50 Y Ears O F C H a Nging the W O R

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2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 www.YorkSpace.net/grapevineonline Contents

Anniversary The way we wore Celebration Weekend 6  10  The hallmark of Secrets of the deep a modern research scientist  12  22 The people behind YorkSpace the research – Anniversary Special 28  39  Origami campus Have Note to my wildfowl something younger self to add? Be part of It! Send in your submission.  www.yorkspace.net/  42 44 younger-self.

Contact us: Picture credits: For individual team contact details visit www.YorkSpace.net/contact/staff. • DFID – UK Department for To keep in touch with us and to receive details of future alumni events, International Development please remember to keep us up to date with your contact details. • Suzy Harrison • Jon Houlihan You can do this via our online form (www.YorkSpace.net) or email ([email protected]). • Ian Martindale University of York Alumni Association, Alumni House, University of York, • Vicky Matthers, Iconphotomedia 5 Main Street, Heslington, York, UK YO10 5DD • Tim Ngwena • Sarah Phillips

grapevine is produced by the University of York Development and Editors: Tim Ngwena and Sarah Phillips. Writer: Patricia Nicol. Alumni Relations Office, with the support of the Communications and Infographic: Tim Ngwena.com. Design: Ball Design Consultancy. Press Office. The views represented in this publication do not necessarily This document is 100% recyclable. Printed by Sterling reflect those of the editorial team, York alumni or the University of York. (sterlingsolutions.co. uk), an ISO 14001 certified company, using All information was correct at the time of print. All rights reserved. 100% vegetable-based inks. Each copy costs approximately 70p. Welcome to grapevine

his year not only marks the 50th anniversary of the University but also the T35th anniversary of our alumni publication. First as Gazebo and later as grapevine, it has been the constant mission of the magazine to deliver news from across the York community – from the latest groundbreaking research to your personal stories. This special anniversary issue will be no different. But some things have changed over the last thirty years. Thirty-five years ago, would people have dared imagine that grapevine would be read in over 140 countries by more than 90,000 alumni and friends? Aware of the competition for your attention, we try to be innovative in how we deliver our news. We now speak to you through an array of publications and digital platforms, as well as at our diverse programme of events. Above all, we strive to remain oral history project. Our fashion We also pay tribute to Professor relevant and accessible to all of our piece, The Way We Wore on page 10, Brian Cantor, York’s Vice‑Chancellor alumni and friends – wherever and includes some of the photos you’ve in the special anniversary whatever you are doing. shared with us. supplement, which includes a We know that you have many Chef and environmental copy of the Vice-Chancellor’s demands on your time, but we hope campaigner Hugh Fearnley recent address at the launch of that grapevine and York will always Whittingstall has created a very our anniversary celebrations. hold a special place for you. So, if special anniversary recipe for us So here it is. I hope you enjoy it, you haven’t already done so, join all to enjoy – based on sustainable but most of all I hope it spurs you on YorkSpace.net, our alumni portal; ingredients of course. Hugh’s a to get involved and to get in touch. take part in our programme of global colleague of York through Professor Every day, in far reaches of the world, events; and take that call from one Callum Roberts whose world-class in your workplaces and beyond, you Welcome to grapevine of our students when they ring as part research into marine conservation are ambassadors of York, and you play of the annual telethon. In 2013, such is featured on page 22. your part in spreading the word about a special anniversary year, we are Baroness Haleh Afshar, alumna and your excellent institution. So here’s to asking more people than ever before Professor of Political Science at York, you, alumni and friends of York! Have to be part of our celebrations – please provides a very special anniversary a wonderful and prosperous 2013! do get involved in our campaign. message – especially fitting, as it We have an extraordinary year was Haleh who wrote an 'Alternative lined up for you – much of which is Grapevine' for the 25th Anniversary. previewed in grapevine and also on Ever wondered what makes a Mary Haworth YorkSpace.net, where you will find leading academic tick? Well find an anniversary timeline, a pictorial out in our series of profiles on Director, Development

history of the University, and our some of York’s leading scholars. and Alumni Relations Office 3 Guest welcome

minimum number of members to be able to form a society, I joined but, sadly, to this day I have not found out what tiddlywinks is! I was much more serious about the informal, unorganised Jazz Club that gathered around the amazing Mike Simmons (English Literature, Langwith, 1966). With the appropriate long hair and flowing beard of a spiritual leader, Mike arrived in York with armfuls of the most fantastic jazz records. We used to gather in the badly lit, creaky and bare upstairs room in the Black Swan every Wednesday around the record player dancing smoking drinking to the latest Miles Davis, Herbie Hancock, John Coltrane, Sonny Rollins and a raft of others. What was memorable about the early days was the huge fun; there were seminars that were sometimes conducted in pubs or aroness Haleh Afshar, developed a vibrant camaraderie in a member of staff’s sitting room. (Politics, Derwent, among all of us and in due course Lounging around in a fog of smoke 1967) remembers her a few of us ended up marrying we languidly considered deep Bintroduction to York 50 some of them! philosophical ideas and talked late Thanks to the wonderful into the night. Perhaps the verve years ago, as the University Professor Graeme Moodie we were and enthusiasm that participatory celebrates its 50th anniversary. invited to be part of the University’s learning generates that pervaded decision-making process. the teachers and the taught meant I arrived in York on crutches, after a Our suggestions were not only that all of us completed our degrees. car crash, for an interview for a welcomed, but also taken on board. And a surprising number who were place at the University that was Some proved useful, others not so; considered most unlikely to do so, starting in the following academic especially the one which suggested went on to do further degrees and year. I was met by the stunningly exams with short sharp questions become academics! sophisticated Laura Herman who where students would gain a mark It’s been such an incredible was receiving the applicants at for a correct answer and lose one journey for us all, so I would just like King’s Manor. She looked me over for the wrong one. Unsurprisingly, to welcome you all to grapevine quizzically and said with the trace the only time that we had such an and wish the University all the best of a smile “It is [Douglas] Dosser exam I got something like minus for the next 50 years. interviewing, you’ll blow him over!" 20 and those who had managed to On arrival in October I met the get half of the questions right got first 216 undergraduate students zero! A more successful suggestion Baroness Haleh Afshar is a all of whom seemed to have been was that of having mixed colleges. Professor in the Department of chosen not just for their academic These worked so well that York Politics at the University of York, credential, but more specifically became a blueprint for many other an alumna and was selected to for their potential ability to survive much more ancient universities. be a non-party political peer in the year as part of a bunch of It was the 1960s and we were the House of Lords in 2007. ‘characters’ and ‘originals’ taught all discovering the wonders of being She is also an advisor to the by a highly unconventional team. young and liberated. We invaded the Government on public policy What surprised me was how pubs and bars in town and formed relating to Muslim women and very young and friendly the staff every possible society, in particular Islamic law. In 2005 she was

The University of York Magazine for Alumni and Friends of The University were. I was stunned when my I remember joining the Tiddlywinks awarded an OBE for services supervisor asked me to call him by Society without even knowing to equal opportunities. his first name. Unsurprisingly, there what it was; the group needed a 4 The QR codes featured here will link you to key York websites via your News in brief smartphone. Download one of the widely available barcode reader apps highlights from 2012/13 to scan the code with your phone.

YORK NEWS York events GRAPEVINE ONLINE 50th Anniversary YorkSpace Read the latest Register for Read this issue online at Find out more Join our new website news from York at upcoming University www.yorkspace.net/ about the 50th for alumni and friends www.york.ac.uk/news- and alumni events grapevineonline. celebrations and history at www.YorkSpace.net. and-events/news. at www.YorkSpace. www.york.ac.uk/50. net/events.

n Dr Joann Fletcher, a Research and Scientists at York played a pivotal role in new research Teaching Fellow in the Department that has signalled a significant step forward in the of Archaeology understanding of how insulin works. Researchers wrote and in the York Structural Biology Laboratory were part presented of an international team that established the first Ancient Egypt: three‑dimensional insight into the complex way the Life and Death In insulin hormone binds to its receptor on cell surfaces. The Valley Of The The study was published in Nature. Kings a two‑part series for BBC 2. In what is her first television n A delegation from the University n The University invited the local series, Dr Fletcher highlighted the of York and Hull York Medical community to join a special event everyday lives of ordinary ancient School visited India and Sri Lanka to mark the 200th anniversary Egyptians focusing on a married to promote new health-focused of the birth couple, who gave their entire lives and academic links with the two of John Snow. to the service of their masters countries. The visit included the first Born into in the tomb-builder’s town of formal event of the University’s 50th poverty in Deir el-Medina. Anniversary celebrations – a special York on 15 n Scientists in the YCR Cancer reception for York alumni at the March 1813, Research Unit in the Department residence of Ian Felton, UK Deputy Snow rose to of Biology have discovered High Commissioner in Bangalore, prominence the driving force behind the attended by the UK Minister for as a physician, development of prostate cancer. Public Health, Anna Soubry. transforming both public health Their research, published in n Scientists in the Department of and pain management. He is Nature Communications and Chemistry have developed a new best known for his work on funded by the charity Yorkshire medical tool which could help cholera and his recognition of the Cancer Research, reveals the surgeons carrying out complex importance of non-contaminated existence of a cancer inducing DNA procedures in the operating theatre. water supplies to prevent the re‑alignment in stem cells taken The researchers developed a dye spread of infectious disease. The from human prostate cancers. This which provides a quick and accurate Department of Health Sciences opens the way to the development

method of checking heparin levels celebrated his legacy by hosting of drugs that target the stem cells, News in brief in the blood. Heparin is an important a one-day conference at the Park leading to more effective therapies anti-coagulant which has a Inn, on North Street, York, where that work against the root cause significant role in major surgery. Snow’s family once lived. of the disease.

For further information and other news from the University, please visit www.york.ac.uk/news. 5 Bettys Chocolate Masterclass Be part of it… Saturday 22 June 2013 at 10.30am Join a chocolatier from Bettys to find out more about how chocolate is prepared, and learn how to taste and select good chocolate Anniversary from around the world. celebration weekend 21-23 June he Celebration Weekend this year promises to be the Squirming Science biggest yet with over 400 SATURDAY Saturday 22 June 2013 at 10.30am Ttickets already booked for the Morning Campus Tour Join colleagues in the Biology Labs for an interactive session to relive those days Celebration Dinner. If you have Saturday 22 June 2013 at 9.15am of science practicals. missed your chance to attend the A lively and informative tour of the dinner why not join us at some campus, led by current students. Making the Most of Social Media of the free events organised Saturday 22 June 2013 at 10.30am Television Production across campus? The weekend A discussion and masterclass on how to make Masterclass also coincides with the York the most of social media in your professional Saturday 22 June 2013 at 10.30am and social life. Festival of Ideas 2013 with the Ends 12.00noon theme, ‘North and South’. Visit Learn how to write, shoot and edit film in Nouse 50th Celebrations www.YorkSpace.net/acw for the stunning new facilities in the Saturday 22 June 2013 at 1pm more information and the latest Department of Theatre, Film and Television. Register your interest for the Nouse celebrations. additions to this event schedule.

FRIDAY SATURDAY SUNDAY Friday 4pm 5pm 3pm 6pm Midsummer Jazz Garden Party AN AUDIENCE WITH PETER LORD Friday 21 June 2013 at 6pm

Goodricke College alumni join current BETTYS CHOCOLATE MASTERCLASS Goodricke students at a Midsummer 2pm 7pm jazz garden party at the Goodricke Provost's House on Heslington West. TELEVISION PRODUCTION MASTERCLASS Pioneers Event – Heslington Hall Takeover NOUSE 50TH CELEBRATIONS 1pm 8pm Friday 21 June 2013 at 7pm Exclusively for those students and staff who MAKING THE MOST OF SOCIAL MEDIA entered York in '63, '64 and '65, this event is an opportunity for York’s pioneer students to enjoy the surroundings of Heslington Hall SQUIRMING SCIENCE where it all started. The price of £25 includes 12noon 9pm a generous buffet/barbecue and drinks. There will be plenty of time to meet with PROVOSTS ALUMNI LUNCH fellow students, and relive those early days.

