comment 160 - may 2005

COMMENTTHE COLLEGE NEWSLETTER ISSUE NO 160 | MAY 2005

2 Campaign for King’s | 4 New bursaries | 5 Nelson debate | 6 New Vice-Principal | 9 New College prizes | 10 Profile: RobertLechler | 12 King’s people | 16 Departmental Focus: KCL Enterprises | 17 Flashback | 21 Student news | 23 Arts | 24 Books

AKING’S DRUG DISCOVERYand development spin-outcompany seeking new

treatments for neurodegenerativediseases floated on the AlternativeInvestment Market (AIM) in March,bringing a £1 million windfall for theCollege.

Proximagen Neuroscience plcwas formed around the researchand expertise of Professor ofPharmacology Peter Jenner in2003. The funds raised will be used

by the company to developtreatments for neurodegenerativediseases such as Alzheimer’s andParkinson’s.

It is hoped that two of thepotential drugs that Proximagen iscurrently developing will start trialsin humans in one to two year’s time.

With life expectancy rising, theproportion of the world’s populationaged over 60 is forecast to doubleby 2050, suggesting a linkedincrease in age-related andneurodegenerative diseases.

Professor Jenner says, ‘Thecompany’s flotation is very excitingand reflects the first classneurodegenerative research and

College nets £1 millionfollowing spin-out

Parkinson’s disease, with notreatments to halt or reverse theunderlying brain tissuedegeneration.’

The commercial development ofthe business was facilitated byseed investment from IP2IPOLimited who specialise incommercialising universitytechnology. King’s entered into along-term partnership with IP2IP0in 2003 to commercialise theCollege’s intellectual propertythrough the formation anddevelopment of new businessventures. Proximagen is the firstcompany to be floated as a resultof this collaboration.

Dr Alison Campbell, ManagingDirector of KCL Enterprises Ltd,said, ‘I am delighted to see that theinvestment market shares ourconfidence in Proximagen. Thesuccess of the floatation meansthat Proximagen is well placed toleverage its excellent science andstrong management to developnew therapies in these importantdisease areas. The floatation alsocements the successfulrelationship that we have built with

development capabilities of thecompany and the College. Theproceeds of the fundraising will bedirected toward programmes whichwe believe will make important

inroads into treating thesedebilitating diseases. There iscurrently only limitedsymptomatic treatment forAlzheimer’s disease and

Continued on page 4Professor Peter Jenner and Kenneth Mulvany who successfully floated King’s spin-out Proximagen

Seeking new treatmentsfor neurodegenerativediseases

May 2005 | COMMENT | 3

Campus InfrastructureThe Wolfson Centre forAge-Related DiseasesA gift of £6 million from the WolfsonFoundation established the country’sfirst research centre for age-relateddiseases. Based at the Guy’s campus,the Wolfson Centre for Age-RelatedDiseases brings together 120leading clinical researchers andbasic scientists in a new building, withthe aim of developing treatmentsfor age-related diseases.

Research in the Centre includesprion disease, exploration of theblood-brain barrier and in-depthstudies of dementia and stroke.Clinical trials involving Alzheimer’spatients have produced exciting

new results indicating that olfactorystimulation can affect patients. Also,researchers from the team areleading the London Pain Consortiumand were the first in the UK tosuccessfully develop and depositstem cells in the UK Stem Cell Bank.

Libraries & InformationResourcesThe Maughan Library

‘A stupendous new library...It’sworth applying to King’s for theprivilege of being able to work in it.’Lucy Hodges, The Independent

Through the generous support ofour benefactors and a significantdonation from Sir Deryck and LadyMaughan, the former Public RecordOffice was transformed into astate-of-the-art modern library and

information services centre.Supporting the teaching andresearch interests of the Schools ofLaw, Humanities, Physical Sciences& Engineering and Social Science &Public Policy, the library is regularlyused by some 9,000 students.

The Maughan Library is alsohome to the Foyle SpecialCollections. The collection holdsmore than 100,000 volumes ofbooks and journals, as well asmaps, slides and sound recordings.An active conservation programmein the library ensures that as manyas possible of the most fragile andvulnerable books in our SpecialCollections receive the specialisedconservation treatment they needto ensure their long-term survival.Alumni, trusts and foundations havehelped restore over 150 volumes inrecent years.

The Principal celebrated the close of the Campaign for King’s with alumniand friends during a visit to New York at Easter. Over breakfast at SohoHouse, the Principal (centre left) welcomed a number of recentgraduates, who heard Sir Deryck Maughan speak about his ongoinginvolvement in and support for the College.

At a very well-attended debate on the subject of stem cells, ProfessorRobert Lechler, Head of the School of Medicine (centre right), was joinedby Professor Colin Blakemore, Chief Executive of the Medical ResearchCouncil (right), and Professor Ron McKay of the US National Institute ofHealth (left), for a stimulating discussion about the issues and King’sachievements in this field.

Campaign for King’s

2 | COMMENT | May 2005

Academic LeadershipThe D’Oyly Carte Chair inMedicine & the ArtsEstablished with a £2 milliondonation from the D’Oyly Carte Trust,this Chair is the first of its kind inthe UK, and exists to promote theinteraction between the arts andmedicine. The first postholder isProfessor Brian Hurwitz, who wasappointed in 2002. Building on theCollege’s outstanding strengths inmedicine and the humanities, theestablishment of this Chair hasmeant that King’s offers some ofthe most innovative teaching andresearch in the field in the UK,including a new MA in Literatureand Medicine.

