EDIT

SUMMER 2017

Video artist and alumna Rachel Maclean Food security | Hyperloop | Dementia Festival 10% alumni discount of open on summer courses learning 2017

@UoEShortCourses University of Edinburgh alumni are entitled to a 10% discount on /UoEShortCourses all short courses that make up the Festival of Open Learning in [email protected] summer 2017. Choose from more than 100 courses, including: +44 (0) 131 650 4400 • music • painting • philosophy • storytelling • languages • video editing

For the full range of alumni benefits, To claim your discount, book online via the MyEd portal, or use your alumni card including careers networking, online journals, when booking on campus. library access and sport facilities visit www.ed.ac.uk/alumni/services/benefits Book online: www.myed.ed.ac.uk More online More us Follow in in expressed views The Edinburgh. of University the of consent written prior the without form any in reproduced be may publication this of part No Printing: Sterling Design: www.rrdcreative.com This publication is available in alternative formats on request. [email protected] Contact: UK 2QL, EH1 Edinburgh Hill, 5Forrest Building, Hill Forrest C, Floor Edinburgh, of University The Published by Communications and Marketing Spite Your Face Your Spite film latest her in Pic character the as dressed Maclean Rachel artist Video cover: Front 2017 June Edinburgh of University © The number SC005336. with registration Scotland, in registered body acharitable is Edinburgh of University The [email protected] at or 2240 (0)131 650 +44 on Alumni and Development Contact know. us let please address changed have you If move? the On University. the of www.ed.ac.uk/edit-magazine tinyurl.com/edalumni twitter.com/edinburghalumni facebook.com/edalumni are those of the contributors and do not necessarily represent those those represent necessarily not do and contributors the of those are Edit WELCOME Professor Sir Timothy O’Shea Timothy Sir Professor Warmest regards, you. takes it wherever University great of your spirit the carry you as best very the all you Iwish that and opportunities. today’s face we as challenges ever great than important more is earth, on country every of nearly in life, walks all in and alumni throughout the world. and UK the across campus, on events at of you many to meet pleasure great my University. your of life the to thanks forand heartfelt your contribution my sincere offer to Iwant Edinburgh, of University the of Principal as years 15 after office, demit to Iprepare As It is with gratitude and great fondness fondness great and gratitude with is It of Edinburgh’s impact valuable The been has it Principal as time my During

. Photo courtesy of the artist. the of courtesy . Photo

14 CONTENTS 08 24 38 36 32 04

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Contents 03

news www.ed.ac.uk/alumni/services/ and www.ed.ac.uk/news at todate up Keep www.ed.ac.uk/edit-magazine 04 | U PDATE Summer2017 Photo: The interior of the McEwan Hall during the restoration process. Photo by Neil Hanna. Neil by Photo process. restoration the during Hall McEwan the of interior The Photo: For more information, visit www.ed.ac.uk/estates and www.stcecilias.ed.ac.uk venue. to the enjoy visitors for ways new and hours opening longer through access hall, increased concert oval building’s elegant the in performances more offer will Cecilia’s St museum new Hall the University, the by Owned instruments. musical of historic collections important world’s of the most one contains and Scotland in hall concert 1763,in purpose-built Cecilia’s oldest St the is Hall space. social more and accessibility have improved will and works of the part as landscaped being is Square Bristo addition, In of Edinburgh. city the and University the both for asset amajor as status to original its building the return will restoration The interior. its throughout painted Palin Mainwaring William by murals vivid with style Renaissance in designed is hall the McEwan, William history, brewer the from University’s the in donation private single 1897 largest 1888 the and through between Built will which conclude later this project year.restoration refurbished McEwanHall,aheadofthecompletion ofthe £33m summer’sThis takingplaceinthenewly graduations are graduations glorious host Restored set McEwan Hall to This summer also sees the relaunch of another historic building. Originally opened opened Originally building. historic of another relaunch the sees also summer This

Update

A fond farewell to the Principal Principal and Vice-Chancellor Professor Sir Timothy O’Shea announced last year his intention to demit office.

After 15 years at the helm, Professor O’Shea leaves the University in a much stronger place. Research performance is better than ever, student demand at home and abroad continues to grow, and our position in all the global rankings puts the University among the world’s best. It is no surprise, given the Principal’s background as a computer scientist, that the University has embraced the opportunities of new technologies as few others have. In 2014 when Debrett’s, in association with The Sunday Times, The University named the top 500 most influential people in the UK, Professor O’Shea was listed in the top 30 in Technology. and Europe “I firmly believe that Edinburgh’s growth has allowed us to exert our influence, assert our expertise and realise our ambitions in a much wider array of fields On 23 June 2016 the UK over the past 15 years,” Professor O’Shea said. “It is a success story which is a electorate voted in a national testimony to the vision and aspirations of the whole University community – staff, students, alumni, supporters and friends – and leaves the University very well referendum to leave the placed for the future and the challenges ahead.” European Union. As the UK Professor Peter Mathieson has been appointed as the next Principal and formally enters talks to leave Vice-Chancellor of the University. He is currently President and Vice-Chancellor the EU, the University is taking of the University of Hong Kong. Professor Mathieson’s background is in medical a positive and proactive research and teaching, specialising in renal medicine, and before taking up the post in Hong Kong he was Dean of the Faculty of Medicine and Dentistry at the approach to help ensure that University of Bristol for six years. the best outcome is achieved “Like Hong Kong, Edinburgh is a truly global institution with a great reputation for our staff and students. for excellence in teaching and research. Working together with students, staff and supporters, I am confident we can build on that reputation in the future,” said There have already been reassurances Professor Mathieson. from the UK and Scottish governments Professor O’Shea has kindly agreed to remain in post until Professor Mathieson on several significant areas, including joins the University in early February 2018. residency status for current EU staff and

their families, European Commission Photo: Professor Sir Timothy O’Shea. Photo by Sam Sills. funding for collaborative research projects, and confirmation of tuition fees for students joining in 2017 and 2018. In addition the University has confirmed that all 2018-19 entrants whose degree includes compulsory study abroad will be guaranteed funding support for their study abroad. The University has always had a commitment to diversity and a community in which students and staff feel valued and welcome. Our international students now represent 42 per cent of our total community, coming from 156 nations, with 33 per cent of our staff coming from 105 nations. We are also dedicated to a life-long relationship with our worldwide alumni community of more than 250,000 graduates. Our alumni-focused activities in Europe and beyond continue to strengthen, as evidenced by recent vibrant alumni events in Brussels, Berlin, Helsinki and elsewhere.

www.ed.ac.uk/news/eu

Photo by Paul Dodds.

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Celebrating 150 years of rowing Join the club Olympic medal winner Dame Katherine Grainger returned to Alumni and friends of the her rowing roots to mark the 150th anniversary of Edinburgh University of Edinburgh are University Boat Club. eligible to become members of the Penn Club, the University Britain’s most decorated female Olympian was guest of honour at a weekend of Pennsylvania’s private club of celebrations in February for the club where her rowing career began as an undergraduate in 1993. in New York. This year she was named Dame Commander of the Order of the British Located on 44th Street, midtown Empire in the Queen’s New Year’s Honours list in recognition of her services to Manhattan, the Penn Club offers rowing and charity. its members exclusive access to a Dame Katherine – who completed a law degree at Edinburgh and postgraduate wide range of elegant facilities and qualifications in Glasgow and London – had never rowed before joining the outstanding services – from entertaining Edinburgh club. She went on to become the first British woman to win five medals clients with gourmet dining, to relaxing in five successive Olympic Games, including a gold medal at London 2012. with a massage, to utilising one of its “I love coming back to Edinburgh to support the Boat Club. All of my best more than 150 reciprocal clubs memories of the city are linked to my time spent at the club. It kick-started my rowing worldwide. career. Everything that’s happened to me in the past 20 years as a professional The 13-storey clubhouse, just a athlete stems from the amazing time I had here,” Dame Katherine said. short walk to Times Square, Bryant Park Also taking part in the celebrations was University of Edinburgh medical and Grand Central, has two restaurants, student and Boat Club member Polly Swann, who won a silver medal in the a fitness centre, 39 overnight guest women’s eight at the Rio Olympics in 2016. rooms, various meeting and banquet Jim Aitken MBE, Director of Sport and Exercise at the University, said: spaces, a business centre and more. “Dame Katherine is an incomparable talent and it was wonderful to have her To take advantage of our new here to mark the Boat Club’s 150th anniversary. The weekend was a great chance affiliation with the Penn Club of New York to celebrate the success of members and mark the club’s fantastic progress please visit the club’s website where over the last 150 years.” you can apply online to become a Edinburgh University Boat Club is one of the biggest sports clubs on member. For more information, visit campus with 230 members. It is one of only a handful of clubs in the UK to host www.pennclub.org/membership a High Performance Programme supported by British Rowing. The programme was awarded in recognition of the club’s excellent track record in nurturing Please note: The Penn Club of New York world-class rowers. will verify applicants’ alumni status with In May, Edinburgh rowed to victory over Glasgow rivals in the Scottish Boat the University. Race – the third oldest boat race in the world. Edinburgh took the overall trophy after winning all seven of the races, which included beginners, alumni and senior men and women from the Boat Club.

Photo: Dame Katherine Grainger (right) and Polly Swann at the Boat Club anniversary. Photo by David Cheskin. Photos courtesy of the Penn Club of New York.

06 Update

Appreciating our architecture Recent work carried out by Historic Environment Scotland in collaboration with the University of Edinburgh has shed new light on the University’s architectural legacy.

