Sent on behalf of Professor Perumal Nithiarasu, Associate Dean for Research, Innovation and Impact

Dear Colleagues,

Please read below about some of the Faculty’s most recent success stories. We would particularly like to see more from our Professional Services staff for the next email! 

STUDENT SUCCESSES

PhD success!

Congratulations to Tobias Rosenberger who recently passed his PhD entitled: 'Institution-based Semantics and Tool Support for the UML'.

Tobias did a joint PhD with Grenoble and his supervisors were Professor Markus Roggenbach, Swansea, and Professor Saddek Bensalem, Grenoble.

Biosciences student attends COP27 as a youth delegate

MSc Environmental Biology student Betty Jahateh was recently sponsored by the Sustainable Ocean Alliance (SOA) to attend the COP27 United Nations Climate Change Conference in Sharm El Sheikh as a youth delegate. Betty was one of eight delegates from all around the world, eager to advocate for youth representation during this annual global climate conversation. 

Betty is the Program Director of the GREAT Institute, the first marine and coastal sciences research Institute in The Gambia. Betty has led several SOA-funded projects, spanning from waste reduction, education and research, and environmental restoration.

STAFF NEWS

Technocamps keeps on winning!

STEM Inspiration Award:

Technocamps has been selected as a winner for a STEM Inspiration Award in the Outstanding Contribution to Widening Participation, Diversity and Inclusion in STEM category. This category recognises individuals, groups, organisations and companies who have encouraged diversity and inclusion within STEM. Professor Faron Moller received the award at the House of Lords from Baroness Brown on behalf of the Technocamps team.

Best Practices in Education Award:

Organised by Informatics Europe and sponsored by Microsoft, the Best Practices in Education Award was presented at a special ceremony on 25 October 2022, during the 18th European Computer Science Summit (ECSS 2022), an in-person event in Hamburg, Germany.

Professor Faron Moller, Director of Technocamps, received the Award on behalf of their programme. 

Technocamps, is pan-Wales STEM outreach programme founded and based at Swansea University and with a hub in every single university in Wales, UK. It was established in recognition of the challenges to keep up with advances in digital education faced by the nation's schools, teachers, job seekers and businesses.

Professor awarded the Menelaus Medal

Congratulations to Professor Kenneth Morgan, Civil Engineering, who has received the Menelaus Medal from the Learned Society of Wales which celebrates excellence in Engineering.

Professor Morgan has worked for many decades on developing computer models for engineering analysis. This has had particular impact on the way in which aerospace industries use computer simulation for design and analysis. 

He said: “I am honoured and privileged to have received this prestigious award. Computational engineering is now widely used in industry to guide the process of creating new designs."

Read more

S4 wins the STEM Educational Programme of the Year

Congratulations to Professor Mary Gagen, Geography, Dr Will Bryan, Physics, and the S4 project team (Swansea University Science for Schools Scheme) which has won the STEM Educational Programme of the Year (Public Sector) prize at the Wales STEM Awards. The Science for Schools Scheme provides free, hands-on workshops to young people in South Wales to nurture curiosity & engagement with science.

BBC Radio Wales Science Cafe

Professor Chris Allton, Physics and Professor Emily Shepard, Biosciences, recently took part in a BBC Radio Wales Science Café discussion on Oriel Science and the current exhibitions. 

Listen here

Geographers in the Antarctic!

Professors Adrian Luckman and Bernd Kulessa are in Antarctica until Christmas undertaking fieldwork on the Larsen C Ice Shelf on the Antarctic Peninsula as part of a NERC funded project. They will be using hot-water borehole drilling and all manner of geophysical techniques to understand how a region of the ice shelf inhibits fracture, allowing it to grow to its current size.

Adrian Luckman was also acknowledged in the recent Frozen Planet 2 series for providing a satellite image sequence on ice retreat.

The Big Heart Bike Ride update

Sue Phillips from the Faculty Finance Team, has returned from Tanzania after undertaking a gruelling 450km cycling challenge which began at the foot of Mount Kilimanjaro and finishing at the postcard-perfect white-sand bays and gentle blue shores of Zanzibar.

Sue and her fellow cyclists raise thousands of pounds to support heart charities and cardiac wards across the UK. Well done Sue!

Appointments

Academic becomes member of the Royal Society of Chemistry

Dr Sanjiv Sharma, Biomedical Engineering, has been invited to become a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC) in recognition of his work in the field of the chemical sciences, in this instance the field of transdermal diagnostics.

Sanjiv been a member of the (RSC) since 2004 and was recognised by the RSC and Science Council in 2006 when he was granted Chartered Chemist (CChem) and Chartered Scientist status.

Congratulations to Dr Laura Roberts, Biosciences and Professor Matthew Davies, Chemical Engineering. Laura been awarded a Principal Fellowship of the Higher Education Academy and Matthew was recently appointed as President Elect of the Royal Society of Chemistry’s Environment Sustainability and Energy Community.  

ZIENKIEWICZ LECTURE 2022

Sir Jim McDonald delivers Zienkiewicz Lecture

On 9th November, Swansea University welcomed guest speaker Professor Sir Jim McDonald as it hosted the sixth Zienkiewicz Lecture.

The talk entitled ‘A Whole Systems Approach to achieving Net Zero: a 21st Century Energy System’ examined the need to redesign and implement a new energy system that embeds net zero objectives in supply and demand to address the challenge of climate change. 

The venue was the National Waterfront Museum, Swansea, and the event was a great success with 120 people attending in person plus a virtual audience who watched the live stream!

Professor Sir Jim McDonald, Principal and Vice Chancellor of the University of Strathclyde, and President of the Royal Academy of Engineering.

Watch the lecture here

INAUGURAL LECTURES

Professor Cindy Froyd

Professor Cindy Froyd, Biosciences, will be delivering her inaugural lecture titled ‘Long-term ecology of the Galapagos Islands: applications to present-day conservation’ on 7th December, 2pm, Wallace Lecture Theatre.

Past Inaugural lectures can be viewed here

Register here

GRANTS

Congratulations to the following Biosciences staff who have been awarded NERC grants in the Exploring the Frontiers call: 

Dr Kayleigh Rose, Professor Emily Shepard and Professor Luca Borger, Dr Jim Bull, Dr Mike Fowler and Dr Richard Unsworth. 

Other grant successes:

Dr Konstans Wells and Dr Tamsyn Webster, Biosciences, who have been awarded a Royal Society Equipment grant.

Dr Will Allen and Professor Tariq Butt, Biosciences, who have been awarded BBSRC funding.

Professor Neil Loader, Geography, who has won a Marsden Fund research grant with Dr Gretel Boswijk from the University of Auckland. 

Professor Gert Aarts and the researchers from the Particle Physics and Cosmology Theory research group have been awarded a STFC grant of £1.6 million. 

KEEP IN TOUCH!

If you are aware of any recent achievements to share, either for yourself or for any members of your team, we would love to hear about them!  We’re interested in stories from academic and professional services communities. Please email any news to Anna Ratcliffe (a.c.ratcliffe@swansea.ac.uk). Deadline for submissions: 15th of each month.

If you would like to promote a research event on the FSE Events webpage, please contact fse-reception@swansea.ac.uk

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