Annual Alumni Pub Quiz MORNING CAMPUS TOUR Friday 21 June 2013 at 6.30pm 11am 10pm The alumni pub quiz will be as heated as ever, SUNDAY POLITICS SHOW with rounds designed and delivered by alumni, including former University Challenge Teams. A welcome drink will be provided for CAMPUS TOUR all competitors, and pub food and drinks will

The University of York Magazine for Alumni and Friends of The University be available from the Students’ Union bar,

the Courtyard at Derwent College throughout 11pm 10am the evening. The quiz will run from 8.30pm

6 to 9.30pm. 2013 50th Anniversary SUNDAY Celebration Dinner* Campus Tour Saturday 22 June 2013 at 7pm Sunday 23 June 2013 at 9.45am The highlight of the Anniversary A lively and informative tour of the campus, Celebration Weekend will be a four- led by current students. course dinner for alumni and guests An Audience with Peter Lord prepared by our award winning chef. York Alumni Sunday Wine is included. The evening will be Saturday 22 June 2013 at 2.15pm filled with celebration, opportunities Politics Show Alumnus Peter Lord, founder of Aardman to meet fellow York graduates and live Sunday 23 June 2013 at 10am Animations, will give a presentation on his music. Dress to impress! The annual Sunday politics debate promises famous creations, including Wallace and to be as energetic as ever, featuring Gromit and recent hit, ‘The Pirates! Band of renowned alumni. Hosted by Steve Richards, Misfits’. Appropriate for adults and children Campus Tour Chief Political Commentator of the alike, the discussion will feature clips and Independent, with Greg Dyke, Peter Hitchens insights into how animated films are created. Saturday 22 June 2013 at 2pm and Baroness Genista McIntosh . The focus of A series of interactive masterclasses on A lively and informative tour of the the debate will be topical subjects of the day, animation and sound editing will be campus, led by current students. and there will be plenty of opportunities advertised shortly. for input and questions from the audience. Campus Media Showcase Saturday 22 June 2013 at 3pm Bob Dylan: Northern Roots, Provosts' Alumni Lunch in Join the current production teams at Nouse, Southern Music Heslington Hall Vision, URY and YSTV as they present recent 23 June 2013 at 1.30pm Saturday 22 June at 12noon and historical work at an informal reception – World authority on Bob Dylan and alumnus drop in at any time. Michael Gray presents a talk and Q/A with The College Provosts' will welcome rare footage. alumni to Heslington Hall for a generous SU /GSA former officers buffet, with drinks included for the price of £15. After relaxing and catching Saturday 22 June 2013 at 5pm Alumni Cricket Match up with one another, alumni and their Drinks reception at the new SU Centre, hosted Sunday 23 June 2013 at 2pm guests can then enjoy short tours of by the current YUSU President Kallum Taylor Alumni Cricket Match 60+ Vs Yorkshire their college from current students. and his team. All former SU and GSA County Cricket Club 60+, featuring Dickie Bird sabbaticals and officers are welcome. and Sir Rodney Walker. The York alumni team will take on fierce opposition on the University's cricket fields across the road from the Sports Centre, on Heslington West.

4pm 5pm Bosworth and Shakespeare Sunday 23 June 2013 at 3.30pm 3pm 6pm BOSWORTH AND SHAKESPEARE In this two-part lecture, Chris Skidmore MP will present his latest work on the Battle of Bosworth, and York's Professor Judith 2pm 7pm ALUMNI CRICKET MATCH Buchanan of the Department of History will present on how Shakespeare used this history in his works. BOB DYLAN: NORTHERN ROOTS, SOUTHERN MUSIC

8pm 1pm CAMPUS MEDIA SHOWCASE * The weekend is free to attend, but tickets must be bought for the Celebration Dinner on the CAMPUS TOUR Saturday night (£40pp, including four courses and wine) and the Provost's Lunch on Sunday Anniversary Celebration Weekend (£15pp). Places are going fast so book today SU/GSA FORMER OFFICERS to ensure your place. Special rates on

12noon 9pm accommodation in York for the weekend are 50th Anniversary available, including rooms on campus. Celebration Dinner You are advised to book this early.

Midsummer Jazz Garden Party Book now Visit www.yorkspace.net/acw.

11am 10pm ALUMNI PUB QUIZ

HESLINGTON HALL TAKEOVER Be part of it…

Book your place

11pm now online. 10am 7 Be part of it…

York on the worldARCTIC stage During York’s anniversary year, the University’s events programme is set to be more ambitious than ever

ICELAND

RUSSIA Alberta

KAZAHKSTAN British Columbia (Okanagan) UKRAINE CANADA Washington (Seattle) ROMANIA York Mount Holyoke Wisconsin Rochester BULGARIA Illinois New York KYRGYZSTAN SOUTH Tohoku TURKEY Beijing KOREA St Louis Penn New Jersey California Denver State JAPAN Pennsylvania IRAN AFGHANISTAN Hosei UNITED STATES IRAQ Nanjing EGYPT CHINA JORDAN INDIA Zheijiang BAHRAIN NEPAL SAUDI ARABIA BANGLADESH TAIWAN PAKISTAN UNITED MEXICO HONG KONG JAMAICA ARAB BURMA EMIRATES SIERRA SUDAN LEONE BANGALORE THAILAND VIETNAM SOMALILAND GHANA SOUTH SUDAN NIGERIA ETHIOPIA COLUMBIA SRI LANKA MALAYSIA EQUADOR DEMOCRATIC UGANDA SOMALIA REPUBLIC SINGAPORE OF CONGO KENYA RWANDA INDONESIA TANZANIA

lumni in Bangalore, Sri Lanka, Auckland, Kuala ZAMBIA MALAWI Lumpur, Brussels, Beijing, Shanghai, Singapore MADAGASCAR BRAZIL ZIMBABWE and Paris have already started the celebrations São Paulo BOTSWANA Aas the University turns 50 this year. Why not join an SOUTH Perth AFRICA Grahamstown (Rhodes) Sydney event near you as we mark the anniversary with CHILE ARGENTINA Auckland Cape Town Waikato 50 events around the world? AUSTRALIA NEW ZEALAND

Key YAA London dates

Alumni events York Alumni Association events take Additionally, we regularly host Major academic partner place on the second Wednesday of professional networking events institutions the month in London. Put the dates in at high profile venues in London, Large clusters of alumni your diary now so you don’t miss and hope to extend the programme (excluding the UK) anything. Event information and into other areas of the UK Study Abroad partners and booking details will be mailed to and overseas in 2013. departmental exchanges you three to four weeks in advance. Distance learning programmes n Wednesday 8 May, 6.30pm Be part of it… International research

The University of York Magazine for Alumni and Friends of The University project locations n Wednesday 10 July, 7pm Book your place at Origin of current and former n Wednesday 11 September, 7pm one of our events Human Rights Defenders around the world.

8 n Wednesday 13 November, 7pm Bergen FINLAND NORWAY SWEDEN ESTONIA LATVIA

UNITED KINGDOM DENMARK York on the worldARCTIC stage IRELAND THE NETHERLANDS Maastricht CZECH REPUBLIC BELGIUM LUXEMBOURG POLAND AUSTRIA FRANCE GERMANY SLOVAKIA SLOVENIA HUNGARY SWITZERLAND CROATIA

ITALY SPAIN PORTUGAL GREECE ICELAND MALTA CYPRUS

RUSSIA Alberta

ZAMBIA MALAWI

MADAGASCAR BRAZIL ZIMBABWE São Paulo BOTSWANA

SOUTH Perth AFRICA Grahamstown (Rhodes) Sydney CHILE ARGENTINA Auckland Cape Town Waikato AUSTRALIA NEW ZEALAND

Events around the world How to book…

March Manchester, Birmingham, June 21–23 50th Anniversary All of the events are free to York on the world stage Edinburgh, Cambridge, Oxford, Celebration Weekend (see p6) attend, but have limited places. YAA Kuala Lumpur October 9 Tokyo, Japan You can register to attend April YAA Toronto October 10 Taipei, Taiwan at www.yorkspace.net/ April YAA Madrid October 15 Seoul, South Korea alumnievents. Where the dates April New York, Boston, Philadelphia, October YAA Frankfurt and YAA Berlin are not confirmed, you can Washington DC, Toronto, Los December YAA Hong Kong register your interest online and Angeles, San Francisco and Seattle October Los Angeles, San Francisco we will send you an invitation May 4–5 Roses 2013, on the University and Chicago once the event is confirmed. of York campus November Manchester, Birmingham, Those people who have registered June New York and Boston Edinburgh, Cambridge, Oxford will receive priority booking once June 13–29 York Festival of Ideas dates have been announced. 9 The way WE WORe were you part of it?

tudents at the University of York prove that they are no exception when it comes to the diverse fashion trends we Shave seen from the 1960s to the present day. As we know, design classics will always be reinvented and even through this small selection of imagery, shared with us by alumni, we can see how fashions have changed and, more interestingly, stayed the same. While the extremes of the catwalk will always be diffused for mainstream wear, Heslington’s own ‘fashion correspondent’ (and Alumni Office Manager) Jane Andrews reflects on how the contemporary and cutting-edge styles worn on London’s Carnaby Street and King’s Road gradually toned down and radiated beyond the capital – we can definitely say that York’s students were part of it. When we review a century of student fashion at York in 50 years’ time, it will be interesting to note how much will be retained, how much reinvented 1 and how much consigned to history.

1 The 1950s design classic – the pencil-skirt was pattern; neckerchiefs on girls and boys, given a modern, casual, youthful vibe in the '60s and wide ties with large knots worn with suits. when worn with flats or a kitten heel. Also worthy of a mention are flared trousers, crochet, and the floral gown. The hairstyles 2 Mary Quant introduced the miniskirt in 1964. are particularly telling of the decade. It was to be an event that changed the course of fashion for nearly every stylish young woman in 7 An image from the early '70s combining several the western world. The image of a female looks of the time. The men's hairstyles are student's bedroom on page 11 epitomises the indicative of the unisex fashions. style of the mid 1960s and shows that our pioneer students were at the height of fashion. 8 This summer image from 1988 captures some By 1968 hemlines had risen well above mid-thigh key fashion highlights of the decade: slimfit and the micro‑mini was born. stonewashed denim and Reebok hi-tops, very short shorts for the boys and hair accessories 3 The men too also had a sense of style: for the girls. The chap on the far left may slimmer-leg trousers with single-breasted tweed well have come straight from Wham’s jackets and skinny ties, moving them beyond ‘Club Tropicana’ video. the austere double-breasted suits of the 1950s. 9 This batwing top with a tropical design is 4 Another really stylish image from the late typical of the early 1980s. The '80s colour 1960s: students admiring the Henry palette was influenced by the ‘Miami Vice’ look – 6 Moore sculpture at Heslington Hall. which caused an explosion in colourful menswear Particularly fashionable are the slim-leg, in bright and pastel colours and fed into ladies single‑breasted suits. fashion too. The boy’s jacket is reminiscent 9 of Michael Jackson’s ‘Thriller’ jacket, which he 5 Due to the excitement of the moon landings wore in the 1983 video – voted the most from 1969 onwards, spaceage-techno fabrics influential pop music video of all time. were highly visible on the catwalks. By the early 1970s these had filtered down into mainstream 10 Girls ready for a party in the early 1990s. fashion. Here we see an example of this from 1971 Glamorous and luxury fabrics like velvet, tafetta with a pvc raincoat, which, while being eminently and satins were important trends to note here; practical, also has a high fashion edge. less structured than the power-glamour inspired by Dynasty in the late '80s, these styles have 6 This photo from 1971 was published in a younger more edgy look, possibly inspired by grapevine February 1995. Although not in Madonna and more classically by Princess Diana. glorious technicolour, we still get a feel for the