From archive material which has not been published before to stunning new photography, a new book entitled Building Knowledge: An Architectural History of the University of Edinburgh by authors Nick Haynes and Clive Fenton tells the story of the first college buildings through to the magnificence of Robert Strengthening long-standing Adam’s Old College and beyond, right up to the present day. links with Southeast Asia The Principal, Professor Sir Timothy O’Shea, writes: “This book will add to the The University has strengthened links with Southeast Asia by general understanding of our buildings establishing a new base in Singapore. and should add further to the pleasure that they offer. I encourage you to read this book. Then climb to the top of The Southeast Asia Office will help the University work with partners in education, Arthur’s Seat and admire our University business and government across the region. The University has long-standing buildings scattered across the city.” links with Singapore through its many partners, supporters and alumni. It welcomed Building Knowledge: An Architectural 293 students from Singapore in 2016/17 and has a 1,000-strong alumni community History of the University of Edinburgh will living in Singapore. be available to buy from the University’s The University operates a successful student internship programme with Visitor Centre and Historic Environment Singapore’s Nanyang Technological University. It enables students to undertake Scotland’s online shops. Proceeds go placements with Syngenta in India, GlaxoSmithKline and the Institute of Chemical to the O’Shea Global Scholars Initiative & Engineering Sciences in Singapore. Edinburgh also has collaborations with the (see page 36). National University of Singapore. Indonesian students at Edinburgh in 2015/16 totalled 114 – the highest www.giftshop.ed.ac.uk number at any Scottish university. In 2013, the University signed an agreement www.historicenvironment.scot with the Indonesian Ministry of Education’s Directorate General of Higher Education. Both parties participate in a postgraduate scholarship scheme that will run until at least 2018. Photo: Cover of the new book. Edinburgh welcomed 123 students from Thailand in 2016/17 and regularly engages with more than 500 Thai alumni. The University has existing research and teaching partnerships with a number of institutions and groups. These include the Thai government’s Ministry of Public Health and Bangkok’s Mahidol University and Chulalongkorn University. Audrey Kon will head up the new office. Born in Singapore, Audrey was formally Regional Head – Southeast Asia for the University of Wolverhampton. The office joins Edinburgh’s overseas network, which includes bases in North America, Latin America, South Asia and East Asia. “Each office is responsible for ensuring that we engage meaningfully in each region, that we build partnerships that will raise our aspirations and impact, and that we are recognised as one of the world’s leading universities,” said Professor James Smith, Vice-Principal International. “Our increased presence in Southeast Asia and other regions will ensure we are well placed to respond to opportunities in the future.”

Find out more about the University’s global connections at www.ed.ac.uk/global Photo: Singapore skyline by iStock/Deejpilot.

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IN YOUR FACE

Video artist and alumna Rachel Maclean

Photo courtesy of Rachel Maclean.

08 In your face

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Rachel Maclean is The Haining is a grand Georgian mansion Wearing white-rimmed glasses and in the Scottish Borders. Upon first with a disarmingly goofy laugh, Maclean taking the contemporary encounter, it is a place of unchallenged makes her way into The Haining. In one art scene by storm with serenity. It nestles atop a gentle rise room a digital projector sits silently. and gazes upon a forest-fringed loch. The previous night, Spite Your Face, her startling short films, In the April morning sunshine, its Palladian her 37-minute film commissioned for which tackle big themes architecture almost coos with contentment. the Biennale, was screened for a select through a host of Linger for a moment, however, and group of 15 students. Nursing lukewarm all is not what it seems. At the loch’s edge, coffee and lots of questions, they are intriguing, and at times bluebottle flies cluster and buzz over waiting for her in the library. Bright sunlight disturbing, characters stagnant pools. Inside, plasterwork flakes streams through ceiling-to-floor windows. off the walls in sparse rooms. Look closely Chosen from art schools across all played by herself. and decay peeks through. Scotland, including five from ECA, this At a team preparation It is a perfect stage, then, for group is Scotland + Venice’s Professional Rachel Maclean to make an entrance. Development Programme, an initiative weekend in the Scottish With a crunch of gravel under tyre, spearheaded by the University’s Borders in April, her car pulls into the drive. The artist has Talbot Rice Gallery. They are charged just flown in from Munich where she was with invigilating Maclean’s show in Venice the woman behind the attending an awards ceremony. for its entire run in the deconsecrated mask talked to Edit Despite her 3am start she cheerfully Chiesa di Santa Caterina. Pairs of about her latest work, and affectionately administers hugs to her students are visiting Venice until the end waiting team. They have much to discuss. of November. Spite Your Face, ahead She is preparing for what is arguably the The library soon fills with chatter. of its premiere at the pinnacle of Maclean’s already flourishing Spite Your Face has given them a lot to career, the internationally renowned talk about. world-renowned Venice La Biennale di Venezia. The film is the story of the rise and Biennale. Now in its 57th year, the Venice fall of Pic, a young man who is seduced Biennale could be described as the and consumed by the power of lies. art world’s Olympic Games: countries It infuses the story of Pinocchio, sprouting select an individual or collective that nose and all, with themes dominating best represents their country’s art scene contemporary politics: truth, populism, and then puts on a show in the great inequality, individualism and misogyny. civic artwork that is Venice. While she was making her previous To the initiated, it is simply the place film, It’s What’s Inside That Counts, the to be: curators, art journalists, gallery vote for Brexit happened. From this point owners, buyers and all the other whirring on, Maclean says it was inevitable that parts that make the art world tick her work for Venice would be political. congregate in one place to collectively Spite Your Face is an artist coming to take stock. terms with a fundamentally altered world. “My first introduction to Venice “It’s what I like about being an artist,” was through playing the video game she says. “You come into a situation, Tomb Raider,” she says, a comment like Brexit, while you are still digesting that befits a 29-year-old. things that are still happening. It helped Since 2003, in recognition of its me process what was going on and my own world-class art scene, Scotland thoughts about it, but through an artwork.” has sent artists to Venice as part of the The film is visually stunning. Scotland + Venice partnership, run by In comparison with her previous day-glo Creative Scotland, the National Galleries work, Maclean has used a limited palette of Scotland and the British Council. of gold and blue, “to reflect the luxury Maclean, a video artist, is this year’s culture of Venice,” she says. “There’s a selection. Having graduated from lot of glitter.” It is less surreal kids TV, Edinburgh College of Art (ECA) in 2009, more Baroque. she is Scotland + Venice’s youngest Maclean has always mixed the ever representative. child-like with darkness. Spite Your Face

10 In your face

Photo: Rachel Maclean at The Haining by Patrick Rafferty.

“Seeing Rachel at the Biennale is amazing. It encourages young artists to push the boundaries of their own work.” Isotta Page, ECA student

Photo: Rachel Maclean with her team of students by Edd McCracken.

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maintains this signature. The surface “I didn’t think it was possible to + Venice. The Gallery’s director, Tessa is glossy and infantilised but underneath exhibit at the Biennale at such a young Giblin, is the curator and commissioner lurks something ancient and diseased. age,” she says. “Seeing Rachel there of Ireland’s show. As a veteran of several In keeping with her previous acclaimed is amazing. It encourages young artists Biennales, Giblin is keenly aware of this works, such as The Lion and the Unicorn to push the boundaries in their own opportunity’s scale. and Feed Me, which featured in British Art work and encourages us to not be “For Talbot Rice Gallery to be involved Show 8, Maclean plays all the characters afraid to explore difficult questions we in two pavilions this year is absolutely in Spite Your Face herself. face in everyday life. The fact that she is extraordinary,” she says. “It’s how our It was a process initially born out very young and a woman is incredibly profile will grow, but it is also about what of a lack of budget, but has now grown inspiring for me.” we will learn while doing it. It will change into a unique style. Maclean fondly remembers her the Gallery. I hope that our horizons shift “It’s developed into this absurd, time studying drawing and painting and stay out there – to include these bizarre way of making work where in Edinburgh. Her work for the 2009 international dimensions and audiences. I can create these strange plastic avatars degree show is still talked about in the What we will bring back from Venice will that are me, but aren’t,” she says. corridors and studios of ECA’s home be very exciting.” “I like the idea of identity being a kind at Lauriston Place. As the weekend at The Haining of masquerade from the outset.” “It was a very exciting time,” she says. draws to a close, Maclean can be found She filmed in front of green screen “I had a really good year group with loads sitting on the steps outside the building. and digitally added a heightened and of interesting friends doing all sorts of Bright purple flowers jut through disconcerting world. The story plays on exciting stuff and supporting each other. crumbling masonry. She is beaming a loop with no beginning or end, giving And you grow up a hell of a lot in four after meeting the students. “It’s been no resolution, deliberately adding to its years. It’s a very intense experience: you really exciting to hear their reaction,” uncomfortable feel. It all adds up to learn so much and develop so much she says. “It’s nice to see the work “a hermetically sealed world of illusion”. over a short period of time that stands through their eyes.” Brandon Logan, a third-year ECA you in good stead for what follows.” She is also thinking about what lies student, has travelled from Orkney during The University’s links with this year’s beyond Venice. A break. And a potential his Easter holidays to be at The Haining Biennale stretches beyond Maclean’s CV. feature film. She is in discussions with to see the film and meet Rachel. Like all Her show is being curated by Alchemy a producer and is planning to write a the students, he pauses when asked for Film & Arts in partnership with Talbot treatment. his reaction to Spite Your Face. Then he Rice Gallery and the University itself. “I’m not sure what it would look like,” smiles. “I think the film will make a real In spring 2018 Talbot Rice will she says. “I’d like to keep the aesthetic. splash in Venice,” he says. “It’s a great play host to the UK premiere of Spite That’s important to my work. But I’m statement piece for Scotland. It is a voice Your Face, which the University has interested to see what I could do with film. that will be heard and it’s the kind of purchased for its contemporary art I’m also keen to work with actors, sets and engaging piece you want to present to collection. Elsewhere in the labyrinthine moving cameras on screen. That would people. It will attract all sorts of reactions, streets of Venice, another ECA graduate change my process totally. I’m always but you want that range of emotion.” will be representing their country. excited about ways in which I can switch Isotta Page, also in her third year at Takahiro Iwasaki, who graduated in things up a bit so I’m not producing the ECA, is one of the first students to travel 2005, has been chosen by Japan for same thing over and over.” out to work on the show. It is Maclean’s its national pavilion. As the sun dims and the air chills, biography as much as her work that Talbot Rice’s involvement with the Maclean leaves The Haining. Trains, makes her smile. Biennale doesn’t end with Scotland planes and time will soon take her to Venice and beyond. But in one corner of the City of Water, for the months to come, her film will echo again and again. It is a work worth repeating.

