Two St Andrews scientists to receive Wolfson Research Merit Awards

Prof. Malcolm White

Two leading scientists from the University of St Andrews are to receive Wolfson Research Merit Awards from the Royal Society. ‌ Professor Malcolm White (School of Biology) and Professor Sven Hoefling (School of Physics and Astronomy) are named in an exclusive, recently published list of only14 outstanding UK scientists to receive the honour.

Prof. Sven Hoeling

Professor White’s award, the CRISPR-Cas system for prokaryotic antiviral defence, recognises his research into a recently discovered immune system in microbes. His work is aimed at understanding how these complex molecular machines detect and destroy invading viruses.

Professor Hoefling's award, Quantum engineered semiconducting and transition metal oxide materials, is in appreciation of his work to understand and exploit light-matter interactions.

Jointly funded by the Wolfson Foundation and the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS), the scheme aims to provide universities with additional support to enable them to attract science talent from overseas and retain respected UK scientists of outstanding achievement and potential.
[press release]

Professor James Naismith appointed FRS - Congratulations!

Congratulations to Prof. James Naismith, of the School of Chemistry and Director of Biomedical Sciences Research Complex, who was recently elected to the Fellowship of the Royal Society (FRS). Prof. Naismith is cited by the Royal Society for his stunning structural and chemical dissection of the many proteins involved in natural product recognition, synthesis and export. His work has revealed new paradigms in the recognition of nucleic acids and carbohydrates, unveiled novel chemical mechanisms for enzymatic nucleophilic substitution and addition and provided the first views, both structural and dynamic, of polysaccharide export systems in bacteria. His work is characterised by a synthesis of three-dimensional structural understanding with profound chemical insight.

The Royal Society, the oldest scientific society in the world, recently announced 50 new Fellows and 10 Foreign Members. Election to FRS is considered one of the greatest achievements that can be bestowed on a scientist.

"Open Data and the Future of Science", a lecture by Prof. Geoffrey Bolton

Professor Geoffrey Boulton OBE, FRS, FRSE, General Secretary of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, Regius Professor Emeritus and former Vice Principal of the University of Edinburgh, will be giving a public lecture entitled:

"Open Data and the Future of Science"
in the Medical and Biological Sciences Building Lecture Theatre on Wednesday 26th February at 5:15 pm.

Professor Boulton is a member of the Prime Minister’s Council for Science and Technology. His research is in the field of climatic and environmental change and energy. He leads the Global Change Research Group in the University of Edinburgh in the University’s School of Geosciences. He has received international and national prizes for his research, including the Lyell Medal of the Geological Society, the Kirk Bryan Medal of the Geological Society of America, the Seligman Crystal of the International Glaciolo
gical Society and the Science Medal of the Institute of Contemporary Scotland.
Prof. Boulton had been chair of the Royal Society project "Science as an Open Enterprise" which was a major study on the use of scientific information as it affects scientists and society.

All are welcome

Prof Samuel awarde esteemed Wolfson Research Merit Award

Professor Ifor Samuel of the School of Physics and Astronomy is one of 22 newly appointed Royal Society Wolfson Research Merit Award holders. Jointly funded by the Wolfson Foundation and the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS), the scheme aims to provide universities with additional support to enable them to attract science talent from overseas and retain respected UK scientists of outstanding achievement and potential. Prof. Samuel is working on "Organic semiconductor optoelectronics: challenges and opportunities". Congratulations to Prof. Samuel for this prestigious award!

Story of world's oldest surviving scientific journals to be told

Dr Aileen Fyfe, an international expert on the history of publishing in the sciences, based in the School of History, will lead a new project to investigate the story of the world’s oldest surviving scientific journal. The Philosophical Transactions has been published by the Royal Society since 1665 and will be celebrating its 350th anniversary in 2015.

The Royal Society’s archives are an unrivalled resource for investigating this long-running journal. Through the history of this world-leading journal, the project will investigate issues, such as the origins of peer review, and the relationship between profitability and the publication of scholarly knowledge, that are at the heart of the knowledge-based economy.

The four-year project has received £790,000 from the Arts & Humanities Research Council.