The University of York Magazine for Alumni and Friends of The University use of pattern and colour at the time. Key trends 11 This image from February 1995 grapevine is that we can see here are the patchwork a typical example of the time: torn jeans, ethnic maxi‑length skirt and platform sandals weaves, baggy sweatshirts and boots all juxtaposed against the minidresses in bold added to the androgynous look. 10 2 3

10 Read more online… You can hear more from Jane online, particularly her thoughts on fashion from 2000 to now, as she reflects on how fashion has influenced style as we know it today. Visit www.YorkSpace.net/ grapevine/fashion. the hallmark of a modern research scientist By Patricia Nicol The University of York Magazine for Alumni and Friends of The University 12

Dr Andy Marshall York scientists are pursuing results that could have a significant impact on all of our futures and indeed the future life of our planet

Professor Reidun Twarock

hen Dr Andy Marshall and fieldwork in Africa. “It was punches well above its weight owes discovered a new from the Head of the Commission for a lot to its scientists’ success not just species of tree in a Science and Technology in Tanzania, in attracting major funding but also WTanzanian forest recently, who I had never met before, to in forging research relationships with say, ‘Okay, I want to help you in academic and industrial partners he was presented with the your fight to preserve this forest.’” around the world. Headline-grabbing enjoyable challenge of what So how can he ensure the naming of work is being done here: at powerful The hallmark of a modern research scientist to name it. the new species of tree has the same computers and in state-of-the-art impact? “Well, we’re in talks with an laboratories, York scientists are Andy had been here before: in 2009, organisation that might potentially pursuing results that could have while out surveying monkeys, he fund some of our work in return a significant impact on all of our had disturbed a tree snake eating for the name,” says Andy. futures and indeed the future life a previously unidentified type That brand of can-do of our planet. of chameleon. He had named it entrepreneurialism would seem to be The Cologne-born Professor the Magombera chameleon – to very much the hallmark of a modern Reidun Twarock, for example, draw attention to the plight of the research scientist. When York first a co‑appointee between the endangered rainforest at the foot opened its doors to students 50 years Departments of Maths and Biology, of the Udzungwa Mountains that he ago, it only taught pure, not applied maps viruses. She came to this area wants the Tanzanian Government subjects – practicalities would come by accident, after being intrigued by a to make a protected area. later, when its students graduated into whacky-sounding talk on the fringes “After articles appeared in the the world. Today, a vastly expanded of a big conference she was attending. international press I got a phone call university offers a very different When she approached someone here at Flamingo Land,” recalls Andy, environment for study and research in already working in the field to ask who divides his time between this zoo its various science parks and research if the pure mathematics research on the edge of the North York Moors, institutes. The international reputation work she was, at the time, doing

York’s Environmental Department that York enjoys as a university that on symmetry might be applicable, 13 “A lot of people forget, I think, how completely dependent we are on plants: we eat them, drink them, wear them, build with them, package so much in them, derive medicines from them… look around a supermarket and most of what you see Professor Ian Graham will be plant-derived.”

she was assured she would be right number of RNA viruses that cause as grave an enemy to his soldiers as at the cutting-edge. “My family are serious damage to plants, animals and the US military. Today, Artemisinin all medics,” she says. “When I was humans. Reidun also works on HIV Combination Therapies are what the younger they kept on pushing me to inhibitors and cancer‑causing viruses. World Health Organisation recommends study medicine, but I’d say, ‘Oh but Reidun is based in one of to treat malaria. Artemisia is, however, I love my maths’. So when I made campus’s most recent architectural a low-yield crop and therefore costly to this switch in my research they all additions – the £20m, 650 m2, develop and thus prohibitively expensive said, ‘Ha, you see we got you in the glass-fronted, timber and steel clad for many in need of it. In CNAP’s end.’ Reidun suggests visualising Ron Cooke Hub, in the new campus laboratories they have bred higher-yield each virus particle as a suitcase on Heslington East. On the other though non-GM (“too much red tape” packed full of genomic material. side of campus, in the Centre for says Ian) varieties that are now – via By investigating how the protein shell Novel Agricultural Products (CNAP), their Asia-based seed bank partner, of the virus (the suitcase) has been its director Professor Ian Graham is East-West Seeds – beginning to be constructed and how efficiently the also fighting one of the world’s most planted in Africa and Asia. information has been packed into entrenched killer diseases. Built in It is not just the green-fronded it, they can work out how to inhibit 1999, CNAP occupies 2,000 m2 in Artemisia (also known as Sweet Annie, the formation of these structures specialised laboratories, among them because of the scent it emits when using anti-virals and exploit these the fiercely-lit basement greenhouses rubbed between your fingers) that is processes in bionano-technologies. where Ian is cultivating Artemisia being grown in this high-tech arm of Among the viruses being examined – with funding from the Bill and Melinda the Department of Biology that had in what is a project with experimental Gates Foundation. Artemisia is an £23m of open funding in 2010. Ian collaborators at the Astbury Centre aromatic herb, first developed as a is also currently working on poppies for Structural Molecular Biology treatment for malaria in Mao’s China and hemp. Yet before he achieves a

The University of York Magazine for Alumni and Friends of The University at the University of Leeds, funded in the 1960s after Vietnam’s leader cult status among the more dissolute by a £700,000 Leverhulme Trust Ho Chi Minh complained to his fellow sections of York student society, it Research Leadership award – are a communists that malaria was proving should be stressed that there is nothing 14 recreational about this drugs research. do something practical too. “Maybe site in the South of France, aims to With poppies he is working with it’s growing up on a farm where demonstrate that fusion is the energy Glaxosmithkline Australia to try to everything gets used,” he says. “But source of the future. Roddy, part of improve the yield of a compound I’ve always liked fixing stuff – I do all the team at York’s Plasma Institute already used in cough medicines, my own DIY.” Now he has a job that (YPI), which opened in October 2012, but which is now believed to be allows him to tinker with stuff on a is one of the lead British scientists potentially very effective in treating grand scale. And the work commands on the project. cancer tumours. When the discussion world attention – when he published Plasma is a term for electrically turns to hemp he waxes lyrical about a paper on CNAP’s poppy cultivation charged or ionised gas. Low its vast practical uses – in yarns and he got a call from a US Government temperature plasmas are found hempcrete, a greener alternative to official asking if this research might everywhere from naked flames to strip concrete, for example – and, if CNAP’s provide an alternative legal source lighting and have applications in all work can prolong its shelf life, as an of income for farmers in Afghanistan sorts of things from computer parts unsaturated oil to be used in food harvesting poppies for opium. “I had to supermarket salad bags. They are a and even beauty treatments. to tell him we were at a very early huge research field for York scientists Ian, who grew up on a farm in stage of research,” says Ian. whose current investigations – County Tyrone, was always interested Dr Roddy Vann is no stranger to often working closely with businesses in plants. “A lot of people forget, research work that is still some way through their full-time Industry I think, how completely dependent from fulfilling its world-changing Officer – range from using plasma we are on plants: we eat them, drink potential. Over the next decade, much for medical treatment to improved them, wear them, build with them, global attention will be focused on computer chips. package so much in them, derive ITER (International Thermonuclear But it is the potential of high medicines from them… look around Experimental Reactor), the biggest temperature plasma work that has a supermarket and most of what you terrestrial scientific project of all always excited Vann the most: the idea see will be plant-derived.” He was time. At a projected cost of £10.5b that by heating gases to exceptional never, however, just interested in to 34 countries, ITER, currently temperatures (100m°C hotter than the studying plants, he always wanted to under construction on a 180-hectare sun), humans can achieve fusion –

Dr Roddy Vann “One of the key things about our recent opening event is that we provided a forum The hallmark of a modern research scientist for university groups to speak with one another.” 15 the process that powers the sun as “The thing is it’s my tropical forest conservation is taught a result of atomic nuclei colliding to school pupils in Yorkshire. The Circle together – and create a carbon-free hobby rather than a Institute (Centre for the Integration of energy future. Roddy is a fusion Research, Conservation and Learning), evangelist. “Not only is the science job, a life rather which is co-funded by the University fascinating,” he says. “But there than a career.” and Flamingo Land, but based at the is a political and social drive here. North Yorkshire theme park, has, since Fusion is a clean, safe source of 2010, dedicated itself to conservation energy with plentiful fuel, so if we awareness and education, applying its can succeed in this programme then headquarters of the EPSRC-funded findings locally and in their Udzungwa it will provide an excellent solution Fusion Doctoral Training Network, a Forest project. And it’s not a one-way to the energy crisis.” combined effort by the Universities of traffic: Andy, who is a passionate Roddy was 15, or at a push York, Durham, Liverpool, Manchester proponent of the conservation work 16, when a school visit to the and Oxford to make sure that a next being done in modern zoos, is drawing Culham Centre for Fusion Energy in generation of UK scientists are at the on his experience in Africa to help Oxfordshire determined the course forefront of fusion research. “We need develop biodiversity action plans for of his future. Today, he works closely scientists who are now at the PhD the wildlife native to British zoos. with Culham, the UK’s national fusion stage of their careers to operate ITER “The solutions are not so different,” research laboratory, where two giant and the next generation machines he says. “The goal everywhere is tokamaks (the Russian term for the after that, but also to ensure the UK is to stop losing so much forest.” magnetic chambers that confine the ahead of the game when these things And time is of the essence for all plasma) are fired up to perform fusion become commercial,” says Roddy. these researchers who regularly work experiments. Within the machine Why did the EPSRC choose York? 70 to 80 hour weeks, though Reidun itself is one of the universe’s biggest “What, beyond our critical mass has a personal rule that she never temperature ranges: from millions of of great scientists,” he laughs. does admin “at the weekends” – only degrees to only a little above absolute “Well that’s a political question rather research. As Andy says: “The thing is zero only a few metres apart. than a science one. But without it’s my hobby rather than a job, a life Like a proud father, Roddy shows wanting to sound too much like a rather than a career.” me the YPI’s Remote Tokamak Control commercial, I think part of it is our Andy and Roddy dream of a Room, with its posters of JET, one approach – we are very much an set‑up like Reidun's, both citing of the Culham Tokamaks, which is outward-looking group: if we don’t new buildings, fit for the 21st century, for the moment the biggest in the have the expertise, or enough of as one of their key ambitions for their world. The room contains about a an expertise here, then we will go respective Environment and Physics dozen visualisation workstations out and work with other university departments. Such is the success of all connected directly with the groups. Indeed one of the key things both these disciplines at York that Oxfordshire base. “The idea of this about our recent opening event is that different teaching and research areas room is that I can be giving a lecture we provided a forum for university now have to be accommodated from 9.15am to 10.15am and then at groups to speak with one another – in separate buildings – in Physics 10.30am be doing experiments using even if they weren’t speaking with case, with the YPI on the other the tokamak at Culham,” explains us – and those conversations seem side of campus. “So if one of our Roddy. “We have all these screens vital to the development of plasma millionaire alumni were to read this because although each experiment physics in the UK.” article and write us a big cheque…” only lasts about half-a-second it That outward-looking approach says Roddy hopefully. generates many gigabytes of data – would seem to be a defining feature of Roddy mentions that he has just one microwave diagnostic alone all the work described here. Thanks to had his first child. How does that collects about four gigabytes, so about funding from Seattle, seeds produced sit with the long working hours, a memory stick’s worth in about half from plants nurtured in CNAP’s I wonder. He looks nervous, before a second. We need to process all that greenhouses will now be planted in explaining that his work with fusion information in time for the next half Africa and Asia. Andy, meanwhile, has does relate directly to the future he a second experiment, which will run created a direct connection between wants for his daughter Elizabeth. 15 minutes later. But we only have York’s Environment Department, “I would like her to grow up in a world about half that time available – seven Flamingo Land and the villagers of the that doesn’t have this energy crisis minutes – in which to look at the data Magombera Forest. A trust fund set hanging over it.” and make decisions about how to tell up by Flamingo Land guarantees the the engineers in Culham to set up the annual salaries of seven Tanzanians next half-second experiment.” employed to conserve the forest. The YPI is a £6m collaboration Those bonds will only strengthen: between the University of York and the Environment Department is Find out more about the research

