THE UNIVERSITY OF BRISTOL MAGAZINE // AUTUMN 2013

SPHERE: WATCHING OUT FOR YOUR HEALTH THE RED PLANET: A DRY RUN BRISTOL: A LOVE LETTER Autumn 2013

Welcome Contents Features nonesuch 2 Autumn 2013 Ground force 4 Editor The human factor 8 Nick Riddle Contributing Editor Where the heart is cover 12 Freya Sterling

Bristol, give me a signal 16 Contact The fight for funding 21 [email protected] Boldly going… 25 Advisory Group David Alder // Director of Communications First there were gorillas, then Banksy, A knighthood is, I think, aptly named and Marketing Jill Cartwright // and this summer Bristol was in the an ‘honour.’ After learning of my own Head of Public international spotlight again for the this summer, I have been happily Relations Office astonishingly successful ‘Gromit surprised by how exciting and Dr Lorna Colquhoun // 12 Head of Research Unleashed’ (p7). And so it is very delightful the experience has been. Development appropriate that we have included A sense of wellbeing Hannah Johnson // a love letter to the city by Rachel My ‘service to higher education’ includes Press Officer Schraer (BA 2013); a blog post that chairing Universities UK, a medical academic Dr Maggie Leggett // received more than 10,000 shares career, and writing a Government White Paper Head of the Centre for on Facebook this July (p18). on philanthropy. But my primary service for Public Engagement Dr John McWilliams // the last 12 years has been to the University of Publicity and Although we clearly share a deep affection Bristol, which is ranked consistently among the 11 Recruitment Officer for Bristol, I don’t recognise some of the city top 100 global universities, and where student Dick Penny // Rachel describes so well. But then, she just places are some of the UK’s most sought after. Regulars Managing Director, Watershed graduated this year, and I graduated in 1975. The whole Bristol community – its staff, Tania Jane Rawlinson // Enough said! I do hope you enjoy Rachel’s students and alumni – make this University Alumni in the news 2 Director of Campaigns blog and that you will share your own thoughts great. Examples abound in this magazine. Bristol and beyond 11 and Alumni Relations about Bristol on our LinkedIn alumni webpage. A Bristol alum is now Prime Minister of Malta Professor Judith Squires // This academic year has got off to a (p2); another is a potential NASA astronaut (p3). 8 Bristol in pieces 24 Pro Vice-Chancellor tremendous start with alumni events as far One PhD student examines war-torn Sri Lanka A brush What happened when... 18 Design afield as Cambridge, Dubai, Tokyo and, of (p21); another develops morphing airplane with medicine pelotondesign.co.uk course, Bristol. We will be showcasing some wings (p25). Bristol academics are empowering In pictures Produced by of the University’s newest buildings at our next people with health conditions to live at home Public Relations Office Alumni Weekend, 4 – 6 July 2014. I hope to (p11), and exploring green energy sources (p4). Senate House see you there: please gather your Bristol What an extraordinary community of achievers! Snapshots 7 Tyndall Avenue Taken 20 Bristol BS8 1TH friends together now, and save the date. Bristol University’s mission of learning and T: +44 (0)117 928 8895 discovery is realised through the work of our Cover illustration students, staff, alumni and friends. So of course Nonesuch magazine // Autumn 2013 Aardman Animations I am proud to accept a knighthood, and I also Printed on Cocoon Silk 50 Emissions reduced through carbon Printed by consider it an honour shared with you. offsetting: 16,700 kg of CO saved 21 2 Belmont Press The fight for funding Bill Ray (BSc 1975) Nonesuch, October 2013 © University of Bristol 2013 Chairman of Convocation, Extracts may only be Bristol’s Alumni Association reproduced with the permission of the Public [email protected] Relations Office. Professor Eric Thomas (Hon LLD 2004) If you need part or all Vice-Chancellor of this publication in 7 an alternative format, please telephone +44 (0)117 928 8895. Listings Events 28 Alumni in memoriam 29 bristol.ac.uk/alumni 2 nonesuch // Autumn 2013 Autumn 2013 // nonesuch 1 Alumni in the news bristol.ac.uk/alumni/news

Regulars

Away with words Journalism Alumni breaking Nishtha Chugh (MSc 2011) has been Reaching shortlisted in the prestigious Guardian ground International Development Journalism for the stars Achievements Competition 2013. Science

Chugh’s news feature ‘Donkey power: Anne C McClain (MSc 2005) was announced changing lives one battery at a time’ was among as part of NASA’s new team that will help the agency to push the boundaries of exploration. the final 12 drawn from nearly 600 features entered into the competition, the highest From over 6,000 applications, NASA chose eight astronaut number in its six-year history. The competition trainees, including Major McClain (MSc 2005) who works as aims at highlighting many crucial issues an OH-58 helicopter pilot for the US Army. NASA said: ‘Half of facing the developing world, which are often the selectees are women, making this the highest percentage overlooked or underrepresented by the media. of female astronaut candidates ever selected for a class.’ Chugh was flown to a fully sponsored foreign The group will receive a wide array of technical training at space assignment in Rwanda to explore and write centres and remote locations around the globe to prepare for Professor Tessa Morris- about changing male attitudes towards mission explorations in space, including an asteroid and Mars. Suzuki (née Morris) women and domestic violence in Rwanda, Will Bristol alumni one day be represented in 160+ countries (BA 1972), a scholar of Asian alongside Women for Women International, globally – and other planets too? studies, has been awarded an organisation that empowers women in a prestigious Japanese war-torn countries. international award, the With other finalists, Chugh will see her article Fukuoka Prize, for outstanding published in a Guardian supplement, after the Turning for gold: contributions to academia, Endangered: announcement of the winner at an awards arts and culture in Asia. ceremony in November 2013. Chugh said: the 2014 Sochi ‘What I studied in Bristol’s School of Sociology, Paralympic Games Dame Victoria Sharp DBE Beware of wildlife Politics and International Studies has immensely Sports (LLB 1978) has been promoted Television helped me hone my expression and deepen my Anna Turney (BSc 2002), Paralympic ski from the High Court to the Court Niall McCann (BSc 2004) has been rubbing shoulders with the world’s understanding of the global development and racer, will represent GB in the 2014 Sochi of Appeal. She is one of seven Biggest and Baddest animals, as part of a six-part wildlife documentary security issues, which inspired me to write’. Paralympic Games. women of the 38 Lord Justices series first aired this summer. of Appeal and has risen to the In 2006 Anna Turney broke her back second most senior court in the ollowing McCann’s debut in 2011 where But biologist McCann has been no snowboard racing. Determined not to be English legal system after just he presented the hit documentary Lost stranger to danger in the past. After studying defeated, Turney decided to become a four years on the bench. Fin the Amazon, he’s been travelling to zoology at Bristol, he voyaged across the Paralympic ski racer, and after three years’ remote locations around the world in search of Atlantic in 2007, covering 3,000 miles in a training she propelled to success, Stephen Briggs (BSc 1982) encounters with some of the most fearsome rowing boat. He has climbed in the Alps, Ain’t no mountain high enough coming sixth in the Vancouver directs the conservation animals on earth. The series, which aired on cycled the highest road in the world, skied Sports Paralympics and fourth overall project Alvecote Wood, which the Animal Planet channel this year, shows across Greenland and canoed down in the Europa Cup 2013. was recently awarded first In August, six mountaineers from the University McCann being charged at by a tiger and the Yukon river. McCann has devoted Now Turney has her eyes fixed prize in the Royal Forestry of Bristol achieved a world first by conquering the wrestling with anacondas, crocodiles and over 12 years to advocating conservation on gold at the next Paralympics Society’s Small Woodlands Djangart mountain range. giant hogs in order to look at the roots of their programmes for some of the most critically in Russia in March 2014. Turney Excellence in Forestry Awards conflicts with the human race. endangered animals on our planet. The team, made up of Bristol alumni and students, climbed said: ‘I compete in the same for its outstanding planting, seven ascents on the Djangart mountain range, which is on disciplines as Olympic regeneration of oak trees, the border between Kyrgyzstan and China. Three of these ski racers. On the same open days and use of Leading Malta mountains were over 5,000 metres high, and previous runs, and the same woodland produce. Politics attempts by other mountaineers to scale them had all failed. courses. But I do it Current fourth-year students Harry Kingston, Harry without the use of Ed Woodward (BA 1993), Joseph Muscat (PhD 2008) was elected as Bloxham and Alistair Docherty met graduates Ross my legs. For me, Manchester United’s Executive Malta’s second youngest Prime Minister in the Davidson (MEng 2013), Clay Conlon (BSc 2011) and George gold at the Winter Vice-Chairman, now has overall March 2013 general election. Cave (MEng 2011) at the University of Bristol Expeditions Paralympics 2014 responsibility for the football As leader of the Labour Party, Muscat had implemented Society (UBES) and the University of Bristol Mountaineering would be a huge club. Woodward was promoted extensive party reform, including changes to the party’s Club (UBMC). With many European alpine trips and remote personal success, to the top operational role at formal name and emblem. Muscat, aged 39, won exploratory mountaineering in the Russian Altai already and for all of us Old Trafford in a boardroom with a margin of 36,000 votes, which is considered a under their belts, this trip was their first major attempt at new, another decisive restructure this summer, after landslide in Malta and represented a major shift from the challenging, alpine-style routes in an unexplored region of victory over the retirement of CEO David Gill.