Campaign for King’s was publicly launched in2001, with the intention of raising £44 millionfor the benefit of the College community. The Campaign sought to generate funding tofour main areas: Academic Leadership,Student Opportunities, CampusInfrastructure, and Libraries & InformationResources. Through generous donations andkey partnerships with commercial and publicsector organisations and Governmentdepartments, the Campaign has realised itsaims. It has created new academic posts andscholarships, new buildings and improvedfacilities throughout the College. Across thesetwo pages are examples of some of theprojects which have been funded as a resultof the Campaign.

As Chairman of Council, I amdelighted and very proud that weare celebrating the success of theCampaign for King’s, our firstmajor fundraising campaign forthe College. My congratulationsand sincere thanks go to all of youwho have played a part in this

magnificent achievement. Together we have raisedover £44 million. Through your hard work andgenerosity we have been able to make a real and lastingdifference to King’s. We have endowed academicposts in new areas of research, provided much-neededscholarships for students from all over the world,established major centres of medical research,restored the Gilbert Scott chapel at the heart of theStrand campus and built a magnificent new library.

It has been wonderful to see with what energy andenthusiasm the King’s community has risen to thechallenge of the Campaign for King’s; I hope that youshare my pride in what we have achieved together.Baroness Rawlings

Student Opportunities Choral & OrganScholarships

Remaining at the heart of Collegelife, the Chapel is home to theCollege Choir, widely recognised asone of the finest mixed ensembles inthe country. All 25 members of the

choir are student Choral Scholars,financed each year by supporters ofthe Choral and Organ Scholarships.

Alumni and friends together alsoraised in excess of £400,000 duringthe Campaign for the ChapelRestoration Fund, returning theCollege Chapel at the Strand to itsformer glory.

King’s fundraising tops £44 millionThe Principal,Professor Rick Trainor,says, ‘As I develop my plans for thefuture of our College,fundraising will become anincreasinglyimportant activity forus, and I look forwardto working with the College community in developing the next campaign.’

‘We have been able tomake a real andlasting difference toKing’s’

News


News


IN THE SECOND OF ITS SERIES OFthree high profile discussionsentitled ‘How Will History

Judge...’, The Times Higher chose,in the bicentennial year of the Battleof Trafalgar, Lord Nelson.

Held at the National PortraitGallery, Andrew Lambert, Laughton

Professor of Naval History in theDepartment of War Studies, put thecase for Nelson. His biography ofthe Admiral, Britannia, God of Warwas published in October.

He claimed that Nelson was the

greatest warrior this country hasproduced with a genius for navalcommand, and produced theultimate example of leadership. He also had outstanding

communication skills and greathumanity which was why the menwho fought at Trafalgar, and laterthe whole country, wept when theylearnt of his death.

His debating partner was June Purvis, Professor of Woman’sand Gender History at PortsmouthUniversity, who claimed Nelson wasless than heroic because of his rolein the destruction of the Neapolitan Republic in 1799 and thetreatment of his wife.

Nelson debate

KING’S WILL BE INVESTINGapproximately £1.2 millioninto new bursaries for

undergraduate students who jointhe College in 2006.

The income will come fromincreased tuition fees which will becharged from 2006 when up-frontfees for all home and EUundergraduate students will beabolished.

Like the vast majority of Englishuniversities, King’s will charge

£3,000 per year for tuition fees forhome and EU students on all itsundergraduate programmes from2006. The fees can either berepaid through the tax systemafter graduation (the amount paidwill depend on salary), or studentscan pay whilst studying.

The additional income raised bythe College from variable tuition

fees is estimated to be £4.95 million.King’s is committed to investing thisnew fee income into student supportand improved facilities.

King’s will invest the income fromincreased tuition fees in fourpriority areas: student support;library, IT and e-learning resources;premises and facilities; andacademic departments.

With the extra income generatedby variable fees, King’s has also putin place a new and simple bursaryscheme for all new full-time homefee status undergraduate studentsstarting in 2006.

Principal, Professor Rick Trainor,says, ‘I am delighted that, throughits new bursary scheme, King’s willbe providing extra money formaintenance to deserving studentswith great academic potential.Meanwhile, the extra income thatKing’s will be obtaining from thehigher fees paid by most studentswill allow us to improve the qualityof the academic experience for ourentire student body.’

New student bursaries for 2006

myBursary is open to every full-time home undergraduatestudent who begins their studies in2006. King’s is committed tofinancially assisting students whoneed extra funding to completetheir studies, and therefore,bursaries will be offered to allstudents who qualify for a full orpartial Local Education Authority(LEA) maintenance grant.

King’s commitment is simple:whatever level of maintenancegrant is awarded by the LEA, King’smyBursary will match it ‘50 pencefor every pound’.

LEAs will be awarding grants of upto £2,700 (means tested on familyincome). This, together withmyBursary, is for living costs whilst

studying and will not have to be repaid.Sam Javed, Assistant Registrar,

Student Funding Office, said, ‘King’sis determined that students findthe new myBursary scheme clearand comprehensive. It has beendesigned with ease, simplicity and

transparency in mind. Students candetermine immediately what level of additional financial assistancethey can receive as a student atKing’s without worrying about anysmall print.’• myBursary www.kcl.ac.uk/depsta/

stloaw/mybursary2006.html

Investing £1.2 millioninto new bursaries

Committed to financiallyassisting students

Nelson was the greatestwarrior this countryhas produced

The event was introduced byJohn O’Leary, Editor of the paperand chaired by Professor LaurieTaylor, The Higher’s regularbackpage columnist. A livelyaudience expressed sympathy toboth Nelson and Lady Hamilton.

The first of The Higher’s debateswas on ‘How Will HistoryJudge...Tony Blair?’ with ProfessorAnthony Giddens and HelenaKennedy QC taking part. The third is on cloning.

Professors Andrew Lambert andJune Purvis discuss Nelson’s legacy.