The University of York Magazine for Alumni and Friends of The University the UK Engineering Physical Sciences currently researching how they can and the people behind it at Research Council (ESPRC). As well as use the example of their work in the www.york.ac.uk/50/impact. housing research laboratories, it is the Magombera forest to improve how 16 Be part of it…

campus myths are actually completely true, and often more fantastic than the legends! “If you haven’t lost touch with Reuniting your old friends, perhaps you can help us! We’re working harder than ever to find lost grads in the run up to the 50th anniversary, and we still need your help. Email [email protected] and I’ll do as much as I can to put you lost friends in touch with your old friends. You can also check the online list and help lumni Database Assistant Marianna Wilde (English Language us invite as many people as possible and Linguistics, Vanbrugh, 2010) is working hard to reunite back to celebrate on campus.” Aalumni from far and wide. “There’s something special about a graduate, I’ve searched individually friendships forged at University – for over 1600 lost alumni, and it’s still Find friends… Reuniting lost friends I know it from my own time here, a thrill to get a reply from someone Members of YorkSpace can and we hear it often from alumni we’ve been out of touch with for search for old friends at looking to get back in touch with years. I’ve found graduates living www.YorkSpace.net/findfriends. their York friends. If you’ve lost as far afield as Nigeria, America and touch with someone from your Australia, as well as here in York Help us find lost alumni… time at York, what could be a better and around the UK. It’s great fun, Search the online directory by excuse for reunion drinks than especially hearing recollections of graduation year to discover who the 50th anniversary weekend? exploits on campus from years ago – we are searching for. Visit “While working at the Alumni I have been delighted to find that www.YorkSpace.net/lostalumni.

office during my BA, MA and now as many stories which I thought were 17 18 The University of York Magazine for Alumni and Friends Giving to York 19 Be part of it… Our community

As we celebrate our 50th anniversary, grapevine looks back at the pioneering work of the York Society Trust, reflecting how far we have come and the difference giving to York makes

t was back in 1981 when members of the York Society, created by alumni volunteers Iin 1978, embarked on the University’s first appeal for support from its graduates.

As early copies of Gazebo, the predecessor to grapevine show, this alumni-led initiative was born out of a feeling by its members that there should be some means by which alumni could contribute financially towards the University’s present students and staff. The money raised was managed by the York Society Trust, which aimed to support any charitable purpose relating to the University. OUR GIVING COMMUNITY TODAY It was extra-curricular activities that first benefited from early donations. Back in 2006, in appreciation of Yorkies+ Today, as the University reaches our dedicated regular donors, the To mark our 50th anniversary, special its 50th anniversary, the work of York University launched The Yorkies. recognition is now given to leadership Society Trust still continues and from Regular gifts allow us to plan for gifts of £500 or more annually. its subscription income has funded the future and create opportunities We are delighted that support travel bursaries for over 60 students. for next generation of students. from alumni and friends has grown Our thanks go to members of the Over 1,000 of you aware now significantly over the past ten years York Society who continue to give. members of the group but in our 50th and the establishment of Yorkies+ Their support is augmented by year we’d like to double the size of is our thanks for this investment in the University’s “Giving to York” our giving community, and we have our future. programme which sits happily just launched Yorkies+. This group Members of The Yorkies and alongside it, with many former aims to recognise those that give Yorkies+ receive a University pin in members giving to both. at a higher level. recognition of their commitment to the University and “Giving to York”. York Society Chairs The Yorkies When you sign up to support your Paul Hodges university by setting up a Direct Debit To join The Yorkies visit (English, Vanbrugh, 1974) or a regular gift through your payroll, www.yorkspace.net/community. Phil Harris (Politics and Economic you will become a member of The History, Derwent, 1974) Yorkies, our supporters club.

The University of York Magazine for Alumni and Friends of The University Frances Vick We keep our Yorkies members (Physics, Vanbrugh, 1972) in closer touch with the University Stuart Bell and the projects that you enable

20 (Chemistry, Langwith, 1977) through your generosity. OUR GIVING SUPPORT FOR STUDENTS AMBASSADORS ur Yorkie members span hanks to generous donations from alumni and friends of the all generations and have University we have been able to offer scholarships to a great affection for York, outstanding students studying for Masters degrees at York Osharing its vision for the future. Tfor the last ten years. Each has a different reason for supporting the University but Now as we look to the next 50 years into Iraqi refugees living in Jordan we are asking alumni and friends and also spent three months in their passion for York is clear. to consider giving to the 50 for 50 conflict-affected Sri Lanka to collect Scholarship Fund for masters students research for my dissertation. James Hickman or to give a monthly donation for “I now work at the Cabinet (History, our “Achieving Excellence Bursaries” Office, working on public service Derwent, 1966) for undergraduates. In either case reform and civil society engagement. “I chose to give to you can make a personal gift or join The research skills honed during York to help others with former classmates to mark my MA and the opportunity to work experience the this special occasion. directly in the field has contributed wonderful time I spent there as a to my success throughout my founding student in the 1960s. It Natasha Price career, particularly now in the field has been a great source of pride to received a scholarship of policy development.” watch York cement its place as one for her MA in Post- of the best universities in the UK.” war Recovery Studies in 2008/09. Can you help to support Alice Maynard “I am extremely grateful to the York today’s students in our (Language, Annual Fund Masters Scholarship. 50th year? Find out more at Langwith, 1980) As part of the MA programme I was www.YorkSpace.net/giving. “As a wheelchair able to undertake primary research user, my choice of university was limited. Back in the 1970s, few were accessible, and I’m eternally grateful that meant, in a way, York BUILDING OUR FUTURE chose me. I thoroughly enjoyed my time there; it was liberating, and n increasing number of people are choosing to support us I benefited enormously from the through legacy gifts. Making a bequest is your chance to educational and social experiences have a transformational impact beyond your lifetime on that I gained”. Athe people and places that matter most to you. Philanthropy has played an important role in the success of our first 50 Edward Jackson years and with your help we can do more. Making a gift to the University (Computer Science of York in your will is an active way to help us build our future and realise and Software the potential of tomorrow’s brilliant minds. Engineering, Langwith, 2006) Alan Eynon (Electronics, Goodricke, 1997) “To attract the has made this commitment: best talent, and create a truly “I hope to be a strong link in that academic chain, meritocratic place of learning, we so that the next generation of students will enjoy the alumni should give back and support same opportunities for growth as I have had. Setting the next generation. Every alumnus up a legacy gift was the easiest way for me to support owes a part of their success to their the long-term vitality of the University.” years at York, and should see giving to the University as a chance to Our community help it continue to expand upon its success, and support an institution we should rightly be proud of.” For more information or for a confidential discussion contact Susie Fothergill at [email protected] or if you To meet more of our would like to make a gift to the University ambassadors visit www. visit www.YorkSpace.net/legacy. yorkspace.net/ambassadors. 21 The secrets of The University of York Magazine for Alumni and Friends of The University 22 Prize-winning author Professor Callum Roberts, consultant to the BBC's Blue Planet and award-winning documentary The End of the

Line, from York’s Environment The secrets of the deep Department reflects on the wonders of the sea, examining the changes and impacts of the 21st century 23 n December 2010, a mother For several years past I have been more sophisticated fishing fleets. whale and her calf beached writing a book called Ocean of Life: By the time I had written the last and died on a remote stretch How our Seas are Changing (Allen sentence of my book, I had come to Iof New Zealand’s Bay of Plenty. Lane). In it I explore the long history an uncomfortable but compelling Two years later (such is the pace of the oceans, from the formation of conclusion. In the last 30 years, the of careful science) the find was the world to the present. Taking the oceans have changed faster and in long view, the seas are in constant more ways than at any time in human announced to the world as the flux. Billions of years ago, they were history, far longer in fact. Within a span first ever sighting of the planet’s awash with sulphides, devoid of of time shorter than the existence of rarest whale. Mesoplodon free oxygen and the choking stink the University of York, the most rapid traversii, the spade-toothed of rotten eggs would have hung and profound sea change for 55 million whale, was previously known above coasts. Life probably began years has been unfolding around us. from only three skull fragments in metal-rich waters belching from The 50th anniversary of the University submarine hotsprings into these seas. is a good time to reflect on how the collected over 140 years A billion years later, or thereabouts, world has changed since the first intake from islands scattered microbial life developed the means of students in 1963. across the South Pacific. to generate energy from sunlight, There were more fish in the sea producing oxygen. It took half a then, many of them lithe giants like Nothing underlines the immensity of billion more years to oxygenate bluefin tuna, swordfish and sharks. the world’s oceans quite like this: that the atmosphere, and longer still Ruth Thurstan (Marine Environment an animal the size of a hippopotamus, to ventilate the deep sea. But by and Management, Wentworth, 2008), and one that must surface to breathe 550m years ago, there was enough one of my graduate students, recently many times a day, could have lived oxygen around to sustain animals analysed 120 years of UK government unseen for so long. But it is not the of a decent size and the explosion statistics on bottom trawl fisheries, only creature to have eluded us. of multicellular life began. a method in which nets are dragged The giant squid has inhabited our Since then, life has endured many along the seabed to catch fish. In imaginations and nightmares since ups and downs as catastrophes 1963 fisheries were booming but at least the time of Jules Verne. came and went. In step with cycles landings were already in steep decline But only in 2012 was it filmed of global warming and freezing, from a 1949 peak. After 1970 they alive for the first time in its natural the oceans rose and subsided and went into a freefall from which they habitat, a thousand metres down. swung between periods of acidity have not recovered. The beast in the film was quick, alert and anoxia and the more clement By the 1960s, many of the great and shimmered silver blue against the conditions we know. But in recent whales had reached their nadir night black sea, recalling armoured times – very recent against this following centuries of intensive knights of old. So different from the geological tableau – humanity has hunting. The blue whale, the largest pulpy, half-rotted bodies washed begun to exert its own influences animal ever to have lived, was on the ashore that we have known until now. on the sea. Overfishing, pollution brink of extinction. The enormity of the oceans has and climate change are taking their There were scarcely 2,000 left by long led us to believe that they are toll. The oceans are rising fast (over 1963 from upwards of 200,000 before impregnable and beyond harm. 3mm per year), getting warmer hunting commenced. That year the Aside from bits of local bother like oil and more acidic (as carbon dioxide International Whaling Commission spills or soiled beaches, our activities emissions dissolve). Toxic chemicals called for a ‘halt to the slaughter’, a and influence seem trivial against like pesticides and mercury are recommendation implemented in 1965. their seemingly endless expanse. accumulating and rafts of plastics Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring had The vastness of the sea is real and have formed in the huge rotating been in print for a year in 1963 and important in terms of the oceans’ currents of ocean gyres. The sea was shocking the world into pollution role in planetary processes, but it is has filled with the grumble of ships anxiety. Persistent pollutants like illusory when it comes to invincibility. and percussive bangs of seismic DDT and PCBs were already seeping The oceans everywhere now bear exploration, military sonar and pile in the sea from rivers, wind and rain. our imprint, even to the bottom driving. Big animals have dwindled These gifts of 20th-century industry of the deepest abyss. under the assault of expanded and joined more prosaic muck – raw sewage – which gushed untreated from Victorian sewers into estuaries and open coasts to anoint summer “The great whales are on the road to recovery hordes on their seaside holidays. after most of the world laid aside their harpoons Plastics had been in mass production for little over a decade but the “Age for the last time in 1984. Blue whales are hard to of Plastic” had begun its exponential