Nationalist Party, who had been in power for 15 years. Alberto Antoniazzi © Illustration the world. adversity’.

2 nonesuch // Autumn 2013 Autumn 2013 // nonesuch 3 Feature As the controversy over fracking rumbles on, attention is turning to another, cleaner underground energy source: geothermal. By Nicola Temple earthquakes, but an extremely large event. But its greatest potential is in A 60km long, 10m wide wall of magma t’s late afternoon and the falling sun was penetrating into the Earth’s crust.’ areas where drilling can be risky. casts a warm blanket across the If a major event such as this could Dr Juliet Biggs is investigating Ibleached landscape. There are no cars virtually go unnoticed, was other activity and no skyscrapers, only a few modest in East Africa being overlooked? Biggs used one such area: the East African mud huts and several small herds of cattle, radar satellite imagery from the last two Rift in Ethiopia. yet there is a deafening roar in the air. decades to look for deformations – inflations Dr Juliet Biggs, Lecturer in the School of and deflations – of the Earth’s surface. She Earth Sciences, is standing a few yards from found that some of the volcanoes may not be a geothermal well located in the caldera of as dormant as once thought. the Alutu volcano in Ethiopia. A tower of high-pressure steam is erupting out of the Monitoring unrest well head, the plume rising some 30 feet Typically before a volcano erupts it may into the air. But this unleashed power is begin to inflate, there may be a series of only a taste of the potential that lies below. small earthquakes, and it can start to release The well descends 2.3km into the gases. All this activity causes the Earth’s Earth, where it taps into an aquifer with a surface to lift and subside. By comparing temperature of around 320oC. The steam radar satellite images taken at different is created when the groundwater is heated times, Biggs tracked these deformations in by the surrounding rock, which has itself the Earth’s crust. She found that the Alutu been heated by magma seeping up through volcano had two large uplift episodes, rising cracks in the Earth’s crust. 15cm in 2004 and 10cm in 2008. The grass and trees surrounding the It is this unrest that has brought Biggs well head are coated in crystals, formed to Ethiopia to set up ground-based GPS when dissolved hydrothermal minerals equipment on Alutu and nearby Corbetti, Geothermal in the steam precipitate out in the air. the two volcanoes in the region that energy This steam also carries the hope of reliable, have shown the most activity. There are clean, renewable energy, which could no records of either of these volcanoes explained deliver power to the 85 per cent erupting, but thick deposits of ash and of Ethiopians who don’t currently have craters, which span 10km or more, are The Alutu-Langano Geothermal access to affordable power of any kind. evidence of an eruptive past. Biggs is one Plant is known as a binary plant of several members of Bristol’s Volcanology due to its use of a secondary fluid Fractured earth Research Group who have projects here, in the generation of electricity. The potential for geothermal energy is examining the geophysical processes that greatest in areas of geological turmoil, are causing these deformations. The steam from the wells is where tectonic forces create fractures that There are nine GPS stations altogether, carried to the plant along huge Ground allow magma to intrude into the Earth’s spread across the two volcanoes; each pipes. At the plant, the steam crust. The East African Rift zone is one is equipped with an antenna and data is used to heat a secondary such area: a 6,400km trail running through recorder powered by two solar panels and fluid, which has a much lower Djibouti, Ethiopia, Kenya, and Tanzania, a car battery. The recorders collect a GPS boiling point. This secondary along which Africa is splitting apart by signal from the satellites every 15 seconds, fluid then vaporises, producing force nearly an inch each year. Nearly 100 and this data is incorporated into the steam that turns the turbines to volcanoes have formed here over the last context of the rift’s overall movement. generate the electricity. 10,000 years, and although some are still The results will help fill a void of active today, others have been assumed to information about the potential hazards The global capacity for be dormant. associated with these volcanoes and should geothermal energy production Biggs started studying this region in assist the Ethiopian government in its in 2012 was 11.4 GW, with the US, 2005 as part of her PhD studies. A series emergency planning for the thousands of Philippines, and Indonesia being of small earthquakes in the area prompted people who farm these flat and fertile lands. the top three global producers. her to use satellite techniques to try to Ethiopia’s current capacity understand the underlying geological Informing industry ranks it 20th among global processes behind the seismic activity. The team’s findings will also be of great producers, but the expansion ‘What we saw from those initial images,’ interest to the geothermal industry. The currently underway could says Biggs, ‘was that it wasn’t just a few small Alutu-Langano Geothermal Plant, based quickly bring it into the top 10.

4 nonesuch // Autumn 2013 Autumn 2013 // nonesuch 5 Geothermal unleashed Snapshots

Feature

Above Dr Elias Lewi (left) from Addis Ababa University and Dr Juliet Biggs set up GPS monitoring equipment at the Alutu-Langano Geothermal Plant In pictures Snapshots Life and work at Bristol within the caldera of Alutu, was established of the world’s largest geothermal sites. Clockwise from top left: in 1998, and the plant is now ready for ‘There is an obvious synergy between Bringing Ethiopia expansion, with deep borehole drilling the datasets and logistics collected by the to Bristol FAB GEARS // The first natural example expected to start on both Alutu and geothermal industry and the work we’re of a functioning gear mechanism has been Corbetti within the next year. The new doing,’ she says, ‘so the relationship has The University’s Cabot Institute and the discovered in the hind legs of a common insect. data generated by the Bristol team could not been beneficial on both sides.’ Natural Environment Research Council // bris.ac.uk/news/2013/9736.html only help target areas of high geothermal (NERC) hosted a two-day workshop production, they could also provide useful Full steam ahead in August that brought together IMAGINE THE ECHO // Mega-canyon insights into the effects the drilling activities The United Nations Environment researchers working on volcanoes uncovered beneath Greenland by a team are having on the region. Programme estimates that the East African in the East African Rift with members led by Bristol’s Dr Jonathan Bamber. ‘We know from the fracking industry Rift has the potential to produce some of the geothermal energy industry in // bris.ac.uk/news/2013/9688.html that these activities can put stresses in the six GWe (GigaWatts of electricity) or more, Ethiopia, Kenya, Iceland, and the UK. ground, and cause micro-earthquakes raising the hope that geothermal energy PENGUINS LAND IN BRISTOL // and changes in the circulation patterns may help lift Ethiopia and its neighbouring The event was an opportunity for The world’s penguin experts came to Bristol of the groundwater,’ says Biggs. ‘So we’re rift countries out of poverty and help participants to share information about in September for the eighth International interested to see what effects the drilling provide inexpensive, clean energy to its what data are being collected and how Penguin Conference. // bris.ac.uk/ and the increased geothermal production people, as happened in Iceland during the they can be used to improve geothermal news/2013/9686.html may have on the natural system that previous century. production and reduce risk and we already know is experiencing big It’s data from researchers like Biggs uncertainty associated with geothermal OVERSEAS SERVICE // The University’s first deformations.’ that could help direct the most expensive development in these areas. graduation celebration in China drew more than Biggs and her colleagues have been component of geothermal development bristol.ac.uk/cabot 200 students from across the country to Beijing. working with the Ethiopian Electric Power – the drilling – to hotspots of geothermal // bris.ac.uk/news/2013/9297.html Corporation, who run the geothermal energy. It’s a good example of how building plant on Alutu, and with Reykjavik stronger links between industry and DOG ALMIGHTY // Julie Vernon’s Golden Geothermal, an Icelandic company research can ensure geothermal energy Gromit, one of 80 statues installed around who were awarded a licence to carry out is developed in a cost-effective way, with Bristol and the region for Gromit Unleashed, geothermal exploration at Corbetti and benefits for industry, developing countries, keeps watch outside the Victoria Rooms. estimate that the field could become one and the planet. • Temple Nicola © Photo Insect gears © Burrows/Sutton Mega-canyon // © Jonathan Bamber // Penguin © Paul Ponganis Gromit // © Nick Riddle // bristol-culture.com/gromit-unleashed 6 nonesuch // Autumn 2013 Autumn 2013 // nonesuch 7 Feature ‘Clinical’ is a word with baggage. We want our doctors to be thoroughly versed in clinical skills, but not to be the other kind of clinical: cold, detached, aloof. The intercalated BA in Medical Humanities gives medical students at Bristol an opportunity to complement their practical skills with an awareness of the human condition as expressed in philosophy, literature, and art. Here three people describe the programme from their own perspectives. The Putting literature The students, at the end of their year, generally into practice think so. The feedback is overwhelmingly positive. And I have never received so many compliments Dr John Lee from colleagues about how rewarding it is to teach human Senior Lecturer in the Department a particular group of students. of English, and iBAMH Director Why might this be? It’s partly because seminars tend to benefit from having students with different Every October, our Philosophy and English students backgrounds but common points of interest. But are joined by around a dozen medical students. it’s more than that. The typical iBAMH student factor They aren’t just sitting in – they’re taking a one-year seems to make different demands of literature. BA that requires them to step aside from their One student I was supervising for her dissertation clinical training and become students of literature had worked in a hospice. She was very impressed and philosophy. All of our students show a with the hospice workers’ understanding of grief, thoughtfulness and commitment to their work, and their continued ability to show compassion to but these medics bring an extra dimension. patients and their families. She wondered whether she could do the same, and whether she could The diagnosis endure, over many years, experiencing the grief Medicine was one of the great success stories of the of others. She wrote her dissertation on dramatic 20th century, but many began to feel that the roots of tragedy. Might tragedies be a resource for the that success – the great advances in knowledge – had health professional having to deal with grief become problematic. Knowledge threatened, cuckoo- on a day-to-day basis? like, to push out the teaching of the more spiritual, iBAMH students tend to write dissertations ethical, and imaginative aspects of medical practice. that explore how literature might be of practical Many universities, including Bristol, responded to value to them. They relate their reading to their a call from the General Medical Council for a greater lives, which is what I would like all my students to role for the humanities and more options for self-chosen do, but iBAMH students seem to do it to a greater study. Many short courses were introduced. At Bristol extent and, often, more successfully. Asking medical we went further, and launched a whole-year course, the students to work at a finalist’s level in English and intercalated BA in Medical Humanities (iBAMH). Philosophy within a year is a very tall order, but At the core of the degree, which first ran in 2006-7, they do very well. In two of the last four years, for is the academic study of medicine and its influence, via instance, an iBAMH student has either won outright three topics: the philosophy and history of medicine; or shared the prize for the best dissertation in English. the philosophy of natural and social science; and literature and medicine. The students also write a A new prescription dissertation on a medical humanities subject. This practical and personal attitude towards literature Alongside this runs a series of seminars and projects is, I’m sure, partly responsible for their academic called the Oakhill programme. This, importantly, is success – that, and the Oakhill programme, which looser in structure and not subject to examination. students consistently mention as being central to It features seminars demonstrating how art is used their experience of the year. therapeutically (for instance, using music to help The latter has been the biggest surprise to me. treat autism, cerebral palsy, and other life-limiting After all, Oakhill is a non-assessed component with conditions), plus a pastoral element, in which the no direct link to the academic programme. But students reflect on their experience of the humanities, perhaps we have more confidence in our students’ medicine and medical practice. abilities, and should be a little more inventive in making space for learning that has no obvious aims Responding to treatment or clear outcomes. The problem is that it is hard to There is, of course, some irony in all of this: what is the argue for such spaces in advance – and yet such an prescription for overworked medical students? More education seems to deliver the aims and outcomes

