University of Kent Volume 3, Issue 4 Summer 2010 Sciences@Kent Earth from Orion: Scott James’ Final YearProject James’Orion: Final Scott from Earth Inside this issue: View From the Dean’s Office Kent’s First European 2 Prizes, grant, publications—all this won almost £1m in Enterprise Council Award and graduation too! The summer related grants in the last year. And is a busy time. The exams were sat reaching out to the broader New Health Strategy for 4 (by the students) and marked (by community is also going strong, Kent the staff). Results are out with Outreach activities hit a peak another bumper year of around the start of Mission to Improve Can- 5 success. I hope to see all summer and young cer Treatments the students and staff at people pour onto graduation . the campus. And Celebrated Career in 6 we support so Science—Professor Alan Meanwhile, Professor A model peptide that shows how much more than chemical modification (lower image) can Chadwick Spurgeon has won a just visits. The result in conformation change major prize. Other Maths Teacher Project: Chemical and structural colleagues are winning prizes: our Google Studentship for 9 Scholarships (page 7) are another integrity of proteins in the glassy state – students are winning prizes and Computing Postgraduate example of our impact on the Protein formulation and stability grants are being won as well. community. This project was a joint collaboration Published Papers 12 Grants are the lifeblood of between Professor Mark Smales, research in the Sciences, so So enjoy the summer. As you read Professor of Mammalian Biotechnology , winning them is vital. There are this, you will see how much we do, and Dr. Mark J. Howard, Senior Lecturer Grants 16 increasing opportunities for and get a sense of how much we in Biomolecular NMR Spectroscopy. getting help with grant benefit the world by doing it. preparation, so please take Outreach Activities 19 All the best advantage of them. Enterprise activity is also an increasing Mark feature in the Faculty. We have Science is not just about Bunsen Burners... Honeywell International Medal awarded to Professor • Front Page Banner Image: Sarah Spurgeon Earth from Orion—Scott James’ Final Year Project P11 Professor Sarah Spurgeon, Head of the School of Engineering and Digital Arts at the University of Kent, • South African Police receive has been awarded the 2010 Honeywell International training from Kent ScientistsP2 Medal in recognition of her outstanding contribution to control theory and systems engineering. • Science Extravaganza P3 The Honeywell Medal commemorates the granting of a Royal Charter to the Institute of Measurement and • Maths Teacher Scholarships P7 Control (InstMC) and is awarded annually to a chartered measurement and control technologist – • Scientists Survey the Galactic described in the Royal Charter as a person engaged in Plane P8 the discipline of measurement and control and who Professor Sarah Spurgeon—full story may be a scientist, engineer or a mathematician. page 6 Sciences@Kent Volume 3, Issue 4 Pa ge 2 Professor Lord May of Oxford Gives Talk at Kent Professor Lord May of Oxford, OM, AC, Kt, FRS visited Kent in early July to give the opening talk of the second International Statistical Ecology Conference organised by the National Centre for Statistical Ecology. The conference took place in the Woolf Lecture Theatre and was opened by the Vice-Chancellor, Professor Dame Julia Goodfellow. Lord May delivered his talk entitled: ‘Statistics, networks and banking systems’ to a packed auditorium. Robert, Lord May of Oxford, OM AC Kt FRS, was President of the Royal Society 2000-2005, and Chief Scientific Adviser to the UK Government and Head of its Office of Science and Technology 1995-2000. An undergraduate chemical engineer, he has held a Personal Chair in Theoretical Physics at Sydney University, the Class of 1877 Chair in Zoology at Princeton, and a Royal Society Research Professorship at Oxford and Imperial College. A systems biologist before the term became 'fashionable', his research interests include ecology, evolution and infectious diseases. Lord May gave an overview of the advances in our understanding of the interplay between network patterns Professor Lord May of Oxford, and effective control measures, ecosystem resilience and the overall stability of financial markets. OM, AC, Kt, FRS Byron Morgan, Professor of Applied Statistics at the University's School of Mathematics, Statistics and Actuarial Science, said: “Climate change and loss of biodiversity are just two reasons why statistical ecology is so important at present. We are delighted that Lord May presented the opening address.” Kent’s First European Scientists Train South Research Council Award African Police Service Kent has won its first prestigious European Research Dr Chris Solomon and Dr Stuart Gibson from the Council Award. Adrian Podoleanu, Professor of School of Physical Sciences travelled to Pretoria Biomedical Optics and Head of the Applied Optics earlier this year to deliver a two week training