More information: www.labiennale.org www.rachelmaclean.com www.alchemyfilmfestival.org.uk www.ed.ac.uk/talbot-rice

12 In your face

“I like the idea of identity being a kind of masquerade from the outset.” Rachel Maclean

Photos: Rachel Maclean in character as Pic. Photo courtesy of the artist.

Opposite page: Spite Your Face playing in the Chiesa di Santa Caterina at the Venice Biennale. Photo by Patrick Rafferty.

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FEED the W RLD

Faced with a rapidly growing global population with evolving dietary demands and food choices, the agri-food sector, researchers and specialists are under more pressure than ever to adapt agricultural methods to feed more mouths while also protecting the planet. In the Edit interview, Professor Geoff Simm, Director of the University’s Global Academy of Agriculture and Food Security, talks about facing up to the challenges and finding solutions.

Photo: iStock/susoy

14 Feed the world

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What is global food security? lot of pressure on those parts of the low- and middle-income countries The greatest challenge facing global world that have traditionally grown around the world over the last few agriculture is to achieve food security much of their own food. So trying decades. The Global Academy is while protecting the planet. Food to understand that dynamic is a big about building on that foundation and security is about all people having challenge. Agriculture already puts broadening it to many other areas access to a safe, affordable and a lot of pressure on the environment where the University and its partners nutritious supply of food at all times. so we need to find a way to meet the can contribute as well. It sounds very simple when you say aspirations of that growing population Modern developments in genetics it quickly but it’s one of the most in a way that’s not destroying the at the Roslin Institute and elsewhere complex challenges facing society. planet but will deliver that safe and has a huge role to play, while data affordable food for all. science is having a huge impact on What are the key challenges facing many branches of society and also can global food security? As well as the physical challenges have a big role in tackling global food Global food insecurity is a complex of producing food, what other issues insecurity. problem. It’s impacted by many other face food security? And in geosciences, understanding global challenges. It’s also exacerbated Food security is about more than the the changing climate, and how we by the fact that the human population physical challenges, though they’re develop our crop and livestock systems is growing dramatically. It’s about very plentiful as we’ve discussed. to adapt to that is very important. We 7.5 billion now and we’re expecting it to But, actually, food is a hugely recently hosted a workshop in Kenya top 11 billion by the end of the century. important cultural issue. There are looking at the role of earth observation Feeding so many more mouths is social and political implications too. – from satellites, drones and sensors going to be a challenge. The whole business of food security – in helping to develop climate-smart Not only that, but people are is central to civil society. Over the last agriculture, and we see this as a expecting different types of diets. few decades we’ve seen civil unrest promising area of future research. Many people in developing countries in many countries that have had big The Academy will be a melting pot emerging from poverty aspire to a rises in food prices, so it’s important where each of these areas can come western diet, which typically means to global security that we improve together, share ideas and develop new more livestock products. This creates food security. interdisciplinary solutions to some of more pressure on food producing There’s a huge paradox around these really pressing challenges. systems, because animal products food security in that we have around typically need more land than 800 million people on the planet who Research is obviously crucial; crop-based products. While much are starving yet at the same time how important is teaching? agricultural land globally is used around 2 billion who are overweight, If we’re going to face these challenges to grow livestock feed, livestock so understanding how diet and health that are massive in scale, it’s important also use by-products, and ruminants, interact, understanding how food that we mobilise and train students, such as cattle and sheep, have the choices affect health in the West as who will become tomorrow’s leaders in unique ability to produce high-quality well as improving food security for tackling these issues. These problems human food from the grassland that those who are starving is part of the are interdisciplinary and interconnected occupies the majority of farmland Global Academy of Agriculture and and require a new approach from globally. Livestock also have a pivotal Food Security’s ambition. The current what we’ve expected of our students role in some of the poorest societies crisis in east Africa provides a very until now. globally, and here even small amounts stark reminder of the scale and impact The University already has a of livestock products can have a of the food security challenge. fantastic reputation in delivering online dramatic effect on the physical and distance and face-to-face learning cognitive development of children. What role can the Global Academy and we’ll be developing new courses While research and innovation of Agriculture and Food Security play designed to help develop this next will help improve the efficiency with in tackling these issues? generation of leaders, including in which we use our natural resources, Edinburgh has many strengths in the countries most affected by food changes in consumption behaviour will biological sciences, geosciences, security issues. be needed to achieve sustainability. informatics, biomedicine, politics We plan to launch several new So we need work in human behaviour, and society, all of these areas have undergraduate programmes relevant in nutrition and health as well as in contributions to make to understanding to global agriculture for first student agriculture, to develop sustainable and improving food security. entry in 2018; and as we start to see healthy diets. For instance, the Royal (Dick) School students coming through our education That’s challenging enough but of Veterinary Studies at the University programmes who are helping to find we’re trying to deal with these issues has a major international reputation solutions to these global challenges, at a time when the climate globally and in particular has contributed then we’ll know that we’re starting to is changing as well. That’s putting a much to animal health in many of the make a major contribution.

Find out more: www.ed.ac.uk/global-agriculture-food-security

16 Feed the world

“Understanding how food choices affect health in the West as well as improving food security for those who are starving is part of the Academy’s ambition.”

Photo: Professor Geoff Simm. Photo by Tricia Malley Ross Gillespie www.broaddaylightltd.co.uk

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A future free of TIA

An estimated 47.5 million people live with dementia worldwide, and by 2050 this figure is set to rise to 135 million*. A progressive disease that currently has no cure, dementia places a huge burden on families, carers and health systems. However, all this could change. Edit meets the inspiring individuals who through their research, study participation and charity work are improving treatment and reducing dementia risk.

* World Alzheimer’s Report 2015 and 2016, Alzheimer’s Disease International.

Photo: Scan showing white matter fibres of the human brain. Alfred Pasieka/Science Photo Library.

18 A future free of dementia

Today, the total estimated annual global cost of dementia is $818 billion, and it will become a trillion-dollar disease by 2018. If dementia care were a country, it would be the world’s 18th largest economy.* These figures make startling reading. But for those who have been affected by dementia, for those who have found it so rudely encroaching on their family life, there is almost always a number that matters more than any other: one. One mother, one father, one spouse, one friend. One mind that is slowly corroded, one personality so cruelly changed. Yet in the face of this devastation, there is a renewed sense of hope. A radical movement aims to change both our perception and management of dementia, so that it is no longer feared as an inevitable condition of older people. Globally, efforts have begun to challenge that long-held view, empowering young people to take control of their brain health and protect it decades before any symptoms appear. By tackling dementia risk in mid-life, and developing new treatments that knock out the earliest signs of disease, the goal is to rid the world of this illness. Here four people who are making a real difference to the way we perceive and manage dementia share their knowledge, experiences and hopes for the future.

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Dementia is a term used to define up over time to see which risk factors a group of conditions that affect thinking have the greatest impact on brain health and behaviour. They usually start in late life and how changes in the biology of the but research is now suggesting that the brain relate to clinical symptoms. diseases that lead to dementia actually In the same way that you would may start in people in mid-life. One of use barometers, thermometers, and the major challenges we face in current hygrometers to measure the weather, dementia research is to approximate we now have advanced technology to what happens inside the brain of people analyse accurately what is going on with the earliest signs of disease many inside the brain. For instance, we use years before symptoms develop. imaging techniques like diffusion tensor Historically, our analysis of the actual imaging to see brain structure in detail. disease has had to take place in people We have worked with neuropsychology who have died but this can only give experts from all over the world to develop us limited information about the improved cognitive testing that allows us disease processes themselves that led to home in on specific areas of the brain, to dementia and, crucially, the timeline like the hippocampus, which is often the of biological events that lead to its first to be affected in dementia. Photo: Craig Ritchie by Callum Bennetts/Maverick Photo Agency development. As we gather all this information, The approach to date for predicting we can start to identify patterns that will Craig Ritchie how biological patterns affect clinical help us predict the disease process in the symptoms has been relatively simplistic. population at large and, ultimately, we Co-Director of the Centre for It can be thought of through an analogy hope to be able to give any individual an Dementia Prevention at the with weather forecasting. Decades ago accurate prediction of their dementia risk, University and lead researcher we tried to predict the weather with only with practical personalised interventions for the European Prevention of limited amounts of information drawing that can reduce it. Alzheimer’s Dementia (EPAD) conclusions from, for example, the We already have hundreds of people project ‘red sky at night’ to try and see patterns enrolled in the PREVENT Dementia that may help us say what will happen project, and recently opened new sites to the weather in the morning. It wasn’t at the Universities of Oxford and until we developed the technology to Cambridge – in fact we have more track and analyse meteorological data volunteers than we are currently funded on a vast, global scale that we were to recruit, which is an amazing testament able to predict future weather patterns to the motivation and generosity of with any accuracy hours, days and people who have in one way or another now even weeks ahead. been impacted by this disease. EPAD We need to approach dementia will have at least 6,000 participants from and the underlying neurodegenerative across Europe by the end of this decade diseases in the same way. By identifying and we plan to begin trials of interventions the earliest patterns of disease which to prevent dementia in that cohort in 2018. predict or ‘forecast’ dementia we hope These projects represent major steps to develop treatments that will knock on this journey, and now we need people these early disease processes down to come along with us. We need “With the right before they go on to cause further volunteers to join our studies, we need investment, problems. This approach has worked donors to support us over the long well with almost every other major, term, and we need governments and scientific expertise chronic disease, and particularly in industry partners to deliver public health cancer, where we have become skilled campaigns so we are all empowered and political will, at diagnosing tumours early and to take control of our brain health. If we eradicating them before they grow can do it for cancer and heart disease, it may well be and spread. there is no reason we can’t do it for Those are the questions that the dementia, and in just the same way, the possible to all but European Prevention of Alzheimer’s rewards could be staggering. With the Dementia (EPAD) and PREVENT right investment, scientific expertise and eradicate dementia Dementia projects, both of which are political will, it may well be possible led from the University, aim to answer. to all but eradicate dementia in our in our children’s Our goal is to gather comprehensive children’s lifetimes. lifetimes.” health, biological and risk factor data from thousands of volunteers in their middle Professor Craig Ritchie age and early old age, and follow them

20 A future free of dementia

Photo: Tractography map of the brain’s white matter using diffusion MRI from a participant of the Lothian Birth Cohort 1936, a group of Lothian-based subjects in their seventies. Age-related white matter hyperintensities, effectively scars on the white matter, are shown as yellow regions. Image courtesy of Dr Mark Bastin, Brain Research Imaging Centre, the University of Edinburgh.