Illustration © pelotondesign.co.uk pelotondesign.co.uk © Illustration work. But is the prescription working? that, we all seem to agree, we want.

Autumn 2013 // nonesuch 9 Medical Humanities Bristol and beyond

Feature Regulars From Bristol to the BAFTAs Culture, context New tools and critique Freya Sterling interviews Peter Bridges (MEng 1998), BBC Sound and Communications Engineer Dr Trevor Thompson Reader in Healthcare Katie Hall Education and a Bristol GP Fourth-year medical student

As soon as our medical students arrive at Bristol, I hadn’t done English A-level, and I’d never explored I’ve always been fascinated by the we ask them whether they have done a humanities literature before, so I loved the idea of spending a technical side of stage productions, ‘HAVING A SOLID A-level. A good third raise their hands. Medicine, year studying it. We’d just done two intensive years particularly sound. At school I was the after all, is both an art and a science. The art of of pre-clinical medicine, with a high volume of things one sitting at the side of the hall operating THEORETICAL medicine is represented by a strand running throughout to learn. I found I was depersonalising a lot of what I the PA system for all manner of events, from the core curriculum, but for some the call feels more was learning, just to get through it. The BA gave me PTA meetings to the annual school musical. BACKGROUND pressing. The iBAMH helps them to answer it. a chance to regain the ‘human’ perspective. So when I came to Bristol to do a degree in So what does the course have to offer of value to The iBAMH was a different learning environment electronic and electrical engineering, I quickly IS FUNDAMENTAL the doctors of tomorrow? First of all, there’s context, – we had to contribute to tutorials, in quite small signed up to the Stage Technicians’ Association especially that of history – the evolution of the hospital, groups, and our opinions mattered a lot. I wasn’t very (STA), which looks after the technical aspects TO UNDERSTANDING for example. Looking at history tends to encourage a familiar with the concept of writing an essay about a of University performances. certain humility, as we unpick the political forces that novel or a poem, but I loved the process of researching ANY TECHNOLOGY have shaped today’s institutions. it and weighing up the arguments. The STA surrounded me with like- Then there’s cultural awareness. Literature I did my dissertation on shellshock in modernist minded, passionate people and gave PROPERLY’ provides potent points of reference for the study of literature, focussing on the character of Septimus me the experience I needed to apply my medicine, whether it’s the emergence of the profession Smith in Virginia Woolf’s Mrs Dalloway. Woolf had skills in the real world. For major University (Middlemarch), its dark side (Frankenstein), or the quite a progressive take on shellshock that conflicted productions we hired in sound and lighting complexities of patienthood (Gwyneth Lewis’ with the orthodox view at the time – she described equipment, giving me my first experience A Hospital Odyssey). Contact with great writing guides something a lot closer to what we now call PTSD. of dealing with outside suppliers and students towards a better sense of the human situation Her own experience of mental illness probably negotiating terms. that they will meet daily in the clinic. gave her that insight. Finally there is the notion of critique – of using The Oakhill programme was a great highlight. In 1998 an opportunity arose to get the tools of philosophy to ask hard questions: What It tied together a lot of different things we’d been involved with a brand new Bristol constitutes evidence, and how do we justify our claims reading and related them back to medicine. We talked University Radio Station: BURST FM. for its validity? How do we judge quality of life? about what we’d learned and how it made us reflect on I jumped at the chance and found myself setting Studying the philosophy of science helps our students things that we’d experienced in the small amount of up a studio in St Paul’s Church, Clifton, and My work at the Olympics won me to frame better questions and to become more critical clinical placement we’d had. rigging a radio link back to the main transmitter a Television Craft BAFTA earlier readers of published research. Coming back to medicine, I felt rejuvenated; I had on the roof of the union. Since then, BURST this year, one of the highest Our students do very well in this programme. some new tools. I’d been a bit concerned that clinical has gone from strength to strength. accolades in the industry. It was They enjoy it immensely. Whether they are better work with patients might be quite hard emotionally, a heart-stopping moment to hear doctors as a result is hard to prove but if, as Plutarch but the BA gave me ideas for processing it in a different During my final year at Bristol, I had my name announced as the winner. wrote, ‘the mind is not a vessel that needs filling, way. I did a psychiatry placement in my third year a work placement with the BBC. but wood that needs igniting’, these students are and really enjoyed that. But I’m still keeping my I experienced everything from research and Since the Olympics, I have certainly smouldering. options open. development to maintenance engineering. My moved to another BBC first job at the BBC was with World Service radio department focused on the planning, as a studio engineer. Over 1,000 applications design and delivery of the technology had been received for six places. I’ve no doubt that supports programme makers. that my Bristol degree and involvement with I’m also assisting with the design of the STA and BURST helped me to secure it. BBC’s facilities for next summer’s Commonwealth Games in Glasgow. Later, I transferred to work in television and was asked to lead the sound Broadcast technology, used by both team for BBC Sport’s coverage of programme makers and audiences, London 2012. My job was to design the sound is changing faster than ever before. ‘COMING BACK TO MEDICINE, and communication facilities at the International It’s a really exciting time to be involved in Broadcast Centre and to manage a team of the industry. Having a solid theoretical I FELT REJUVENATED’ sound staff. We built a temporary broadcasting background is fundamental to centre in the Olympic Park just as complicated understanding any technology properly.

Portrait © Stephen Shepherd as a permanent BBC building. I’ve Bristol to thank for that.

10 nonesuch // Autumn 2013 Autumn 2013 // nonesuch 11 Whereheart the is Cover feature We need new ways of thinking about healthcare. And where better to do it than a new institute that brings health researchers and practitioners together with engineers, chemists, and other experts to tackle pressing issues in health and medicine? The Elizabeth Blackwell Institute is doing just this through one of the University’s flagship projects, SPHERE, a pioneering mix of technology and medicine that could transform the way people deal with long-term health conditions.

12 nonesuch // Autumn 2013 Autumn 2013 // nonesuch 13 Watching out for your health

Cover feature ‘In the future this kind of technology will be such a natural How do people feel about the SPHERE approach to healthcare? Bristol-based Aardman Animations, together with Knowle West Media Centre, asked part of our lives, that we won’t worry about it being members of the public, and Aardman used some of their answers to create a short film. bris.ac.uk/blackwell/animation switched on, we’ll worry about it being switched off.’