The University of York Magazine for Alumni and Friends of The University rise. It is a sobering fact of this ever- count, but we think there are more than ten steepening cliff face of production, thousand today.” is that more plastic was made in the 24 first decade of the 21st century than in all of the 20th! We have only just begun to realise that plastics and toxic chemicals are forming an unexpected alliance in the sea. Time is breaking plastics into ever-smaller fragments that attract and concentrate certain chemicals from surrounding waters, sometimes to levels thousands or millions of times greater than their surroundings. The smaller the particles become, the more chemicals they pick up, and the more easily they are ingested by plankton and fish. Persistent pollutants like Polychlorinated Diphenyls (PCBs) and flame retardants are passed up the food chain, concentrating as they go until they end up in animals we eat, like tuna. What goes around comes around, as the saying goes. They may have looked stable, but the seas were already rising fast in 1963. Levels were ten centimetres Callum (left) with Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall higher than a century before and the rate of rise had turned upwards in the mid-1920s. Since the University was founded, they have risen another ten centimetres and the rate has cranked coral and fish. Coral reefs were a from the water to build chalky up another notch. Perhaps the most favourite destination and at the time skeletons. But polyps really are startling evidence I have seen of were in vibrant good health, their sensitive creatures and the castles our inability to deal with climate steep slopes crammed with coral, they build soon crumble when they change is a graph produced by the sponge and seafan, surrounded by die. It turns out that corals succumb Intergovernmental Panel on Climate throngs of fish so dense they often in their masses when temperatures Change in 1990. It shows the expected blocked the sun. None of us could spike, which means that reefs are trajectory of future sea level rise have foretold how reefs would suffer highly sensitive to global warming. under a business-as-usual emissions in the next half century. In 1998, reefs across the world were scenario, with lines depicting the most I first saw a coral reef in 1982 as devastated by a warming event likely, minimum and maximum rates a lucky York undergraduate given a that in places killed 90% of corals. expected. Over twenty years on, sea chance to study Saudi Arabian fish Recovery has been patchy and slow, level rise is tracking the fastest rate. by Rupert Ormond of the Department with frequent setbacks from more In 1963, the Northwest Passage of Biology. The reef dropped away recent temperature spikes. Surveys from the Atlantic to Pacific remained beneath me like a cliff. At the outer now indicate that even in the best as frozen shut as it had been in the edge, holding my position against protected places, like Australia’s Great times of the ill-fated voyages of Henry steepening waves, I was surrounded Barrier Reef, there is less than half the Hudson and Sir John Franklin centuries by a blizzard of tiny fish nodding and coral left that there was when this before. In 2010 ice-melt opened the bowing like dancers as they plucked University opened. passage enough to permit a Pacific plankton from the water. Bright shafts Perhaps you are wondering if

Gray whale to stray into the Atlantic, of sunlight played across thickets of anything good has happened to the The secrets of the deep the first seen there since Atlantic pink, purple, yellow and mauve corals oceans since 1963. The great whales Grays were hunted to extinction below. Descending the cliff slope, their are on the road to recovery after most in the 18th century. 2012 brought colours muted with depth into hues of the world laid aside their harpoons the greatest melt of Arctic sea ice of green, blue and grey. Far below, for the last time in 1984. Blue whales ever recorded. moving shadows suggested the are hard to count, but we think there In the mid-1960s, a French former presence of bigger fish. are more than ten thousand today. naval officer had begun to thrill British If you have swum on a reef you Coastal towns have to treat their television viewers with his tales of will probably have been surprised sewage before discharge, so you no marine life. The Undersea World of (and scratched) by their solidity longer have to play hopscotch to Jacques Cousteau introduced many given the delicacy of the polyps avoid stepping on something nasty on of us, me included, to the world of that withdraw dissolved carbonate your way across the beach for a swim. 25 Dichloradiphenyltrichloroethane (DDT) levels have peaked and started to decline in many seas following widespread bans on production and use. These small steps give us hope for the future, but there is still much to do. The biggest drivers of change in the sea are human population growth and greenhouse gas emissions. As yet, there is little sign of either slowing up. In another 50 years the world will support three billion more people and, regardless of whether we have reduced greenhouse gas emissions by then, the climate will be hotter and more volatile, and the oceans more acidic. This means we must change the way we manage the seas today so they are better able to cope with the tough times ahead. In short we need to fish less using less destructive methods, waste less, pollute less and protect more. I am glad to say that the University has responded proactively to the growing crisis. When I studied here in the 1980s, the hot areas of biology reflected our awakening interest in what made nature tick: why do animals behave the way they do, why are there more species in rainforests than oak woodlands, how do genes work? We still pursue these questions today, but have added a battery of new ones centred around environmental challenges: what will happen to species and habitats as the climate changes, what causes jellyfish blooms, how can we feed the world without destroying wildlife? We have even added a new department where I work now – Environment – which bridges disciplines like ecology, chemistry, economics, politics and maths, recognising that we cannot solve environmental problems without the wisdom of many. Despite not being exactly coastal we have a thriving Masters in Marine Environmental Management which this year enrolled 30 students keen to play their part in keeping the oceans healthy for the next 50 years. Their energy and idealism keep me optimistic.

Callum Roberts is Professor of Marine Conservation in the Environment Department and author of Ocean of Fins can only Life: How our Seas are Changing (Allen Lane, 2012). Find out more

The University of York Magazine for Alumni and Friends of The University about Callum and his work at www.york.ac.uk/environment/ our-staff/callum-roberts. 26 get batter! TV chef and campaigner Hugh Fearnley‑Whittingstall, colleague of Professor Callum Roberts, has kindly provided grapevine readers with a sustainable fish and Yorkshire-inspired recipe to try.

Fish in Yorkshire beer batter with tartare sauce

eer makes an excellent batter, contributing not only a wonderful lightness, but flavour too: a nutty, wheaty edge to the crunch. This batter works very well for frying fillets Bof white fish – and I favour sustainable choices such as pouting and coley, or handline-caught pollack – but you can also use it for anything from flat fish such as dab, to squid rings or even scallops (if you’re feeling extravagant).

Serves 4-6 n 200g plain flour For the tartare sauce n Sunflower oil, including plenty n 2 generous tablespoons for deep-frying mayonnaise n About 250ml good n 1–2 hard-boiled eggs, Yorkshire beer finely chopped n 4–6 fillets of white fish, n 1 tablespoon chopped parsley such as pouting or pollack, n 1 teaspoon chopped dill around 200g each n 2–3 gherkins, finely chopped n Sea salt and freshly ground n 2 teaspoons capers, black pepper finely chopped n Juice of half a lemon

Make the tartare sauce first by golden brown in 1½–2 minutes. simply stirring everything together. Dip a piece of fish into the batter To make the batter, sift the so it is thoroughly immersed, then flour into a bowl, or put it in a lift it out and hold it over the bowl bowl and whisk it (which is almost for a few seconds so any excess as effective a way to aerate the batter drops back in. Now lower the flour and remove lumps). Add battered fish into the hot oil. Do this 2 tablespoons of sunflower oil, one piece at a time, if you’re using then gradually whisk in the beer, large portions, or in small batches stopping when you have a batter for smaller pieces, so as not to with the consistency of thick crowd the pan. Fry large pieces of

emulsion paint. Beat it well to get fish for 4–5 minutes, until golden The secrets of the deep rid of any lumps, season generously brown and crisp. Scoop them out with salt and pepper, then leave to with a wire basket, or ‘spider’, rest for 30 minutes or so. and transfer to a warm dish lined Heat the sunflower oil for deep- with kitchen paper. Keep them frying in a large, deep, heavy-based warm while you fry the remaining pan until it reaches 160°C, or until a fish, then serve straight away with cube of bread dropped into it turns the tartare sauce.

Find out more about Hugh’s Fish Fight at www.fishfight.net. Don’t get batter! forget to email us pictures of your creations to [email protected]. 27 Read more about the people who have made an impact around the world.

The people behind the THE PEOPLE BEHIND RESEARCH FEATURE: Researcha special anniversary feature

Glass act 29 Experts in the Department of History of Art are working with conservators on the major project to restore the Great East Window in York Minster, the “Sistine Chapel of stained glass”

Man on a mission 32 Professor Sultan Barakat went from a child refugee to head of York’s world-renowned Post-war Reconstruction Unit (PRDU), discover what drives him to help those in crisis

Lucky Jim 36 A chance introduction led Professor James Walvin to a slave plantation’s forgotten archive and a celebrated career redefining Britain’s history

These special anniversary articles have been written by Patricia Nicol (English, Vanbrugh, 1994). About Patricia After attending the Cardiff School of Journalism Patricia spent 15 years with the Sunday Times newspaper, latterly as Deputy Editor, Culture. In 2009,

The University of York Magazine for Alumni and Friends of The University she published her first non-fiction book, Sucking Eggs: What Your Wartime Granny Could Teach You about Diet, Thrift and Going Green. She now works as a freelance journalist, editor and author and lives in South‑East London

28 with her husband and two young sons. Her best friends are all still Yorkies. GLASS ACT Glass act Experts in the Department of History of Art are working with conservators on the major project

to restore the Great East Window in York Minster, 29 the “Sistine Chapel of stained glass” or six centuries, visitors whole that he supervised all the to York Minster have work closely,” says Sarah Brown. stood in awe before its For the moment, visitors to FGreat East Window, humbled the Minster have to make do with a full‑scale printed facsimile of and dazzled not just by the the Great East Window instead scope and scale of its of the real thing. Thornton’s evocation of the Beginning masterpiece is midway through and End of All Things, but by a restoration being carried out the pungent vividness with by the specialists of the York which the books of Genesis Glaziers Trust – the centrepiece of York Minster Revealed, a major and Revelation are rendered conservation and redisplay of in at times touching, at other the Minster, funded in part by a times terrifying, detail £10.5m Heritage Lottery Fund The Orb and colour. grant – which will be completed in 2016. There is some recompense, Seventy-eight feet tall and about however, in an informative

THE PEOPLE BEHIND RESEARCH FEATURE: the size of a tennis court, the exhibition focused on The Orb, in 311-panelled window is the largest which five conserved panels from expanse of medieval stained glass the window can be viewed at close in Britain and regarded as one of quarters. Complementary displays the great pre-Renaissance and computer interactives show treasures of European art. digital close-ups of the individual “Each panel is in itself a work panels, allowing you to see the of priceless art,” says Sarah painstaking process of their Brown – stained glass scholar in rehabilitation and how the latest the Department of History of Art, forensic conservation techniques as well as the director of the York are adding to our understanding Glaziers Trust – “painted with the of the window’s past. skills of a Van Eyck or a Vermeer.” For example, high-resolution The window is also the vision photographs have revealed of one man: John Thornton, a not just the original artists' glazier from Coventry, who came brushstrokes but also fibres to York to begin work on the from their clothing. How the window in 1405. window actually illuminates the Sarah Brown’s is a role that He finished in 1408, receiving a Minster is also being improved. engages daily with the distant £10 bonus to add to his £56 fee for Before and after close-ups of the past, but also that past’s future completing the work on schedule. panels already restored reveal preservation. Few of us will ever In 1410 he was made a freeman of just how much extra leading be in the happy position of seeing York and, thinks Sarah Brown, later had been introduced over the a job advertised and knowing based himself in the city, though centuries in patched-up efforts that we are one of only two or he continued to run a workshop to keep the glass in place. Today’s three people working in the world in Coventry. He is also believed restorers have used lead of the qualified to do it. That is, however, to have created the St William same thinness as in Thornton’s where Sarah Brown found herself Window, completed in 1413. masterpiece and taken advantage when, five years ago, the University Of course Thornton did not work of modern conservators' glue. of York’s Department of History alone on the East Window, but it On the restored images you can of Art and the York Glaziers Trust was clearly laid out in his contract still see vein‑like lines where extra decided to join forces. Their goal with the Dean of York that he must leading has been removed, but the was to recruit a course director for cartoon (draw up the designs to full uncluttered drawings can now be an innovative two-year MA course size) the whole work and paint a seen more clearly and, of course, in Stained Glass Conservation and significant part of the window with more light will now be let in. State- Heritage Management who could his own hand. Close examination of-the-art external glazing will also become the next director of of each individual panel suggests. help preserve the conservators' the Trust (the body dedicated to the Thornton – who would have painstaking work – some can care of the Minster’s windows and had a whole studio working spend as long as 600 hours the preservation of historic stained- for him, probably close by the on each individual panel. “This glass windows nationwide). Sarah

The University of York Magazine for Alumni and Friends of The University Minster – must have been a very conservation should protect the Brown must have been a shoo-in: hands-on boss. “It is clear from window for centuries to come,” herself a postgraduate of the Centre the consistency and quality of the says Sarah Brown. for Medieval Studies, she has many 30 “Each panel is in itself a work of priceless art painted with the skills of a Van Eyck or a Vermeer.”