RUSSELL SACH

TAGISHSIMON/WILKIMEDIA

MEMBERS OF THE KING’SWar Studies Group wereresponsible for staging

and organising the recentInternational Summit onDemocracy, Terrorism andSecurity held in Madrid.

This unique conference broughttogether 700 experts and formerand current political leaders,including official delegations frommore than 60 states.

The event was organised by theClub de Madrid, the association offormer heads of state andgovernment.

Held under the patronage of theKing of Spain, the conferenceaimed to come up with a commoninternational framework forfighting terrorism while protectingdemocracy, and to reach aconsensus on the definition ofterrorism.

Dr Peter R Neumann, Research

Fellow in International Terrorism inthe Department of War Studies,was the Summit’s director ofprogramme and content, and ledthe effort to put together anextensive agenda covering allaspects of terrorism. The finaldocument, The Madrid Agenda,can be found at: www.safe-democracy.org

Participants included, amongstmany others, Kofi Annan,Secretary General of the UN, JoseManuel Barroso, President of theEU Commission, Jaap De HoopScheffer, Secretary General ofNATO, Hamid Karzai, President ofAfghanistan, the Vice PrimeMinister of Israel, Shimon Peres,and numerous other heads ofstate and government, as well asforeign and defence ministersfrom across the world.

King’s Vice-Principal andProfessor of War Studies, Sir

Lawrence Freedman, co-ordinatedthe working group on militaryresponses to terrorism. PeterZimmerman, Professor of Science& Security, was part of theworking group on science andtechnology, and Karin von HippelSenior Research Fellow, Centrefor Defence Studies, was amember of the conference’sexpert advisory council. Inaddition, the conference staffincluded several King’s graduates.

Dr Neumann comments, ‘Theevent brought about a newconsensus on the issue ofterrorism, the Madrid Consensus.This consensus is not so much amiddle way between the ‘War onTerror’ and a misguided form ofleniency. Being both pragmatic andprincipled, it is a new paradigmcutting across the ideologicaldivisions that have hindered thefight against terrorism in the past.’

Madrid summit

our partners IP2IPO.’Commenting on the flotation,

Kenneth Mulvany, Proximagen’sChief Executive Officer, said, ‘I amdelighted that Proximagen hasjoined AIM. The company hasoutstanding expertise in the areaof neurodegenerative disease anddrug development, and we lookforward to making furtherprogress in our programmeswhich we believe will improve thequality of life of patients and addvalue for our shareholders.’

The income achieved throughthe sale of shares in Proximagen

will be used by the College tosupport its strategic academicpriorities. As part of this, incomewill also be re-invested by theCollege to support and promoteits commercialisation andinnovation activities.

The placing raised £14.5 million(before expenses), including £13.5 million for Proximagen at aplacing price of 148p per share.Proximagen’s capitalisation onadmission was £29.7 million.

This is the fourth College spin-out company to be floated on AIM.

Continued from page 1

Local MPs

Following the General Electionthe following MPs’constituencies cover the

College campuses:

• Strand campus(Cities of London & Westminster)Mark Field (Con)• Waterloo campus, St Thomas’campus and King’s Denmark Hillcampus (Vauxhall)Kate Hoey (Lab)• Institute of Psychiatry (Camberwell & Peckham)The Rt Hon Harriet Harman QC (Lab)• Guy’s campus (Southwark North & Bermondsey)Simon Hughes (Lib Dem)• Hampstead campus (Hampstead & Highgate)Glenda Jackson CBE (Lab)• King’s College Hall and DulwichSports Ground (Dulwich & WestNorwood)The Rt Hon Tessa Jowell (Lab)• New Malden Sports Ground(Kingston and Surbiton)Edward Davey (Lib Dem)• Honor Oak Park Sports Ground(Lewisham Deptford)

NewsNews

PROFESSOR SIR GRAEMECatto, Vice-Principal, will beleaving King’s at the end of

September and returning to theUniversity of Aberdeen. ProfessorRobert Lechler has beenappointed as a Vice-Principal.

The Principal, Professor RickTrainor, comments, ‘Graeme joinedthe College in 2000, soon after themergers with UMDS and theInstitute of Psychiatry, and he hasmade huge contributions to thecoherence and effectiveness ofthe health side of the College andto King’s as a whole. Hisshrewdness, knowledge of thehealth world, wisdom and wit willbe sorely missed.’

Sir Graeme said, ‘I have enjoyedfive exciting and fruitful years atthe College and am sorry to beleaving an institution which I firmlybelieve has the potential to be oneof the world’s outstandinguniversities. I plan to spend moretime in Scotland, but will watch theprogress of the College with muchinterest and affection.’

At its meeting on 15 March, theCollege Council approved theappointment of Professor RobertLechler, currently Head of theSchool of Medicine, as the newVice-Principal for a period of fouryears from September 2005.

Professor Lechler’sdistinguished career has includedheading the Division of Medicine atImperial College, and leading aresearch team that focuses ontransplantation tolerance. He said,

‘This is a very exciting opportunityto work with colleagues across theHealth Schools, and with our NHSpartners, to develop our strengthsin both teaching and researchacross the health disciplines.’

King’s two other Vice-Principalsare Professor Sir LawrenceFreedman (Research) andProfessor Phil Whitfield(Students). • For a profile of Professor Lechler,

see page 10


MINISTER FOR HEALTH, Rosie Winterton, openedthe newly refurbished

Maurice Wohl General DentalPractice Centre at the Denmark Hillcampus in March.

The Centre has recently undergonea £400,000 refurbishment tomodernise and extend the facilitieswith funding from the Outreach SIFTDevelopment Fund from theNational Dental Workforce Unit atSouth Yorkshire WDC.

