COMMENTTHE COLLEGE NEWSLETTER ISSUE NO 150 | DECEMBER 2003 fee-paying schools, compared to the national average of eight per cent of children in independent education. ‘Factors like this make it diffi- King’s seeks cult for King’s to recruit state- educated applicants from the local population, so participation in the GATE A initiative is a medium- to long-term strategy for widening the College’s recruit- out new talent ment base,’ explained Dr Trudi Darby, Deputy College Secretary (Academic Policy and Planning ing’s College London is part of The project, labelled by the ‘GATE A is an important ini- Support), who played a part in a consortium that has signed a DfES as the Gifted And Tal- tiative for King’s which will help securing the contract for King’s. K£5 million contract with the ented Education Arm of the to improve standards among our GATE A will offer support to Department for Education and Skills London Challenge – GATE A potential applicants,’ said Acting three groups of users: school chil- (DfES) to support gifted and tal- for short – is part of a Govern- Principal Professor Barry Ife. dren; their parents and carers; and ented education in schools across ment project to improve state Fourteen per cent of London teachers. Each school already London’s 33 boroughs. education in London. families send their children to identifies the top ten per cent of its students as its ‘gifted and tal- ented’ cohort and is required to make special provision for them As part of its 175th (‘gifted’ is the term for academi- anniversary celebrations, King’s is offering a limited number Project to improve state of free tickets for staff and education in London students to skate on the ice- rink at Somerset House on 14 and cally able children and ‘talented’ 21 January. See for those who have abilities in the page 5 for arts or sport). details about how to obtain GATE A will commission sum- your ticket. mer schools and term-time activi- Pictured here is ties for these cohorts and will a work by Quentin Blake provide additional material online showing the ice- through a Managed Learning rink in the courtyard of Continued on page 2 Somerset House, which has now become an annual event. An exhibition to celebrate his 50 year career Fifty Years of Illustration will open at the Gilbert Collection in Somerset House on 17 December (see page16) 2 Strategic Review | 3 DTI mission | 4 Profile: David Ricks | 5 175th anniversary | 6 Academic focus: The Dental Institute 8 King’s people | 9 Principal’s Forum | 10 Arts and medicine collaboration | 14 In the news | 15 Books | 16 Exhibitions News Continued from page 1 Environment (MLE). The Stop press: Strategic Review MLE is already in develop- ment and will be launched by t its meeting on 26 November, Academic computation; Natural language processing; the Schools Minister, Stephen Board supported a proposal to pursue collabo- Software engineering. Twigg, on 21 January at an ration with University College London for the • Chemical Biology event at the V&A. It will A establishment of a research institute in Chemical Biol- Chemistry and structural biology; Computational include learning pathways for ogy, and to approve the phased closure of the Depart- methods and bioinformatics. students, ‘virtual communities’ ment of Chemistry (including phasing out the existing • Molecular Mechanisms of Cell Function (The and discussion groups for all undergraduate programmes run by the Department, Randall Centre) users, information sites for withdrawing from Masters teaching in Chemistry at • Developmental Neurobiology (MRC Centre) parents and carers and addi- the end of the current session, and enabling comple- • Genetics and Development tional Continuing Professional tion of the current PhD students’ programmes). • Social, Genetic and Developmental Psychiatry Development for teachers. The proposal was supported by 29 votes, with 14 (MRC Centre) A pilot project has been run- against and two abstentions and will be formally pre- • Applied Biomedical Sciences ning since October with online sented to the College Council in December. • Immunology, Infection and Inflammatory Disease material on Robotics and on The Academic Board is ‘the body responsible for • Asthma, Allergy and Lung Biology Hero’s Journey (an explanation the academic work of the College in teaching and • Cardiovascular Biology of how narratives work), as well examining and in research’ and is made up of mem- • Nutritional Sciences as an electronic community for bers of the College community, including elected • Pharmaceutical Sciences the students who took part in academic staff and students. • Cancer Studies the London Talent summer • Hepatology and Transplantation school in drama held at King’s The Changing Shape of Science at King’s • Neuroscience