Workshop at York Glaziers Trust

The window is also the were to move anywhere else then the University’s MA in Stained it would be here.” Making her first Glass Conservation and Heritage vision of one man: John half century sharpened the appeal Management headquarters just a Thornton, a glazier from of launching a new phase in her life. short walk from the Minster. “It felt like the right time to take on “Recently the Burrell Collection Coventry, who came to a new challenge!” in Glasgow – which has one of the York to begin work on Sarah Brown seems so happily best gallery collections of stained settled in her cosy, book-lined corner glass in the world – advertised the window in 1405 office, with postcards of stained glass for a new conservator. All of the propped up in various places, that you candidates shortlisted for interview would think she had spent her whole were graduates of this course,” career at King’s Manor, the Centre for she says proudly. Medieval Studies’ historic home. Her years' experience of working in other place of work, the York Glaziers heritage management, first at the Trust, is also only minutes away, Royal Commission on the Historical in Deangate. She is rightly proud of Monuments of England and latterly what her two-year MA programme Sarah Brown is chairman of the with English Heritage, and is also the has achieved in a short space of British committee of the Corpus author of an architectural history of time. Despite costing twice as much Vitrearum Medii Aevi based in the Gothic Minster and a guide to the as most Masters courses, it has the University of York’s Stained Glass act stained glass. She started at York in been consistently oversubscribed, Glass Studies Research School, September 2008. attracting a high calibre of students of which she is the director. “I had been living in the orbit of from the UK and overseas. Merlyn To find out more, please visit London for many years',” she says. Griffiths and Tom Vowden are doing www.york.ac.uk/history-of-art/ “But I had been a regular visitor to a one-year internship at the York staff/brown.

York and had always felt that if I Glaziers’ Trust before they start 31 32 The University of York Magazine for Alumni and Friends FEATURE: THE PEOPLE BEHIND THE RESEARCH Man on a Mission Professor Sultan Barakat went from a child refugee to head of York’s world-renowned Post-war Reconstruction Unit (PRDU), discover what drives him to help those in crisis

he most revealing moment in my conversation with Professor This prompted Charles and Sultan Sultan Barakat comes right at the end, just as we are saying to establish a small temporary unit an awkward goodbye. For two decades now, the work of the running short-term courses on T47-year-old founding head of York’s PRDU has taken him all over the reconstruction. In 2013 PRDU, which is today based within the Department globe – from Bosnia to Sri Lanka, Afghanistan, Sudan, Colombia and of Politics, will celebrate its 20th back, with perhaps the most frequency, to the Middle East, where anniversary, as the University of he was born and raised. Does he regard himself as settled in York, York celebrates its 50th. The need I ask: could he see himself living out the rest of his days here? for it has never seemed greater. Its MA in Post‑war Recovery The question hangs in the air, before Studies (IoAAS), following a BSc in Studies is the Politics department’s he answers carefully: “Being a son of a Architecture at the University of most oversubscribed course. refugee, home is where you have your Jordan, Amman. A fellow student was “A Rolls‑Royce of programmes,” immediate family. I no longer look for an Iranian gearing his studies towards says Sultan gleefully, who takes roots anywhere, but yes, York so far the rebuilding of his homeland immense pride in the many has been great.” A minute later he following the Iran–Iraq war. Working graduates of that course who are comes back to this question. “Indeed, closely with their then supervisor now putting what they were taught now that I think about it, my days in Charles Cockburn (who was the into practice in governmental York have been the only stability in my reason why Sultan had come to York), departments, United Nations Agencies

life, despite,” he continues, after a they organised three international and non‑governmental organisations Man on a mission self-conscious laugh, “going to seminars on Post-war Reconstruction, (NGOs) around the world. these war-torn places all the time. which then became the subject area “It was in some ways an Yes, a good time.” of Sultan’s PhD. opportune moment for us that the He was never meant to stay so Then war returned to Europe in war reached Europe,” says Sultan. long. A Palestinian Jordanian he 1991 with the collapse of the former “Because otherwise, to be honest, first came to York in 1989 to do a Yugoslavia. In 1992 a Croatian group I don’t think PRDU would have been Masters in Urban Conservation at interested in the findings of his sustained or created. When we first then world‑recognised Institute PhD and the workshops that had started to debate the issues we were of Advanced Architectural been organised contacted Sultan. focused on the Middle East because 33 “Though of course it is through the destruction of that built environment that modern warfare manifests itself, so when we think of the conflict in Syria, we see bombed-out homes and streets. It was always just as much about the people and their access to resources in a transition from war to peace and economic development. How, for example, do people continue to access Education in the aftermath of war?” THE PEOPLE BEHIND RESEARCH FEATURE:

Za'atari refugee camp, Jordan

of the Iraq–Iran war and various sites at times of conflict and so that they can keep track of other wars of the Cold War era, headed up some research for people – they were integrated in Latin America and South-East the British Council about the more into Jordanian society. Asia. Funding was only made artistic legacy of the Arab Spring. Jordan, a country with a limited available after the war came to “What was unique about us from supply of water, is already host to the former Yugoslavia.” the start was that it was never a large Iraqi refugee population. Since then, of course, the Middle just about the built environment,” The Jordanian government feel a East has again become a dominant says Sultan. “Though of course it high sense of public and moral duty focus. The weekend after we spoke. is through the destruction of that to look after those who have fled to Sultan was due to fly to Jordan – built environment that modern their country, offering them equal where he has masters students warfare manifests itself, so when access to education and medical working with refugees from we think of the conflict in Syria, care. But this puts immense Syria – and then travel overland we see bombed-out homes and pressure on existing resources that to Nablus in the West Bank, where streets. It was always just as earlier humanitarian crisis and a PRDU is running a course on much about the people and their growing population have already Conflict Management. access to resources in a transition overburdened: figures suggest that The unit became part of the from war to peace and economic the average queuing time to see a Department of Politics in 1999, development. How, for example, doctor is now six hours, twice the which seems a better fit for do people continue to access time it was before this crisis. PRDU’s wide‑ranging and multi- education in the aftermath of war?” “Our students are looking at the disciplinary brief. Just in the past So the MA students he is visiting coping mechanisms of the Syrian few months Sultan has written in Jordan are studying whether refugees,” says Sultan. “Some about Qatar’s emerging role as a more might be gained by both would, for example, prefer to rent powerbroker in the Middle East, the Syrian refugees and their host a room in a Jordanian family home, helped draw up a charter for Jordanian community if instead which would benefit the refugee

The University of York Magazine for Alumni and Friends of The University UNESCO which seeks to address of the Syrians being housed in and the Jordanian, who wouldn’t what the international community camps – the preferred policy of then see his tenant as someone can do to protect world heritage the international community, competing for resources. I think the 34 Photo: DFID – UK Department for International Development

It is civilian populations who feel the impact of modern conflict. On the military side, modern technology is helping reduce military casualties, but that same technology has people at its receiving end. And you know displacement is, I think, as harmful as a direct hit.” Sultan and his Jordanian-born wife have two sons, aged eight and six. They live in the pretty, peaceful market town of Malton, just north of York. It must seem a world removed from his work. “It really was a crazy idea to set up something like PRDU here,” he chuckles. “York is not exactly a centre of international affairs. But as time has gone on I have found real interest not just from the university, but also from within the city. Our strongest supporters come from the Christian community, particularly the Quaker society.” Sultan describes the support his department’s work has received from the University as “incredible”. “The great thing about York University is its ability to adapt and to nurture,” he says. “It is amazing how I have been allowed to get on with the job despite the many risks associated with it. You know, it hasn’t always been an easy decision NGOs would prefer to keep people in “It is amazing how I have to take students on field trips to a camp, but when you put people in a places like Afghanistan, Iran, Sri camp you divorce them from real jobs been allowed to get on Lanka, Lebanon and Bosnia, often in and real life. There is no interaction with the job despite the the immediate aftermath of a crisis. between the refugee and the host But the result has been that we community. There is huge potential many risks associated have this Masters programme with a for trouble. The environment is very world‑leading reputation.” harsh. It’s a desert, on which they are with it. You know, it He sees his proudest achievement living in a tent structure.” hasn’t always been an as the department’s graduates. It is no surprise that Sultan “I go around the world and I meet feels the plight of the Syrian easy decision to take ministers, deputy presidents, all sorts refugee so keenly. He is himself a students on field trips to of people who have been through the second‑generation refugee, born course. And you can really see how in Kuwait to displaced Palestinian places like Afghanistan, the education that they received here parents. “After Kuwait we lived has helped them in their day-to-day some time in Jordan, then during Iran, Sri Lanka, Lebanon life and is now being beneficial to the Jordanian Civil War we went to and Bosnia, often in the hundreds of thousands of people.” Lebanon. Then when Lebanon became

unstable we moved back to Jordan. immediate aftermath Man on a mission All my childhood became about of a crisis. But the result surviving the next situation…” Is that what drives him – a has been that we have desire that that should not be other children’s inheritance? “In a funny this Masters programme Find out more about way, yeah,” he says. “I’ve never really with a world-leading Professor Sultan Barakat thought about it in this way before, at www.YorkSpace.net/ but I think it has influenced how I talk reputation.” grapevine/barakat. about conflict and the need to rebuild. 35 “It has taken 40 years for the recognition to come that slavery is basic to British history. We tend to think of it as being exotic, but it isn’t, it’s British ships, British finance, British manufacture, British landholding and a British desire for slave-grown produce