Mrs Winterton met with ProfessorNairn Wilson, Head of the DentalInstitute, and Maurice Wohl CBE.

After viewing demonstrations of

the new equipment in the surgeriesand talking to the Centre’s staff, theMinister commented, ‘Therefurbished surgeries offer a realvision of the future for dentistry andwill provide trainee dentists,hygienists, therapists and nurses withfirst rate training facilities. I am verypleased to see how new technologyis being introduced with investmentin NHS dentistry. Creating the rightenvironment for training andprofessional development is vital toincreasing the numbers of practisingdentists in the UK.’

The Maurice Wohl Centre, firstopened in 1987, is a self-containedfacility which enables fully integratedteaching and high quality dental careto undergraduate dental studentsand professionals complementaryto dentistry. It houses ten surgeries,a fully equipped dental laboratoryfor use by the students and aradiographic suite.

Minister visits DentalInstitute

Rosie Winterton with, from left, ProfessorNairn Wilson, Maurice Wohl, Michael Porter,(Chairman, King’s College Hospital), Malcolm Lowe-Lauri, (Chief Executive, King’s College Hospital).

Undergone a £400,000refurbishment

New Vice-Principal appointed

Professor Sir Graeme Catto

BRETT ROBINSON


NESTA

IN THE STRAND BASEMENTa unique collection of substancesis growing. Mark Miodownik,

Lecturer in Mechanical Engineering,has established his ‘materialslibrary’ which he hopes will helpartists looking for inspiration, andscientists seeking substances withparticular properties.

He founded the library in 2003after seeing colleagues, faced withlack of space, simply castinginteresting materials away. ‘Peoplewere throwing things out of the lab,such as bottles of lead powder,that no longer fit a researchproject,’ he recalls.

As a specialist in the design ofunusual materials, Dr Miodownikhas long dreamed of bringingforgotten or overlookedsubstances back to the scientificcentre stage. ‘When I got mymaterials science degree I wassurprised that the departmentwasn’t full of materials,’ he says.‘Instead, people spent most of theirtime on computers.’

His collection now includes morethan 300 samples, including

artificial skin made of rubbercomposites, and a material knownas a superslurper that absorbs 400times its own weight in water.

Financial support for thematerials library has come fromthe National Endowment forScience, Technology & the Arts,and the Engineering & PhysicalSciences Research Council.

So far, Dr Miodownik’s collectionhas only had around 60 visitors,mostly curious artists. But hehopes that, as the library’s famegrows, more and more scientists,architects and students will comefor a look around, and ultimatelyadopt some of the materials foruse in their own work. Among hiscollection, for example, is a kitcalled the ‘DNA of a city’ thatconsists of samples of commonconstruction matter.

Dr Miodownik presented hisproject at London’s Tate Modernart gallery last month, a move thathe hopes will catapult materialsscience into the spotlight. ‘I wouldlike to see a British materialslibrary for everyone,’ he says.

THE COLLEGE HAS BEENplaced 6th out of 122 in aranking of UK universites

produced by The Guardian. Theleague table assesses teachingquality, staff-student ratios andgraduate job prospects.

In indvidual subject tables,King’s comes top in four of the 47 tables: American Studies,Computer Sciences, Education,and English, and second in History,Anatomy & Physiology, Classics,

Dentistry and Electrical &Electronic Engineering.

The Guardian says the tables are‘designed as a simple measure ofthe undergraduate experience withno postgraduate and no researchfigures included. They are aimedprimarily at those studying A-levelsor Highers, and who are looking tostart a first degree course.’

Material world Dr Mark Miodownikwith part of his materials collection.

• For details of all the tables and methodology, see EducationGuardian.co.uk/universityguide2005

King’s 6th in Guardian table

Professor Robert Lechler

ALEX WEBSTERED PARK

May 2005 | COMMENT | 98 | COMMENT | May 2005

NewsNews

THE FIRST UK-BASED JOURNALon neuroscience nursing,British Journal of

Neuroscience Nursing (BJNN), waslaunched in the Franklin-WilkinsBuilding on 19 April. King’s lecturerand researcher, Sue Woodward, isthe journal’s editor-in-chief.

The journal will provide a forumfor nurses to exchange theirknowledge and experience of caringfor patients with neurologicalproblems. It also aims to informneuroscience-nursing practicethrough the reporting of currentand ongoing research, anddevelopments in practice, policyand education.

Sue Woodward joined King’s as ajoint lecturer-practitioner in 1996,after spending nine years working inneuroscience nursing. She hasrecently embarked on a PhD after

completing a four-year term ashead of department for specialistand palliative care within the

Florence Nightingale School ofNursing & Midwifery.

She says, ‘The need for a journallike the BJNN is great as significantdevelopments are currently takingplace within the field ofneuroscience nursing. There aremore than ten million people in theUK with neurological problems andthe new National ServiceFramework for Long-TermConditions will have far reachingconsequences for nurses workingwith patients in a variety of clinicalsettings. The journal will help tosupport the development needs ofnurses working with people withneurological problems.’

According to the publishers, MAHealthcare Ltd, BJNN will cover allaspects of neuroscience nursing in anintelligent, helpful and accessible way.Topics covered include prevention,primary care, care and treatment inacute and critical care settings,rehabilitation and palliative care. • To find out more about the

journal, or to submit an article visit

www.bjnn.co.uk

King’s lecturer heads first UK neuroscience nursing journal

Sue Woodward, Programme Leader for CriticalCare at the Florence Nightingale School ofNursing & Midwifery launch of The BritishJournal of Neuroscience Nursing.