By Nick Riddle for example – and a sensor system could ‘We wanted to make sure that the get monitoring information that they can onsider the situation. On the one register these and raise the alarm. In the Why Elizabeth conversation with patients, carers and assess and respond to. SPHERE takes that SPHERE hand is a set of complex social same way, a sensor system could detect an Blackwell? the public happens from the word go,’ says concept to the next level.’ in a nutshell Cproblems: an ageing population; overnight stroke by detecting small changes Tavaré, ‘not in five years’ time when we’ve a rising incidence of obesity and diabetes; in the behaviour or facial expression of the The Elizabeth Blackwell pulled all these wonderful gizmos together Private eyes SPHERE is an interdisciplinary growing numbers of people living alone; patient on waking. The system could then Institute is named after a public and patients suddenly say “Oh no, we’re Early dialogue with the public, carried out research collaboration led shrinking healthcare budgets. On the automatically alert a carer or the patient’s health pioneer well known in not having that”’. by Knowle West Media Centre and other by the University of Bristol other is an array of striking new innovations GP to the problem. the United States but much One can understand people’s concern at partners, has indicated a high degree of and the Universities of in electronics and engineering: sophisticated less well celebrated in the city the prospect of being monitored inside their interest in the project among patients and Southampton and Reading, sensors, wireless networks, energy harvesting, Home help and country of her birth. own homes, but no images would be sent their families, with many asking to become working in partnership with monitoring software, video analytics, data Certain criteria were agreed at the outset: anywhere, only the data extracted from involved in any research concerning their Bristol City Council, IBM, mining. What if these technologies could firstly, the aim would not be to develop significant footage. The involvement of condition. For someone with long-term Toshiba, and Knowle West be harnessed to address those problems? brand-new sensors, but to adapt devices Bristol City Council, Knowle West Media health problems, says Purdy, SPHERE Media Centre. Its director It was with this question in mind that already on the market. Think of the Centre and the local NHS services – not brings the prospect of reassurance: ‘If you is Professor Ian Craddock. Professor Jeremy Tavaré, Director of the components in gaming consoles or smart to mention a film commissioned from have a condition that could go into crisis Institute, and Professor Ian Craddock, a phones – devices that can sense movement, Aardman Animation – is ensuring that at any moment, then a sensor system could SPHERE has been awarded medical imaging expert in the Department track velocity and angle, and monitor all patients and their carers are informed and allow you to continue living in your own a grant of £12 million by the of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, kinds of subtle changes in appearance and consulted about important details like this. home, which is hugely important. It also Engineering and Physical discussed how they could use the behaviour. The SPHERE research will ‘It’s not about doctors spying on their gives you the confidence that if something Sciences Research Council. world-leading research in the Faculty of work towards something similarly all-in- patients, but about people being able to goes wrong, the alarm will be raised and Engineering to address major 21st-century one: a system with one set of sensors that generate information that they can then somebody will come and check on you.’ healthcare problems. Shortly afterwards, the can be configured according to need. use, with our help, to improve their health,’ The anxieties about invasion of privacy Engineering and Physical Sciences Research ‘Our aim is to come up with algorithms says Dr Sarah Purdy, Reader in Primary are still present, of course, but the SPHERE Council (EPSRC) issued a funding call for that can extract meaning from video, Health Care in the School of Social and partners are determined to tackle the interdisciplinary research centres, including such as emotional or physical states,’ says Elizabeth Blackwell was born Community Medicine, and a GP in the issue head-on. ‘I think people are capable medical health sensing – the very area that Craddock. ‘The algorithms would be able in Bristol in 1821 and became west of Bristol. of making decisions about the costs and Craddock had identified. The two of them to figure out who the person is, what state the first woman to receive a Purdy joined the SPHERE project benefits of “invasive” technologies, but then led a successful bid for a £12 million they’re in, how mobile they are, and so on.’ medical degree in the USA and through her involvement with Bristol they need to be informed decisions,’ says grant, the largest ever awarded to Bristol The foundations for this work have the first woman to be entered Health Partners (BHP), a collaborative Craddock. ‘This is something we have by the EPSRC. already been laid by research groups in into the UK’s medical register. group set up by the University of Bristol, to get to grips with as a society – the use Christened SPHERE (Sensor the Faculty of Engineering: innovations the University of the West of England and of pervasive, internet-enabled sensor Platform for HEalthcare in a Residential including technologies for networks of The Elizabeth Blackwell the city’s NHS organisations. Similarly technologies – just as we had to cope Environment), the project is now beginning small, self-powered, wireless sensors, as Institute for Health Research, concerned with bringing different with the advantages and drawbacks to take shape: the development of a digital well as a range of methods for extracting co-funded by the Wellcome disciplines to bear on pressing problems, of the automobile, for example.’ ‘home health assistant’ that would operate data from video, including gait and facial Trust and the University of BHP has developed Health Integration As SPHERE gets into gear, and round the clock, monitoring someone with expression. SPHERE’s requirements Bristol, follows her lead by Teams, consisting of academics, clinicians, connections continue to be made across a health condition and watching out for offer these groups a fresh challenge: how bringing together leading social workers and others, pooling their disciplines at Bristol and its partner physical warning signs. can sensors get clear enough data in the researchers from very expertise to improve health care. Purdy institutions, Tavaré is looking ahead to complex, cluttered environment of the disparate disciplines to leads one such team, tasked with trying to other projects for the Elizabeth Blackwell SPHERE of influence typical home, whose residents aren’t collaborate on projects that reduce the number of people admitted to Institute to help co-ordinate. There’s a Take a long-term condition like diabetes, standing obligingly in front of the sensors can help deliver better health hospital unnecessarily. The overlap with study on sleep and brain imaging; a plan for which can involve taking medication that all day? Solving these technical challenges for the public. The Institute will SPHERE’s mission is obvious. a large-scale stock-take of tens of thousands in some patients can cause their blood sugar will extend the field of health sensing, also help foster collaborative ‘The standard telehealth approach – of new molecules invented by the UK’s to dip dangerously low. This is a state that to the benefit of UK industry – not to approaches with patients, talking to the patient on the phone – has chemists, some of which could lead to new isn’t always easy to detect, especially by the mention the patients. funding bodies, the NHS had a mixed review in terms of how drug discoveries; and a project looking at patient, and it frequently comes on at night and industry. helpful it is in keeping people with long- the health effects of future climate change. making detection even harder. But low Sensing and sensitivity bris.ac.uk/blackwell term conditions out of hospital,’ says Purdy. ‘We’ve made a good start with blood sugar gives rise to certain physical Considering the patients’ viewpoint ‘Our team concluded that it’s probably SPHERE,’ says Tavaré, ‘but now signs – changes in the way someone moves, is another important prerequisite. Elizabeth Blackwell portrait courtesy of Archives and Special CollectionsMedicinal on Women College in Medicine, of Pennsylvania Animation // stills © Aardman Animations Illustration // © Jeffrey Bowman more effective for health professionals to the hard work begins.’ • 14 nonesuch // Autumn 2013 Autumn 2013 // nonesuch 15 Alumna’s blog

Rachel Schraer (BA 2013) is a blogger Bristol. City of squats whose graffiti is a nightlife I’ve ever seen. Even if your eclectic who penned a love letter to the city of more famous landmark than its cathedral, who music scene does sometimes draw bands that Bristol following her final exams in July. has a bakery called Bread an’ Ting, a home- describe their sound as the ‘relentless sound Do you recognise Rachel’s Bristol? ware store called Happytat and a stationery of torrential drumming’. Torrential drumming. It shop called Paper Gangsta; even your shop was quite an apt description actually, but you Join the conversation with other alumni names have a sense of humour. Whose native know what, once I’d accidentally stumbled at bristol.ac.uk/alumni/linkedin. Brizzle drawl involves referring to inanimate in there, wincing at the relentless torrential objects as ‘he’ or ‘she’ and tacking a random drumming, an old man taught me how to play You can read more of Rachel’s inspired blog at ‘l’ on after words that end in vowels, as though the spoons and I’ve never looked back. themajestyofsmallness.wordpress.com the very dialect is trying to turn every word into Bristol, a football fan’s chant: Bristol, Bristol. And on those crazy nights, those rogue You crazy bloody minx. occasions when you just don’t fancy relentlessly torrential drumming, you can whoop your This is a city that met the everyday occurrence way from the earthy gin-soaked gloom of the of a new Tesco opening with riots and Mother’s Ruin all the way to Motion, whose firebombs: a stoned city, perennially laid back, nights don’t pass out til 7, and you can queue outraged into action by the affront of the blue past the concrete slab of a courtyard, rolls of and red commercial beast squatting on its barbed wire and sniffer dogs and feel like you’re parade of independent businesses, its beating in a post-apocalyptic border town at the end of heart. They stretch all the way from Horfield days. Or throw caution to the winds and truck Common down to the Attic Bar where Stokes it up to Lizard Lounge, a club smaller than your Croft’s sweet orgy of colour and life meets nan’s kitchen, owned by the improbably named the dual carriageway – the longest parade of John Lounge, whose walls sweat and whose independent shops in Europe. trademark lurid cocktail has no name other than the colloquially whispered, ‘the Green Shit’. So what did you do? You set up the People’s Republic of Stokes Croft. This is an area that is I love that you’re harmlessly, gloriously mad. in essence just one long road, but you’ve got a I love that when the Highbury Vaults was People’s Republic now. You, and China. And graffitied with a tag featuring the word your own currency, the Bristol Pound, to keep ‘vandalism’ with a heart for the ‘v’, the pub’s money within local businesses (the fiver has manager was quoted as saying ‘it’s very nice, Top Dancing Jesus by Walt Jabsco a pretty shady looking tiger on it). You’re a city it highlights an otherwise white building’. I love Above Bristol Harbourside of people who looked at the Bearpit, the ugly the old woman who, on a rainy day, marched hollowed-out concrete eyesore of an underpass purposefully up to me, fighting with a recalcitrant slap bang in the city centre, and stuck a statue of umbrella against the wind, and said squarely to and you can stroll down Black Boy Hill as it a bear in it, spray-painted the walls into cartoon my face ‘Ooh I ‘ates brollies’ before carrying on slopes gently into Whiteladies Road (I’m not oblivion and stencilled paw prints along the her way. The heavily dreadlocked man at 10 am being facetious, that’s an actual geographical concourse. Now it’s the only underpass I’ve ever in Sainsbury’s who came up to my friend and fact). But you’ve taken your historic mould and seen with a ping pong table and an organic fruit shouted ‘mmm BREEZERRR’ in the thickest twisted and writhed from it in happy contortions. and veg stall. Seriously, Bristol, what are you like? rhotic drawl you’ve ever heard. That I once ordered a vodka and coke in a hole-in-the-wall It might be that for now, London’s calling with And I can’t explain quite why I’ve got so much bar only to be told ‘we don’t do cocktails here, its sensible career choices and temporary love for this off-kilter West Country city, home to my babber’. And that your resident dj, DJ Derek, parental accommodation, and sure, it might be Inkie and Banksy, Massive Attack and the Stig, is a 70-odd-year-old man who still spins the that with my glottally stopped-up London ear but I know that when I walk up Dighton Street sweetest reggae sets you’ve ever bumped to – you’ll always sound like pirate farmers to me, but from the city centre until I hit the looming miles apparently Massive Attack’s Daddy G is a fan. Bristol. I’ll come back and visit you. And I’ll skank of street art and I feel like I’m walking through a my way through bashment dives til dawn and I’ll comic book, I’m home. I love your absurd pride It’s a city that still bears the scrawled markings sit on Brandon Hill and watch the sun come up, around cider, the way that the legendary Cori of its slave trade past: the main shopping centre and in the cold grey light I’ll look down over your Tap is famous for serving its ‘exhibition’ cider named after a dynasty of slave owners, the mishmash, inked Georgian splendour and I’ll in half pints cos it’s just that fucking potent and harbourside thrumming with a history that shout at the top of my lungs… that even though I’m from London and I’ve lived echoes of sugar, tobacco and human traffic in