THE PEOPLE BEHIND RESEARCH FEATURE: that drives the whole industry.” The University of York Magazine for Alumni and Friends of The University 36 LUCKY JIM A chance introduction led Professor James Walvin to a slave plantation’s forgotten archive and a celebrated career redefining Britain’s history

hen I first telephone the thousands of times, over the view of Britain’s past and giving to talk to Professor past centuries, that Africans have a history to the descendants of James Walvin been obliged to stand and remain the millions taken from Africa W(History, Alcuin, 1970) he is silent while our national anthem to work as slaves. was being played. I said as much James is an elder statesman rushing out the door to see to the young Anglican cleric sat among York academics. The Archbishop Desmond Tutu next to me, but he looked at me as university was only two year’s giving a service. “You don’t if I’d burst into Greek.” old when he arrived as a young get the chance to say that It’s no excuse for rudeness, postgraduate student in September very often,” he says, but perhaps the young cleric 1965 to do a PhD on radicalism a little breathlessly. did not realise that the bearded in the eighteenth century under middle-aged gentleman who had his mentor Gwyn A Williams. He A week later, wrapped up against been clapping so enthusiastically never imagined that he would the cold of one of those clear but next to him was a world authority stay at the University so long, or bright winter’s days York does so on the Atlantic slave trade and that almost half a century later he well, the semi-retired James the history of Blacks in Britain and and his wife would have retired to enthuses about the York Minster therefore particularly well placed a home in Heworth. ceremony. “Oh it was wonderful,” to make cultural observations That, as James puts it, “slavery he says. “As Tutu entered the of a wintry afternoon. was as basic to the warp and weft congregation of 3,000 rose to a James, Emeritus Professor of of British life, as British as a sweet man and began to applaud – which History at the University of York cup of tea,” was a revelation to him went on for a good five minutes and the recipient of an OBE in the too, when, almost accidentally, he before the other African bishop 2008 New Year’s Honours List, first started doing research in what there – Archbishop Sentamu – has often been in the vanguard. was then seen as a totally specialist motioned for people to sit down. It seems extraordinary in modern field. He was finishing off some “It culminated with the choir multicultural Britain – perhaps postgraduate research in Canada singing Nkosi Sikelel’ iAfrika [Lord especially in the wake of the 2012 when a friend from the Caribbean, Bless Africa, South Africa’s national Olympics – that only half a century Michael Craton, mentioned that he

anthem, formerly an ANC protest ago the impact of the Atlantic had come across a fantastic archive Lucky Jim song]. We were all seated, but slave trade on Britain’s history, of material going back 300 years in when the two Africans stood, economy, cuisine, political and an old plantation house in Jamaica. removed their academic hats and cultural life, was barely taught in “Why don’t we go through it?” bowed, so did the congregation. Britain’s schools and universities. James protested that he barely It was, I thought, an extraordinary James' pioneering research helped had the funds for a flight back to changing of the guard. Think of to change that – repositioning our the UK, let alone a research trip to 37 Jamaica. But Michael found funding nobody’s written a book like this Africa were shipped, after the and James made the first of what that examines the British working- British had abolished slavery, would be many trips to Jamaica. classes' relationship with football’” to South America, especially The result was the landmark book, recalls James. “My wife was ill Brazil, and illegally to other A Jamaica Plantation: The History for a time and I was looking for Caribbean colonies.” of Worthy Park 1670–1970. In 1971 something that wouldn’t take me James now has little day-to- James published Black Presence: far from home, and writing this day connection with the University A documentary history of the book seemed the perfect solution.” of York’s Department of History. Negro in England, which again The People’s Game has never “It’s better not to have too many explored a largely ignored part been out of print in 37 years but old folk around sucking out the of our history that today seems James, a lifelong Manchester oxygen,” he twinkles, but he is integral to our national narrative. United fan, says some academic very supportive from a distance. I mention that, living in South- colleagues have been sniffy “I think it is an absolutely first- East London, I often take my about whether it constitutes real rate Department of History,” young sons to London’s Docklands scholarship. “I’ve been advised he says. “Indeed I am continually Museum and the National Maritime I should take it off my CV,” he impressed by the University overall Museum, where the slave trade says. Even today when the history and how it has kept its end up.” is presented as central to the of leisure activities is seen as The environment that any

THE PEOPLE BEHIND RESEARCH FEATURE: history they recount. “But that a revelatory field of research? bright‑eyed PhD student arrives wouldn’t have been the case even “Maybe not now, but not so at today is almost unrecognisable 20 years ago,” says James, who long ago,” he says. from the one he first knew. “It in 2007 curated an exhibition at The day before we met James was probably, even at York, quite the Houses of Parliament to mark had just delivered another book, a a misogynistic environment,” he the bicentenary of the abolition history of slavery in Brazil, to his says. “There were no female head of slavery. publishers. “That is the emerging of department and few female One of the ironies of slavery area of research now,” he says. lecturers. There was a strong having been ignored as an area “What is often forgotten is that whiff of the officer’s mess about of study is that there is such rich a quarter of the slaves who left academia in those days.” So, archive material to engage with. like Lucky Jim then? “Probably “Because these people were not as stuffy as what Amis was regarded as property there is parodying, but no so very far far more documentation about off. The extent to which women each of them than there is about “Slavery is as British as have improved academia both in your average white person terms of numbers and research living in England in the 18th it is American. I think is almost immeasurable.” century – about whom there is the 2007 Bicentenary James' role would seem to next to nothing,” says James. have been a slightly questioning “There is a record of when they was immensely figure within the establishment. first became slaves and of each “None of this work really matters,” subsequent transaction.” important in making he insists, “when pitched against His work may have involved people see that.” the truly important things in studying some of the greatest life – family and friendship”. miseries that man has subjected He is off to see Manchester United his fellow man to, but there were the next day with his two sons, upsides. “For a while I would try neither of whom has followed and get to the Caribbean every him into academia. winter,” recalls James. “My When I ask him what the colleagues, meanwhile, would be best response he has had to his off to places like Chelmsford and work is, he tells me an anecdote Preston,” he chuckles. off-the-record for fear “that it A sideline from slavery is his sounds ridiculously self-serving,” celebrated writing on the cultural which I later contact him to beg history of sport, The People’s to include. He was at a 2007 Game: A Social History of British reception at 10 Downing Street Football, first published in 1975, but to mark the bicentenary of the since updated several times. It was abolition of slavery, when an partly inspired by the Caribbean elderly black lady approached writer CLR James’s classic study him. “She peered closely at

The University of York Magazine for Alumni and Friends of The University of cricket, Beyond a Boundary. my nametag, then told me, “I would look at that book on my ‘Mr Walvin, I once bought one of shelf and think ‘isn’t it a shame Drawing of slaves working on a plantation your books instead of a chicken.’” 38 Be part of it… YorkSpace.net New design, better browsing and now social

For the 50th Anniversary celebration, magazine (grapevine) online we’ve refreshed YorkSpace.net, with with exclusive features, videos, a new design, new interactive content photo galleries and more. It’s and new tools to make it easier for also optimised for mobile so you you to get connected and continue can catch up on the go or at home. stay in touch. Don’t miss out on both Alongside the development of of these developments. YorkSpace, we’ve also taken this Visit YorkSpace.net today! Fresh design The new layout Simpler menu makes browsing You’re now never more and finding the than a few clicks away content you from any page on the site. want easier. The menu has been optimised to make it easier to browse the site and view its structure.

Social media integration We’ve integrated YorkSpace with social media platforms, making it easy to share your activities on the community with others. Improved Events Booking With over 50 events planned around the globe, YorkSpace has been optimised to improve the events booking process. YorkSpace.net We’ve already improved the ticket confirmation process with venue information and links to social media. Join our new website for alumni

and friends. 39 Eric Westbrook (left) with Mahomed Khatri, who tested the software for developer Sam Twidale (right) 3D CHALLENGE isually impaired alumnus Eric Westbrook (Chemistry, Alcuin, 1972) of 3D Crosswords Limited recently challenged University of York students to develop a computer program to allow a Vcrossword solver for the partially-sighted to tackle a 3D crossword independently. We are delighted to announce that same information that the sighted There is also an issue tracker here Sam Twidale, an undergraduate solver could gain from looking at the to enable users to record any student in the Department of crossword grid. bugs or questions. Sam is happy Computer Science, has created a Eric Westbrook told grapevine: for any programmers who wish program that does just that. “When people suffer eyesight loss to contribute to help out. Sam’s program allows users to this can be devastating and almost select crossword clues, which the inevitably there are activities Speech Application Programming previously enjoyed or just plain Interface (SAPI) on their computer necessary which become a serious 3D Crosswords Limited is a then reads out. The computer will also problem or well nigh impossible. non‑profit organisation which spell out any words that are not clear The blind person does less and less, develops 3D crosswords each or are ambiguous. The solver types and becomes more and more isolated. year. These crosswords are part their answers using the keyboard If there was a Sam Twidale for every of a world championship BBC and these are recorded visually in the such situation more blind people Children in Need Appeal, grid and the table of clues. would feel included and could rejoin generating funds for the appeal The program allows the solver to communities from which they have and The Royal National move to clues affected by solutions been excluded.” Institute of Blind People (RNIB).

The University of York Magazine for Alumni and Friends of The University to hear any letters that already Sam’s code is open source, For more information visit appear in the grid. In this way, the and is available at https://github. www.calendarpuzzles.co.uk. program gives the blind solver the com/Tw1ddle/Blind-Crossword‑3D. 40 Why not try one of Eric’s puzzles for yourself?

3D Cryptic crossword solutions run in the This puzzle notes the 57th anniversary of a nationwide TV three directions shown by the arrows. appearance. Two quotes are found in the highlights in the grid at: 6ac, 8ac, 5aw-3, 10d, 29aw, 2ac-2, 3aw, 12d-3 (3,4,6',3,1,5,3) Across and: 1ac Keeps returning Australian, ultimately, 6ac, 8ac, 21aw-3, 23ac-3, 16ac, 2ac-1, 24ac-6 (3,4,5,6,1,6) for Priscilla Queen of the Desert (7) 6ac,8ac not clued 11ac Unlimited bar after tip (7) 11 16ac Around criminal, thug captured (6) 12 13 20ac Short feature against wine (7) 14 22ac Mistress, for example, is embraced 6 getting this (3-4) 7 8 9 24ac Talk close to receiver, a phone company 10 likes men and women to be included (6) 1 2 3 26ac-2,27aw Bouts of depression, finally nursed 4 by large tablets (6) 5 29ba Large lady reduces McDonalds burger with 'regulars' in meal (3,4) 30ac Tool to flatten joints of meats cooking over ends of stove (7)

Down 1d Mock opening to Springsteen's Born to Run (5) 3d Fallen woman picked up in frost (4) 4d,27aw-3 Having sex, scratching fellow's 22 tackle (7) 23 5d Balls out, maybe prominent (5) 20 6d Plant cocaine inside Yankee, oddly unclad (5) 21 7d Movement replaces section of USA's ancient city (5) 15 16 9d Sex without partners not being casual? (4) 17 18 10d not clued 19 11d Other old-fashioned, topless, beautiful ladies (5) 12d Go mad over belief (5) 13d Fat singer performs for festival? (5) 14d Almost turn up after street parade (5)

Away 1aw Second tee unknown – backing short golfer to make cut (5) 30 3aw Badger tuberculosis spreading? Animals selected primarily from thousands (5) 4aw That man's on about old song? (5)

5aw Marks and Spencer's opening next to school 29 in recess (5) 24

15aw Package extra large in conversation? (5) 25 3D Challenge 26 27 17aw Copying recording, missing introduction (5) 28 18aw Reagan eventually has part for Bulgarian politician (5) 19aw Resistance in bank – one's having a go (5) 24aw Ends trains (5) Don't forget to check your answers at 25aw Underwear against a woman's excellent (5) www.YorkSpace.net/grapevineonline/3D.

28aw First night, United in the red? (5) 41 Origami Campus Wildfowl

Wildfowl have been a consistent feature of the campus landscape and in this edition we’ve put together some origami birds for you to make. You can find the instructions on how to create them online at www.YorkSpace.net/origami. They take five to 15 minutes to make and you can do so using any light paper you might have lying around.

