ISSUE 37 AUTUMN 2012 resource The Newsle8er of Scotland’s Na7onal Academy Former President of Ireland, Mary McAleese was admi8ed as an Honorary Fellow of the RSE at the ASM in October 2012. She is pictured in front of the new exhibi7on ‘From Maxwell to Higgs’ with Professor Peter Higgs, who was awarded a specially-commissioned medal at the mee7ng. More details inside ... Images courtesy of Gary Doak Also featured in this issue: Visit of HRH The Duke of Edinburgh The RSE Class of 2012 RSE Young Academy of Scotland – one year on resource AUTUMN 2012 From James Clerk Maxwell’s Electromagne7c Equa7ons, through to Albert Einstein’s Special Theory of Rela7vity and on to the more recent Standard Model of Par7cle Physics, the exhibi7on charts a history that brings us up to date with the latest findings at the Large Hadron Collider. The display, housed in the Upper Gallery at the RSE’s own historic premises, opened with a private viewing by His Royal Highness The Duke of Edinburgh on the occasion of the Royal Medals Presenta7on, 26 September 2012. The Royal Society of Edinburgh, in collabora7on with the University of Edinburgh’s School of Physics and Astronomy, has created an exhibi7on that celebrates the recent discovery at CERN of a new par7cle consistent with the Higgs boson. “From Maxwell to Higgs” shows the important role Peter Higgs has played, whilst also highligh7ng the historic Peter Higgs FRS FRSE, standing in the 27-km LHC collider ring at CERN. discoveries and theories that have influenced current thinking about In recogni7on of the existence of such a par7cle. his outstanding work that led to the recent announcement by scien7sts at CERN, Professor Higgs was awarded a specially- commissioned medal at the RSE Annual Statutory Mee7ng on 1 October 2012. Professor Sir John Arbuthno8, President of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, said Professor Higgs’ theore5cal work has long been recognised as a crucial step towards a unified theory of the forces HRH The Duke of Edinburgh is pictured of Nature and for this he was one of the first recipients of the Royal viewing the exhibi7on with Professor Alan Medal – the RSE’s highest honour – in 2000. I am delighted that Walker of the Par7cle Experiments Group twelve years later, in light of the work being carried out at CERN to at Edinburgh’s School of Physics, who confirm his theories, the Society is once again able to give its helped to create the exhibi7on along with congratula5ons and recogni5on to Professor Higgs with this Professor David Saxon OBE FRSE (not pictured). commemora5ve medal. Professor Higgs’ achievements have shaped Man’s understanding of Nature at the most fundamental level. 2 resource AUTUMN 2012 Young Academy of Scotland One Year On ..... Next month marks a year since the official launch of the RSE Young Academy of Scotland. The Young Academy was formed by the RSE with a mission to: Foster interdisciplinary ac5vi5es among emerging leaders from the disciplines of science and humani5es, the professions, the arts, business and civil society. Established by the Royal Society of Edinburgh in 2011, the Young Academy provides a pla6orm for able and innova7ve young entrepreneurs, professionals and academics to develop a coherent and influen7al voice, and to address the most challenging issues facing society in Scotland and beyond. Since its incep7on, the sixty-eight founding members of the Young Academy have begun to iden7fy some of these key issues, around which they will build a coherent programme of projects. A&er only a year, members of the Young Academy are engaged across a spectrum of issues. Members produced a response to the Sco9sh Government’s consulta7on paper “Your Scotland, Your Referendum” and will con7nue to inves7gate the issues surrounding proposed reforms to the Sco9sh cons7tu7on. The sharing of It would not have been possible to have The Young Academy is part of a growing scien7fic research also came under reached this stage had it not been for the interna7onal movement, but the first of scru7ny in a response to the Royal vision and ongoing support of the its kind in the UK. It will con7nue to grow Society’s Call for Evidence, “Science as Fellows and staff of the RSE in se9ng up over the coming years with an annual a Public Enterprise”. Developing areas the Young Academy. In addi7on, the recruitment of new members. A call for the of ac7vity include engaging with the Young Academy of Scotland is delighted second cohort of members was launched current changes in educa7onal prac7ce to have secured addi7onal financial in September and the outcome of that within Scotland as part of the support from the Sco9sh universi7es, call will be announced in the near future. which will allow the membership to Curriculum for Excellence; bringing