Illustration © pelotondesign.co.uk Dancing // Jesus photograph © Freya Sterling Bristol // Harbourside © Anthony Brown in New York, you still have the best goddamn the shadow of the old Fry’s chocolate factory, Bristol, give me a signal.

16 nonesuch // Autumn 2013 Autumn 2013 // nonesuch 17 From the archives

By Nick Riddle Regulars uchs was taking up an invitation from the Gunn That same year, the Nazi invasion of France Eighty years ago, in September 1933, a German family, who had heard of his plight from their au prompted a government crackdown on ‘enemy aliens’ physics student named Klaus Fuchs (left) stepped Fpair, a girl engaged to Fuchs’ cousin. The Gunns, in the British Isles. On 12 June, Tyndall wrote to who were related to the Wills family, introduced GP Thomson, head of the committee for the British off the boat at Dover with what remained of him to the young Professor Nevill Mott. Mott hired atomic bomb project: his possessions and travelled on to Clapton him as a research assistant – a formative step in a ‘…Bristol and its surroundings have been declared in Gordano, a village just west of Bristol. career that led to Fuchs playing a key role in the Allies’ a protected area and consequently, unless a special development of the atomic bomb, not to mention permit is given, certain German Jew refugees in my achieving infamy as a Soviet spy. department must leave Bristol by Friday this week.’ Fuchs had fled Nazi Germany after his openly He pointed out the special interest that the likes of Communist sympathies made it too dangerous Heitler, Fröhlich and London had in ‘the U problem’ to remain; others, including many of his scientific (uranium fission for an atomic weapon), and the What happened when… colleagues, were Jews who had also seen the writing on importance of the Bristol laboratory’s research in the wall. Several of them followed the path to Bristol, nuclear physics that was feeding directly into the with important consequences for the University – and committee’s work. Tyndall’s urgent request for …the German physicists came to stay for the history of modern physics. intercession concluded: ‘I need hardly say that I am perfectly satisfied as to the integrity and loyalty of all City of refuge these men.’ Thomson did not share his outlook, as his ‘As a result of the rise of Hitler to power in 1933,’ reply demonstrated: recalled Professor Arthur M Tyndall, Head of the ‘I think that it is very important that as few of the Top Walter Heitler Physics Department and Acting Vice-Chancellor of German refugees as possible should be concerned in Above Herbert Fröhlich the University (1945-6), ‘many physicists there found this work, as in the present state of things I do not, themselves out of their posts and in dire need.’ to speak frankly, feel too confident of any of them.’ The British Academic Assistance Council had asked The refugee physicists were duly excluded from UK universities to find employment for some of these the Bristol area. But worse was to come: by late scholars. The Physics Department had already invited June, Heitler and the others were sent to Prees Heath Walter Heitler, a physicist at Göttingen University, to Internment Camp in Shropshire. spend six months at Bristol, under a scheme to attract promising researchers from overseas. ‘In replying to Notes from camp accept the invitation,’ Tyndall recalled, ‘he said that it Their brief letters to Tyndall from the camp expressed had arrived by the same post as the intimation that he gratitude to him for continuing to campaign on their had been dismissed from his University post.’ behalf, as well as a cheerful pragmatism. Hoselitz, for Heitler’s considerable reputation justified the offer example, wrote on 10 August: of a permanent position in the Physics Department, ‘Although it is, of course, my greatest wish to be able and he stayed at Bristol for eight years. Tyndall, Mott to return as soon as possible to Bristol and to continue and their colleagues, feeling strongly that they should my work, I hope just the same, that, if it is continued do more, used a fund from the Rockefeller Foundation by Dr Potter, he can find his way through my notes.’ to enable two German students – of whom Fuchs was Their internment proved short: in early September, one – to complete their PhDs at Bristol. Subsequently they began to be released, although not all at once. a number of highly promising, Jewish German Mott writes that ‘the most junior came out first, and physicists began to arrive: Herbert Fröhlich; Heinz the others one after another at intervals of a few weeks, London; Kurt Hoselitz; future Nobel laureate Hans and finally – understandably rather cross, the senior and Bethe (briefly); and Hans Heitler, who joined his more most distinguished of them.’ Instructions for Walter famous brother Walter in 1938 (and who was routinely Heitler’s release were delayed until 10 October, a full referred to by staff as ‘Heitler’s brother’, a bit of friendly month later than that of his less eminent brother Hans. deprecation that he bore, it is said, with good humour). Back to work The U problem On their return, most of the refugees were granted Many academics in the Physics Department were permission to continue working in the Physics involved in military work of one kind or another. To Department. They stayed on for varying periods call this research sensitive would be an understatement; before moving on to prestigious posts elsewhere. the race was on to develop an atomic bomb. The And what of Klaus Fuchs (PhD 1936)? He had Frisch-Peierls memorandum, written in March 1940 moved to Edinburgh University in 1938 and was sent by two German physicists working at Birmingham to an internment camp in Canada. But in 1950, after University, stated that an atomic bomb could be working at the Manhattan Project and Los Alamos constructed using about one kilogramme of fissionable Laboratory, he became infamous as the ‘atomic spy’, Above Correspondence concerning uranium-235. Although it took another year for having passed secrets to the Soviets. After serving nine Archive materials the Germans’ internment included a curt their paper to reach the United States, its findings years in Wakefield Prison, he moved to East Germany courtesy of the postcard and a number of release letters School of Physics. Main image The HH Wills Physics were soon being discussed extensively in the UK and led a highly successful scientific career until his With thanks to Laboratory in the early 1930s and Building News, c. 1930 Main image © The Architect physics community. death in 1988. • Dr Brian Pollard. 18 nonesuch // Autumn 2013 Autumn 2013 // nonesuch 19 Taken Feature Bristol’s PhD students push the boundaries of knowledge with world-changing results Eye on Shanghai – as Gilberto Algar-Faria’s work on war-torn Sri Lanka demonstrates. But the costs Doreen Stoneham (BSc 1962) has donated her father’s associated with postgraduate photographs and papers – around one thousand of them – to the Department of History’s ‘Historical programmes are rising, and traditional Photographs of China’ project. funding sources are drying up. From medical breakthroughs to environmental uncertainty, can we really afford to put a price on postgraduate research? The fight for funding

Jack Montgomery served in the Shanghai while others were purchased or commissioned. Municipal Police from 1924 to 1938, when the Amongst the latter are striking images of the British-dominated ‘International Settlement’ struggles of communist revolutionaries, such which it policed, and the city as a whole, faced as the workers’ militia (above) shown in March a revolution, a major civil war, and two traumatic 1927, victorious after seizing control of parts phases of the Japanese invasion of China. of the city. Within weeks these men had been Shanghai was not an easy city to patrol. betrayed by their erstwhile allies, led by Chiang Jack was one of 300 Britons serving alongside Kai-shek, and massacred. 2,500 Asian personnel during a period when The collection shows, too, the catastrophic the city caught the world’s imagination as human consequences of full-scale warfare a free-wheeling ‘paradise of adventurers’, and modern aerial bombing that laid waste to and as a site of ghastly conflict. swathes of China in 1932 and 1937. Above Jack Montgomery’s Shanghai bus pass Some photographs were taken by Jack, visualisingchina.net

