find a suitable composer and advised the School on best practice for running a musical residency. Additional funding of £15,000 was provided by the National Lottery through Arts Council England (London). The project marks the Florence Nightingale School’s 150th anniversary and is part of its innovative Culture in Care programme, offered to both staff and students, which explores the role that the arts, and in particular music, can play in the professional development of nurses.

John has used new music to respond to contemporary issues before. In 2006 he visited Rwanda to create the music-theatre piece The Mother’s Ring with survivors of the genocide, and in 2007 he wrote an original score for Demon Juice, a hip-hop version of Don Giovanni.

John’s brief at the School is a challenging one and will see him explore the nature of care

in clinical environments through music and compose an entirely new work reflecting upon his experience. His role will involve observing and working with students, nurses, academics and other members of the College community, experiencing life in the hospital and meeting patients.

John said: ‘This is a very different and very exciting opportunity for me. I am being inspired by the people, the

buildings and the rituals of the School and its partner hospitals – but most of all by the themes of nursing and care. On the one hand I’ll be observing and responding to nursing practice on a very intimate level, and that’s very moving, and at the same time I’ll be looking at ‘care’ as one of the really big themes of our times, and of all times.’

STAFF NEWS

Mastermind winnerOn 5 February Chris Sowton, a Lecturer working in the English Language Centre, appeared on the BBC quiz show, Mastermind. Chris won his heat and is through to the semi-final which will be broadcast in April.

Quiz show fan Chris’s specialist subject was ‘The history of Lord’s cricket ground’. ‘I love cricket,’ says Chris. ‘So it seemed a natural choice. I prepared through lots of revision and getting my wife and my colleagues in the English

Language Centre to ask me hundreds of practice questions. They would probably have been able to do as well as me.’

Chris has always wanted to be on Mastermind and has watched the show since he was a child. He says that sitting on the famous chair under the spotlight was ‘quite nerve-racking, but as a teacher you are used to being in a public situation under pressure, and because I had done quite a lot of preparation and practice beforehand, I felt relatively confident’. Chris really enjoyed the whole experience and also the academic challenge of getting to know more about a subject which really interested him.

Chris joined King’s in September 2009. He is a Lecturer in English for Academic Purposes working in the English Language Centre at Drury Lane. He provides help and support to, primarily, overseas students before and during their studies, helping them with the English skills and, specifically, their academic writing.

In January Professor Shitij Kapur took up the appointment as new Dean of the Institute of Psychiatry following a two-year tenure as Vice Dean (Research) of the Institute.

Professor Kapur brings a distinguished and international academic background, having served as Canada Research Chair for Schizophrenia and Therapeutic Neuroscience, Chief of Research at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, and a Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Toronto.

He graduated from the All India Institute of Medical Sciences, did his psychiatric training at the University of Pittsburgh and subsequently completed a PhD and Fellowship at the University of Toronto. He is a Distinguished Fellow of the American Psychiatric Association and

has recently been elected as a Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences, UK.

In welcoming Professor Kapur to this role, the Principal, Professor Rick Trainor, said: ‘Colleagues outside the Institute as well as within it have come to know Shitij well during his period as Vice Dean, and I know that they will join me in wishing him every success as Dean.’

Describing what drew him to the IoP, Professor Kapur said: ‘Nearly two years ago when I decided to leave my position at the University of Toronto to move to the IoP, I was motivated by the academic excellence, the comprehensive educational offerings and the tremendous potential of the IoP in partnership with South London and Maudsley (SLaM) and King’s. Two years on – I am as excited about these prospects and have further come to treasure the collegiality, the students and the Camberwell edge of IoP!’

He succeeds Professor Peter McGuffin FKC who, after three distinguished years of achievement as Dean, is returning to his former key role as Director of the IoP’s MRC Centre for Social, Genetic and Developmental Psychiatry.

New Dean for Institute of Psychiatry

Professor Shitij Kapur

British film director Ken Russell recently visited the School of Nursing & Midwifery to interview Professor Anne Marie Rafferty, Head of School, and John Browne, the School’s Composer-in-Residence, for an article for The Times.

DAVID BEBBER/THE TIMES


Obituaries

PROFESSOR DAVID NOKES FRSL (1948-2009)

PROFESSOR DAVID NOKES FRSL, who died suddenly, on 19 November 2009, had been a member of the Department of English since 1973. A specialist in 18th-century satire, he was keenly interested in creative writing and in latter years had introduced a course on to the undergraduate curriculum. His teaching in this field was informed by his experiences as a biographer, as a screenplay writer and, most recently, as a novelist.

David Nokes was educated at King’s College School before going to Cambridge. He joined King’s College London shortly before he completed his PhD, and was still in post at the time of his death. His first major publication was an examination of the old age of Jonathan Swift through a BBC play, No Country for Old Men (1981). His biography of Swift, A Hypocrite Reversed, followed in 1985 and won the James Tait Memorial Prize, then John Gay: A Profession of Friendship in 1995 and Jane Austen: A Life in 1997. His biography of Samuel Johnson was published by Faber in recent months, part of the commemorations of the three-hundredth anniversary of Johnson’s birth, and has already been well-reviewed. Interspersed with the biographies were screen adaptations for the BBC, a radio play about Johnson and Boswell and, in 2005, a campus novel The Nightingale Papers. A second novel had been delivered to his agent shortly before his death.

Although incapacitated by a form of rheumatoid arthritis from which he had suffered for many years, David Nokes was a familiar figure on the Strand Campus.

Among the students in whom he inspired a love of good literature were research students David Profumo and Lawrence Norfolk, both of whom are now successful writers and who continue the King’s tradition of engagement with scholarship and authorship.

In 1997 David married the medievalist Marie Denley, who survives him.

Obituaries for Professor Nokes appeared in The Guardian, The Times and the Times Higher Education.Dr Trudi Darby, Deputy Head of Administration (Arts & Sciences)

DR BERNARD E DAWSON FKC (1924-2009)

BERNARD DAWSON, WHO DIED LAST September, read Chemistry at King’s after serving in the Royal Air Force during World War II. He graduated in 1950 and went on to take a Postgraduate Certificate in Education at the College.

Following this, he taught chemistry. After a period of part-time postgraduate research he was awarded a University of London PhD in Physical Chemistry in 1956, specialising in the kinetics and mechanisms of certain reactions in solution.

In 1963 Bernard returned to King’s as a member of staff, being appointed Lecturer in Science Education (Chemistry) in the Faculty of Education. Among his many achievements in teaching, higher degree supervision and curriculum development he was heavily involved, from 1963-86 with five of the National Science Teaching Projects sponsored by the Nuffield Foundation. In 1975 he was appointed Senior Lecturer in Science (Chemistry & Physical Science) Education. From 1987-92 he initiated and then produced Surveys of Research and Development in Science Education across the Nation.

Bernard was Honorary Secretary and then Vice-President of the King’s College London Association from 1978-93 and was elected a Fellow of King’s in 1984.Michael Poole, Department of Education & Professional Studies

HELEN MARIE MILNE (1970-2009)

IT IS WITH GREAT SADNESS THAT we announce the sudden and untimely death of Helen Marie Milne (neé Roderigo) at her home in New Zealand on 3 November.

Helen joined the Diabetes Research Group in 1997 working as a postgraduate research assistant on a Diabetes UK-funded project investigating the role of phospholipases in the regulation of insulin secretion. During a productive three years as a research assistant Helen enrolled as a part-time student on King’s Biomedical Sciences Research MSc and was awarded an MSc with Distinction in 2000. This outstanding performance laid the foundation for Helen to enter the PhD programme in 2001.