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Adam Waldman Julie Duffus EPAD is different from everything else I’ve heard about in dementia research Chair of Neuroradiology at the First participant recruited to EPAD because the emphasis is on middle age. University We are not yet at the point of being able I got involved in dementia research to predict a person’s risk in advance, and One of the reasons that imaging is so because both of my parents had of giving them advice on how they could valuable is it allows us to look at the dementia. My mum died first, and then reduce it. If we could do that it would brain objectively, in a non-invasive way. my dad a while after. Both of them had change everything. With other diseases, you can biopsy the been involved with research in their Volunteering for the study has been affected tissue, but with the brain, unless lifetimes and I felt that now it was my a wonderful experience. I have found you have a very, very good reason to do turn. I signed up to the Join Dementia it fascinating. Although I have worried so, that may cause more harm than good. Research campaign, who matched me about different elements of the testing – Today’s imaging capability gives with the PREVENT Dementia research I thought I would feel claustrophobic in the us the potential to detect the earliest project in Edinburgh. A few months later MRI scanner, for example – when the time pathological changes that underlie I was contacted by Professor Ritchie came, I didn’t feel uncomfortable at all. dementia. That is important for two who asked if I would be interested in The staff put me at ease and when reasons: firstly, it helps us to diagnose becoming the first participant in Europe you’re taking part in something that you early, which we know is key to tackling to join the EPAD study. I was excited feel is so important, you can’t let nerves any major condition. Secondly, it may by the prospect and felt very happy to get in your way. allow us to distinguish the particular get involved. As it’s a European project, one of the type of dementia, which increases the From my experience of caring for my things I am most interested to find out likelihood of finding the right treatment. parents, I know how dementia manifests is whether there are any geographical We know that the brain changes itself at the end of life, and the issues differences in what the research shows. decades before the symptoms of you face in caring for a loved one with You hear that the Mediterranean lifestyle dementia appear. Evidence now the disease. This isn’t a disease that just is good for your health, so it will be good suggests that as part of the disease affects the individual, it changes your to see if that comes out in the data about cascade, two proteins build up in the family completely. We couldn’t keep dementia risks too. brain – amyloid and tau. Together, these my Dad in his own home because he Through my involvement in EPAD, toxic proteins lead to neurodegeneration kept leaving the house at 5am in his I have become passionate about the and ultimately cell death. pyjamas and being found by the police. need for this research. I know that I There are many important ways of It was just awful, both for him and our would rather get any other disease measuring these brain changes, including family around him. When someone than dementia. We need to fix it, and analysing cerebral-spinal fluid through with dementia dies it is like a double hopefully, with projects like this, we are lumbar punctures and identifying those bereavement because you have already on our way. I hope that my contribution with genetic risk through blood tests. lost the person you love once, robbed will in some way help us to find better But imaging adds an important advantage of their personality by an, as yet, ways of diagnosing the disease and – through PET and MRI scanning we can incurable disease. potentially, one day, to prevent it. see where these proteins are building in the brain, and crucially how this changes over time. We can detect inflammation in brain tissue and measure any shrinkage, all of which are the hallmarks of this condition. And importantly, we can measure brain function, to determine what impact these biological changes have on cognitive ability. In Edinburgh, we have superb imaging facilities as a result of huge investments in this area. It is staggering to see how the field has changed even in the past 10 years, and we are very fortunate to have not only the most advanced scanners, but also the expertise to develop the techniques that put them to greatest effect. We are positioned within an established clinical setting and that critical mass makes it possible to develop fantastic momentum. Edinburgh now has the largest group of neuroimaging experts in the UK and we have tremendous ambition in what we could achieve. Photo: Julie Duffus by Callum Bennetts/Maverick Photo Agency

22 A future free of dementia

Sally Magnusson your friends or workmates because they will treat you differently. Alumna, TV presenter, writer I have read a lot of the research over and founder of dementia charity the years and have seen many exciting Playlist for Life things happening in mice and rats, but unfortunately when they have been rolled Dementia was something I had given out in large, and expensive trials, they very little thought to. Until it comes have not yet worked in human beings. knocking at your own door you are not That’s why I am so supportive of the aware, and may be, in fact, profoundly work going on in Edinburgh right now. ignorant, as I now realise I was. Gradually, By gathering all of this information on over 12 years, it began to engulf my life. what causes the disease in its very My mother was a very lively, smart, earliest stages, and differentiating vivacious, gregarious person and between what could potentially be up watching the symptoms of what turned to thousands of disease strains, there out to be Alzheimer’s and vascular is a possibility that the game could be dementia ravage her was very, very changed for generations to come. painful. It was also a very lonely My mother talked about feeling like Photo: Sally Magnusson, © Playlist for Life experience, which is why I wrote my she was on a long road, getting further book, Where Memories Go: Why and further away from herself. That Dementia Changes Everything, to try feeling of detachment must be just the and talk about this. most frightening and lonely experience “My hope for the Stigma is like some sort of bacteria to have. Music can connect somebody that feeds on silence, it feeds on people to the person they feel themselves to be, future is that you holding it inside and not sharing it, it feeds and it can connect them to the loved on shame. There has been a shame ones who feel they have lost the ability can get a diagnosis attached to dementia because families to talk to them. become wary of a loved one being in I set up the charity Playlist for Life of dementia and company in case they say something to encourage families to offer personally offensive, or do something silly. You’re meaningful music to those they love not feel that your trying to protect them and you’re also with dementia, as a means of helping trying to protect that bit of yourself that to combat that isolation. It’s about life is over.” just wants things to be normal. connecting a person to themselves. Sally Magnusson All these things have conspired to My hope is that every single person keep dementia under the radar, and in the country becomes aware that it remained there even while people personal music can be a powerful were living longer and longer, and the tool that can alter mood for the better, numbers of those affected increased. help cognition and improve memory. By not talking about it, we as a society I want the experience of dementia to be failed to put the social supports in place a happier one. All the evidence suggests that were so badly needed. that access to the soundtrack of their We are much better at that now. We lives can keep bringing people back are talking about it more, governments to themselves for a while, right to the are thinking about it more and we are end of their lives – and no drug can getting a bit better at bringing to families do that yet. and people with dementia the support they need. But there is still a long way to go and we have to work even harder at it, because this is a disease for everyone. There is not going to be a family in the land who will not be affected in one way or another. Nobody will be untouched by this. My hope for the future is that you can get a diagnosis of dementia and not feel that your life is over. That you are able to continue living as full a life as More information: possible, among people who understand www.ed.ac.uk/clinical-brain-sciences what dementia is and what it isn’t. www.centrefordementiaprevention.com That you shouldn’t feel you can’t tell www.playlistforlife.org.uk

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What does liberty look like now?

The Edit opinion piece by Professor Thia Cooper

24 What does liberty look like now?

Edinburgh graduate and Confession: I hate conflict. However, show us how pervasive and persuasive Chair of Latin American in our current society, if I stay quiet, the elite can be. The elite persuade I support the hateful speech and work many of us to vote for them against Studies and Professor of a powerful minority. I refuse to our own interests. We harm ourselves of Religion at Gustavus enable hate. and others. Adolphus College, Professor Marcella Althaus-Reid, We often fail to recognise the former Professor and Chair of Contextual complexity of privilege and oppression. Minnesota, USA, Theology at the University of Edinburgh, As a white woman, I have less privilege Thia Cooper shares taught me to speak up. Because of her than a white man. However, I can her ideas on justice, teaching, I became a liberation theologian access more opportunities than a freedom, privilege and and professor of religion. Today, I black woman. If I advocate for a policy challenge you to speak out against the to help my community, do I ask if it will gender, while recalling injustice you see around you. help people of varying religions, races, Edinburgh educator In order to work towards justice in and sexes, particularly those most Marcella Althaus-Reid. this difficult global climate, we need two excluded? Or will the policy just help things. First, we need to understand the people like me? intersections of privilege and oppression. Marcella focused on the excluded, Second, we need to prioritise those examining the intersections of privilege people who have been most marginalised. and oppression. She, herself, was both I live in Minnesota, USA, two miles privileged and marginalised, depending from a dairy that employs mainly Latina/o on the context. In her native Argentina, workers. However, my tiny township is she experienced periods of poverty and predominantly white. Somali and Latina/o rejection from theological study as a migrants to the area face regular abuse, woman. She worked with the homeless, though the earlier Scandinavian migrants the poor and those considered to came to escape marginalisation beoutside the norms of society. Her elsewhere. We tend to notice when we education gave her privilege, yet, she are being oppressed, but fail to notice was still chased out of churches for when we have gained privilege and her ‘radical theology’. On the other others are oppressed. hand, she was celebrated for her work, As a liberation theologian, I argue becoming the first female Chair in religion should free people, not oppress Theology at the University of Edinburgh them. Yet, here I live, in a town, a country, and only the second in Scotland. which is racist, sexist, heterosexist, However, this chair was only installed in and classist. Racism, sexism, classism, 2006, embarrassingly recently. religionism, nationalism, and other ‘isms’ Marcella’s intersectionality of extend far beyond the US borders. privilege and oppression is common Recent elections in European countries to under-represented groups more