20 nonesuch // Autumn 2013 Autumn 2013 // nonesuch 21 The fight for funding

Feature

By Tom Henry for doctoral training already tends to be concentrated education is meeting people from all walks of life, but toward research-intensive universities like Bristol, if funding difficulties in England and Wales continue – t may be that when the history of post-conflict and the trend towards awarding larger grants to fund or worsen – this may happen less.’ resolution and reconciliation is written, Gilberto centres or partnerships for doctoral training may There are signs that the government is taking notice IAlgar-Faria’s name features prominently among further reduce the geographical spread of opportunity of these funding issues. In July, the Universities and those offering solutions to nations emerging from for PGRs in some disciplines. The research councils Science Minister, David Willetts, announced that an war. Currently in the first year of his PhD at Bristol’s and other funders are encouraging universities to extra £125 million will be available to support students School of Sociology, Politics and International collaborate more to mitigate this, but the competition from disadvantaged backgrounds in postgraduate study. Studies, Algar-Faria is analysing the fallout from to secure these large doctoral grants – those that fund But are such initiatives enough? Hopes are pinned on the civil war between ethnic factions that plagued cohorts of students – is severe. Bristol has been very a strong economic recovery and the promise of greater Sri Lanka for 25 years. His research looks at civil successful in securing such grants and hosts centres investment, but there is still growing concern that society, civil resistance and liberal peace-building that are training the next generation of researchers in future generations of undergraduates will choose full- methods and he is one of few Westerners to study this areas as diverse as nanomaterials, composite materials, time employment over postgraduate education. conflict which, when compared to Iraq, Afghanistan neuroscience, social sciences (in collaboration with Certainly, talking to Algar-Faria, one can’t help and the post-Arab Spring, does not get the attention it the Universities of Bath and Exeter) and food security but admire his tenacity in pursuing his passion, despite arguably deserves. (in collaboration with Rothamsted Research and the funding challenges. ‘I am driven to undertake research Although at the outset of his doctoral studies, ‘RESEARCH IS VITAL TO BRISTOL’ Universities of Bath and Exeter).’ that engages with real-life situations,’ he explains. Algar-Faria already sees implications for other conflict Professor Sally Heslop Academic Director of Graduate Studies Bristol’s Doctoral College will facilitate and support ‘Through my academic work, I am able to engage resolution situations. ‘There are lessons to be learned and Director of the new Bristol Doctoral College doctoral training and researcher development across with individuals on the ground in post-war and from Sri Lanka across the world,’ he says. ‘There would the University, as well as strategic positioning in an post-insurgency environments. In my view, working be little point doing the research if there wasn’t. Sri Above Through postgraduate students and research, increasingly competitive environment. ‘As funding with these people is vital if I am to make a meaningful Lanka is in a post-insurgency environment. What Bristol is able to face and address global challenges streams have changed, our thinking has had to contribution to peace and conflict resolution in an happens when violent resistance has been crushed? become more strategic to cope with new complexities,’ academic and real world context.’ Will civil society emerge again? These are interesting looking for Postgraduate Research (PGR) positions, adds Heslop. • questions, not just for Sri Lanka but for other nations as the government (through the research councils) Depending on their country of origin, international in similar positions.’ provides the bulk of funding. Ongoing funding at students can find it easier to access funding and Algar-Faria is a highly capable PhD candidate, but PGR level is good news for Bristol, which has an Bristol’s global reputation means there is no shortage of How a PhD pushes boundaries lucky too. He receives a generous Alumni Studentship outstanding reputation for high-quality, challenging postgraduate candidates from abroad. Alex Boughton, that includes course fees, a grant, and research expenses. research, including pioneering advances in heart Bristol’s International Recruitment Manager, says Pioneering inventions and solutions to world School And by working as a supervisor in the University’s surgery, prevention of cot death and environmental recruitment from overseas is healthy, with many problems all begin at universities. Each level of • Bachelor’s degree • Masters degree halls, he also receives discounted accommodation. monitoring in danger zones. countries – including a growing number in South higher education demands a greater degree • PhD However, many others are struggling: competition for Bristol was firmly on Algar-Faria’s PhD radar, after America – happy to welcome home PhD graduates of specialism – and it’s only at PhD level that • places is fierce but funding is often hard to come by. he became interested in a particular line of research with Bristol-facilitated research. students begin to impress upon, and eventually This is particularly true for Masters and other while studying a Masters in Defence, Development and ‘Like all universities, we’re looking for the brightest re-draw, the boundaries of human knowledge. Postgraduate Taught (PGT) candidates. Budget cuts to Diplomacy. But when he first applied – to Bristol and and the best,’ says Boughton, ‘but today academia is UK research council grants and economic stagnation other universities – there wasn’t any funding available. truly global. A talented international student with mean some sources of funding have almost completely ‘I had applied for a number of PhDs but although I funding can go anywhere in the world. Bristol cannot dried up. Employers who may have sponsored an received offers, none had funding attached. Friends afford to be complacent. That said, we do have world- individual find they no longer have the money to do advised me not to attempt a PhD without funding.’ class research institutions and excellent links with so. Students now have to make a hard choice between Funding at Bristol did later become available, but it industry. Bristol is a very attractive prospect for the funding themselves or continuing in full-time work. was only when another candidate withdrew that Algar- international student.’ Some may consider a part-time course – not always Faria secured the award. What would have happened if Human knowledge an ideal way of studying at a high level. And if you’re he hadn’t received full funding? ‘I’d have had to make In the balance looking for funding in the arts or humanities, you may some hard decisions,’ he says. ‘I don’t think I could Bristol is, of course, one of the UK’s most culturally be looking forever. have committed to a PhD in a part-funded capacity. vibrant cities, making it an appealing destination for I might have continued working full-time and waited, younger postgraduate candidates too. But its popularity Zero hour but there’s no doubt that stepping down from a full- comes at a price. Jon Lightfoot, the University’s interim Then there is the ‘undergraduate factor’, a potential time salary to being a part-funded, or unfunded, PhD Student Funding Manager, says Bristol is seen as an black hole for future postgraduate funding. ‘We have student would have been very difficult.’ expensive city, particularly for accommodation. a group of undergraduates who will graduate with ‘Rents can be high,’ he says, ‘and this is one of the higher debts than their predecessors,’ says Angela Stiff competition biggest costs students face. Even with a grant, it can Milln, Bristol’s Director of Student Recruitment and ‘Research is vital to Bristol,’ says Professor Sally Heslop, be a challenge.’ Admissions. ‘What no-one knows is what they will Academic Director of Graduate Studies and Director ‘As UK students find it harder to access funding, think about another financial commitment. There will of the new Bristol Doctoral College. ‘There is far more the balance has shifted towards international students, always be students who can fund themselves or find money available for home PGR students than home who often have generous support from their own other sources, but many others are aware of the debt PGT students, but research councils have faced budget countries,’ says Angela Milln. ‘While we welcome hanging over them. This is potentially a very big issue cuts so there are still challenges. international students with open arms, we wouldn’t for recruiting graduates to postgraduate qualifications.’ ‘A big issue for home PGR candidates is that access want them to come here and find few British students

The situation is somewhat easier for candidates to such funding is highly competitive. The money Photos by Matt Might © Dan Rowley // PhD diagram was originally created and is explained in full at http://matt.might.net/articles/phd-school-in-pictures/ on their courses. One of the key rewards of a university

22 nonesuch // Autumn 2013 Autumn 2013 // nonesuch 23 Bristol in pieces

Regulars In the city The University in Bristol

The High School Project on Astrophysics Research with Cosmics (HiSPARC) introduces A level pupils in Bristol and elsewhere to real-world physics research by supplying their schools with cosmic ray detectors.

The origins and processes of these high-energy particles, which continuously bombard the Earth, are still not well understood. A large- scale international collaboration is studying the rates at which especially Boldly going… high-energy showers of these particles occur, and HiSPARC, which began as an initiative at Radboud University in Nijmegen, enables schools to contribute to the study. The detectors are delivered as DIY kits with either two or four detectors; the pupils build the systems themselves, and all the school needs to provide is power, a PC, an internet connection, and a spot on its roof to install the box. ‘HiSPARC lets pupils conduct original research that can be published,’ says Dr Jaap Velthuis, Senior Lecturer in the School of Physics, who co-ordinates the project in the South West. ‘Four schools in Bristol and two in Bath currently have detectors installed, and more are coming online soon.’ bristol.ac.uk/physics/research/particle/public/hisparc

Left Pupils from the Red Maids’ School assemble the detector

The plug New books (and a CD)

Feature Rhymin’ and Stealin’: Paralysed with Fear: The The Thing Jez Conolly Tenebrae / Piano Concerto / Musical Borrowing in Story of Polio Gareth Williams Dismissed on its release, Sea Change John Pickard Ashley Dale is a PhD student in the Hip-Hop Justin Williams For much of the 20th century, polio John Carpenter’s The Thing has This CD features three Faculty of Engineering, working on a Whether taking an old dance inspired terror as the ‘morning become one of the most highly orchestral pieces composed move for a breakdancing battle, paralysis’ which could disable or regarded examples of the ‘body by John Pickard, Professor new generation of ‘morphing’ wing quoting from a famous speech, kill a previously healthy person. horror’ genre. Jez Conolly, Arts of Composition and Applied design. But he is also an astronaut – or sampling a 1970s funk song, Gareth Williams, Professor of Faculty Librarian, looks back Musicology, and performed hip-hop borrows overtly from the Medicine, tells the compelling to the film’s antecedents and by the Norrköping Symphony sort of – and an advocate for a manned past. Dr Justin Williams, Lecturer story of mankind’s struggle forward to the changing nature Orchestra conducted by Martyn mission to Mars. This summer he in Music, presents the first book- against polio, which became a of its reception and the work Brabbins. BBC Music Magazine added to these credentials when he length study of musical borrowing battleground between good and that it has influenced. The book is described it as ‘one of the in hip-hop, using examples from bad science. Williams explores the topped and tailed by a full most important contemporary was selected to attend the International Jay-Z, Eminem, and others. profoundly moving experiences of plot breakdown and an orchestral CDs of 2013’. Space University, and ended up advising This provides a framework for victims alongside the medical and appreciation of its notoriously (BIS Records) senior NASA officials on – not to put too analysing hip-hop music and scientific landmarks in the history downbeat ending. wider cultural trends. of the disease. (‘Devil’s Advocates’ series, fine a point on it – saving civilisation from

(University of Michigan Press) (Palgrave Macmillan) Auteur Publishing) ‘In the city’ photo courtesy of the Red Maids’ School, Bristol the effects of a solar superstorm.