Helen’s PhD project focused on generating insulin-secreting cells from embryonic stem cells, and she was awarded her PhD in 2005. She spent a brief period with the group as a postdoctoral fellow, during which time she initiated a project on the role of kisspeptin in beta cells, before she and her family emigrated to New Zealand in 2006. Last year she was awarded a prestigious Foundation for Research, Science and Technology Fellowship by the Government of New Zealand to enable her to establish herself as an independent researcher in the diabetes field.

Helen was an immensely popular member of the research group, and her calm attitude and quiet sense of humour won her many friends. She was an outstanding colleague and friend. We will all miss her.Professor Peter M Jones,Diabetes Research Group

PROFESSOR LUÍS DE SOUSA REBELO FKC (1922-2010)

IT IS WITH IMMENSE SADNESS THAT members of the Department of Portuguese & Brazilian Studies note the passing of Professor Luís de Sousa Rebelo, mentor, colleague and dear friend.

Luís de Sousa Rebelo first came to King’s as Portuguese Leitor in 1956 at the invitation of the then Camoes Chair of Portuguese, Professor Charles Boxer.

His invaluable contribution to the teaching of Portuguese and Brazilian Studies at King’s is reflected in his appointment soon after as Lecturer, from November 1957.

His long and distinguished career at King’s culminated with appointments as Reader in Portuguese in 1983 (Emeritus from 1987), and continued after his retirement with active participation in research and research supervision first as Calouste Gulbenkian Senior Fellow 1987-92, and then as Visiting Professor (1993-2004).

Professor Sousa Rebelo’s contribution to the institutional and intellectual formation of the fields of Portuguese and Brazilian historical and literary studies in the UK, his rigorous scholarship, unstinting generosity and warm friendship is respectfully and lovingly remembered by all those who today work in a discipline he did so much to establish in his adopted country.Abdool Karim VakilHead of the Department of Portuguese & Brazilian Studies


International

International partnerships updateK ING’S NOW HAS SEVEN KEY

international partnerships, after Renmin University of China

(RUC), the Universidade de São Paulo (USP) and the University of California in San Francisco (UCSF) officially joined the ranks of our global partners.

For each partnership the College has allocated funds to maintain and strengthen the partnership, as well as an academic liaison to be the key contact with the partner institution. These liaison academics are:

• University of Hong Kong (HKU) – Professor Cathryn Lewis, Genetics/Institute of Psychiatry

• Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) – Dr Jon Wilson, History

• University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill (UNC) – Professor David Ricks, Byzantine & Modern Greek

• Renmin University of China (RUC) – Dr Doug Fuller, Management

• National University of Singapore (NUS) – Professor Phil Moore, Pharmacology

• Universidade de São Paulo (USP) – Dr Maite Conde, Brazil Institute

• University of California in San Francisco (UCSF) – Professor Ellen Solomon, Genetics

Each academic liaison has a budget to support initiatives such as visits, workshops and exchanges that deepen the relationship between the partner and King’s. King’s staff interested in developmental possibilities with one of these partners should contact the academic liaison directly to find out about funding possibilities.

Discussions have also been taking place recently with Humboldt University in Berlin, Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore and Sciences Po in Paris over the possibility of developing stronger links between those institutions and King’s.

Staff Partnership AwardsApart from funds held by the academic liaisons for the partner institutions, funds are also available for Staff Partnership Awards, which offer funding for King’s as well as key partner staff, to spend at least one month at the other university. In 2008-9, these sources paid for King’s staff to have research periods at Hong Kong University (Arts & Humanities and Institute of Psychiatry) and the National University of Singapore (Biomedical & Health Sciences), while staff came to King’s from HKU, the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill and NUS.

For 2009-10 King’s has extended the range

of visitors by offering Partner Awards to Jawaharlal Nehru University, RUC and USP, so faculty from these institutions can spend time at King’s. Funds have been allocated for initiatives with Johns Hopkins and UCSF, with the Guy’s & St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust also supporting the Johns Hopkins link financially.

Research opportunitiesThe Graduate School is further promoting opportunities with partner institutions for PhD students and Post-doctoral Research Associates. For 2009-10 funding has already been agreed for research visits to HKU (one for Arts & Humanities, one for the Institute of Psychiatry, one for the School of Social Science & Public Policy), to Monash (Medicine) and to UNC (Medicine). Funding for research visits has increased this year, and interested candidates can now obtain funding to visit JNU, RUC and USP.

Keith Hoggart, Vice-Principal Arts & Sciences and External Affairs, comments: ‘Our collaborations with UNC currently involve joint supervisory PhD committees in five Arts & Humanities departments, so we’ve got very good links in these areas. I strongly recommend that faculty as well as Post-doctoral Research Associates and PhD students make use of the funds available, as they offer a fantastic opportunity to undertake research in a partner institution. From 2010-11 we will also have joint PhD degrees with HKU and, for Arts and Social Sciences, with NUS.’

Students take part in HKU’s Information Day for Undergraduate Admissions.

Double degree in Law and BusinessThe School of Law has negotiated a new double degree agreement with the Paris-based international business school ESSEC. As with other double degree agreements, students from the partner institution will come to King’s to complete our LLM programme.

On returning to their home university, the King’s LLM will count as one year of the home university’s two-year degree, so that in the case of ESSEC, students will have both a law and business qualification on completing their studies. Interested students can email [email protected] for details.

The Study India 2010 programme is now open for applications from undergraduate students across the UK, offering the opportunity to gain valuable experience and insight into Indian culture and developments. Study India 2010 will run from 14 August to 4 September; the deadline for applications is 17 March.

Study India is managed by King’s and the University of Birmingham, administered by the British Council and funded by the UK Indian Education and Research Initiative. Participants are chosen through competitive application – last year 19 King’s students were successful. Email [email protected] for further information.

Study India 2010

COURTESY OF HKU


International

Donation boosts China InstituteA GENEROUS DONATION FROM A former student has provided a boost for the newly established China Institute at King’s. The gift will contribute towards the establishment of a Lectureship in Chinese Entrepreneurship, believed to be the first post of its kind at a British university.

‘The first post of its kind’

The alumnus, who does not wish to be named, is from Singapore. He has given £750,000 to create the Dr Abraham Lue Lectureship in Chinese Entrepreneurship which will be based in the King’s China Institute. This is the first time an alumnus from Singapore has funded a teaching post in this area.

This novel post will focus on contemporary China: looking at its influential role on the global stage as it becomes the world’s largest market economy, as well as looking at other aspects of Chinese society and culture.

The post holder will look at innovation within companies in the Chinese context. Many of the new companies are relatively small but very pioneering, developing new products, seizing initiatives and taking risks. The lecturer will also teach on the new master’s programme – MSc in China & Globalisation – beginning in September.

The Director of the King’s China Institute, Professor Xinzhong Yao, says of the donation: ‘I am extremely grateful for this donation, which has made it possible for the China Institute to make another appointment in one of

the most important fields for contemporary Chinese Studies. As a young centre, the Institute is faced with both challenges and opportunities. We are confident that with the generous support of our alumni, we are able to move forward rapidly to become one of the leading centres of excellence in research and teaching, and to play a key role in bridging King’s and China and the Chinese diaspora.’

The King’s China Institute, founded in 2008, provides a focal point for the study, promotion and understanding of Chinese society and culture.