And finally, congratula7ons to Dr Nicola par7cipate fully in its ac7vi7es. As the together members from the various Stanley-Wall, Dr Sharon Ashbrook and members of the Young Academy are sectors represented in the Young Dr Rob Jenkins, recipients of the RSE’s distributed across the whole of Scotland, Academy to propose ac7vi7es under Early-Career Prizes and all members of this support will be invaluable in ensuring a Health and Wellbeing theme; and the Young Academy. iden7fying prac7cal ways to capitalise the ac7vi7es and outcomes reflect this on the recommenda7ons from the RSE’s distribu7on. In addi7on, the first AGM If you would like to contact the Young recent “Tapping all our Talents” Report to of the Young Academy was held in Academy, email: widen par7cipa7on by women and other Aberdeen in September, with the joint [email protected] underrepresented groups in STEM. support of the University of Aberdeen or contact Dr Lesley Campbell (Young Many of these projects are at the earliest and Aberdeen City Council. If you would Academy Manager): stages, but the Young Academy is like to learn more about the work of the [email protected] Young Academy, or to find out how to commi8ed to making an impact through Updates on progress of Young Academy support this, please email: its developing por6olio of ac7vi7es. ac7vi7es are available on the website at: [email protected] www.youngacademyofscotland.org.uk 3 resource AUTUMN 2012 Scotland’s Research Talent Cormack Vaca7on Research Lessells Travel Scholarships CRF European Travel Fellowships Scholarships – Visits to Europe Liliana Acosta Alvarez David Edwards Bioelectronics Research Centre, Dr Maud Anne School of Physics and Astronomy, University of Glasgow Bracke University of Glasgow Microfluidic pla4orm for cell trapping School of Humani7es/ Inves5ga5ng non-standard cosmological and separa5on to generate ar5ficial History,University models with gravita5onal wave 5ssues for biomedical applica5ons of Glasgow standard sirens Visi7ng: Division of Health Sciences Women and the and Technology, Harvard-MIT, USA Alistair Hodson re-inven5on of the Department of Physics, Pamela Anderson poli5cal: the Italian feminist movement in University of Aberdeen Advanced Space an interna5onal perspec5ve (1966–1983) Are core collapse supernovae powered Concepts Laboratory, Visi7ng: Department of History and by scalar gravita5onal waves? Department of Civilisa7on, European University Samuel Irvine Mechanical and Ins7tute, Florence, Italy Aerospace Engineering, Ins7tute for Astronomy, Dr Bernade8e O’Rourke University of Strathclyde University of Edinburgh Department of Languages and The Orbital Dynamics of Advanced Assessing Habitability in Large Exoplanet Intercultural Studies, Heriot-Wa8 University Planetary Observation Systems Datasets using Simple Climate Models New Speakers of Galician Visiting: Mission Design and Navigation, Visi7ng: Department of Galician Aron Krausz NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory/California Linguis7cs and Language Planning, School of Physics and Astronomy, Institute of Technology, USA Ins7tute for Astronomy, University of Vigo, Spain James Charles Calvey University of Edinburgh Professor Stephen Partridge School of Engineering and the Built Resolving Stellar Popula5on of Two Research Office, Duncan of Jordanstone Environment, Edinburgh Napier University Nearby Starburst Galaxies College of Art & Design, IntelliBike: monitoring the condi5on of University of Dundee Juraj Sabol cycling infrastructure Video Art in Italy 1968–1994 School of Visi7ng: Laboratory for Engineering Visi7ng: Dipar7mento Comunicazione e Mathema7cs and Mechanics, Del& University of Spe8acolo, Roma Tre, Sta7s7cs, University Technology, Netherlands of St Andrews Universita Degli Studi, Rome, Italy Kyle Crombie A Non-Linear Dr Myrto Tsaka7ka UK Biochar Research Centre, School of Force-Free Field School of Social and Poli7cal Sciences, Geoscience, University of Edinburgh Model of the Quiet University of Glasgow Inves5ga5ng the effect of pyrolysis Sun Corona The weakest link: changing pa6erns of produc5on condi5ons on the stability party compe55on and the poli5cs of biochar of protest in Southern Europe Visi7ng: Department of Crop and Soil Visi7ng: Centre for the Advanced Study Science, Cornell University, Ithaca, of the Social Sciences, New York, USA Carnegie Caledonian Juan March Founda7on, Madrid, Spain Scholarships Konstan7nos Margaris Department of Bioengineering, Piotr Jacobsson University of Strathclyde Sco9sh Universi7es Study of physiological fluid flow in the Environmental lympha5c system using experimental CRF Personal Research Research Centre, and mathema5cal methods Fellowship in Biomedical Sciences University of Glasgow Visi7ng: Department of Biomedical Da5ng Sco7sh