SARAH BROMLEY THE TIMES HIGHER HAVE SETup an exciting new awardsscheme looking for, amongst

other aspects, the best researchers,authors, and good practice inhigher education. There are 14different categories (seewww.thes.co.uk/Awards/2005/)

Professor Sir LawrenceFreedman, Vice-Principal(Research) comments, ‘We believethese awards will be prestigiousand it is important that King’ssubmits strong applications whereapplicable. I would welcomesuggestions on the individualcategories.’

In addition to these, the Collegehas established its own awards tocomplement those of The Higher.They are for the following:

• Research project of the year

• Young researcher of the year

• Young academic author of the year

(where young is under 40). A small panel of the College’sresearch committee will judge thesubmissions. The winners will beawarded a prize of £500 and willbe forwarded as the College’sentries to The Higher’scompetition. Smaller prizes will be

offered for second and third.Entries for the College awards

will follow the same form as thoseto The Higher’s. Submissions areto be based on work undertakenbetween 1 July 2004 to 30 June2005 and entrants must supply500 words explaining why theyshould be considered.

The entry form can be found onwww.thes.co.uk/awards/2005/entryform/ Submissions shouldcome from Heads of Schools withno more than two entrants percategory. They should be sent toVictoria Richardson, Vice-Principal’s Office, James ClerkMaxwell Building, Waterloo campus.

The deadline for entry to TheHigher’s scheme is the end ofJune; the deadline for the King’sscheme is the 29 May.

If entering any of the othercategories please complete therelevant form and send as above.The College would particularlyencourage submissions in thefollowing categories: Wideningparticipation initiative of the year;Outstanding contribution to thelocal community, and Mostimaginative use of distancelearning.

MEMBERS OF THE COLLEGE’SEstates Departmentrecently became certified

Work Based Assessors aftercompleting NVQ Level 3 courses atBexley College.

The completion of the course willallow John Lester, Tony Critchley,Kevin Merry, Barry Wright andMichael Higgins to assess studentswho are undertaking training aspart of the NVQ initiative inEngineering and Building Services.

They were presented with theircertificates by Principal, ProfessorRick Trainor and the Principal ofBexley College, Bridget Boreham.

Estates Department Development& Training Officer, Barry Wrightcomments, ‘The Estates Multi-Skillingproject represents a real

opportunity for the College and staff.It aims to redefine the traditionalworking practices within the EstatesDepartment to improve servicedelivery to the College community

through investment in people.’This is the first group to be

awarded in an externally organisedcourse. Further members of theEstates Department will also be

Multi-skilling in Estates

to encourage and reward goodpractice in the marketing ofuniversities and colleges, is held byHeist – a specialist marketingservices agency. King’s won in threecategories:

• The Postgraduate Prospectus (2005 entry) which won the Gold Award

• The Undergraduate Prospectus(2005 entry) won the HEISTAward.

• The Widening Participation inHigher Education category GoldAward went to Aspire AimhigherSouth East London led by King’s.

King’s publicationswin major awards

THREE OF THE COLLEGE’Spublications, produced by thePublications team and the

Marketing Office, have wonprestigious higher education awards.

‘Destination King’s’, a handbookto help international students preparefor their time at King’s, has won aGold CASE Award. It beat 85 otherentrants from around the world.

CASE (Council for Advancementand Support of Education) is theprofessional organisation for peopleworking in communications, alumnirelations, and development.Established in the US, it hasmembers in more than 40 countries.

In the UK, an annual competition

International MarketingOfficer, Julie Rolls, withthe Gold Award winningpublication ‘DestinationKing’s’ that she edited.

SARAH BROMLEY

New prizes established

TIMES HIGHER AWARDSWidening participation initiative of the yearResearch project of the yearYoung researcher of the yearOutstanding support for overseas studentsYoung academic author of the year Business initiative of the yearEmployer of the year Outstanding contribution to the local communityBest student experienceOutstanding support for disabled studentsMost imaginative use of distance learningCommonwealth universitity of the yearHigher education institution of the yearLifetime achievement award

completing National IndustryRecognised Award courses as partof this ‘landmark partnership withBexley College’ as described byProfessor Trainor.

From left Barry Wright, TonyCritchley, Professor Trainor,Bridget Boreham, JohnLester and Kevin Merry.

KAI TO

Redevelopment


Profile


What attracted you to King’s?I recognised an exciting andcreative opportunity and wantedto build on the strengths thatexisted and take biomedicine atKing’s to the next stage. I feltthe role was the most excitingopportunity around of its kind.

Describe your plans for the HealthSchools’ research?The central plan, to put it insoccer terms, is to becomeeligible for a place in Europeancompetition (confined to the topgroup of teams in thePremiership). Currently King’sbiomedical research is strong, buthovering below the elite. I amconvinced that we are on track tocompete at the highest level.Various things contribute: King’shas trimmed its workforcecreating some headroom torecruit. Secondly partnerships:working with our two major NHSTrusts we can build ourclinically-related researchportfolio. And with charitableorganisations, not least the Guy’sand St Thomas’ Charity, but alsoMRC, Wellcome, BHF, ARC,and CRUK, we can achieve theultimate aim of making animpact in what’s loosely calledtranslational research.

What are the strengths of theKing’s medical curriculum?There are three very positivedevelopments, The WideningParticipation agenda is a flagshipin the UK in terms of how it isdone and its achievements. Thefirst cohort of students are now

entering their first clinical year. Ithas been a great success with avery low drop-out rate and theyhave fully kept pace with theirpeers.

The other development is thegraduate entry scheme with 24high quality students (out of1,000 applications) coming onto afast track medical course.Colleagues have found them veryenergising to teach.