course Group in the School of Physical Sciences, has been to South Africa’s top 10 facial sketch artists. The visit awarded €2M for research entitled: ‘Combined time was to deliver training in the use of Vision Metric’s domain and spectral domain coherence gating for software that was purchased by the South African imaging and biosensing (COGATIMABIO)’. Police Service last year. The course was organised in collaboration with Superintendant Meliza Pretorius, The Vice-Chancellor, Professor Dame Julia National Coordinator for Facial Identification in the Goodfellow, congratulated Professor Podoleanu on South African Police Service, and provided an Professor Adrian Podoleanu his achievement. She said: “this is a substantial intensive and thorough orientation of the system. grant—perhaps the biggest individual research award that Kent has ever received—and is a great In addition to teaching all the required detail on the honour for Adrian, the School and the University. I effective use of the E-Fit and E-Fit-V software, Dr appreciate all the work he has done in preparing the Solomon and Dr Gibson also spent time training the application, and of course the excellent research group on effective interview techniques with respect upon which it is based.” to facial ID. Dr Gibson said: “We were very impressed by the competence and dedication of the South The research, funded by the European Research African facial composite operators/artists. Over the Council Award, will take place over the next five duration of our stay, it became clear to us that years. training programmes undertaken by police officers in the UK are regarded as second to none by police services worldwide.” Sciences@Kent Volume 3, Issue 4 Pa ge 3 Honeywell International Medal Award Mr Alex Savage, a 3rd Year Alex worked for a local company in person before either releasing the Computer Systems Engineering Kent during his Industrial lock or refusing access. student, in the School of Placement Year and became The project was Alex’s own idea Engineering and Digital Arts, is this involved in supporting their range and he has developed the RF year's recipient of the Honeywell of security products. He decided to circuitry, the embedded hardware Award for Outstanding Academic build on this experience through and software as well as the PC Achievement from the Institute of his final year project in which he software. Measurement and Control. developed a ‘Contactless Security System using RFID’. The system This project covers a wide range of Alex was nominated by Professor uses a microcontroller-based technologies and has required a Yong Yan, the School’s Chair of the reader within the door locking great deal of research in various Alex Savage Instrumentation, Control and mechanism to read the RFID areas. The prototype system has Embedded Systems Research (Radio Frequency Identification) been constructed to a very high Group and Fellow of the Institute tag of the person attempting to standard and the device is of of Measurement of Control. The gain access, contacting a remote considerable interest to the local award was for the work Alex did in SQL (Structured Query Language) company who will be able to take his Final Year Project. His project Server via an Ethernet Link to the prototype system into supervisor, Winston Waller, check on the security status of the production. provided the citation. Science Extravaganza Students from 15 local schools in which explained the science of students visited the campus over the Kent area enjoyed a Science facial identification and the two days. We always receive Extravaganza at the University of demonstrate how advanced facial excellent feedback from the Kent’s Canterbury campus on 6 recognition software can be used. schools and students. Previous and 7 July. The students then took part in participants have praised the workshops held by all the Schools University staff and described the The Extravaganza provided an in the Faculty of Sciences. day as a life changing experience insight into the worlds of science which makes them view science in and technology. The Year-eight Jane Anderson, Partnership a whole new way.” students had an opportunity to Development Officer at the experience a number of practical University, said: “The event The participating schools included: activities, ranging from extracting organised by the University’s The Howard School, Strood DNA from peas in the Biosciences Faculty of Sciences and Academy, Queen Elizabeth's laboratories to trialling forensic Partnership Development Office Grammar School, Spires Academy, techniques used by crime scene has become so popular that this Chaucer Technology School, investigators. year we have expanded it to two Maidstone Girls Grammar, Thomas days to accommodate more Aveling and Dartford Technology During the mornings, students schools. Nearly 500 Year-eight College. attended a “Making Faces” lecture Professor of Pharmacology Presents Inaugural Lecture Alistair Mathie, Professor of molecular and cellular firing of mammalian neurons.