Photos by Getty/José Miguel Hernández Hernández and iStock/schus

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broadly. Under-represented scholars face marginalisation regularly. If they manage to get hired, it is often to teach a so-called niche subject, rather than a traditional or core subject. For example, the label of contextual theology is given to black, feminist and other theologies. Yet, all theology is contextual. We just don’t label ‘white male European theology’. This labelling is true in other fields too. Race, gender, and so forth, are add-ons or niches to a ‘core’. We tend to use these labels for people as well. Any other than a white heterosexual able-bodied Christian male is outside the norm, and thus labelled disabled, black, gay, and so forth. I work as the Faculty Associate for Diversity at Gustavus, aiming to fully include under-represented people on our campus. Many of our under-represented colleagues are tolerated – but not included. By inclusion, I mean two things. First, there will be more than one token woman or person of colour in our sphere. Second, inclusion means our communities will change, which we tend to forget. We tend to be welcoming as long as the person joining will be ‘like us’. Yet, the ‘us’ is often a small homogeneous group with privilege. Portrait of Marcela Althaus-Reid by acclaimed Scottish artist David Martin, Liberation theologians look for who graduated from the University of Edinburgh in 2000 with an MA in Fine Art. the elephant in the room. Who are we The painting hangs in Rainy Hall, New College. sidelining? What perspectives are we ignoring? Marcella asked how race, class, sex and sexuality affected each other. She worked in poor communities with eyes wide open to see who people are, which led her to queer theology. Queer theology includes queering theology itself. Her two books, Indecent Theology and The Queer God asked who God is, beginning with the excluded: poor, sexually active and queer. Queer is anyone considered outside the norm, whatever the norm may be. Her queering of theology included working against theology’s capitalist economic assumptions and its heterosexual assumptions. She articulated “Education can empower people of all a theology that would include people rather than exclude them. races, classes and sexes to work towards Teaching was also critical to her just structures. However, education can activism. Education can empower people of all races, classes and sexes to work also disempower people.”

26 What does liberty look like now?

“We tend to notice when we are being oppressed, but fail to notice when we have gained privilege and others are oppressed.”

About Marcella Althaus-Reid towards just structures. However, education The first question asked by liberationists Marcella Althaus-Reid joined the can also disempower people. If I teach is always ‘who is being marginalised School of Divinity staff in 2006. about the traditions of old white European and how?’. She remained in post until her death men, excluding other knowledge, I am The elite have used theology to in 2009, aged 52. After working disempowering. If I teach facts rather exclude others but theology can also with the most marginalised people than teaching students to ask questions, liberate and include. This is true of any in Argentina, Marcella moved to I am disempowering. If I fail to teach at field or subject. Our work either includes Scotland and worked with the poorest the intersections, I am disempowering. or excludes others. We all need to know groups in and around Perth, Dundee Unfortunately, education is still a privilege who is marginalised, how we marginalise and Edinburgh. She taught at New rather than a right. As learners we need them, and how we can work to fully College, carried out her research to take privilege seriously; our learning include every human being. and played a vibrant role on the can either educate us towards justice or Look around at your work colleagues, international conference circuit. work against it. at the people you interact with in your She attracted great crowds of I teach in religion and direct the community. How many varying religions, academics and students, whenever Latin American Studies programme at abilities, races, sexes and genders she spoke, and even had a fan-base a small liberal arts college, aiming to are represented? How could you who wore T-shirts emblazoned with empower undergraduates to be active work towards inclusion? How are you a photograph of her own smiling citizens. After numerous conversations currently excluding others? face, and key messages from her with my mostly Christian students about If we want to work towards justice, conference talks. sex and religion, I realised students had we need to ask how our own fields no tools for developing a sexual ethic. perpetuate injustice and whether our All these students heard was ‘no sex fields can work towards justice. This before marriage’, in their Christian context. question leads us to broader research Christianity appeared to say nothing and action than our degrees taught us regarding healthy sexual relationships. to expect. We need to ask two questions: At the same time, I saw a divide between 1. What did we learn? the white students and the students of 2. What was excluded from our learning? colour. While my students shared many Each of us, whatever our field of work, experiences, the students of colour can either perpetuate injustice, or we can were aware of white privilege while the work towards justice. Which path will white students did not understand their you choose? privilege. Again, Christianity seemed to say nothing about white privilege. In response to my students’ needs, I developed a class called Sex, Race, Money, God and wrote a book Liberating Sex. These themes differ from my original Thia Cooper undertook her Master of Theology at Edinburgh’s New College in 1999 area of research into Latin American and completed her PhD in 2005, under Professor Althaus-Reid. Professor Cooper’s liberation theology and my first book, background lies in development studies as well as theology, and she teaches and Controversies in Political Theology. This researches across a broad range of areas at Gustavus Adolphus College, Minnesota. was an unexpected change of subject, She regularly presents scholarly papers in the US and UK and is published by SCM but it was what my students needed. Press and Palgrave MacMillan the UK and Fortress Press in the US.

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28 The power of nature The POWER of NATURE

Edinburgh research into youth crime and justice, led by alumna Professor Lesley McAra, has resulted in major changes within criminal justice systems both at home and overseas. The number of older teenagers currently incarcerated in Scotland is the lowest since records began. Fellow alumnus Jamie Feilden has formulated social-justice interventions that rescue young people from the criminal justice system through a transformative rural experience. Edit uncovers what drives them and how their efforts are changing lives.

Lesley McAra, Assistant Principal for young people who come from Community Relations at Edinburgh, backgrounds blighted by poverty, in says she is “a proud alumna of the terms of who is excluded from school; University”. As an academic, she who is charged by the police; who always aims to conduct her research ends up on social work supervision; “with, in and for the community” and and who is imprisoned,” she continues. to use research evidence to promote “We also discovered that social- and campaign for positive social and justice interventions – those focused political change. on education, health, housing and This spirit of producing socially community – will in practice be more useful research brought her to effective in reducing youth crime than undertake the co-directorship of a any ‘short, sharp, shock’ initiative research programme almost 20 years could ever be.” ago that has uncovered life-changing Initially the findings have been findings. The Edinburgh Study of Youth challenging for both policy-makers and Transitions and Crime, established with youth justice practitioners, and the study Edinburgh colleagues David J Smith team has had to work extremely hard and Susan McVie, is a longitudinal to persuade politicians of the need for programme tracking the lives of 4,300 reform. Lesley and her colleagues have young people who started secondary found ingenious routes to getting these school in Edinburgh in 1998. messages across. “To date our findings show how “In addition to the production widespread offending is during the of more than 200 papers and teenage years – around 96 per cent of presentations, we have used less our cohort admitted to being involved traditional means of reaching a wider in offending,” reveals Professor McAra, set of publics, including performing who is also Chair of Penology at Edinburgh Fringe shows such as Hug a Edinburgh Law School. Thug which told the stories of prisoners “Our study also highlights major and victims through poetry and song,” biases in decision-making against she explains. “I’ve also worked with

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storytellers from the Edinburgh-based approach to the problem of youth started out small, and more than a Scottish Storytelling Centre, to narrate exclusion, which he experienced little homespun. “In the early days it the life histories of cohort members first hand working as a secondary was all pretty rough and ready with kids (suitably anonymised) and used drama schoolteacher in Croydon, following sleeping on the floor on my mother’s with community groups to explore the graduation from Edinburgh in 2003. living room of our family’s farm, but it powerful impact of crime and justice Witnessing challenging behaviour in was clear from the beginning that it issues on people’s lives and wellbeing.” his secondary school environment, worked,” Jamie tells us. As a result of these efforts, the study he also – personally – took on the During the week-long visits to has formed the evidence-base for idea of social-justice intervention. the farm, disadvantaged young people recent changes to Scottish youth justice Jamie’s own upbringing had been – typically between the ages of 10 and policy, focusing on early and effective in a rural setting and he began to 16 – are involved with all aspects of intervention and diversion, via a ‘whole believe that there was a connection agricultural life as part of the Jamie’s system approach’. These changes have between bad behaviour in classes, Farm community; mobile phones brought about major reductions in the low self-esteem of his pupils and a and sugary snacks are replaced with numbers of young people caught up in lack of access to the countryside. wellingtons, overalls and nutritious the justice system in Scotland, reducing “I came up with the idea for home-cooked food. In a single day, the number of older teenagers who end Jamie’s Farm because I thought that a young person may feed and muck up in prison to the lowest figures since taking the most vulnerable students out pigs before breakfast, chop some records began. Findings have also to a rural setting could affect some of logs in their morning session, harvest been used with major success by Apex their challenges,” Jamie explains. vegetables and prepare dinner in Scotland, a not-for-profit organisation Jamie’s Farm, the organisation their afternoon session, go on a daily that works with former offenders, as well that he now runs with a small team of walk after tea and then deliver a lamb as penal reform groups internationally, therapists and farmers, offers young after dinner. to underpin interventions to reduce people on the margins of society a Alongside these jobs, the team school exclusion. one-week residential experience that have designed a flexible programme of Elsewhere in the UK, fellow alumnus combines farming, family and therapy. therapeutic sessions in order to support Jamie Feilden has taken a parallel The now burgeoning charity the young people to vocalise rather than

Photo: Jamie with students on the farm.