Another development that’sinevitably going to shape the waywe teach is innovation in e-learning. It’s going very well andwill undoubtedly influence theway that we deliver the curriculumwith more resources availablethrough the internet and web.

I’m committed to striving forexcellence in teaching andresearch so am very keen that theteaching load is distributed asevenly as possible and everyoneis making a contribution on bothfronts.

What issues are currently facingthe Health Schools?One challenge facing biomedicalscience is competition withinLondon. There are several othervery strong institutionscompeting for major funding. I’meager that we form creative andintelligent partnerships withother institutions wheneverthose are to our mutualadvantage. A good illustration ofthis is the recent bid for an MRCCentre in Allergy & Asthma, ledfrom King’s, partnered withImperial, and the omens arepromising that it may be funded.

How do you see their future?I’m very keen on integration as itis conducive to delivering ourmission. The IoP, for example, isan extremely high qualityinstitute with lots of fantasticwork going on and there seem tobe an increasing number ofconnections between IoPresearch groups and thoseoutside. This is partly catalysedby the opening of the CCIB laterin the year, and recognition thatour neuroscience agenda wouldbenefit from being more fully‘joined up’. Similarly there aregreat opportunities to develophealth services research by jointworking between the Schools ofMedicine, Nursing, BiomedicalSciences, IoP and Social Science& Public Policy.

Another area where greaterintegration is developing is in thefield of stem cells. That againbrings together high qualityscience in the Dental Institute,Biomedical Sciences, the MedicalSchool and the IoP. The key tosuccess is to ensure that we aremore than the sum of our partswhich will result from greaterintegration, rather than less thanthe sum of our parts which wouldbe the consequence offragmentation.

Do you have global plans?To achieve our ambition of beingPremiership players inbiomedical research it’s veryimportant that we form strategicpartnerships with UK industryand international institutions. Weare undertaking a review of all

our international partnerships.Currently they are too numerousand we need to focus on two orthree that will serve our goalswhere there may be PhD studentor Postdoc exchange programmesand even joint researchcollaborations.

What is your own area ofresearch?I moved my research team acrossto King’s and we are about 15research staff working ontransplantation tolerance. We arebuilding relationships with thevery strong clinical transplantprogrammes – kidneytransplantation at Guy’s and livertransplantation at King’s – withthe explicit aim of wanting todevelop novel approaches toinducing transplantation tolerancein patients. The drive for this isthat lifelong administration ofimmuno-suppressive drugs hasmorbidity attached to it in termsof infections and malignancy.The closer one can get to drugfree transplant survival thebetter for the patient.

Which is your favourite tv medicaldrama?Green Wing because it is one ofthe best recent comedyprogrammes on television, notparticularly true to life and notparticularly related to my ownexperience but I thought it wasextremely creative.

Robert Lechler joined King’s last September as Head of the School ofMedicine and from this September he will be Vice-Principal. He is a world-renowned immunologist.

Robert Lechler

Excellent progress is being made on the £40 million Strand RedevelopmentProject. The work involves refurbishment of a major part, in the southernrange, of the Grade I listed Main Building and will enhance research andteaching space, plus library, computer, conference, and social facilities. It isdue to be completed by the end of 2005.

The work involved is substantial and is not seen by most people as ittakes place behind hoardings. The College has commissioned photographer Rob Moore to take photographs of the refurbishment to record both thework in progress and the people involved in the project.

Some of these photographs are illustrated here and are also displayed atthe Strand reception and in the Principal’s office. Rob Moore has, for manyyears, been a freelance photographer specialising in black and whitephotography related to architecture and travel.

Among his best known work are the photographs he took during therecent redevelopment of the Royal Opera House, published in the book Prelude – Rebuilding the Royal Opera House.

TheStrandproject

King’s people


King’s people


Science Teaching. This is thesecond year running that the awardhas been won for a paper on whichProfessor Osborne was the leadauthor. The title of the paper was‘Enhancing the Quality of Argumentin School Science’ and was aproduct of an ESRC award fundedfrom 2000-03.

Honorary degree

Sir Michael Rutter, Professorof DevelopmentalPsychopathology at the

Institute of Psychiatry, is one of tenleading international figures toreceive an honorary degree fromOxford University.

Sir Michael is an influential figurein the world of child and adolescentpsychiatry, his work has looked intosuch subjects as resilience inrelation to stress and the effects ofdeprivation on Romanian orphanadoptees.

Sabbatical researchfellowship

Dr David Begley, of theWolfson Centre for Age-Related Disease, has been

awarded a prestigiousGlaxoSmithKline SabbaticalResearch Fellowship grant for the2004/05. Dr Begley is a worldacknowledged expert on the blood-brain barrier and drug delivery tothe central nervous system.

He has been appointed to hisSabbatical Research Fellowship toadvise and work closely with thisGlaxoSmithKline working group intackling the problem of the blood-brain barrier in drug delivery.

Fellowships

The following King’s academicshave been elected toFellowships of the British

Pharmacological Society – theprimary UK learned societyconcerned with research into drugsand the way they work.

Susan Brain Professor of PharmacologyAlbert FerroClinical Senior Lecturer Peter JennerProfessor of PharmacologyClive PageProfessor of PharmacologyJim RitterProfessor of Clinical Pharmacology

Awards

At its Annual Wealth TransferConference in March, theInternational Bar

Association presented DavidHayton, Professor of Law, with aninscribed Silver Salver to mark his‘Contribution to the Law of Trusts’before he moves to Trinidad in Julyto sit on the Caribbean Court ofJustice.

Terry Hope, Catering ServicesManager, has been made aFellow of the Hotel and

Catering Institute ManagementAssociation (FHCIMA). TheFellowship is awarded to those whohave made a significant personalcontribution to the industry.