The Lectureship has been named in honour of Dr Abraham Lue, at the request of the donor, in recognition of his dedicated support and mentoring of King’s students from South East Asia. Dr Lue, now Emeritus Assistant Principal of the College, and an alumnus of the Department of Mathematics, is a strong supporter of the College and its alumni association, having secured 22 scholarships for students from Hong Kong and China to study at King’s.

The creation of this lectureship has been achieved through the work of the Development Office which played an instrumental role in securing funding for the Lectureship.

Turkish Foreign Affairs Minister visitsHIS EXCELLENCY AHMET DAVUTOGLU, Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Turkey, gave a keynote lecture entitled Converging interests of Turkey and the UK in an enlarged EU and beyond at the Strand Campus on 12 January.

Professor Ahmet Davutoglu, Foreign Minister since May 2009,

outlined Turkey’s concept of a ‘Eurosphere’, an enlarged EU including the Republic of Turkey, and the role the country would play as a link between Europe and the Middle East.

The Minister explained that Turkey’s foreign policy in the Middle East sought to ease tensions by promoting mutual

respect, thereby making a contribution to stability and peace in the region. ‘We do not want a Cold War in the Middle East between what is labelled as moderate and extremist states,’ Professor Davutoglu said.

His speech followed a meeting with the British Foreign Secretary David Miliband. Professor

LAST TERM THE LAW ALUMNI Committee and Alumni Office organised a lecture where experts in European law and government discussed the Treaty of Lisbon. Professor Piet Eeckhout, Director of the Centre of European Law, chaired discussions. Other panellists were: Andrea Biondi, Professor of European Union Law and the Co-Director of the Centre for European Law; Paul Berman, Director, European Division of Treasury Solicitors

Department and Legal Advisor to the Cabinet Office; and Maya Lester, barrister.

More than 100 alumni and guests attended the lecture. ‘This and our last two events have really demonstrated the capability of King’s and the Law Faculty to put on first-class legal events which attract support and show there is underlying demand on our doorstep,’ said Robin Healey (Law, 1968), Law Alumni Chair.

Debate: Treaty of LisbonThe Marketing Department has launched the mobile version of the King’s Online Prospectus to improve the accessibility, quality, range and accuracy of information available to prospective students.

For the first time, the new Mobile Online Prospectus offers a dedicated mobile-friendly site for students to find out more about King’s.

The site has been designed specifically for mobile browsers, offering a user-friendly layout, a simple search function, and fast and easy access to information on all taught and research degrees.

Please direct any queries regarding the Mobile Online Prospectus to Olivia Davenport, Marketing Communications Manager, via [email protected]

Mobile Online Prospectus

Davutoglu explained that the agenda had included Cyprus, Afghanistan, Iraq and the global economic crisis.

The event was hosted by the Caucasus Policy Institute at King’s, directed by Denis Corboy, Senior Visiting Fellow of the Department of War Studies.


International

Strategic partnership with UCSFKING’S HAS AGREED TO A PURSUE A strategic partnership with the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) to explore opportunities for scholarly interaction, co-operative research, faculty and student exchange and other forms of academic collaboration.

‘Real breakthroughs in healthcare worldwide’

Professor Robert Lechler, Vice-Principal of King’s and Executive Director of King’s Health Partners, has signed a memorandum of understanding with his counterpart at UCSF, Executive Vice Chancellor and Provost A Eugene Washington, MD.

The memorandum of understanding states that ‘both

institutions see advantages in the development of strong academic links and relationships, and agree to establish ties of friendship and co-operation for the purpose of promoting mutual understanding and academic, cultural and personal exchange’.

The relationship between the two institutions will be overseen and co-ordinated by Professor Ellen Solomon, Research Dean and Head of the Division of Genetics & Development at King’s, and Dr Sam Hawgood, MBBS, Dean of the UCSF School of Medicine and Vice Chancellor for Medical Affairs.

Professor Lechler commented: ‘King’s is very excited about partnering with UCSF, one of the world’s leading academic health science centres. Like UCSF, we have an outstanding

history of research success, and strive to integrate this seamlessly with clinical care. We too have a global vision of healthcare,

From left: Sam Hawgood, Dean of the UCSF School of Medicine; A Eugene Washington, Executive Vice Chancellor and Provost at UCSF; Mary Anne Koda-Kimble, Dean of the UCSF School of Pharmacy; Robert Lechler, Vice-Principal of King’s and Executive Director of King’s Health Partners; and John Featherstone, Dean of the UCSF School of Dentistry.

Researchers from King’s have scooped two ‘Rising Powers, Global Challenges and Social Change’ programme awards from the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC). In total only nine awards were made, out of 33 proposals considered by the panel.

This ESRC’s Rising Powers, Global Challenges and Social Change programme aims to deepen the understanding of the regional and global impact of ‘rising powers’ such as China, India, Brazil and Russia, and the economic, political and social implications for the UK.

The new initiative calls for high-quality social science research networks that are embedded with effective international research collaboration and underpinned by engagement with a wide range of stakeholders. King’s researchers are to co-ordinate two of the nine networks awarded by the

Commissioning Panel.The first project, ‘India’s

challenge in a globalising healthcare economy: social science directions’, will consolidate partnerships between researchers at King’s, the London School of Economic & Political Science and Jawaharlal Nehru University.

Over the next year network fellows will scope and synthesise existing research literatures and the project will bring together key scholars in workshops in London and in New Delhi.

The second project, ‘State strategies of governance in global biomedical innovation: the impact of China and India’, aims to establish a network of academics and policymakers in China, India and the UK who will work together to develop an analysis of competing state strategies of governance in global biomedical innovation.

ESRC ‘Rising Powers’ awardsTHE KING’S HRM LEARNING BOARD and The Forum for Expatriate Management launched The International Human Resources Management Academy (IHRMA) in December. It has been developed specifically to help global organisations address opportunities and threats in developing a global employer brand, how they manage workforce risk across global operations and other challenging international business issues.

The IHRMA aims to be the world’s premier body dedicated exclusively to the advancement of education and research in International HR Management. The IHRMA will have faculty drawn from leading academics at King’s and around the world, respected practitioners, and prominent industry figures within the International HR community from companies such as Tesco, Ernst & Young and Siemens.

Stuart Woollard, Managing Director, King’s HRM Learning Board, said: ‘Managing staff internationally poses incredibly

complex challenges for globally focused organisations. Business managers and HR professionals have told us they need to understand these issues better in order to develop more effective international operations. We are very excited to establish our International HRM Academy to help facilitate access to knowledge and research in this area and allow firms to distil solutions appropriate for their own circumstances.’

The IHRMA will launch its first learning and development programme in March.

IHRMA launches

and have every expectation that this collaboration will lead to real breakthroughs in healthcare around the world.’


Focus

Health Service & Population ResearchThe Health Service & Population Research Department at the Institute of Psychiatry has won a prestigious Queen’s Anniversary Prize.

THE AWARD WAS GIVEN IN recognition of the Department’s groundbreaking work in improving

the quality of life of people with mental health problems throughout the world.

The Department has some 120 multi-disciplinary staff, as well as 65 PhD students. It is based at the David Goldberg Centre in De Crespigny Park at the Denmark Hill Campus and is led by Graham Thornicroft, who is Professor of Community Psychiatry at the Institute of Psychiatry and also the Director of Research & Development for the South London and Maudsley (SLaM) NHS Foundation Trust.