30 The power of nature

act out challenges they face in their problems in adult life from relationships home lives. There is also an expansive to employability. follow-up programme to ensure that In England, 99 per cent of young the impact created during the week people who are permanently excluded lasts. This means engaging schools, leave school without the necessary teachers and families in supporting qualifications needed to access the the young person to flourish, beyond workplace. Furthermore, children who their farm experience. have been temporarily or permanently “In the first ever visit in 2006 we excluded go on to make up the majority saw that the combination of farming, of the prison population. It is estimated family and therapy could have a that if just one in 10 of these young transformational effect on children’s people who are sentenced to go to behaviour and engagement,” says prison could be turned around before Jamie. “Seeing those first groups getting to this stage, public services of children leave the farm a foot taller would save an estimated £100 million and taking more responsibility for annually. themselves and their behaviour made As well as the rewards social-justice me think this could work.” interventions have for wider society, As with any new venture things Jamie is adamant that they bring didn’t always run smoothly, and there personal rewards too. “We have these were times when it looked as if the great moments where we make charity might not find a home. However, breakthroughs with really challenging Jamie was able to borrow money kids. Those early days where we all from “amazing people” and purchase pulled together and delivered a fantastic a permanent farm in 2010, which experience for kids who had never left now forms the charity’s headquarters. the city were really powerful. I remember “For me, buying the first farm was driving along in a beaten up old truck a big achievement,” says Jamie. with kids singing along to Paul Simon “We managed to borrow £1.5 million and thinking ‘this is the best job in on a turnover of less than £100,000. the world!’” Engaging so many great supporters Jamie’s Farm is seeing promising in this process was really exciting. results. In the academic year 2015/16, Now I’m excited by the fact that we’re 82 per cent of the young people referred going from one farm to four, 450 children there for being at risk of exclusion, are per year to 1,800, and keeping the no longer in this category six weeks on. amazing Jamie’s Farm culture alive. In the next three years the charity I have great colleagues and it is a hopes to expand to four farms, in Bath, privilege to do this work.” Hereford, Monmouth and Lewes, as well as establish a new kind of children’s home. These beautiful places have “Seeing those first groups of children the potential to transform the lives of children from across the country. leave the farm a foot taller and taking Jamie’s hope is that these farms will be the incubator for exciting and innovative more responsibility for themselves ways to support young people. and their behaviour made me think For Lesley McAra, the University community of alumni and friends this could work.” can function as a force for positive In the school year 2015/2016 the societal transformation. For Lesley farm’s reporting showed that 15 per cent personally, this means putting academic of the referred children were looked after, research and teaching in the service 56 per cent claimed free school meals, of the community – at home and 45 per cent were Black, Asian and internationally: “In my current role as minority ethnic, and 57 per cent were Assistant Principal, I have become aware not on track in core subjects at school. of the wonderful work of our students, All these groups have been identified by our staff and our alumni which is of the UK’s Department for Education as at direct benefit to the community. I hope risk of under attaining academically or others feel inspired to share their stories More information: being excluded from school. Combined of impact or to become more involved. www.jamiesfarm.org.uk with a lack of opportunities to develop Together we can make a difference.” www.esytc.ed.ac.uk soft skills, this leads to a range of 31 www.ed.ac.uk/edit-magazine | Summer 2017

Photos: The development stages of the pod by the HypED team.

Believe the hype

Photo: Elon Elon Musk delivering Musk adelivering speech at the SpaceX a speech Hyperloop at Pod the Competition SpaceX in California,Pod Competition USA. in California in January.

32 Believe the hype

Imagine a world where you can travel the length of the UK in less than an hour, gliding at the speed of sound through a seamless network of tubes. This is the vision of a team of talented Edinburgh students who have reached the final stages of not one but two international competitions to develop a new mode of transport called Hyperloop. Adam Anyszewski, 4th-year Engineering student and president of HypED, tells the story of the team’s inspiring journey so far.

Picture this: it’s 2035, you’re living in Edinburgh and have a meeting in London at 9am. You head to Waverley Station to catch the 8am Hyperloop; where you will sit in a capsule which will move at 750mph through a near- vacuum tube, getting you to Kings Cross for 8.30am. Thirty minutes to spare. That’s how we at HypED see the future. And this dream of transforming transportation is now starting to become a reality. Our journey began more than four years ago, when Elon Musk, world-renowned inventor and Chief Executive Officer of Tesla and SpaceX, published a 57-page white paper entitled Hyperloop Alpha aimed at ‘revolutionising terrestrial transportation’. For Musk, who came up with the idea while stuck in a traffic jam on his way to work one day, Hyperloop is the future. It combines aspects of the four traditional modes of transport but goes above and beyond. The Hyperloop system comprises three main components: tube, pods and stations. The tube’s near-vacuum environment allows the pod to travel with very little resistance. Once the pod enters the tube at a station, it is initially accelerated by linear induction motors, but for the most part of the journey it is coasting on passive magnetic levitation, hence power consumption is brought down to minimum. Even at the braking phase there is no physical friction as the pod slows down by utilising eddy currents. Our team’s proposed route will connect the most densely populated areas across the United Kingdom: Edinburgh, Manchester, Birmingham

33 www.ed.ac.uk/edit-magazine | Summer 2017

and London. One pod will carry up to 28 passengers and pods will be able to depart from stations as often as every 30 seconds on the same route. The steel tubes will be built in pairs for both directions of travel and will likely be suspended at a few metres’ height by concrete pylons. Nevertheless, the possibility of fully or partly underground tubes is also being considered. As soon as Musk released his Hyperloop Alpha paper, discussions and debates began. He decided that neither SpaceX nor Tesla would work on the development and instead made it an open concept for people to develop. Two years later, in June 2015, SpaceX announced a competition for both university and commercial teams to play a part in the development of Hyperloop, HypED product design workshop. Photo by Federica Mentasti. allowing the teams the chance to present their ideas and try them out on a custom-built test track, approximately one mile in length with a six-foot outer diameter, in California. Hyperloop was no longer a fantasy but a real possibility. Immediately after the announcement, engineering students, including myself, at the University of Edinburgh got excited. A group of us got together and soon enough the HypED team was born, giving us an opportunity to create this incredible next mode of transport. Despite being a group of just over 20 students we sensed that we needed to be more interdisciplinary. Hyperloop was more than a technical idea, it was also about passenger experience and looking at government objectives for the future of green transport. Seven students Photo: The full HypED team. from Edinburgh College of Art came on board to create a comfortable and enjoyable passenger experience. Everything from how a passenger would get into the pod and the design of the interior, to chair shape and temperature control was considered. Our team, which had now grown to 30 students, submitted our proposal to SpaceX in October 2015. Of the 1,200 teams from around the world that submitted a preliminary design brief to SpaceX, just 120 were accepted and invited to a Design Weekend in Texas in January 2016. HypED was one of them. Autumn flew by quickly and work continued right through Christmas, and early in the new year 20 members of HypED were flying out to Texas.

The Hyperloop One test track. Photo courtesy of Hyperloop One.

34 Believe the hype

The Design Weekend was to be a and law. This collaboration of students Professors Gordon Masterton and stepping-stone to the final competition in allowed all angles of the Hyperloop Win Rampen at the University. August 2016 in California. We submitted problem to be looked at in close detail. Emails were constantly checked our 50-page proposal and gave two We started to spread the word for a response about our presentation presentations: on the general idea about HypED’s endeavours. The team and SpaceX’s website was kept under and modularity. Our presentation on decided to run a marketing campaign a close watch for updates, and after modularity and passenger experience in October 2016, getting people from what felt like the longest fortnight in saw HypED awarded a Subsystem across Edinburgh photographed holding existence, the answer we’d been hoping Technical Excellence Award, one of only huge tickets for our proposed Edinburgh for came through – our team, along with 13 special awards, and a $1,000 donation to London Hyperloop. We made links 24 other teams, had been invited out to from the Texas IAM (International with government officials and transport California on 25 to 27 August. Association of Machinists & Aerospace experts to look at the many different HypED is the only British team Workers). Despite this incredible problems that would be solved if the (one of four European teams) in experience, which helped the team to route were to be implemented into the the final of one of the most prestigious develop its technical, presentation and UK. Our hard work led us to be invited and inspiring engineering competitions sales skills and grow great friendships to Amsterdam to present our route in in the world. Everyone in the team is along the way, HypED did not get the semi-finals of the competition in now busy with final preparations to through to the next stage in California June 2017. showcase the pod prototype, proudly at this point. Things did not quieten down for named Poddy McPodface, to SpaceX Back on Scottish soil, we regrouped HypED’s technical team either. SpaceX in California, and our Edinburgh to as a team and decided that we shouldn’t announced that they were going to run London route feasibility to Hyperloop give up. Rather, we had to go bigger! the Hyperloop Pod Competition again. One in Amsterdam. We had to ensure that if anyone spoke Realising the scope and opportunities HypEd is a group of young students about Hyperloop in the UK that it all that the competition brought and having focused on the bigger picture of traced back to HypED and the University learnt from the previous year’s mistakes, Hyperloop and our commitment is of Edinburgh. For HypED to achieve this HypED started looking for sponsors demonstrated by our unique choice we needed structure, funding and to and we were lucky enough to secure to develop cases in both the technical be recognised as an official University a deal with Cirrus Logic, who donated and commercial competitions. We are society – allowing us to gain strong £12,000 to the project. This was game millennials aiming to make a real support from the University. changing and would allow us to develop impact on a future technology that Soon enough, another company a prototype of the pod. we want to implement right here in called Hyperloop One announced The work did not stop and HypED the UK and across the globe. We are a new competition – the Hyperloop took precedence over everything. united under one dream solution – One Global Challenge – allowing teams By February 2017, we had a 120-page a world where people and countries to present the most feasible place for proposal ready for SpaceX. The proposal are more connected. Four years of the world’s first Hyperloop. This was was accepted and on 16 March the hard work is starting to pay off and HypED’s chance to get our dream route team gave a presentation via Skype, we’re still HypED! of Edinburgh to London on the map. after which we waited eagerly for The team grew to 50 students from feedback. HypED at this point had various disciplines across the University, gathered up a lot of momentum and including engineering, business, art were grateful to receive support from “HypED is the only British team in the final of one of the most prestigious and inspiring engineering competitions in the world.”