We would love to see your Be sure to visit Duck of the creations, so why not take a Day (www.facebook.com/ picture on your phone or duckoftheday) for daily camera and email them duck delights from the to [email protected] University of York campus. The University of York Magazine for Alumni and Friends of The University or upload them at It has 22,000 fans and www.YorkSpace.net/origami. counting on Facebook. 42 Jonathan Isaby (Language and Linguistics, Wentworth, 1999) On the grapevine Victoria Taylor (Chemistry Management and Industry, Alcuin, 2001) Alumni memories and updates Yvette Taylor (Women's Studies, Derwent, 2002) e have moved this Anthony Collins (Mathematics Hannah Dale (Psychology, section of the magazine with Educational Studies, James, 2003) grapevine Langwith, 1974) Charlotte Santry (English and to online. Politics, Halifax, 2003) WYou can now send your Nichola Renou (English, 1974) Julia Deakin (English with Nicolas Holzapfel (Politics and entries all year round to Educational Studies, Langwith, 1976) Sociology, Alcuin, 2004) alumni@york.ac.uk or William Hughes (Social Gemma Murray (Psychology, complete the contribution on Sciences, Goodricke, 1978) Derwent, 2004) the YAA update form or visit Kiran Kalamdani (Conservation David Hunter (French and YorkSpace.net/yaa-update. Studies, Goodricke, 1989) German, James, 2005) Paul Hardwick (English and Stephanie Dodd (Sociology and This year we have submissions from Art, Langwith, 1992) Social Policy, Langwith, 2006) the following alumni. Head online to Nicola Valentine Catherine Roche read their contributions. (Mathematics, Derwent, 1992) (Chemistry, Vanbrugh, 2007) Robert Waterhouse Li-Yu Huang (Management with General submissions (Archaeology, Langwith, 1993) Business Finance, Halifax, 2007) Harriet Atkinson (English and Esther Harper (French and Alan Armitage (Mathematics and History of Art, Vanbrugh, 1994) Linguistics, Goodricke, 2008) Computer Science, Derwent, 1972) Elizabeth Evenden (English, Samantha Johnston John Weeks (Social Goodricke, 1994) (Biochemistry, Goodricke, 2008) Administration, Alcuin, 1972) Liv Vincendeau (Chemistry, Charlie Thuillier (Applied Social John Williams (Mathematics, Wentowrth, 1998) Science (Crime and Criminal Justice), Alcuin, 1972) Nathan Bentall (Electronic Vanbrugh, 2011) Jonathan Marshall (Biology, Engineering and Music Technology Robyn Ludwig (Film and Alcuin, 1973) Systems, Derwent, 1999) Literature, Wentworth, 2012)

Authors Visit www.YorkSpace.net/alumniauthors for full details of all alumni publications.

Jill Slee Blackadder (English, 1971 ) Niki Valentine (Mathematics, Erin Bell (History, Vanbrugh, 1996) Shetland: Island Guide Derwent, 1992) The Haunted & Ann Gray (Sociology, Wentworth, (Colin Baxter Island Guides) Peter Kennedy (Biology, Alcuin, 1990) Televising History: Mediating Leslie Tate (English, 1971) Frontliners 1984) OCR AS Biology Student Book the Past in Postwar Europe Keith C. Marshall (Chemistry, Derwent, and Exam Café David Tallerman (English, Wentworth, 1972 ) Zen Mischief Photographs: John Welshman (History, Goodricke, 1999) Giant Thief Images from a Space‑Time Warp 1984) Titanic: The Last Night Steve Haines (Philosophy with Peter Robinson (English, 1974) of a Small Town Educational Studies, Wentworth, The Returning Sky Alex White (Editor Only) (English 2000 ) Education, Disability Ambrose Conway (real name and History, Alcuin,1985) and Social Policy David Hughes) (Social Sciences, Can You Manage Stares? Dr Gunda Windmuller (Politics Goodricke, 1978) Resolution: Gaile Walker (Sociology, Langwith, and Sociology, Alcuin, 2003) Book 3: The Reso Trilogy 1990) Beyond Angels Rushing into floods

Julia Blackburn (English, Langwith, Paul Hardwick (English and Art, Rene Wieser (International Corporate On the grapevine 1979 ) Thin Paths: Journeys in and Langwith,1992 ) The Playful Middle and Commercial Law, Alcuin, 2013) around an Italian Mountain Village Ages: Meanings of Play and Plays Liability within Corporate Groups Margaret Makepeace (History, of Meaning, Essays in Memory of Maria Luisa Londoño Arrubla Langwith, 1979) The East India Elaine C. Block AND English Medieval (International Corporate and Company's London Workers: Misericords: The Margins of Meaning Commercial Law, Goodricke, 2013) Management of the Warehouse Kate Allen (English, Langwith, 1992) Breach of Trust in Comparative Law Labourers, 1800–1858 Secrets at City Hospital Jiao Chenjing (International Alison Theaker (Politics, Derwent Natalie Aaron and Marla Schwartz Corporate and Commercial Law, 1980) The Public Relations (Medieval Studies, Vanbrugh, 1995) Wentworth, 2013) Change in Price Handbook (Media Practice) Unscripted and Changed Circumstances 43 Note to my Younger self uring our Anniversary year, we’re asking our former students to get involved in our Note to My Younger Self project to impart advice that they wish they had been Value yourself and use this time to Dgiven when a student at York. learn as much as you can – not just academically, but about yourself as Whether funny, poignant or practical, a common theme of all the well. Make sure that you dream about contributions seems to be that University years are the ones in which you your future. Don’t just expect things should take very opportunity that comes your way. We’d love to hear what to fall into place. You have to create your own success and happiness. others have to say and so urge you to be part of the campaign by writing Jenny Bennett a letter, or brief note to your younger self. You can send this to us by post or complete our online form; just visit www.yorkspace.net/younger-self. (Music, Derwent, 1986) On grapevine Online, you can already read a range of contributions including those from writer and broadcaster Adam Hart‑Davis (DPhil, Chemistry, 1969).

University is not for playing it safe, it Don’t yell at the boys if they Cherish every second for being a young is for probing the very limits of your turn your kitchen into a slip and person blessed with the opportunity to possibilities. It is about independence, slide. Join in, then make them study and enjoy the follies of youth… discovering and redefining yourself in new ways, with different people and clean it up. and PLEASE read carefully the student guide... especially the one written by in strange and exciting situations and Stephanie Thorburn students... it is all true! Have fun while getting a degree along the way. You (Mathematics, Langwith, 2009) can, the job market is a war zone! are young and bright and overflowing with potential. Take some risks. Oh Michael Smernos and for goodness sake dump that boy! (English, Derwent, 2001) Mel Andrews (Philosophy and Politics, Alcuin, 1999) Stay true to yourself, don't try to be someone your not, you are an awesome person as you are and you'll Today, education is not about only end up embarrassing yourself developing skill-sets or understanding, again if you try and fail to be someone but conforming, regurgitating, else. So keep it real (cliché much?), and keeping one’s head down. Look, just stop worrying about all of and work hard (yeah, I know working Conclusion – survive the educational that, get out there and give it your hard sucks right? but it's the best way ordeal, nod, gain approval, and, if best because it turns out okay in to achieve something with your life) one can manage it, worship authority the end. Just stop worrying about but do all this and you'll be as good as as a god. Ability, truth, dedication, whether you’ll miss the destination you can be. understanding is irrelevant. and start to enjoy the journey. Matthew Robinson Mercer James Victoria Lloyd-Adams (Electronics, Derwent, 2010) (Ecology conservation and (Archaeology, Vanbrugh, 2009) Environment, Wentworth, 1998)

It is feminism which will be the most successful revolution of the twentieth century. It’s happening everywhere, Have and not just amongst the tiny elite of girls on this campus. It was going on in the Ford something factories where women are striking for equal pay, and amongst office cleaners in Whitehall. It will continue to enrage and to add? aggravate some men forty years into the future, who fear that with any loss of power Be part of it…

The University of York Magazine for Alumni and Friends of The University they are somehow emasculated. Send in your submission. Linda Grant www.yorkspace.net/ (English with Educational Studies, 1975) younger-self. 44 In memoriam…

Alan Hacker OBE (1939–2012)

suffered a spinal thrombosis that some of the first performances in resulted in permanent paralysis; in modern times on original instruments, typically defiant manner, he embarked such as Beethoven’s 9th Symphony; on a solo career in both contemporary no challenge was too great for him. repertoire – working in ensembles In the mid-1980s Alan decided to try such as the Pierrot Players and Fires to develop his conducting career, of London with Harrison Birtwistle and especially in opera, and left the Peter Maxwell Davies and founding his University though remaining a close own contemporary ensemble Matrix – friend and making guest appearances and early music, setting up and as both player and conductor. He directing the Music Party. played the 2nd movement of Mozart’s In 1976 he was appointed to Clarinet Concerto with the University a lectureship at York and, along Chamber Orchestra at Wilfrid Mellers’ with other staff performers, who memorial concert in 2008 and included the Fitzwilliam String continued to teach several of our Alan Hacker, who taught in the Quartet, Graham Treacher and best clarinetists. Department of Music from 1976 to me, he helped to establish York‘s He was appointed OBE in 1988 1986, died in April 2012, aged 73. reputation for historically informed and gained an honorary doctorate After studying at the Royal Academy performance alongside that for from York in 2004. of Music (RAM) he was appointed, composition and performance aged 19, as clarinetist in the London of contemporary repertoire. Professor Peter Seymour (Music, 1972) Philharmonic Orchestra and a While at York he founded the Department of Music professor at RAM. In 1966 Alan Classical Orchestra and conducted

Bernard Ratigan (1945-2012)

As an openly gay man and a Catholic, He developed Parkinson’s disease his initial application for formal after retirement and had a number psychoanalytic training was refused, of other medical problems. but Bernard was not one to give up He found his disability frustrating and eventually became a practising but was usually able to deal with it psychoanalytic psychotherapist in with humour and a positive outlook. the NHS in Nottingham where he When he was well enough, Bernard remained until his retirement. In 2010 continued to travel and go to the the British Psychoanalytic Council opera and theatre, and (surprisingly honoured him with an award for for some of us) attended matches “outstanding professional leadership” at Welford Road, the home of in keeping the psychoanalytic Leicester Tigers Rugby Team. community aware of its responsibility His time at York was very to the lesbian, gay, bisexual and important to him and the last transgender community and as a conversation we had was when Bernard was one of the first students teacher and critic of psychoanalysis. he rang to make sure I was coming at York in 1963 and studied Social In the early '80s he had met Paul to the 50th Anniversary reunion. Sciences, specialising in Sociology. who became his civil partner, and I will miss him as will many

At York his musical abilities involved whom he remained happily with others whose lives he touched. In memoriam… him in a range of activities. He sang, for the rest of his life. as I did in “The Clouded Star” After retirement he continued Alison Richards (nee Symons) which was performed at the first New working and was always active in (Sociology, Derwent, 1966) Universities Festival at Keele in 1964. writing and speaking on issues such (The Guardian described the singing as the contested space between as ‘faultless and show stopping’). psychoanalysis, religious belief, Visit www.YorkSpace.net/ In the early 70s he moved to sexuality and the arts. He was also grapevine/obits for other alumni Loughborough University to develop involved in politics and the community and staff announcements. 45 their student counselling service. in Leicester where he and Paul lived. Be part of it… timeline!

In November 2012, we called out to the University community for contributions to our web based Timeline, a digital image gallery of the history of the University, using photographs, documents and video collected from alumni, staff, students and the Borthwick Archives.

Log on to www.YorkSpace.net/timeline own memories. You can also email and you can explore a visual history of images that you’d like to be included your time at York; there are images of to [email protected], post photos record-breaking attempts, events to us or, if you live close by, visit us at organised by clubs, societies and the Alumni House. If you have friends who Students’ Union sporting challenges have not received information about and many others – all of which are our Timeline, please share this link: organised by year. We’ve had www.YorkSpace.net/timeline. submissions dating from 1963 through Images on this page can all be to 2012 and we’d love to continue viewed on the timeline… building on this archive, especially with images from the '90s. Do you have any photos that you’re willing to share? Please visit the Timeline, reminisce about friends and events, and add your

Be part of it… Visit the Timeline directly from your smartphone.

Timeline features n Browse over submissions from alumni. n Submit your own items.

The University of York Magazine for Alumni and Friends of The University n Comment on posts. n View videos, images and documents. 46 Be part of it… T imeline

We’ve had submissions dating from 1963 through to 2012 and we’d love to continue building on this archive, especially with 47 images from the ‘90s 1963 1964 1965 1966 1967 2013

1973 1974 1975 1976 1977

1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 The University of York Alumni Magazine of The University

1993 1994 1995 1996 1997

2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 www.YorkSpace.net/grapevineonline