Excellence in mental health care‘We are committed to improving mental health care through excellence in research and teaching,’ Professor Thornicroft says. ‘Working in collaboration with colleagues in over 80 countries worldwide, and with the full participation of those who use mental health services and their families, we aim to ensure that mental health care is based both upon strong evidence and sound ethical principals, to promote positive recovery.

‘We work with a wide range of collaborators across 84 countries worldwide to carry out research and training, to contribute to the planning and resourcing of mental health care, and to help implement cost-effective new treatments and interventions that are informed by local knowledge.’

Impact‘Our work has had an impact on a range of national strategies at home and overseas, including those on the cost-effectiveness of women’s crisis houses, and on the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) guidelines on ante- and post-natal care, depression and schizophrenia. Professor Banerjee in our Department has led the UK National Dementia Strategy, and we have influenced WHO treatment guidelines and manuals for doctors, and international programmes to reduce the global stigma of mental illness.’

The Department includes three Research Centres: the Centre for Innovation & Evaluation in Mental Health; the Centre for Public Mental Health, and the Centre for the Economics of Mental Health. A particular strength is the direct participation of people with experience of mental health problems in

all its research, through the contribution of the Service User Research Enterprise (SURE).

‘We also want to make our research findings widely available – not just to clinicians, scientists and policymakers but also to people who use mental health services and to their carers and families,’ Professor Thornicroft explains. ‘Our priority is to find out what sort of care is most effective and most acceptable to service users and carers and to involve them in all aspects of our research.’

Results of the Department’s research are therefore published regularly online and in printed form through an annual magazine, Towards Mental Health, now in its fourth edition (accessible from the Department’s website). Examples of the Department’s recent work featured in the magazine include:• a research project to help victims of

international human trafficking to reclaim their lives in Moldova

• a study showing that South Asian and Black Caribbean people in the UK looking after a relative or partner with dementia are more likely to accept and embrace their role as carer than their British white counterparts

• the development of an easy-to-use questionnaire for aid-workers to assess people’s needs quickly and accurately in humanitarian and disaster situations, and

• a study of 1,000 women in Ethiopia to find

out if a mother’s state of mind has an effect on their child’s health, development, and likelihood of survival.

TeachingThe Department has more than 20 staff who provide PhD supervision. It runs two MSc courses (in Mental Health Services Research and in Mental Health Social Work with Children and Adults) and provides a range of teaching and training programmes for health professionals, including short clinical courses for mental health workers; elearning courses and continuing professional development.

It also runs seminars, events and conferences, and celebrated its 10th anniversary with a conference in November on ‘Excellence in Mental Health Care: Putting Evidence into Practice’.

Along with the University of Manchester, the Department co-ordinates the UK Mental Health Research Network (MHRN): a collaboration of eight regional mental health research hubs. It leads the South London Hub of this Network and supports the Service User Research Group England (SURGE).

Most recently, under the auspices of King’s Health Partners, the Department has launched the Centre for Global Mental Health, a partnership with the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine.

JENNY MATTHEWS

Ethiopian women and children.


Flashback

THOMAS WAKLEY GREW UP in a large and prosperous West Country farming family and came

to London to study medicine under William Cline and Sir Astley Paston Cooper at the United Hospitals of Guy’s and St Thomas’ in 1815 (the same year as John Keats). At this time the two hospitals faced each other across St Thomas’s street where the gates to Guy’s colonnade now look across to the old Operating Theatre.

An assiduous and successful medical student, Wakley qualified for membership of the Royal College of Surgeons in 1817, married money in 1820 and set up in practice in Argyll Street, near Oxford Circus, in the same year. His medical studies had, however, already begun to stir his interests in the standards of medical education and of patient care, both of which he had recognised as being decidedly patchy.

Attacked and beatenThe turning point in Wakley’s life came shortly after establishing his successful practice when, in August 1820, he was attacked and beaten in his own home, which was set on fire by his assailants. Lucky to escape with his life, Wakley had, it seems, been erroneously identified as the mysterious masked figure who had deftly decapitated the corpses of five conspirators hanged at Newgate Prison for their parts in the Cato Street plot to assassinate the Prime Minister.

Wakley was publically exonerated from this allegation (the perpetrator was probably an anatomy room assistant from Guy’s), but the experience left a lasting impression. Wakley’s sense of mounting outrage was channelled into publication through his acquaintance with William Cobbett, editor of the Weekly Political Register and the Evening Post: and a stern critic of the government of the day.

Mission statementThe first edition of The Lancet appeared on 5 October 1823. Wakley’s mission statement included his desire to: ‘… supply, in the most ample manner, whatever is valuable in these important branches of knowledge and as the lectures of Sir Astley Cooper, on

the theory and practice of surgery, are probably the best of the kind delivered in Europe, we have commenced our undertaking with the introductory address of that distinguished professor given at the theatre at St Thomas’ Hospital on Wednesday evening last. In addition to lectures, we propose giving under the head “Medical and Surgical intelligence” a correct description of all the important cases that may occur, whether in England or on any part of the civilised continent.’

The early issues of The Lancet were, indeed, heavily dependent on their content on Cooper’s lectures, which Wakley had arranged to be transcribed verbatim, without Cooper’s permission. This led to a considerable disagreement between Cooper and Wakley, followed by an amicable relationship between the two, and Cooper’s lectures continued to be published in The Lancet.

Evidence-basedAs well as foreshadowing evidence-based medicine by nearly 200 years, Wakley’s Lancet laid the foundations for medical audit and professional regulation when he turned his attention to the often scandalously incompetent and callous treatment received by patients at the London hospitals, particularly St Thomas’, where Wakley was banned by the surgical staff. He also argued strongly for reform in medical education, at this time a profitable enterprise in the firm grip of the Royal Colleges of Surgeons and Physicians, and railed against medical nepotism which was rife and generally went unchallenged.

This stance brought Wakley into head-on conflict with both Astley Cooper and his

nephew Bransby, a notoriously clumsy surgeon who Sir

Astley wanted to place in succession to himself as

senior surgeon at Guy’s. Wakley had described in lurid detail a botched operation for bladder stone performed by Bransby Cooper which led to the death of the patient and the appearance of

Cooper and Wakley at opposite sides

of the High Court. Cooper won the case

against Wakley’s libel, but the judge awarded only the

most minimal damages. The case established Wakley and The Lancet

as reforming forces to be reckoned with. Unsurprisingly this led to a deep rift between Guy’s and St Thomas’, which was not healed until the medical schools re-united only 30 years ago.

Campaigning stancePerhaps most importantly, Wakley’s views on medical standards formed the basis of the Medical Act of 1858, and the establishment of the General Medical Council which has regulated British medicine with varying degrees of success until the present day. Wakley edited The Lancet until his death from tuberculosis in Madeira in 1848, having also been an effective member of parliament and a reforming coroner. The editorship of The Lancet passed down, ironically, through the Wakley family over the next 50 years. The journal has continued to maintain its campaigning stance across a range of medical ethical issues ever since.Roger Jones, Wolfson Professor and Head of General Practice. Professor Jones has just become Editor of the British Journal of General Practice.

Thomas Wakley, The Lancet and the United HospitalsThomas Wakley, founder of The Lancet, trained at the United Hospitals of Guy’s and St Thomas’ in the early 19th century.

Caption for picture above: Thomas Wakley Credit: The Lancet


Around the College

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Ink drawingsART AT KING’S

Duel Day celebrations for 2010THIS YEAR KING’S STAFF, STUDENTS and alumni will be celebrating Duel Day on Thursday 25 March.