For the latest developments, visit www.facebook.com/hypedinburgh If you’d like to get in touch, email [email protected]

HypED pod designs. Photo by Federica Mentasti.

35 www.ed.ac.uk/edit-magazine | Summer 2017

Photo by iStock/mathisworks

36 A lasting legacy

A lasting legacy

During his 15 years as benefit from an international experience, Such experiences can give students whether through internships, research, the resilience, cultural sensitivity, Principal Professor Sir summer schools or exchange language skills and drive to become Timothy O’Shea has programmes. truly global citizens. Good grades don’t always guarantee Research from the British Council championed widening a place at University. That’s why Edinburgh and Association of Graduate Recruiters access to universities. is dedicated to supporting bright students shows that employers prioritise the from low-income backgrounds through ability to work collaboratively with As he prepares to step building on its already comprehensive people from diverse backgrounds in down, a scholarship scholarships programme. young graduates. Gaining these skills initiative named in his For medical student Robbie Miller, while studying for a degree is not only a being awarded a scholarship to study rewarding personal experience but also honour will continue his at Edinburgh set him on a path towards a chance to improve career prospects. work by giving students a bright future. Vali Constantin, Public Health “Medicine was something I liked scholar, is one of many Edinburgh the opportunity to excel and thought I would enjoy a career in,” students who have spent time abroad. regardless of their says Robbie. “I’m planning on becoming “I have now worked with a charity a GP. The medicine programme itself called Ashinaga twice,” explains Vali. circumstances. Edit finds has been a highlight. I’m definitely lucky “The first year I worked in Japan as a out more about the in that aspect. At university there’s a lot member of their student support team of very diverse people and you always and I reapplied a year later to work O’Shea Global Scholars make good friends. I think only one third on the same programme in Senegal. Initiative and how it is of the people on my course are Scottish!” Ashinaga helps orphans and other widening access to an He continues: “Without the scholarship financially disadvantaged students I wouldn’t have come to university. get to university through providing Edinburgh education. It wouldn’t have been feasible for me. them with loans.” It’s a significant thing that will have Vali continues: “I feel the internships Professor O’Shea has had many repercussions for me, my family and have been essential to make that successes and achievements over the future generations. It’s a ripple effect. connection between what I do in my years, and the University has benefited A direct way you can impact and degree and how it is applied in the enormously from his leadership. He has change a life.” wider world. The internship was hard secured the implementation of changes As well as increasing support for work and a lot of pressure, but such a that have had a profound and life-changing students to get in to university, Professor life-changing and interesting challenge effect on many of the students who O’Shea has also been a strong believer and the best thing I’ve ever done.” study here. in the benefits of enhancing studies with With the introduction of the An example of this is the expansion an international educational experience. O’Shea Global Scholars Initiative, of financial support to help attract The Principal’s Go Abroad Fund is future generations of students will be the very best students to Edinburgh, already supporting students in setting able to benefit from the University’s regardless of their background. off on a dream adventure. In 2016, commitment to social and economic The O’Shea Global Scholars Initiative 287 students travelled to 73 countries mobility. It’s a fitting legacy for a will further Professor O’Shea’s work on six continents to enjoy a six-to-eight- principal whose devotion to Edinburgh’s by increasing local and global access week educational experience. student population has been so clear to an Edinburgh education, as well With additional support available during his time at the University. as opportunities to develop a global through the O’Shea Global Scholars perspective once here. Initiative, even more students will Through the initiative students be able to spend time abroad during More information: will be offered scholarships to study their programme and gain a deeper www.ed.ac.uk/alumni/services/ on campus, take online courses and understanding of the wider world. givingback

37 www.ed.ac.uk/edit-magazine | Summer 2017

Photo by iStock/ibukki88

38 Snapshot

After the end of World War Two, Henry Harvey Wood, Head of the British Council in Scotland, Sidney Snapshot Newman, Reid Professor of Music at the University, and alumnus Lord Provost Sir John Falconer, embarked As summer 2017 marks 70 years of the on a mission to bring a visionary Edinburgh International Festival, this view of cultural event to Scotland’s capital. In 1947 the Edinburgh International the city at dusk is a reminder of how magical Festival was founded as ‘a platform Edinburgh is at this time of year. for the flowering of the human spirit’, with the Edinburgh Festival Fringe and Edinburgh International Film Festival launching the same year. Today, these festivals offer an unparalleled celebration of arts, comedy and entertainment and bring together performers and visitors from around the world. www.ed.ac.uk/festivals

39 www.ed.ac.uk/edit-magazine | Summer 2017 What you did next

Here we explore the interesting locations and careers that our alumni have found themselves in.

If you’d like to share your experiences, we’d love to hear from you at www.ed.ac.uk/

alumni/yournews Photo by Todor Krastev. Svetoslav Todorov

Bachelor of Music (2015)

After studying at both the Dobris Hristov National Music Academy – Varna and Pancho Vladigerov National Academy of Music in Bulgaria, I chose to come to Edinburgh after discovering that it is one of the top universities in the world. I met lovely teachers, made wonderful friendships and enjoyed the beauty of the city. One of my precious memories is when I was invited to perform on the piano for HRH The Princess Royal at the Palace of Holyroodhouse, Edinburgh – an unbelievable experience. After finishing my degree, I continued on to postgraduate study at the Royal College of Music (RCM) in London and I will be graduating from there this summer. My time at RCM was very exciting and busy with performances in concert venues across Europe such as the Royal Festival Hall at the Southbank Centre in London, the Bulgarian Embassy and others. I also went to the Manhattan School of Music in New York City, where I represented the RCM for a semester gaining some valuable experience. In 2015, I was awarded first prize at the Kyushu International Bach Music Competition in Japan. In addition, in June last year I released my debut video ‘The Kapustin Project’, which I dedicated to the Queen’s 90th Birthday, combining my improvisation on ‘God Save the Queen’ with Nikolai Kapustin’s ‘Pastoral Etude’ and adding bass and drum sections to it. My idea is to keep releasing interesting videos and keep inspiring more and more people through my music. In February 2017, I gave a solo recital at the Royal Albert Hall on Elton John’s red grand piano, which was sold out two weeks before the event. Looking ahead to 2018, I am going back to New York to perform my debut concert at the prestigious Carnegie Hall. Exciting times!

40 What you didProfile next

Safieh Shah Viv Cree

MSc Public Health Research (2010) Diploma in Social Work/CQSW (1981); PhD in Social Work (1992) When I was in my third year at Baqai Medical University in Pakistan, I was invited to study an elective at the University Like many staff members, I am also a graduate of the of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. It was there I fell in love University of Edinburgh – twice over! After graduating with with medical science and research, and found out that the an MA from the University of St Andrews in 1975, I trained University of Pennsylvania medical school was modelled after as a youth and community worker in Glasgow and worked Edinburgh’s. When I completed medical school I decided in Fraserburgh in Aberdeenshire for two years before coming to apply for my masters in Public Health Research here. to Edinburgh in 1978 to work for Lothian Regional Council Coming from a background where medicine is not as a youth worker in Muirhouse council housing estate. systematically taught as a science, I resolved to take In 1980, I began the postgraduate Diploma in Social the opportunity to take as many research methodology Work/CQSW at Edinburgh. After graduating, I returned to classes during my masters as I could to glean a holistic Muirhouse for another year before joining Family Care, a understanding of the multitude of ways research can be then-prominent third sector children and families’ agency. employed to inform change at different levels. I returned to the University to undertake a PhD in Social Since I completed my masters degree, I have committed Work, which I completed in 1992, the same year I started myself to operating on the frontlines of many of the world’s work as a lecturer. My PhD was a history of Family Care. most pressing health concerns. From setting up databases It allowed me to pursue three loves in my life – sociology, to tracking the global Ebola epidemic to helping research- history and hearing people’s stories. based advocacy against sexual violence in India, to helping Since then, I have written and researched extensively on manage the influx of refugees in Greece, I have been able to social work, higher education and doing research with children. apply the confidence and compassion I learnt at Edinburgh I was awarded a Personal Chair in Social Work in 2005. to each of these global issues. As a long-standing staff member, I have lived and worked As an activist in Pakistan, I feel it’s important to take into through what has felt, at times, like almost constant change – account that effective public health measures can have feminism; anti-discriminatory practice; and the ever-growing profound social and political changes, which is how I decide reach of neo-liberalism in the academy. The constant throughout what to focus my work on. In May this year I was the editorial this time has been the students – every new generation is lead for the Médecins Sans Frontières Scientific Day – keen to change society and help those most in need. South Asia. My vision is to empower regions to foster their own identity via the decolonisation of their health agenda. In 2017/2018, Social Work at the University at Edinburgh will celebrate its centenary with a number of events and activities, research projects, seminars, conferences and exhibitions. www.socialwork.ed.ac.uk/centenary

41 www.ed.ac.uk/edit-magazine | Summer 2017 THREE SISTERS, THREE QUEENS PHILIPPA GREGORY

The latest historical novel from this prolific author tells the stories of three close friends – Margaret Tudor, Mary Tudor and Katherine of Aragon, who became the queens of England, The University’s Scotland and France. A story of envy, loss mission is to and sisterhood. ‘discover, develop and share knowledge’. Edit highlights a few of our alumni authors doing just that.