Prison director

Rob Allen took over asDirector of the InternationalCentre for Prison Studies on

1 March. He succeeds AndrewCoyle CMG, who will continue atICPS concentrating on his role asProfessor of Prison Studies.

Mr Allen was Director ofRethinking Crime and Punishment atthe Esmée Fairbairn Foundationbetween 2001-05. This was a £3 million strategic grantmakinginitiative to raise the level of publicdebate about prison and itsalternatives. He also held theposition of Director of Research &Development at the NationalAssociation for the Care and

Resettlement of Offenders andHead of the Juvenile Offender PolicyUnit in the Home Office. He is amember of the Youth Justice Boardfor England and Wales, chairpersonof CLINKS (a voluntary organisationworking to develop links betweenoffenders and their communities)and a member of the Council of theCentre for Crime and JusticeStudies.

Spent fuel

Peter Zimmerman, Professorof Science & Security, andDirector of the MacArthur

Centre for Science & SecurityStudies at King’s, is a member ofthe National Academies’ Board on

Radioactive Waste ManagementCommittee which has just reported.

Spent nuclear fuel stored in poolsat some of the United State’s 103operating commercial nuclearreactors may be at risk fromterrorist attacks, it found. Thecommittee called on the US NuclearRegulatory Commission to conductadditional analyses to obtain abetter understanding of potentialrisks and to ensure that power-plant operators take prompt andeffective measures to reduce thepossible consequences of suchattacks. Because potential threatsmay differ according to a specificplant’s design, the committeerecommended that plant-by-plantvulnerability analyses beperformed.

London marathon Order of merit

Sir Michael Howard, probablythe most eminent militaryhistorian of his generation, has

been awarded the Order of Merit.Sir Michael joined the

Department of History at King’s in1947 and was instrumental increating both the Department ofWar Studies and the Centre forMilitary Archives at the College. In1964, he became the College’s, andthe country’s, first Professor ofWar Studies. In 1970, he moved toOxford where he became theChichele Professor of the History ofWar and later the Regius Professorof Modern History. From 1989 to1993 he held the Robert A Lovett

• Keith Newton, Senior AssistantCollege Secretary in the School ofHealth & Life Sciences, finished in amagnificent 151st place (137thman) out of a total of more than30,000 runners, with a time of twohours, 37 minutes.

• Study Abroad student KevinBastian completed the course inthree hours 46 minutes, whileAimee Fenn, second year

physiotherapist finished in fourhours 20 minutes and third yearmedical student Kathy Brady, ranfour hours 30 minutes.

• David Facer, an AssistantResidence Managers at theHampstead campus, successfullycompleted the Paris Marathon on10 April in four hours and 27minutes. He raised almost £600for Shelter.

Professor Martin Hughes,Department of Chemistry,with Principal, Professor Rick

Trainor, at the recent long serviceawards. Professor Hughes has

completed 40 years’ service withthe College. Also at the Long ServiceAwards reception were more than30members of staff who were beingrecognised for 25 years’ service.

DOMINIC TURNER

First UK President

Jonathan Osborne, Professor ofScience Education, has beenelected president of the US

National Association for Research inScience Teaching (NARST) by itsmembership. He is the first Britishperson ever to be elected presidentof this organisation.

It is the leading science educationresearch association with 1,700

members, 40 per cent of whom areinternational. This is a three-yearterm from 2005-07.

Shirley Simon, Sibel Erduran andJonathan Osborne have also wonthe annual award NARST gives forthe best paper published in itsjournal – The Journal of Research in

Martin Harvey, Site ServicesManager, Guy’s, St Thomas’and Waterloo campuses,

has recently received the covetedBlue Badge from the Institute ofTourist Guiding, signalling that he isnow licensed to guide in all themajor London museums andgalleries, and also the Tower ofLondon, St Paul’s Cathedral andWestminster Abbey together with arange of other walks and tours.

Martin also received the Prize forBest Cathedral Guide 2005 and ispictured here receiving his awardfrom Dr Wesley Carr, Dean ofWestminster Abbey.

Prize

Dr David Begley

Dr Wesley Carr (right)presents Martin Harveywith a book onWestminster Abbey

Professor Jonathan Osborne

Professor of Military and NavalHistory at Yale University.

In December 2002 a new ReadingRoom was opened in the redevelopedKing’s Liddell Hart Centre for MilitaryArchives. The Room was named inhis honour to celebrate both his 80thbirthday and more than 50 yearscontribution to the study of war.

The Order of Merit is a veryspecial distinction ‘given to suchpersons ...as may have renderedexceptionally meritorious service inOur Crown Services or towards theadvancement of the Arts, Learning,Literature, and Science or suchother exceptional service as Weare fit to recognise’. The Order ofMerit is in the sole gift of theSovereign and is restricted to 24members.

Long service awards

Keith Newton (front) strides ahead inthe London Marthon.

Research


Research


AMAJOR INTERNATIONALstem cell debate entitled‘Hope or Hype?’ will be held

on 25 May at Queen Elizabeth Hallin London. Organised by the FacialSurgery Research FoundationSaving Faces in conjunction withThe Lancet and The Guardian, two of the nine speakers are fromKing’s. Jon Snow, presenter of theChannel 4 News, will chair the event.

Professor Paul Sharpe, Head ofDepartment of CraniofacialDevelopment, Dickinson Professorof Craniofacial Biology and Directorof Research at the Dental Institute,will talk about his pioneering

research into the genetic control oftooth development. In 2002 hefounded a start-up company,Odontis Ltd, to aid the developmentof tissue engineering approaches

for human tooth replacement.Professor Peter Braude, Head of

the Department of Women’s Health,and Professor of Obstetrics &Gynaecology, will talk about thepracticalities of generating humanstem cells from embryos unsuitable

for patient use after pre-implantationdiagnosis for serious geneticdisease or unwanted by patientsafter fertility treatment; the longroad still ahead in developing

STEM CELL RESEARCHERS ATKing’s have generated thefirst human embryonic stem

cell line that contains a cysticfibrosis-causing gene mutation.