Duel Day commemorates the extraordinary event which fixes the foundation of the College. It marks the anniversary of a duel in fields near Battersea which took place in 1829 between the then Prime Minister, the Duke of Wellington, and the Earl of

Winchilsea over the founding of the College.

This year’s festivities will include various on and off campus events to celebrate all things King’s. Alumni around the world will be joining the celebrations and there are plans to hold 10 events across the globe. The Washington DC alumni branch is holding a lecture and drinks reception as

is the branch in New York City. The Hong Kong and Singapore branches will be coming together for their annual Duel Day gathering, there will also be alumni drinks at the Sydney Opera House and an event in Paris at the British pub The Bombardier. Many other events are planed in various forms and guises around the world.

Everyone connected with

the College will have fond memories of their time here and Duel Day is a great opportunity to get together with friends to remember your achievements and happy times spent at the College.

For more information about Duel Day and for advice on organising your own event, visit the Duel Day web pages on the Alumni online site.

This ink drawing We draw to keep me calm comes from a body of work entitled My parents told me to stay calm, which was inspired by Seattle-born artist Clare Johnson’s childhood experiences with asthma.The drawings were purchased by Guy’s and St Thomas’ Charity for the MRC & Asthma UK Centre in Allergic Mechanisms of Asthma at Guy’s Hospital, where they are on display.

Clare became afflicted with asthma when she was five years

old. Her night-time attacks were rife with the fear that she wouldn’t make it to her parents in time for them to administer her medicine. Knowing that attacks can be made worse by panicking, Clare’s parents devised a plan for her treatment: every time she used her asthma inhaler, she was told to draw in a large colouring book reserved especially for the length of each treatment. Drawing became both a comforting task and an indicator of those stressful times.

The ink drawings obsessively rework imagery that was comforting to the artist as a child – trees, homes, people curled up in cosy, protected beds – while evoking the loneliness and vulnerability she felt as a young girl. They are an effort to soothe and calm the artist and any asthma sufferer who sees them.

Professor Tak Lee, Director of the MRC & Asthma UK Centre in Allergic Mechanisms of Asthma, said: ‘We are delighted and very grateful to

Guy’s and St Thomas’ Charity for acquiring these drawings for us. Our MRC-Asthma UK Centre researches into the causes of asthma to find ways for prevention and cure. These ink drawings are not only a very poignant reminder of the distress caused by asthma in patients with the disease, but their beauty also lights up our research and clinical environments.’

For more information about the artist visit www.clarejohnson.com


Around the College

BBC RADIO 3 CAME BACK TO KING’S for a live broadcast of Choral Evensong on 6 January in the College Chapel, Strand Campus. Staff and students joined the congregation for the service.

Choral Evensong was first broadcast on Thursday 7 October 1926 live from Westminster Abbey and has been broadcast weekly on BBC Radio ever since. This is the third time that the BBC has recorded the Choral Evensong from the King’s Chapel.

The Chapel Choir is recognised as one of the finest mixed ensembles in the country, singing a broad and exciting repertoire to the highest musical standards. The Director is David Trendell.

Two meditations given by the Dean, the Revd Professor Richard Burridge, for the Choral Evensong are available on the Chaplaincy website: www.kcl.ac.uk/about/structure/dean/sermons-section/epiphany.html

BBC Radio 3’s Choral Evensong live from King’s

PhD student provides expert advice to Coronation Street VICKKI HARMER, KING’S PHD STUDENT and clinical nurse specialist (breast care) at St Mary’s Hospital Campus, Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust, has been providing expert breast cancer care advice to writers at Coronation Street in a prominent breast cancer storyline.

Vickki, who has also provided advice to script writers for breast cancer stories for The Archers and Channel 5’s Family Affairs, was approached by ITV and Coronation Street via the charity Breakthrough Breast Cancer, of

which she is a patron, to provide breast cancer care advice for Sally Webster, one of the most popular characters on the long running soap.

‘A positive portrayal of life with and after cancer’

As part of the advisory role Vickki, along with Dr Emma Pennery, clinical director at Breast Cancer Care, works with

researchers and producers at Coronation Street to produce accurate storylines and details for Sally’s diagnosis and treatment. She reads scripts and provides feedback on them to ensure factual accuracy.

Vickki said: ‘This story will hopefully assist in delivering a positive portrayal of life with and after cancer and it is encouraging to find continued efforts to decrease the stigma associated with a cancer diagnosis and increase the public understanding of the disease.’ Vickki Harmer

2009 Report publishedTHE 2009 KING’S COLLEGE London Report is now available. This magazine-style publication, edited by Dr Christine Kenyon Jones, features a sample of the immense and innovative range of research, teaching and commercialisation undertaken at King’s in 2008-9.

Topics include translational research in the Cardiovascular Clinical Academic Group of King’s Health Partners; finding a biomarker for Alzheimer’s disease; how maths is harnessing the power of data in biomedicine;

recent research in the College Archives on Virginia Woolf at King’s; the impact of air pollution on Londoners’ health; the new London Dental Education Centre, and a fresh study of

Margaret Thatcher, together with College news, an introduction by the Principal, and facts and figures about King’s.

The Report can be viewed

Duke University, Stanford University, and the University of Rochester in the US lead a consortium of participating universities that manages and funds the Futurity (http://futurity.org/) project. All partners are members of the Association of American Universities or of the Russell Group. King’s has now become Futurity’s 50th member.

Futurity aggregates the very best research news.

The content is produced by the partner universities and submitted to Futurity’s editor for consideration. The site covers news in the environment, health, science, society, and other areas.

‘This is an exciting opportunity to reach a global audience with news of our research, and to do so in the company of the leading universities of the USA,’ commented Chris Coe, Director of Communications.

Futurity’s 50th member

online at www.kcl.ac.uk/media/publications/report.html.

Copies are available at reception desks and from the

Public Relations Department. Please email Sam Hutton (email [email protected]) stating how many copies you would like.


Around the College

ALMOST A TONNE OF KING’S surplus equipment has travelled 5,000 miles to reach Gaza. Its destination was the Islamic University of Gaza – an independent academic institution which suffered much damage in the recent war.

The equipment was sent via the humanitarian aid convoy, Viva Palestina. The collection of this academically-linked aid material was the focus of the 2009 activities of the College’s ‘BERCIA’ project (Books and Equipment Recycling for International Aid).

More than 50 alumni, staff and students joined forces with the KCL Action Palestine student society to collect and pack textbooks and laboratory equipment to be sent to Gaza.

Professor Phil Whitfield, former Vice-Principal (Students), led the initiative. He said: ‘For many years individuals and groups in the College have donated surplus books and equipment to other academic institutions in the

UK and around the world. The BERCIA initiative has enabled us to co-ordinate and focus that generosity. I was amazed by the enthusiasm, kindness and energy of the many students and staff who pushed this initiative forward.’

Other key members of staff included Dr Andrew Kent from the School of Biomedical & Health Sciences. He co-ordinated the transfer of collected items to a holding laboratory in the Franklin-Wilkins Building and supported the work of many student volunteers who worked to sort and pack material. He also organised for College carpenters to make specialised support frames and secure packaging for heavy equipment. Zainab Rahim, an alumna and student in the Department of English until last year, co-ordinated the project with Professor Whitfield. The equipment was collected from the College in November. The convoy crossed the Rafah border into Gaza on 6 January.

Hazel the Harris hawk featured on page 11 of the 17 December issue of the Times Higher Education magazine. Hazel the Harris hawk plays an important role at King’s. The four-year-old raptor – pictured on the hand of her handler, Karl Robertson, in the Quad at the

Strand Campus – is used to deter pigeons and seagulls from building nests on the College’s historic buildings. Birds of prey are frequently used by pest-control experts to keep vermin at bay, including at football stadiums, prisons, RAF bases and even landfill sites.

