University Campus Suffolk
Bill Tancred
A former athlete who represented Great Britain in the discus at two Olympic Games has been appointed director of sport and visiting professor of sports leadership at University Campus Suffolk. Bill Tancred, who also won a bronze and a silver medal at the 1970 and 1974 Commonwealth Games respectively, pursued a career in academia as he "didn't want to be known as just a discus thrower who threw the discus for Britain". "Sport and education have given me a wonderful life and it's nice to put something back with all the experiences I've had," he added. After completing national service, Professor Tancred went to Loughborough College (now part of Loughborough University) for teacher training before taking a master's in human biology and sports psychology. He completed his doctorate in sports management at West Virginia University in the US and has held positions at the University of Sheffield and Bucks New University. Professor Tancred believes the 2012 Olympics will be significant for university sport. "It's nice to see my former university (Loughborough) is now the headquarters for Team GB at the Olympic Games," he said.
Dino Bouchlaghem
The head of architecture at Nottingham Trent University's School of Architecture, Design and the Built Environment said it was the "multidisciplinary nature" and "the freedom of creativity with scientific objectivity" that attracted him to the discipline. Dino Bouchlaghem joins Nottingham Trent from Loughborough University, where he was professor of architectural engineering and director of the Centre for Innovative and Collaborative Construction Engineering. He said that his academic interest began in the latter stages of his architecture studies at the University of Constantine in Algeria. "I noticed the lack of scientific and technical consideration by architects while developing design concepts," he said. "That's when I first thought about an initial hypothesis that drove my curiosity for academic research." Along with raising his discipline's profile, he said that improving the student experience after the introduction of £9,000 tuition fees would be crucial. "At the same time as meeting their expectations, enhancing the student experience will attract [better] applications," he said. Professor Bouchlaghem has previously held academic posts at the University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology (now part of the University of Manchester) and the University of Glamorgan.
Gayle Nicholson
The University of Leicester has appointed a glass-blower who said that she was one of the "few lucky people" to be working in their ideal career. Gayle Nicholson, who has 14 years' experience in the industry, will provide a variety of services to the university, including repairs, alterations and general glassware maintenance. Ms Nicholson said she landed her first glass-blowing job "just by accident - I saw it advertised in the paper". She began her career at the University of Glasgow, training and working at the Scottish Universities Environmental Research Centre. There she took a HNC qualification in applied science so that her "skills would be used right across the university". She moved to the University of Hull in 2009 to help rebuild its glass-blowing service after floods in 2007 had destroyed the entire facility. Ms Nicholson believes that glass-blowers play a vital role at universities, and said her work unites science and art. "I cannot imagine one without the other," she said. "It involves a lot of problem-solving - someone will come to you with an idea looking for your input. You have to be quite creative: you're trying to work together on a piece with no precedent, and coming up with something bespoke."
St George's, University of London
Adrian Clark
The new dean of research and enterprise at St George's, University of London hopes to "advance the quality of research across the board" at the institution. Adrian Clark, currently professor of medicine and endocrinology and deputy director of the William Harvey Research Institute at Queen Mary, University of London, said that "for a long time, my feelings have been that St George's really punches below its weight in terms of research. It should be a much bigger player in the research field, in my view." Professor Clark graduated from Barts and The London School of Medicine and Dentistry with a degree in medicine, before spending five years at the National Institutes of Health in the US, which he said was a "career-informing experience". He returned to hold a number of positions at Barts before rising to his current post. "I've spent much of my working life in mainline medical research. This was a move into more strategic research work," Professor Clark said. "I've been looking at individual research strengths and there are some very good, internationally leading researchers here who aren't making the headlines in the way they should be. To boost [our] reputation, that's really my aim."
Other changes
John Greenman, professor of tumour immunology at the University of Hull, has been awarded the Heart Research UK Outstanding Researcher Award for developing technology used in the study of heart tissue. The award recognises pioneering medical research into heart disease.
The University of Greenwich has appointed author and critic Adam Mars-Jones as visiting lecturer in creative writing. Mr Mars-Jones will give weekly classes to undergraduate and postgraduate students in the School of Humanities and Social Sciences.
A University of Bristol academic has been asked to join the Research Advisory Committee of the Alzheimer's Society. Pat Kehoe, reader in translational dementia research, has been studying the disease for more than 16 years. Dr Kehoe also co-leads the Dementia Research Group at Frenchay Hospital in Bristol.
Colin Grant has been appointed pro vice-chancellor for internationalisation at the University of Bath. Professor Grant, currently pro vice-chancellor for international relations at the University of Surrey, will oversee development and implementation of Bath's international strategy.
The University of Glasgow has announced that Dirk Husmeier has been made chair of statistics. Professor Husmeier was previously principal researcher in statistical bioinformatics at Biomathematics and Statistics Scotland. He will aim to strengthen collaboration between Glasgow's mathematics and computer sciences schools.
Deborah Green, former chief executive of Marketing Leeds, has joined Leeds Metropolitan University as director of marketing. A qualified solicitor, she was a lecturer and later associate director at the College of Law, and holds an honorary doctorate from the Russian Academy of Justice.