Prof. Morris receives Royal Society award

Professor Russell Morris, of the School of Chemistry, has recently been awarded the Royal Society Brian Mercer Award for Innovation 2012.

Prof. Morris was given the award in recognition of technology he has developed that could significantly improve wound healing in people, such as those who suffer from diabetes, the elderly and the obese. The innovation could also greatly cut associated woudn treating costs to the NHS.

The Brian Mercer Award for Innovation is a scheme for scientists who wish to develop an already proven concept or prototype into a near-market product ready for commercial exploitation. Prof. Morris will receive funding from the Royal Society to develop the technology further so that it can be clinically trialled. The award was presented to Prof. Morris on 5 December in London by The Duke of York.

Royal Society Summer Science Exhibition 2012: Drowned Landscapes

A virtual visualisation of an Agent Based model of life in
the Mesolithic on the Doggerbank.
Credit: Dr. Eugene Ch'ng, University of Birmingham

An exhibit proposed by Dr Richard Bates of the Department of Earth Sciences, Europe’s Lost World: The Drowned Landscapes of the North Sea, will form part of the 2012 Royal Society Summer Science Exhibition in London, 3–8 July 2012. The exhibit is a joint venture with scientists at the University of Birmingham, the University of Wales Trinity St David and the University of Aberdeen.  

After the end of the last Ice Age extensive landscapes that had once been home to thousands of people were inundated by the sea. This exhibit explores those drowned landscapes around the UK and shows how they are being rediscovered through pioneering scientific research. It reveals their human story through the artefacts left by the people - a story of a dramatic past that featured lost lands, devastating tsunamis and massive climate change.

The exhibit follows a number of successful geophysical archaeology projects sponsored by NERC, English Heritage, HistoricScotland, The Crown Estates and Aggregate Industries that have mapped the now submerged palaeo-landscapes known as Doggerland. Scientists have coupled geophysical survey techniques developed by the oil industry with 3D visualisation technologies developed by the computer modelling industry to recreat these once inhabited landscapes, mapping rivers, lakes, hills, coastlines and estuaries, and to model the flora and fauna associated with them. These models bring back to life the homeland of the Mesolithic populations that once lived there. [related blog] [press release] [more]

Royal Society Fellowships announced for 2011

The University of St Andrews is delighted to announce the appointment by the Royal Society, the UK's national academy of science, of three St Andrews scientists as new University Research Fellows. The prestigious University Research Fellowship scheme aims to provide outstanding scientists, who have the potential to become leaders in their chosen fields, with the opportunity to build an independent research career. The scheme is extremely competitive and URFs are expected to be strong candidates for permanent posts in universities at the end of their fellowships.

Dr Vasilis Archontis  - School of Mathematics and Statistics  

Discovering the nature of outstanding aspects of the solar magnetic activity

Dr Catherine Cazin - School of Chemistry

Catalytic C-H bond functionalisation

Dr Silvia Paracchini - School of Medicine    

A genetic and functional genomic study of neurodevelopmental disorders

School of Chemistry award winners

The School of Chemistry would like to congratulate the following individuals on their recent prize successes:

• Professor Peter Bruce has been awarded the German Chemical Society Arfvedson Schlenk Prize recognising his work on new Li batteries
• Dr Sharon Ashbrook has received The Royal Society of Chemistry Marlow Award for her outstanding contributions to solid state nmr
• Professor Russell Morris has received The Royal Society of Chemisty Applied Inorganic Chemistry Award for developments in microporous solids
• Catherine Cazin has been awarded a Royal Society University Research Fellowship.

Science sees further

Three out of 12 articles selected by the Royal Society series ‘Science Sees Further’, which celebrates their 350^th anniversary, were written by University of St Andrews researchers: ‘Biological diversity’, Professor A Magurran and Dr M Dornelas; ‘Cultural evolution’, Professor A Whiten FBA, Professor R Hinde FBA FRS, Professor C Stringer FRS and Professor K Laland; and ‘Extra-terrestrial life’, Dr M Dominik and Professor J Zarnecki. [Press link]