Hazel the hawk in the headlinesPETER SEARLE

A KING’S ALUMNUS IS HEADING UP the select team in charge of the Staffordshire Hoard, the fabulous Anglo-Saxon treasure discovery made in July 2009.

‘Nothing like it has ever been found before. It’s quite simply unique’

Dr Roger Bland, who graduated in Classics in 1978, is managing the unparalleled in his role as Head of Portable Antiquities & Treasure at the British Museum. Unearthed by a metal detectorist in a field in Staffordshire, the Hoard comprises around 1,800 individual items mostly in gold and silver and decorated with precious stones. It appears to date from the seventh century.

Dr Bland adds: ‘It has this

enormous quantity of gold, five kilos, which is three times as much as Sutton Hoo [the last great find of this kind, discovered in East Anglia 70 years ago]. The highlights from the find were put on temporary display in Birmingham, for just 20 days, and the public interest was extraordinary. People were queuing for five hours to see it. For now, we’ve got a selection on display at the British Museum.

‘One thing we’re very keen to stress is that finds like these are important not just in terms of money but for what they tell us about the past. Every Anglo-Saxon expert in this country has been completely astonished by this discovery because nothing like it has ever been found before. It’s quite simply unique.’

Dr Bland, who was awarded an OBE in 2008 for services to heritage, cut short a History

Alum heads up Golden Hoard

One of the 1,800 artefacts found in Staffordshire.

course at Oxford to read Classics at King’s so he could return to the British Museum where he’d previously worked as a

volunteer. He recalls it as ‘a very positive experience’ and has fond memories of taking part in the Greek Play.

Equipment reaches Gaza


Research

Professor Peter Griffiths and Dr Sarah Robinson of The National Nursing Research Unit at the Florence Nightingale School of Nursing & Midwifery have been commissioned by the Nursing and Midwifery Council to analyse the potential risks and benefits relating to the regulation of healthcare support workers in the UK.

Healthcare support workers (HCSWs) and their equivalents provide direct services related to patient care and treatment and support the work of registered

nurses and midwives. However there is currently no statutory provision for the regulation of the estimated one million HCSWs working in the UK.

Professor Griffiths and Dr Robinson will analyse the risks and issues presented to public protection by unregulated HCSWs.

Their findings will support the Nursing and Midwifery Council in determining what, if any, action it should take to protect the public through the regulation of these roles.

Regulation of support workers

Brain protein key to addictionEXPERTS FROM THE INSTITUTE OF Psychiatry with colleagues from Brazil, have identified that variations in a neurotransmitter receptor gene GABRA-A2 are associated with cocaine addiction. Professor Gunter Schumann at the Institute of Psychiatry said: ‘In a large sample of cocaine addicts and healthy non-drug taking controls we identified a genetic profile which protects against the use of cocaine and reduces the risk of becoming cocaine addicted by about 50 per cent.’

The research, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America was led by the University of Sussex who in animal studies have discovered the relevance of this gene for cocaine addiction.

The University of Sussex had

discovered that a receptor protein for the chemical messenger GABA played a special role in how reward motivations were prioritised in the brain. The removal of the protein showed a lack of the behavioural changes which come about with persistent cocaine use, so reward-seeking towards drugs at the expense of natural rewards did not develop, even though the stimulant effects of cocaine were exhibited.

Dr Gerome Breen from the Institute of Psychiatry said: ‘While the evidence is statistically strong, the finding is not of predictive value – we cannot use testing of this gene to predict who will or will not become a cocaine addict. However, it does suggest that drugs targeting this receptor may be useful in treating cocaine addiction in humans and should be investigated.’

CONTRARY TO CONVENTIONAL belief, as the climate warms and growing seasons lengthen, subalpine forests are likely to soak up less carbon dioxide, according to a study co-authored by Dr Dave Moore, Department of Geography, and academics at the University of Colorado at Boulder. As a result, more of the greenhouse gas will be left to concentrate in the atmosphere.

The researchers used a nine-year record (1999–2007) of continuous eddy flux observations from the Niwot Ridge AmeriFlux site, a subalpine forest in the Colorado Rocky Mountains, to show that longer growing season length actually resulted in less annual CO2 uptake. In the Colorado Rockies longer and warmer

growing seasons mean less snow falls during the late winter and early spring.

‘Our research shows that trees in these high alpine forests depend heavily on water from snow melt for photosynthesis and growth,’ says Dr Moore. ‘This means that the forests of subalpine trees will be likely to take up less carbon from the atmosphere if snowfall is reduced. Warming temperatures and reduced snowfall in the Rocky Mountains makes the forest less effective as a carbon sink. In the future, as the winter snow fall is predicted to reduce further it is not certain that these tree species will be able to adapt.’ Subalpine forests make up 70 per cent of the western United States’ carbon sink.

Stifling carbon uptake SP BURNS

The forest at Niwot Ridge, Colorado.

IN A STUDY FUNDED BY THE ROAD Safety Division, Department for Transport, for research concerned with Medical Aspects of Fitness to Drive, Dr Kim Wolff from the Institute of Psychiatry collaborated with psychiatrists specialising in addiction, from the South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust (Dr Jane Marshall and Dr Francis Keaney) and clinical biochemists from King’s College Hospital (Dr Roy Sherwood and Natalie Walsham) to investigate biomarkers (blood tests) of problematic alcohol consumption.

Measurement of alcohol concentration in blood, urine or breath is not a reliable indication of a person’s drinking pattern or behaviour or of whether there is an underlying alcohol problem. In the first study of its kind in the UK, biomarkers were assessed in three different groups of problem drinkers and Carbohydrate Deficient Transferrin (CDT) was found to be more efficient at identifying continuous (harmful

or dependent) drinking than traditional biomarkers.

It is well known that some medical conditions (obesity, diabetes and liver disease) reduce the effectiveness of other biomarkers of alcohol consumption. CDT was shown to be superior to all other biomarkers in this regard. The team recommend that CDT be the preferred biomarker for the identification of continuous drinking in high risk drink drivers and that CDT measurement should be undertaken in those seeking re-granting of driving licenses.

Test for high risk drink driversINGRID RASMUSSEN


Media watch

Anti-doping for 2012

The announcement that GlaxoSmithKline will provide laboratories and equipment to increase The Drug Control Centre’s anti-doping facilities in the run up to the London Olympics and Paralympics was widely reported in the Daily Telegraph, Evening Standard, People’s Daily (China), Reuters, USA Today, New York Times and The Economic Times (India).

Leukaemia vaccine

Farzin Farzaneh, Professor of Molecular Medicine, and Ghulam Mufti, Head of the Department of Haematological Medicine, were interviewed for ABC News and BBC Radio Glasgow, regarding their research on a vaccine for Leukaemia. The research was also reported in the Daily Telegraph, Evening Standard and The Mirror.

Palaeography

An article in the G2 section of The Guardian examined university cutbacks and consultation about the future of the chair of palaeography at King’s. The current chair is held by Professor David Ganz. Palaeography is the study of ancient manuscripts whereby scholars can read texts and localise and date handwriting accurately.

Child migration

Professor Carl Bridge, Director of the Menzies Centre, appeared on BBC1’s The One Show discussing migration to Australia following Prime Minister Kevin Rudd’s national apology to the forgotten Australians and former child migrants. Dr Frank Bongiorno was also interviewed by BBC Scotland on bounty migration.