To contribute to our online bookshelf, visit www.ed.ac.uk/alumni/services/news/ alumni-bookshelf

EINSTEIN & TWENTIETH-CENTURY POLITICS RICHARD CROCKATT

This is the first comprehensive study of Albert Einstein’s politics, covering his opinions and campaigns on pacifism, Zionism, control of nuclear weapons, world government, freedom and racial equality. Here he is viewed alongside a selection of global intellectuals, including Gandhi, H G Wells and Thomas Mann. BOOKSHELF

Photo by iStock/walwal08

42 Bookshelf UMBRELLAS OF EDINBURGH THE FRACTURED LIFE OF JIMMY DICE RUSSELL JONES AND CLARE ASKEW RONAN RYAN

A selection of contemporary poetry and prose Losing his twin at birth, surviving a dog attack, inspired by Scotland’s capital. Including works by being chased by gangsters… Jimmy overcomes more than 70 writers and spanning 200 pages, the one challenge after another in this story of growing collection explores both the famous landmarks up and falling in love in Ireland. and hidden gems of Edinburgh.

FANTASTIC BEASTS THE BERTIE PROJECT AND WHERE TO ALEXANDER McCALL FIND THEM SMITH J K ROWLING The 11th book in the First released in 2001, series about the lives of and the inspiration for a the eccentric city dwellers movie blockbuster, this of a nook of Edinburgh’s updated 2017 edition is New Town. This latest an essential companion instalment about to the Harry Potter 44 Scotland Street sees stories. It offers a new Bertie trying to escape foreword by the author his overbearing mother. and the introduction of six new beasts.

PORTAITS OF VIOLENCE RATHER BE THE DEVIL SEAN MICHAEL WILSON (ET AL) IAN RANKIN

Bringing together established academics and In the 21st instalment in the Inspector award-winning comic book writers and illustrators, Rebus series, the death of Maria Turquand, Portraits of Violence illustrates the most compelling murdered in her hotel room 40 years ago, ideas and episodes in the critique of violence. remains unsolved. Meanwhile, Edinburgh’s Michel Foucault, Susan Sontag, Noam Chomsky underworld has a new king, but will ‘Big and Judith Butler are among those who tell their Ger’ Cafferty reclaim his throne in this tale story in this innovative graphic title. of corruption and rivalry?

43 www.ed.ac.uk/edit-magazine | Summer 2017

At almost 440 years old, the University of Edinburgh Library is one of the oldest libraries in Scotland. As we approach the 50th anniversary of the opening of the Main Library on George Square, we share some of our alumni’s fond memories of the iconic 1960s Basil Spence building.

Ian Rankin English Language & Literature, MA (1982)

I arrived at the University of Edinburgh in October 1978 to study English Language

Photo by Hamish Brown. & Literature. As the first member of my family to go on to further education, I was ill-prepared. The city seemed huge and intimidating – the University only slightly less so! The workload was huge and I was studying one subject (philosophy), which was brand new to me and utterly bewildering. The University Main Library on George Square quickly became my HQ. I would see fellow students from my course there, and discuss topics and problems with them in the subterranean café. I would sit with a group of ex-pupils from my old high school at desks on the first or second floor and (between studying) make plans for extra-curricular activities. I would hear about bands being started, magazines looking for submissions, opportunities for new playwrights. The whole building was a meeting place Stephanie Gibson (née Kelly) and creative cauldron. And it was lovely French & German & European Union Studies, not having to spend all my first term’s MA Hons (2013) grant on textbooks. Later on, when I became more serious The University Main Library was my in my studies, I moved to the upper, quieter go-to place for studying throughout my floors, ending at one of the prized carrels time in Edinburgh. on the fifth or sixth floor. I could sit there In my final year, I started considering in splendid isolation to write my essays, librarianship as a career and, luckily for poems and short stories. Back on the me, a volunteer post came up in the Centre ground floor, the librarians were ready for Research Collections in the University’s to help me find obscure texts, even if it Library. I got to work with some amazing meant borrowing them from overseas pieces from the collection, and got an institutions. Oh, and there was a fairly insight into the lives of former students rudimentary photocopier on one of the while looking through old records. floors too. It was where I painstakingly I am now Information Literacy copied my first novel, one sheet at a time. Coordinator at the University of Essex Landmark University Main Library, Library, Main University George Square I always enjoy revisiting the building, library, and am finishing an MSc in remembering those far-off days and Library & Information Studies. I can hopeful that another generation of safely say that without the University novelists, poets, musicians, actors and Library, I wouldn’t be where I am today. artists is somewhere hard at work.

44 Landmark

Photo: The University Main Library in the 1960s, © University of Edinburgh. For the record

As part of the 50th anniversary celebrations, the Centre for Research Collections is building Photo by Peter Hickson. Peter by Photo up its archive collection to tell the Joanne Bell Ella Hickson story of the Main Library. We are particularly interested in material English Literature, MA Hons (2005); History of Art & English Literature, from the years 1980 to 2000, Secondary Education, PGDE (2013) MA Hons (2008); Creative Writing, MSc (2010) including photographs of people I remember always going to the library The University Main Library was always and places at the University; early to get a spot by the window where a very happy place. It was always a mad diaries and correspondence of I could watch the sun or snow on the dash to the bookshelves at essay time people while at Edinburgh; records Meadows. When exams were coming to grab the right books before someone of student societies; items about up I’d stay all day, with my Discman and else did. Then there were the hours spent events such as posters, tickets, a stack of CDs helping me concentrate. in the University café eating paninis and leaflets; certificates and awards; The mood was always thoughtful. snack bars while avoiding work. and lecture notes. When I first went to look at the English My best memories were the late literature collection the number of books night sessions. We would sit in hoodies If you have material you would seemed wonderful – I went home with and track-suit bottoms watching the like to gift to the University my arms full. clock tick up to midnight, passing funny for this appeal, please email notes and trying to laugh as silently Rachel Hosker, Archives Manager as possible so as not to get told off. at [email protected] Around essay and exam time there was, of course, lots of actual work to be done – but those memories are definitely second to the good times spent with great friends having a bit of a giggle.

45 www.ed.ac.uk/edit-magazine | Summer 2017

Photo: McEwan Hall by Neil Hanna.

General Council update

Convener’s comments In the diary

A highlight of the last few months was undoubtedly the The General Council Half-Yearly Meeting took place on very well attended Half-Yearly Meeting held on 18 February. Saturday 10 June 2017 at the Queen Margaret Research Institute, The last Annual Report from the Principal, Professor Sir Little France. Looking ahead, here is a note of key events and Timothy O’Shea, was masterful. Full of facts regarding our dates for the coming months. very successful University and delivered with nice touches Elections of humour. The Presiding Officer of the Scottish Parliament Election for five members of the Business Committee will be informed and entertained us after lunch. in February 2018. All General Council members are eligible to The Business Committee agenda has been heavily focused stand. Further information and nomination forms are available on the consequences of the implementation of the Higher from the General Council Office or website. Nominations should Education Governance (Scotland) Act 2016 and the development be received in the General Council Office by 22 November 2017. of the Revised Code of Good Higher Education Governance. February Half-Yearly Meeting Our standing sub-committees continue to explore a variety of Saturday 24 February 2018, Edinburgh Centre for Carbon topics with senior members of University staff. Recent subjects Innovation, High School Yards, Edinburgh, followed by lunch include global engagement, transport policy, the University’s in the Playfair Library Hall. relationship with the Edinburgh Consular Corps and high-performance computing. Notice for Motions for the Half-Yearly Meeting Motions should be received in the General Council Office by Stuart Macpherson 22 November 2017. Convener of the Business Committee of the General Council. Further information can be found online at: www.general-council.ed.ac.uk/whats-happening About us Much more information about the General Council and its work can be found on our website. News and meeting papers are in Billet, which is once again a separate publication. This has been emailed out and is also available on the Publicationssection of our website. Remember, all graduates of the University are members of the General Council. www.general-council.ed.ac.uk

46 150 years of engineering excellence

The University has taught engineers since 1673, and in 1868 the discipline was formally recognised with the creation of the Regius Chair of Engineering.

To celebrate 150 years of innovation and invention, the School of Engineering will host a programme of events and activities next year, including an alumni weekend 5–6 October 2018.

More information: www.eng.ed.ac.uk/engineering150

This illustration shows Salter’s duck, or the Edinburgh duck – a device for converting wave power into electricity. Invented at the University in 1974 by Professor Stephen Salter, it was one of the earliest prototype wave power devices. Illustration by Katy Wiedemann, MA Illustration graduate. Your legacy “By leaving a legacy to the is their future University we know that a number of prospective Find out more at www.ed.ac.uk/legacy-giving. students will be able to live their dream of becoming a For a free guide to leaving a gift in your will, please vet and, having trained at the contact Morag Murison at [email protected], Dick Vet School, to continue call +44 (0)131 650 9637 or complete the form below the tradition of providing outstanding veterinary care for and post to: Development and Alumni, Charles Stewart future generations of animals.” House, 9-16 Chambers Street, Edinburgh EH1 1HT, UK. Alan and Frances Bell

Title Forename Surname

Address Telephone

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I have already included a gift to the University in my will. I would like to discuss a possible gift with the Legacy Manager. I would like to receive a free legacy giving guide by post.

All information is held by the University and will be treated confidentially and with sensitivity. The data may be used by the University, recognised alumni clubs, or agents of the University for a range of alumni activities, including sending publications, offering benefits and services, organising reunions, membership administration and in our fundraising programmes, in writing, by telephone and electronically. Under the terms of the 1998 Data Protection Act you have the right to object to the use of your details for any of these purposes at any time. If you wish to change your details or how we contact you, or wish to request a copy of the information we hold about you, please email [email protected] or write to us at Development and Alumni, University of Edinburgh, Charles Stewart House, 9-16 Chambers Street, Edinburgh EH1 1HT or call us on +44 (0) 131 650 2240.