Appointments

Monash/University of Warwick

Andrew Coats

The new academic alliance between Monash University and the University of Warwick has appointed Andrew Coats to the inaugural positions of academic vice-president and director of the Monash-Warwick Alliance strategy. "I have known and respected Monash and Warwick for a long time, so I was very excited," Professor Coats said. "There is a great match here; both are young and dynamic and enormously ambitious in a good way. The alliance has the potential to be a game-changer in how universities do business glo-bally and to be at the heart of that change is a dream job for me." Most recently chief executive officer of Norwich Research Park and professor-at-large at the University of East Anglia, Professor Coats has said that the desire of both universities is to "work together to promote the highest-quality global research links", to attract the "best research stars in the areas the alliance is strongest, and to address global challenges by bringing together the best of Northern and Southern hemisphere thinking". Professor Coats studied at the universities of Oxford and Cambridge, Imperial College London and London Business School and has held positions at the University of Sydney, the Chinese University of Hong Kong and Humboldt University in Berlin, as well as Imperial and Oxford.

University Campus Suffolk

Stuart Bannerman

The director of the International Academy at the University of Essex, Stuart Bannerman, has been seconded to University Campus Suffolk (UCS) to take up the position of director of international. In his role, Mr Bannerman will take responsibility for the advancement of the international agenda at the institution, working with other directors and the heads of school to deliver its aims with regard to internationalisation of the curriculum, distance learning and student recruitment. "UCS has developed rapidly over the past five years and is looking closely at how it can internationalise and move into new markets, and I am pleased to be playing a leading role in this." He added that the strategy "has to be moving towards [making the college] the University of Suffolk". "The question is: 'how fast do we want to get there?'" he added. "I have seen Queen Margaret [University] in Edinburgh go through that journey to a very successful university and I'm sure excellent foundations have already been laid in UCS." Mr Bannerman studied at the University of Edinburgh, but maintains that one of his most important educational experiences came from an international marketing course where he learned to ask "some very hard questions about why an institution would be attractive to overseas students".

University of Bath

Mark Weller

The University of Bath has appointed Mark Weller as professor in energy materials in the department of chemistry. Professor Weller, who was previously at the University of Southampton, said he was pleased to be joining a university and department "whose objectives fitted with those of my research so well". "[This is] a great opportunity to develop new collaborations and areas of research but also a chance to develop my education role through textbook writing within a thriving university environment," he said. Along with his research and teaching responsibilities, Professor Weller will be completing the forthcoming sixth edition of the Oxford University Press textbook Inorganic Chemistry, on which he is the coordinating author. "Research-wise, I hope to make that breakthrough that makes a real difference to energy production or storage," he said of his aims at Bath. "But, if not, at least to get the community to think differently about the way they approach problems in this area. A lot of research in the UK is becoming highly focused and derivative to follow the funding; to make the necessary step changes, some more radical ideas need to be pursued." Professor Weller studied for his undergraduate and doctoral degrees at the University of Oxford. After a short postdoctoral stint there, he went to Southampton as a lecturer and stayed for years.

Newcastle University

John Wilson

The new director of Newcastle University Business School believes universities have a responsibility to make their work applicable to the rest of society. John Wilson, who joins from the University of Liverpool where he was professor of strategy at the Management School, said: "Business schools or universities can't operate in an academic bubble any more. We need to make ourselves relevant, not just to business practitioners and the public sector, but also to persuade politicians and the key policymakers at local, national and international levels that we have something to offer." Professor Wilson has three aims: to make Newcastle's Business School "regionally significant", to follow on from that in terms of UK significance, and "internationally, we should be seen as a contributor to the whole process of globalisation". He has held a number of senior management positions, running research institutes at the universities of Leeds and Nottingham, and he was director of research during the last research assessment exercise at the University of Central Lancashire.

OTHER CHANGES

Liverpool Hope University has made a number of appointments in the Faculty of Arts and Humanities. Claudia Brazzale, a professional performance artist and visiting lecturer in dance studies at Princeton University, has joined as a postdoctoral teaching fellow in dance. Ruth Kircher, who has taught at numerous colleges of the University of London including Queen Mary, Birkbeck and the School of Oriental and African Studies, and Marije van Hattum, who was previously at the University of Salford, have both joined as postdoctoral teaching fellows in English language. Gergely Juhász, previously senior librarian in the Faculty of Theology at the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, has joined as lecturer in biblical studies. His main areas of expertise are early modern Bible translation, afterlife beliefs and biblical anthropology. And Oliver Carman has joined as a postdoctoral teaching fellow in electroacoustic music. Dr Carman completed a PhD in electroacoustic composition in 2011 at the University of Manchester. His primary output is acousmatic, music composed specifically for diffusion through multiple loudspeakers, but he also has an interest in mixed music and more recently interactive electronic music.

Ian Kinchin has been made head of the department of higher education at the University of Surrey. Early in his career, Professor Kinchin taught science in a number of secondary schools, including six years at the Royal Grammar School in Guildford. More recently, he spent eight years working in academic development at King's College London.

Shân Wareing has been appointed as Bucks New University's pro vice-chancellor of learning and teaching. Professor Wareing will also oversee the work of staff supporting learning and teaching and employability, and will work in close collaboration with faculties across the university.