End-of-life issues

Professor Penney Lewis, Centre of Medical Law and Ethics, was interviewed by Channel 4 News, BBC News Channel and the New York Times for features on end-of-life issues, including decision-making at the end of life for children and adults. Professor Lewis also wrote articles for the Solicitors’ Journal.

Culture & Care

Professor Anne Marie Rafferty, Head of the School of Nursing & Midwifery, and John Browne, the School’s Composer in Residence, were interviewed by British director Ken Russell for a feature in The Times. John’s residency was also featured in the Nursing Standard, the arts press and on BBC News Online.

Iranian waters

Richard Schofield, Senior Lecturer in Boundary Studies, Department of Geography, was interviewed by Channel 4 News and BBC Radio 4’s The World at One following the detainment of five British sailors in Iran.

Deadly depression

Research by the Institute of Psychiatry, led by Dr Robert Stewart, has found that depression is as much of a risk factor for mortality as smoking. The study resulted in more than 180 articles of media coverage worldwide.

Theatre archive

The Centre for Computing in the Humanities contributed to the single most important archive on theatre in the age of Shakespeare, which was reported in the Evening Standard.

Graduate nursing

An article in The Guardian about nursing becoming a graduate profession featured comment from Professor Alison While, Associate Dean for the School of Nursing & Midwifery, Professor Robert Lechler, Vice-Principal (Health) and Professor Alison Wolf, Department of Management.

Drug misuse

Each year, nearly 150,000 dementia patients are given anti-psychotic drugs unnecessarily. Professor Sube Banerjee from the Institute of Psychiatry released these disturbing findings to the media, and consequently received coverage in The Times, Reuters, The Guardian, The Scotsman and Pharmaceutical Journal with the story also reaching the Oman Daily Observer and Tehran Times.

Smoking psychosis

Dr Marta Di Forti from the Institute of Psychiatry, released results which demonstrated a strong link between skunk and psychosis. Reuters published the results which ensured widespread media pick-up in publications such as The Guardian, British Medical Journal, The Mirror and the Shanghai Daily. Dr Di Forti participated in an interview on BBC Radio 5 Live’s Breakfast programme.

Defence issues

Dr John Gearson, Director of the Centre for Defence Studies, Department of War Studies, was interviewed on a number of occasions by Sky News and the BBC News Channel. He discussed British troops in Afghanistan, the Iraq inquiry and terror attempts.

See www.kcl.ac.uk/media/press-cuttings for the latest media coverage. Email [email protected] if you have featured in the media.

Celebrations

King’s joined up with the BBC World Service, Chinese Service for a ‘Christmas Celebration’ quiz show, which was filmed and streamed live, from the Waterloo Campus, over the internet to thousands of viewers on BBC China, Sina.com and qq.com, some of China’s largest web portals.

Brain Bank Network

The announcement of a new Brain Bank Network led by Professor Paul Francis, Wolfson Centre for Age-Related Diseases, to address a national shortage of brains needed for medical research featured on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, the ITV Lunchtime News and BBC Radio 5 Live.

Fall of the Wall

Professor Jan Palmowski, Head of the School of Arts & Humanities, discussed the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall on LBC 97.3 FM’s Nick Ferrari Show.

Politics Pen

Professor Anne Redston, School of Law, took part in a weekly feature on BBC2’s Newsnight called ‘Politics Pen’. She also outlined how the Government can use taxes to ease the strain on the public purse in a BBC News Online article and on BBC Radio 4’s Six O’Clock News.

Student news

On the evening of 16 December The Gordon Museum at Guy’s Campus hosted an exhibition of this year’s best elective student posters and the winners of the elective photography competition. Medical students do an elective placement in their final year of study, often abroad: the posters and photographs documented their experiences everywhere from Vietnam to Zanzibar. Around 250 photographs were submitted to the competition, of which 29 were shortlisted. The overall winner was Pause for Thought (above) by Rebecca Mitchelson, a thought-provoking portrait of a Tanzanian child orphaned by AIDS, entered in the Patient Scenario category.

Winning elective photograph


Alumnus performsRISING STAR OBI ABILI IS CURRENTLY performing the role of Paul in John Guare’s play Six Degrees of Separation at The Old Vic which runs until 3 April.

Obi Abili studied War Studies at King’s in 1999 and then went on to do a BA in Acting with RADA (2003-6). His theatre work includes Dido Queen of Carthage (National Theatre), Brothers Size (The Young Vic) and Angels in America (Headlong Theatre).

Inspired by the real-life story of a flamboyant con artist who convinced wealthy residents in Manhattan that he was the son of actor Sidney Poitier, Six Degrees of Separation is a captivating study of society’s pretensions exposed by one man’s self-confidence and imagination.

ISoc raises £27,000

DURING 2009’S CHARITY WEEK, King’s Islamic Society (King’s ISoc) raised £27,691 for orphans and needy children across the globe. This society has raised approximately £111,055 over the last six years.

Charity Week began in 2004 as a grass-roots project by a small team of students from the University of London Union Islamic Society. It has since grown very quickly and now enjoys participation from students throughout Great Britain and the rest of the world.

Every year one Charity Week Champion is chosen from amongst the participants. Since its inception five years ago, more than 100 university and college Islamic societies and organisations from a variety of backgrounds have participated. King’s ISoc was Champion in 2007 with a

total of £37,500, an amount that has yet to be challenged. Money is raised via football tournaments, bake sales, Campus collections, inter-Campus competitions and many more initiatives.

To date a sum of £1,200,000 has been donated to orphans and Charity Week remains one of the most powerful projects initiated by the University of London Islamic Society.

Community FundKCLSU HAS LAUNCHED A COMMUNITY Engagement Fund of £20,000 for students. The fund will provide grants of between £200 and £2,000 for students who wish to take part in activities that will have a positive effect on the community around King’s. In addition to providing funding, KCLSU will support successful applicants by helping to develop ideas, providing any additional training or development required and evaluating the success of the project.

The initiation of the fund is part of KCLSU’s strategic priority to champion the role of students in society, in addition to extending opportunities for transferable skills development through informal learning. All projects are to be completed by June 2010 whereupon KCLSU will host a celebration event to showcase the projects. For more details contact [email protected]

Diwali ShowTHE 17TH ANNUAL KCL CHARITY DIWALI Show took place last term at the Royal Festival Hall. Showcasing some of the best student talent at King’s, guests were treated to an array of dance, music and catwalk numbers, with the aim of representing the best of British culture through a fusion of Eastern and Western acts. The show was devised, choreographed and performed by students, led by the KCL Charity Diwali Show committee. More than 200 students were involved in the show which raises money for charity.

Members of King’s Islamic Society.

REBECCA MITCHELSON

www.kcl.ac.uk | March 2010 |Comment | 27

Books

Cry Havoc

Dr Joseph Maiolo, Department of War Studies

The arms race, on the run up to the Second World War, followed the faultless logic of paranoia. Before the First World War, the Great Powers measured the strength of their rivals by the size of armies and navies, and the money spent on them. Afterwards, having learned the lessons of ‘total war’, they looked at the capacity of nations to mobilise their economies and populations for war.

Deep planning, they realised, was necessary to prepare for potential conflicts; but with this attitude came a sense that society might need to be in a state of perpetual readiness for conflict, and a potential openness to totalitarian levels of state control in ensuring that readiness.