earlier this year. A paper distributed at Academic Board by the Acting • Imaging ‘King’s contribution is likely Principal is printed below. • Reproductive Health, Endocrinology and to relate particularly to arts- In the Strategic Plan 2001-2010, King’s committed Development based subjects, but interest has itself to the pursuit of excellence in all of the disci- • Skin Science also been expressed in other plines represented in the College, and determined to • Nursing and Midwifery subjects in which we are partic- concentrate its resources to better effect. In accor- • Antisocial Behaviour ularly strong such as dentistry; dance with this strategy, the College will pursue fun- • Childhood Disorders and it is expected that there will damental and translational scientific research at • Drug Addictions be opportunities to conduct international levels of excellence in the following • Neurosis research into how gifted and tal- broad areas (groups in italics have been proposed • Neurodegeneration ented policies are working in and await formal approval): • Psychosis schools,’ continued Dr Darby. • Pure and applied mathematics • Dentistry The GATE A consortium is Analysis; Disordered systems and neural Cell and developmental biology, including made up of Camden and West- networks; Financial mathematics and applied craniofacial development, cell biology and minster LEAs; King’s and probability; Number theory; Geometry; orthodontics; Infection, including oral microbial Imperial Colleges; and a com- Mathematical physics. diseases; Biomaterials and biomimetics, including mercial company, Exscitec. • Physics tissue engineering; Mucosal biology and The contract took almost nine Chaos and non-linearity; Cosmology; Exotic pathology, including immunology, oncology and months to negotiate and quantum phases; Fluorescence lifetime imaging of salivary research; Oral health, including health required some creative think- biological cells; Modelling nanomaterials and services research and epidemiology ing to deal with the legal obsta- biomolecules by density functional theory; • Population Sciences and Health Care cles in bringing together a Quantum mechanical modelling of defects in • Health Services Research government department, local semiconductor materials; Scanning probe • Geography authorities, HEIs and the pri- microscopy; Solid state physics; Theoretical Environment, Politics and Development; Cities, vate sector. It will run until particle physics; X-ray physics. Culture and Society; Environmental Monitoring April 2005 in the first instance. • Mechanical Engineering and Modelling. King’s participation in Mechatronics and manufacturing systems; GATE A is being managed Experimental and computational analysis of Further to the College’s stated strategy of pursuing through the Widening Partici- turbulence. research-led teaching, King’s will concentrate pation Office of the External • Electronic Engineering resources on maintaining and developing teaching Relations Directorate. Digital signal processing; Telecommunications. excellence in over 150 first-degree, and nearly 100 • Computer Science Masters programmes, in the areas of scientific excel- Algorithm design; Logic, language and lence listed above. 2|COMMENT | December 2003 News MOIRA LOVELL King’s leads DTI mission to Far East rofessor Bob Hider, Head of the School of Biomedical Sciences, and Caroline Quest, Director of Knowledge Transfer at KCL PEnterprises, took part in a ten day fact-finding visit in October to companies and institutes in Singapore, Beijing and Shanghai with expertise in natural medicines. Under the DTI Global Watch Programme, the mission team, which also included industry representatives from pharma, biotechnology and health care companies, explored the potential for co-operation between the UK and host organisations in the development of new pharmaceu- ticals from natural sources, in particular from Chinese herbs and Tradi- tional Chinese Medicines (TCM). The mission team explored the potential for co-operation between the UK and host organisations Mission team members Professor Bob Hider, Dr Michael Collis, Pfizer, and Dr Douglas McKenzie, Integrin Biosystems, gave presenta- tions at the UK and Singapore: Partners in Science Biosciences seminar chaired by Lord Sainsbury of Turville, Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Science and Innovation. Highlights of the mission included DNA 50th anniversary celebra- tions at the Singapore High Commissioner’s; a visit to the Zhangjiang High-Tech Park in Shanghai including the Institute of Organic Chem- Members of the DTI natural medicines mission to China and Singapore: back row, from left, Dr Jiansheng Du, Pera, Dr Douglas McKenzie, Integrin Advanced istry, the Institute of Material Medica and the National