24 nonesuch // Autumn 2013 Autumn 2013 // nonesuch 25 The final frontier

Feature

in Strasbourg. I’d never heard of it, but his increase the life expectancy of a satellite description made it sound like Star Trek’s or reduce a spacecraft’s mass (and therefore ‘IT WAS AN Starfleet Academy. the cost of launching it). I was sceptical, but some research The calibre of the ISU programme was UNFORGETTABLE confirmed that the ISU is a genuine, beyond my wildest dreams, and I made a very prestigious organisation. Every summer strong network of contacts around the world. EXPERIENCE’ they hold a two-month programme, in Had I not spotted that NSS conference which young professionals from around the poster, none of this would have been possible. world are selected to participate in an intense My best to whoever put it there! crash-course on the space industry, led by the world’s experts. I applied, and to my surprise The British are coming I was invited by the UK Space Agency to an I’ll soon be returning to Mars – the interview, for a scholarship to attend. Next simulation study, that is – when I lead a crew thing I knew, I was on the programme. So of scientists and engineers on another two- Above The Habitat Module that put the PhD on hold … again! week expedition early in 2014. Having put When I arrived in Strasbourg, I snuck out a call to British universities for project into the back of a low-lit lecture theatre proposals, in an effort to help build ties with around a hundred very international between the UK and the MDRS, I elicited and well-dressed thirtysomethings, all a great deal of interest, and will have some making notes on various electronic devices, British PhD students coming with me. while an ageing American man held forth We’ll be field-testing a robotic Mars about the International Space Station rover, a solar-powered drone built to fly (ISS). When he started talking about his in the tenuous Martian atmosphere, some experiences in microgravity, it dawned on automated sample collection hardware, me that he was a former ISS astronaut. My and some exciting prototype spacesuit doubts vanished immediately, and I began technologies. We’ll also be conducting scribbling notes of my own. a feasibility study on making rocket fuel from the desert soil, and extreme weather The Sun’s The weather up there testing of candidate micro-organisms for dangerous moods By Ashley Dale My main project at the ISU, along with terraforming the Martian environment to Mars about 30 other participants, concerned something more hospitable for us. Only in recent years have we realised trange environments are to be observed remotely, we conducted research, Distance from Earth radiation in space and the damage caused just how vulnerable our electronics- expected in space travel, and I’ve fieldwork, and hardware testing in a (depending on orbits) to satellites. I led two groups – not an The choice based infrastructure is to the mood Srecently worked in a couple of very simulated Martian environment, and were entirely new experience for me, but Why so gung-ho about a manned Mars of our nearest star. different ones. The first was a barren also subjected to psychological studies, Closest delegating tasks to the likes of a professor mission? My PhD is on future aircraft landscape of red cliffs and desert; the assessments of crew-selection procedures, 34,000,000 miles from the Chinese Astronaut Space design, but while doing the research In 1859, the Earth happened to be in the second was a series of rooms filled with and even tests to determine the best kind Centre, a US fighter pilot and a successful and looking at trends in the growth of path of a solar superstorm known as the astronauts and NASA directors. of foods for Mars explorers. My role as the Furthest aerospace entrepreneur put things on civilisation, I quickly came to realize that we Carrington Event. The Northern Lights crew engineer was to maintain the Habitat 249,000,000 miles a whole new level. face a problem. It’s a very obvious problem, were visible as far south as Hawaii. The My life on Mars Module, greenhouse, spacesuit systems and My first group identified the gaps in really: the planet we live on is finite, and world’s telegraph systems – luckily the In 2011 I applied for an engineering the quad bike all-terrain vehicles, while knowledge about space weather, the its resources are limited. Pursuing ways to only electronics we had back then – position at the Mars Desert Research also serving as an extra set of hands for nature of the Sun, and its magnetospheric make aircraft ‘greener’ is commendable, but were set alight by the surge of energy. Station (MDRS), a facility run by the various projects. relationship with the Earth (see panel); the it’s not a long-term solution. If such an event were to happen today, Mars Society in close collaboration with It was an unforgettable and intense second tested a methodology I came up We must find the right balance between the collateral impact would redefine NASA and the European Space Agency experience that has forever shaped me and with for reducing the amount of radiation dealing with near-term and long-term the word ‘disaster’ in the minds of those (ESA), dedicated to developing field tactics it gave me a kind of ‘calling card’ when the an astronaut or sensitive spacecraft problems. With the world spending who survived. With ice-core records and protocols for human expeditions to opportunity arose for another bit of space- instrument would receive. My proposal seven times more on cosmetics than on its showing Carrington-level events Mars. As a lowly first-year PhD student, themed exploration. involved tailoring the interior architecture space agencies, I question whether we’ve occur on average every 150 years, this I somehow managed to clear the hurdles of a spacecraft to match the radiation achieved that balance. is no idle concern. Two senior NASA required for getting a spot on this small, My God, it’s full of stars profile associated with the specifics of the We are faced with a critical branch point directors who attended the conference highly qualified, international crew, One winter morning in 2013, I came across mission. In collaboration with Inspiration in our history: to survive, unless we spread were greatly interested in our group’s which included a NASA astrobiologist, a poster advertising the National Student Mars, a group planning to send astronauts – perhaps to Mars – we must devolve back work, and we developed a document a geologist/psychologist, an ESA artist, Space Conference, hosted by the School on a flyby mission around Mars in 2018, to our pre-stone-age existence, back to – explaining the problem, why we an ESA industrial designer, and a NASA of Physics. I contacted the organisers to we found that this approach reduced living in lock-step with our environment. should care, and what we should do aerospace engineer. see if I could share my Utah experience. the estimated radiation dosage for their What we decide to do now will powerfully about it – which is being disseminated The station is located in a very remote They quickly opened a slot for me in the astronauts by 36 per cent. If adopted more affect the destiny of our descendants. So to governments, policy-makers, and area of the high-altitude Utah desert. conference, where I met a professor from Main image Two members of the crew in the Martian broadly in a space mission design process, here is the choice: grow, or stagnate and die. industry players around the world. Over two weeks, whilst constantly being the International Space University (ISU) landscape of Utah Above Suited to Mars: Ashley Dale Main image © Ashley Dale // Habitat Module Charlotte Poupon this methodology could also, for example, I think we should grow. • 26 nonesuch // Autumn 2013 Autumn 2013 // nonesuch 27 Events Alumni in memoriam