Dr Maiolo shows how the arms race developed. He reveals the full complexity of it by looking at competition between nations, and how nations reacted to their rivals moves. He provides a portrait of the thinking of those making decisions – Hitler, Mussolini, Chamberlain, Stalin, Roosevelt – and reveals the extent of the dilemmas confronted by the leaders of the western democracies who seemed faced with a choice between defending their nations and preserving the democratic nature of the societies they sought to defend.Wiley-Blackwell

Giant Molecules: from nylon to nanotubes

Professor Walter Gratzer, Department of Cell & Molecular Biophysics

When the history of chemistry is written, the 20th century will be marked as the century of giant molecules (macromolecules) in industry, the century in which the properties of giant molecules were first seriously studied and applied to technology and commerce.

Most certainly, the importance of giant molecules in industry will be amplified in the 21st century. Take giant molecules out of our lives and our present civilization would quickly collapse.

In the 20th century giant molecules became the central feature of the application of chemistry to biological science. One of the most fascinating properties of some giant molecules is their ability to self-organise – to form solid or hollow spheres, sheets, tubes, sol/gel transformers, thermoplastic structures, all of them with a variety of emergent chemical and physical properties. Self-organising polymeric domains are of great interest in materials science, and are essential for the existence of biological systems.

The focus of this book is on giant molecules in present and future technology. Professor Gratzer presents a fascinating and readable book about giant molecules’ history, chemistry and use in technology. Oxford University Press

Arabian Boundaries 1966-1975

Richard Schofield, Department of Geography

This substantial documentary collection (16 volumes of texts and two of maps) is the product of a four-year research effort, it covers in detail the most tumultuous decade in the territorial evolution of the Arabian peninsular states, one that was dominated by Britain’s departure as protecting power from the region in the 1967-71 period.

Many difficult questions had to be broached during this half-decade and in the years immediately before and since. In some cases, as with the dispute between Iran and the UAE over the Lower Gulf islands, Britain felt that an accommodation of sorts had to be concluded before it left formally as colonial power.

In others, such as a long-running dispute between Saudi Arabia and the UAE, it was considered that the remaining insecurities posed by an ultimate failure to settle could be lived with. Emphasis in the post pax Britannica period (1972-5) would fix upon the northern Gulf, where territorial disputes had always been viewed as more genuinely destabilising.

The dramatic shift in the conduct and pattern of regional territorial geopolitics occasioned by the major Iran-Iraq rapprochement of 1975 dominate the endpoint of the series.Cambridge University Press

Introducing Christian Ethics

Professor Ben Quash, Department of Theology & Religious Studies, and Samuel Wells

This comprehensive textbook offers an unparalleled introduction to the study of Christian ethics, mapping and exploring all the major ethical approaches, and offering thoughtful insights into the complex moral challenges facing people today.

The book encompasses Christian ethics in its entirety, but also offers a new way of viewing this subject. Professor Quash and Samuel Wells approach it from three perspectives: universal (ethics for anyone); subversive (ethics for the excluded); and ecclesial (ethics for the church). In doing so, they are able to highlight the sharp distinctions between ethical approaches that are sometimes perceived as antagonistic, whilst providing a balance between description, analysis, and critique.

It offers students a substantial overview by re-mapping the field and exploring the differences in various ethical approaches. It provides a balance between description, analysis and critique. It also shows how ecclesial ethics is respectful of – and indeed, often profoundly indebted to – other approaches to ethics. This study may be used alongside a companion volume of readings, Christian Ethics: An Introductory Reader.Wiley-Blackwell

Comment is the College’s regular newsletter, edited by the Public Relations Department and designed by the Corporate Design Unit | Comment is printed on paper produced with 80 per cent recovered fibre | Articles are welcomed from all members of the College, but please note that the Editor reserves the right to amend articles | Copy for the next issue can be sent to the Internal Communications Officer, Public Relations Department (ext 3075), James Clerk Maxwell Building, Waterloo Campus, or emailed to [email protected] by 19 April.


Books

Three favourite...

Books

places near the Strand CampusAs recommended by Dr Alexander Heinz, Strategic Projects Officer in the School of Arts & Humanities, Executive Assistant to the Head of School and historian

The Daily Express BuildingFive minutes east of the Strand Campus on Fleet Street stands one of the most elegant and daring buildings I know. With its rounded black glass panels and chromium strips, the Daily Express Building is no longer what is says on the Art Deco tin but its façade is still so faultless that it’s hard to believe that (much of it) has been around for 78 years.

Inner Temple GardensSurprise is probably what most people sense when they stroll through the narrow streets of the Temple area and houses suddenly give way to a fine, often sunlit park hidden away from the bustle of Fleet Street. Gently rolling down the hill and leading to the embankment trees by the river, surrounded by red brick and Portland stone. I go there if I need to see nature albeit in its very civil form.

Sir John Soane’s MuseumSir John Soane, a distinguished architect who designed the Bank of England Building, was a dedicated collector and turned his house into a museum in 1833. A few minutes by foot north of the Strand, the collection is an eclectic mix from timepieces, architectural models, and drawings to artefacts from Antiquity to the 19th century.

Email [email protected] with your three favourite things related to a Campus.

Three favourite...

Children in Custody

Dr Mary McAuley, International Centre for Prison Studies

Despite their very different histories, societies, political and legal systems, Russia and the UK stand out as favouring a punitive approach to young law breakers, imprisoning many more children than any other European countries.

This book is based on primary research in Russia where the author visited a dozen closed institutions and on similar research in England and Northern Ireland.

The result is a unique study of how attitudes to youth crime and criminal justice, the political environment and the relationship between state and society have interacted to influence the treatment of young offenders. Dr McAuley’s account of the twists and turns in policy towards youth illuminate the history of Russia in the 20th century and the making of social policy in Russia today.

This is the first study to compare the UK with Russia – it highlights the factors responsible for the making of ‘punitive’ policy in these societies and aims to reveal how other European countries manage to put so many fewer children behind bars.Bloomsbury

Understanding Education

Professors Alan Cribb & Sharon Gewirtz, Department of Education & Professional Studies

This book addresses questions such as, who should be educated, when, by whom and how? What purposes should education serve? Why does education matter? These fundamental questions of value are not always seen as central to the sociology of education.

However, this book argues that they are pivotal. It draws attention to the many points of disagreement that exist between major thinkers in the sociology of education, and the values on which their ideas are based. By involving readers in crucial questions about the potential contribution of sociology to education policies and practices, it aims to bridge the divide between education as it is talked about by academics, and the concerns of policymakers and educators who have to make practical decisions.

Chapter by chapter the book introduces competing approaches in the sociology of education and shows how these can be applied to major themes such as social reproduction, the politics of knowledge, multicultural education, and teachers’ work.Polity

Just Wars and Moral Victories

Dr David Whetham, Defence Studies Department

While recognising the sophistication of the practice of medieval warfare, many people still have problems reconciling the widespread use of surprise and deception with the code of chivalric warfare.

Was chivalry really just a meaningless veneer? If true, perhaps more perplexing are the many cases where surprise or deception were deliberately not employed and advantages were therefore sacrificed.

This work argues that understanding these apparent inconsistencies requires an appreciation of the moral and legal context of medieval strategic thought.

Through taking this approach, chivalric warfare can be seen for what it was – a very real framework or system of rules that allowed a result or decision to be reached which could be accepted by both sides.

The implications of this work go to the heart of the very nature of war itself. It makes clear that victory is not something that is taken from a defeated opponent; it is something that is given by the defeated party.BRILL

Documents

Comment 191 - March 2010