Have a look at the College’s write up of last weeks Women@Imperial exhibition, where at the lauch Dr Liz Want and scientists from her group talked with guests about their research using mass spectrometry to analyse biological fluids and diagnose diseases earlier.
Publications and media coverage from the Institute of Global Health Innovation
Events
Huge congratulations go out to the following people:
The ladies of Surgery and Cancer have been appearing all over the place this week to mark the Women@Imperial exhibition going on at the College this week and have been seen:
Ladies, there is still time to get involved by sending in any photos and descriptions of you at work to Al (a.mccartney@imperial.ac.uk) who will put them on twitter via #ImperialWomen. You can find out more about gender equality issues via the links below:
Please find below details College’s pilot play scheme which will be running for 6 days over the Easter period.
As part of the College’s commitment to parent and family support, it has teamed up with Fit For Sport, the UK’s leading experts in engaging and educating children, young people and families through activity. Together we will deliver a multi-activity and educational camp utilising the fantastic facilities at Imperial’s South Kensington campus, including the Union activity spaces, science labs, the swimming pool and the outdoor secret garden.
A maximum of 60 places are offered for this trial on a first come, first served basis. Depending upon the success of this trial, we will be looking at introducing these camps across more school holidays.
Further details cane be found on the Playscheme website.
Professor Naomi Chayen’s paper about designing the first nucleation inducing agents for automated crystallization trials so that they can be used for high throughput, has just come out in the March issue of Acta D 71, 534-540 and has also been highlighted as Research News by the International Union of Crystallography. She also has a commercial product called ‘Chayen Reddy MIP’ beeing launched by Imperial Innovations this week.
The work describes the design, fabrication and validation of the first non protein nucleating agent made specifically for robotic crystallisation experiments. The nucleating agent is called molecularly imprinted polymer (MIP; known as ‘smart material’). MIPs are created to contain nano cavities similar to the sizes of protein molecules. These MIPs are dispensed using commercially available robots and their application bypasses the concerns associated with seeding and solid heterogeneous nucleants. The MIPs are effective in finding new crystallization conditions and in improving crystal quality.
The research has paved the way to commercialization by Imperial Innovations – leading to a patented product called ‘Chayen Reddy MIP’ that can be used for the automated screening and optimization of any biomacromolecule. The application of these materials is simple and 20 nanolitres is sufficient for each trial, thus this will provide a potent tool for scientists in academia and industry.
Congratulations to two Clinical Research F
ellows, working withing vascular surgery who have won prestigious prizes for their research.
Ms Kate Williams attended the Australasian College of Phlebology Annual Meeting in Queensland, Australia. Where she won the Best Research Presentation Award for “Results of a pilot trial of neuromuscular stimulation in chronic venous disease”.
Mr Brahman Dharmarajah won Best Paper Award at the American Venous Forum 27th Annual Meeting, Palm Springs, USA, February 2015. The title of the paper was “Contrast Enhanced Ultrasound For Thrombus Dissolution In An In-vitro Model Of Acute Deep Vein Thrombosis” which was a collaborative project with the Division of Experimental Medicine (IC), Department of Haematology (IC) and Biomedical Engineering Department at the University of Cyprus.
Mental Health Awareness Week 11-17 May 2015
This year’s MHAW theme will focus on mindfulness, as per the Mental Health Foundation’s website. If you would like to know what events were held last year please see here. I look forward to hearing about your events!
MHFA Awards
Wednesday 25 February was the fifth annual MHFA awards, that took place at the House of Lords. Please find links to relevant news stories below, to find out what’s going on around the country.
Babies that grow poorly in the womb could have better outcomes if a method for the timing of delivery was used more widely, a study suggests.
Lead author Surgery and Cancer’s Christoph Lees, said: “This is the first randomised trial to evaluate how best to monitor babies who are not growing adequately in the womb.
To read the full story click here.
On Thursday 12th February eight Surgery and Cancer PhD students took part in the Imperial three minute thesis competition heats in collaboration with the NHLI. Three Minute Thesis (3MT®) is a research communication competition developed by The University of Queensland, which challenges PhD students to present a compelling oration on their thesis topic and its significance in just three minutes.
In total 17 students presented their work to a panel of patient judges and the Director of the Graduate school Professor Sue Gibson (pictured).
Competition was fierce but in the end winners were announced from each Department with the top two from each Department going forward to compete in the College wide competition on the 29th of April.