Listings Listings

The University extends its sincere condolences to the friends and families of Calendar November 2013 – July 2014 those listed below for whom we have received notification of death. In order of degree date Carol Speed (née Galley) Ann Hurford Paul Tarran Unless otherwise stated, more information and booking details (BA 1951, Cert Ed 1952) (BA 1962) died 2013, aged 73 (MEd 1985) died June 2013, aged 73 May Dallenger (née Valentine) died March 2013, aged 82 are available from bristol.ac.uk/alumni/events or by calling (BA 1940, Diploma 1941) Philip Jones Johannes Van de Put +44 (0)117 394 1046. The events programme is always being died March 2012, aged 92 Professor John Spence (BDS 1962) died May 2013 (BSc 1985) died January 2013, aged 49 (BSc 1951, PhD 1961) Dr David Patterson Ralph Nurse Maria Crowley updated, so keep an eye on the website for the latest event news. died March 2013, aged 83 (BSc 1942, MSc 1949, PhD 1951) (BVSc 1963) died March 2013, aged 73 (LLB 1987) died November 2012, aged 53 died July 2013, aged 90 The Rev Canon Allen Willett Michael Preston David Russell (BA 1951) died May 2013, aged 93 If you’re organising an Dr John Valentine (BA 1963) died January 2013, aged 74 (BA 1987) died February 2010, aged 45 (MB ChB 1942) died May 2013, aged 95 Margaret Austen (née Pyne) event for alumni and John Cornwell Patrick O’Leary (BA 1952) died May 2013, aged 84 would like our help Peter James (LLB 1965) died February 2013, aged 69 (BSc 1988) died 2013, aged 49 (MB ChB 1943) died 2013, aged 92 Dr Kenneth Barker publicising it, please email John Sikes Jonathan Joyce (MB ChB 1952) Robert Williams (BSc 1965) died March 2013, aged 70 (BSc 1994) died June 2013, aged 41 [email protected] died February 2013, aged 94 (BA 1943) died 2013, aged 90 Dr Clive Wulwik Dr Cliff Morgan Dr Peter Crook Dr Albert Nethercott (BSc 1966, MB ChB 1970) (Hon LLD 1996) died August 2013, aged 83 (MB ChB 1952) (MB ChB 1944, Diploma 1966) died March 2012, aged 66 died March 2013, aged 84 Stephen Smith died 2013, aged 92 John Hine (BSc 1998) died February 2013, aged 38 Michael Harrison Dr Hugh Preston-Thomas (BA 1967) died February 2013, aged 66 (BA 1952) died May 2013, aged 85 Eleanor Pardon (BSc 1944, PhD 1951) Dr Peter Spence (BDS 1999) died January 2013, aged 37 died August 2012, aged 87 (née Stevenson) Dr Audrey Ridge (BSc 1967, PhD 1975) died 2013, aged 68 (MB ChB 1952, Diploma 1958) Dr Kenneth Heaton Monday 16 December Dr Norman Cook November February died May 2013, aged 83 Steve Bone (DSc 2001, MA 2003) (MB ChB 1945) died March 2013, aged 91 London Branch Carol (BSc 1968) died 2013, aged 66 died March 2013, aged 76 Convocation Anthea Bradbury (née Woods) Saturday 16 November Saturday 1 February Dr Jean James (née Tregear) Service // London (BA 1953) died February 2013, aged 82 Dr Peter Hardwick Siu Chung (MB ChB 1945, MD 1973) Officers Training Corps Wills Hall Association (BSc 1968, MB ChB 1971) (MSc 2003) died November 2012, aged 38 Elections died 2013, aged 91 The London Branch of University Keith Crook died 2012, aged 67 Annual Dinner // Bristol Annual Reception // Bristol (BSc 1953) died April 2013, aged 81 Rachel Humphreys Michael Comely of Bristol Alumni is organising Alison Michell (née MacFarlane) (MSc 2003) died April 2013, aged 42 2014 (BA 1947, Cert Ed 1948) (née Pearson) The Alumni Association of the an inaugural carol service to be Enjoy drinks, canapés and good Sylvia Crook (BA 1968) died March 2013, aged 66 died October 2012, aged 88 (BA 1953) died April 2013 Richard Morton Bristol University Officers Training held in the magnificent City of company at this annual reception Online nominations Robert McLeish (MLitt 2006) died December 2012, aged 79

Corps invites all former Bristol held in the Warden’s House. All Harold Heywood Angus Heron (BSc 1968) died February 2013, aged 65 London Church, St Vedast (alias are now open for (BSc 1947, Cert Ed 1948) (LLB 1953) died April 2013, aged 84 Emma Llewellyn members and their guests to the Wills Hall Association members, died January 2013, aged 94 Robert Pinson (LLB 2012) died March 2013, aged 22 Foster). Traditional carols will various posts including: The Rev Mr Colin Furse (BA 1968) died December 2012, aged 65 fourth Annual Dinner, AGM and be interspersed with seasonal current and former residents, and Treasurer; members of the Dr Clement Mills (BA 1954) died December 2012, aged 86 Simon Nickau (MB ChB 1947) died 2011, aged 86 Mary Shepherd (BSc 2013) died 2013, aged 22 drinks reception. their guests, are warmly invited. lessons read by notable alumni, Convocation Committee; Robert Thomas (BA 1968, Cert Ed 1971) (BSc 1949, BVSc 1954) Marcelin Fortes Da Cruz including the Chancellor of the For information and booking and Convocation Joan Pickering died June 2013, aged 66 December (BA 1947) died January 2009, aged 82 died July 2013, aged 86 (PhD 2005-2013) died 2013, aged 61 University. The service will be details please contact the Representatives on Bruce Ferris Harms Anna Crossman secretary Charles Gunter at wills- John Rees Dr John Clarke (MA 1969) died January 2013, aged 83 Thursday 5 December followed by a drinks reception Court. Find out more at (Cert 1947) died 2013, aged 87 (MB ChB 1955) died March 2013, aged 81 (BA 2011-2013) died June 2013, aged 20 [email protected]. Margaret Sutherland (née Nixon) at a nearby wine bar. bristol.ac.uk/alumni/ Convocation Annual Glyndwr Young Bin Ainuddin (BA 1971) died 2013, aged 64 Reception and Student elections. (BA 1947, Cert Ed 1948) (BSc 1956) died 2013, aged 84 Emeritus Professor Eric Bradford died March 2013, aged 92 Keith Warren died 2013, aged 94 January July Awards // Bristol Sheila Anderson (BSc 1972) died September 2012, aged 62 The deadline for completed David Stone (LLB 1956) died January 2013, aged 77 Emeritus Professor Mick Aston Friday 4 to Sunday 6 July (BSc 1948) died March 2013, aged 85 Dr David Milne died June 2013, aged 66 Learn more about current Saturday 25 January applications, including Dr John Brown (MB ChB 1973) Best of Bristol Alumni (BSc 1956, PhD 1960) Monica Cobb student life at Bristol from our Midlands Branch lunch the support of two Professor Gerald Fowles died December 2012, aged 62 and AGM // Solihull Reunion 2014 // Bristol nominators, is 31 March (BSc 1949, PhD 1953) died April 2013, aged 85 friend and donor to the University, outstanding students, members died September 2012, aged 86 David Selwyn died March 2013

2014. Email reminders of Dr Desmond Evans (BA 1973, MMus 1979) of Convocation and senior The University of Bristol Midlands The Alumni Reunion is your (PhD 1957) died March 2013, aged 78 William Edmonds died April 2013, aged 61 these opportunities and the (BA 1949, MA 1952) University staff. Branch of Convocation invite annual opportunity to come Dr John Edmondson died April 2013, aged 86 Raymond Harris back to Bristol to visit old haunts application deadline will be (MB ChB 1958) died March 2013, aged 78 alumni based in the Midlands to (BSc 1978) died February 2013, aged 56 sent to all alumni for whom Desmond Hughes Friday 6 December and meet fellow alumni. The full Dr Raymond Pope join them at their annual lunch (BA 1949) died April 2013, aged 91 Andrew Robb Bristol holds current email (BSc 1958, Certificate 1959) Institute of Greece, Rome and AGM. For more information programme of events (which (BSc 1978) died February 2013, aged 56 addresses. Ronald Yelling died April 2013, aged 77 and the Classical Tradition and to book, please contact includes the Convocation AGM) (BSc 1949, Cert Ed 1950) Paresh Mashru John Roberts died February 2013, aged 86 (BSc 1979) died 2013, aged 56 lecture // Bristol Tim Drakeford (BA 1966) at will be available online. Online voting will take place (BA 1958, Cert Ed 1959) [email protected]. from May 2014 until the Roy Grant died March 2013, aged 76 Nicholas Haycock For this annual lecture, Bristol (BSc 1950) died June 2013, aged 90 (BSc 1980) died January 2013, aged 55 University’s new Professor of eve of 4 July 2014. Postal Colin Alcock ballots will be available on Dr Christopher Brown (BA 1960) died 2013, aged 76 Christopher Beesley Latin, Shane Butler, will present (MB ChB 1951) died January 2013, aged 92 (BSc 1982) died January 2013, aged 52 request by contacting the David Farnworth a fascinating talk on the subject Doreen Chedzoy (née Brown) (BA 1960) died January 2013, aged 75 Timothy Jackson Campaigns and Alumni (BA 1951, Cert Ed 1952) (BSc 1982) died March 2013, aged 51 of ‘Deep Classics’. Michael J Gorman died July 2013, aged 83 Relations team on (BA 1960) died September 2013, aged 76 Kevin Thorogood John Clark (BA 1984) died January 2013, aged 50 +44 (0)117 394 1051, or at The Rev Mr Michael Hambleton (BSc 1951) died February 2013, aged 87 [email protected]. (BA 1960) died 2013, aged 78 Mark Williams Arthur Petheram (BSc 1984) died January 2013, aged 49 John Fisher Please email any notifications of death to (BSc 1951) died December 2012, aged 85 (LLB 1962) died 2011, aged 73 [email protected] Calendar illustration © Alberto Antoniazzi © Calendar illustration

28 nonesuch // Autumn 2013 Autumn 2013 // nonesuch 29 Anne Morris (BA 1952) left a legacy to the South West Everyone can Dementia Brain Bank to support Bristol’s pioneering research into causes and preventions of dementia. leave a legacy ‘Dementia affects one in 14 people over the age of 65 and research into both treatment and prevention continues to be crucial. Anne’s legacy has taken our research to the next level by providing us with more Contact: advanced technology for preserving and studying Laura Serratrice, Head of Fundraising, brain tissue so we can help patients and families, University of Bristol, Senate House, and identify new ways to treat the disease.’ Tyndall Avenue, Bristol, BS8 1TH T: +44 (0)117 394 1085 Pat Kehoe Professor of Translational Dementia Research E: [email protected] and co-director of the South West Dementia Brain Bank bristol.ac.uk/centenarycampaign/how/legacies Exempt charity number: X1121