Congratulations to Mahim Qureshi (Clinical Research Fellow in Surgery) who won first place (pictured), Liza Selley (Computation Systems Medicine) who came second and Ben Byrne (Clinical Research fellow in Surgery) who came third.
Good luck to Mahim and Liza who will be going forward to compete in the College competition at the end of April.
A public exhibition of photographs and archive material will celebrate the work of female staff and students at Imperial past and present. Come and find out more about some of our leading female researchers, entrepreneurs and leaders.
12 panels showcasing female scientists including Professor Ten Feizi, Professor Marina Botto and Dr. Jane Saffell will be displayed in the Wolfson Café from Monday 9th to Friday 13th March.
For those who attended Martin Wilkins’ Departmental Update at Hammersmith on 17th February, this drop-in exhibition is particularly relevant to the work currently being undertaken by the Athena SWAN team to support women at Imperial and to boost the number of women who hold senior positions.
A larger exhibition will be displayed between the same dates at the College Main Entrance at South Kensington.
To interact and engage with the exhibit and the week, follow the hashtag #imperialwomen on social media.
We hope that as many you of as possible will visit to support this exhibition.
On Friday the 6th of March the Imperial Choir will perform Carl Orff’s Carmina Burana and Bob Chilcott’s Songs and Cries of London Town, with Surgery and Cancer’s very own Prof Kate Hardy, Prof Stephen Franks and Dr Jenny Steel all performing.
More information on booking tickets and future events can be found here.
Congratulations to Professor Alun Davies who has received a Lifetime Achievement Award for work in Phlebology from the Australasian College of Phlebology.
Prof Davis was international speaker at the 17th Annual Scientific Meeting & Workshops held at Noosa, Queensland, from the 15th – 19th February 2015.
Female Academics and staff will be part of a reception to mark the opening of a public exhibition of photographs and archive material to celebrate the work of female staff and students at Imperial and to raise awareness about the College’s schemes for supporting women.
The reception will feature interactive demonstrations of research led by female scientists, with the Faculty of Medicine being represented by Surgery and Cancer’s Dr Liz Want (Senior Lecturer in CSM). Members of Surgery and Cancer’s Academic Opportunities Committee will feature in photography exhibition, on display in the main College entrance from the 9th – 13th March.
The Women@Imperial celebration runs February – June 2015, and includes a series of postdoc briefings by female postdoc alumni about science-linked careers outside of academia, and the Annual Athena lecture in the Summer Term, given by Professor Dame Ann Dowling, President of the Royal Academy of Engineering.
Managing diversity is an important part of managing people, and involves valuing diverse points of view and supporting and empowering individuals with different backgrounds and experiences. Doing this successfully contributes to the overall success of Imperial, enhancing organisational performance and delivering several benefits including the attraction and retention of talented staff, improving motivation and productivity and reducing staff turnover costs as staff feel more valued. Diverse workplaces foster a high-achieving workforce that is competent, committed, creative and capable of managing and responding positively to change.
As our understanding of the importance of diversity awareness deepens, attention has been increasingly focussed on the more subtle aspects of diversity such as unconscious bias. The College now offers specific training on this subject and as a goal of Surgery and Cancer’s Athena SWAN action plan, we are aiming to get as many people attending the training as possible, especially senior staff involved with recruitment and individuals who have line management responsibility.
All sessions will be in the morning and will start at 9.30am.
17 March – St Mary’s Campus
19 March – South Kensington campus
26 March – Venue to be arranged
Can those wishing to attend please get in touch with Ann Kelly detailing their preferred date.
An event is taking place in conjunction with Kings College to launch a recent research report entitled, ‘Mid-career Academic Women: Strategies, Choices and Motivation’.
This event will be at King’s College London, The Strand, on Monday 23rd March 4pm-6pm.
The purpose of the event is to share the key findings and recommendations from the research, funded by the Leadership Foundation for Higher Education, in which mid-career academic women were interviewed from a variety of London institutions about their career plans. There will be a chance to discuss and debate the findings and their implications. From 5pm there will be wine, soft drinks and nibbles.
All are welcome – academics, researchers, leaders, managers and anyone else with an interest in this subject. It would be useful if you could get in touch if you plan to attend.
Please email tania.de_st_croix@kcl.ac.uk to book your space, and we will send more details nearer the time.