Professor Peter Braude,director of the PreimplantationGenetic Diagnosis programme atGuy’s Hospital and Professor ofObstetrics & Gynaecology, says,‘This could lead to hugebreakthroughs in the understandingof how cystic fibrosis tissues arealtered during their earliest stagesof development.’

The researchers derived thestem cells from embryos that werescreened for the _F508 mutationas part of the PreimplantationGenetic Diagnosis (PGD) service,and deemed unsuitable forimplantation. This service offers invitro fertilisation to patients at riskof transmitting cystic fibrosis totheir offspring. Testing embryos for

the presence of the mutation whenthey are three days old (andcontain around eight cells) meansthat doctors can choose embryosthat are free of this serious geneticdisorder to replace into the patientin the hope of starting a pregnancy.Surplus affected embryos can bedonated by patients to the stemcell research programme.

The stem cells have been fullycharacterised and will in duecourse be made available to theinternational scientific communitythrough the UK stem cell bank.Professor Braude continues, ‘Thegeneration of this stem cell line willallow researchers interested incystic fibrosis to compare tissuesthat contain the cystic fibrosisgene mutation, developed fromthese stem cells, with those free ofthe mutation.’

Dr Susan Pickering,embryologist and scientific

director of the AssistedConception Unit comments, ‘Theline should provide a useful way oftesting drugs that are potentiallyuseful in helping patients with cysticfibrosis. It may also be useful insafely testing the early stages ofgene therapy.’

The details of the stem cell linewere presented at the Society forGynecologic Investigation annualmeeting and have been published in

Reproductive BioMedicine Online.Dr Stephen Minger, head of theStem Cell Biology Laboratory atKing’s says, ‘We hope this will bethe first of a number of useful stemcell lines containing medicallyimportant mutations that we will beable to generate as part of thecollaboration with the PGDprogramme. Once again, King’s ison the international map ininnovative stem cell research.’

MRC money

THE INSTITUTE OF PSYCHIATRYhas received the highestnumber of grants and the

largest amount of money from theMRC and the Department of Healthas part of their £5.3 million packagefor brain science and mental healthresearch. Five research projects atthe IoP have received a total of£950,000.

‘This is great news.’ says Dr George Szmukler, Dean of theIoP. ‘The support from the MRC andthe Department of Health endorsesthe world-class research that weare doing at the Institute, andthrough these five projects we aim

to improve the treatment of peoplesuffering from mental healthconditions.’

The MRC and the Department ofHealth are funding a total of 28 newresearch projects around thecountry worth £5.3 million, toimprove understanding of brainscience and pave the way for larger clinical trials of newtreatments. The five grantsawarded to the IoP are:

• Dr Essi Viding – Genetic analysesof brain reactivity to emotion inchildren at risk for chronicantisocial outcome (£147, 000)

• Dr Louise Howard – A pilotpatient preference RCT ofadmission to a women’s crisishouse compared with psychiatrichospital admission (£250,000)

• Dr Ulrike Schmidt – Earlyintervention for adolescents withbulimia nervosa (£191,000)

• Professor Jan Scott - Electronicmonitoring of symptom variability

in individuals with bipolardisorders (£192,000)

• Professor Til Wykes – Anevaluation of cognitive remediationand supported employment toimprove outcome for peoplewith schizophrenia (£170,000)

AHRC awards

THREE ARTS & HUMANITIESResearch CouncilCollaborative Doctoral

Awards have been awarded toKing’s academics. This new AHRCpostgraduate scheme aims toencourage and developcollaboration between highereducation institute departmentsand non-academic organisations. A total of 41 awards were made. The King’s recipients are:

• Dr Elizabeth Eger, Lecturer in theDepartment of English. Herproject, in collaboration with Dr Lucy Peltz of the NationalPortrait Gallery, is ‘Iconographyand the Female Subject: Literaryand Visual Portraiture ofCreative and Intellectual Womenin Eighteenth-Century Britain.’

• Daniel Leech Wilkinson,Professor of Music. His projectinvolves private recordings publicperformance: musicians‚collections of classical musicrecordings at the British LibrarySound Archive.

• Dr David Green, Senior Lecturerin the Department of Geography,is undertaking a project entitled‘Negotiating Urban Space: PublicTransport, Migrant Strategies andGender in London 1950-2005’ withthe London Transport Museum.

‘This is excellent news, King’s hasdone very well in the inauguralround of this AHRC award scheme.It will allow us to recruit morepostgraduate students fromOctober as well as developing newor existing relationships with thecreative industries – a key strategicaim for the College,’ commentsDirector of Business Development,Katharine Rabson.

Cultures ofConsumption

BOOMERS AND BEYOND,is new a project directed byProfessor Simon Biggs,

Director of the Institute ofGerontology. It will study theconsumption practices andpreferences of the first group ofpost war ‘baby boomers’ definedhere as the 1945-55 birth cohort.

The research focuses onintergenerational dimensions in therelationship between consumptionand identity. It examines the extentto which consumption and themeaning attributed to it varies aspeople mature and move throughthe life course.

‘Baby Boomers are uniquely

placed to comment on thecontinuities and discontinuities thatarise through consumptionpatterns that are generationallylocated,’ explains Professor Biggs.

Can they choose not to grow oldby buying a way out of traditionalexpectations? Do they seethemselves as essentially ‘young’proponents of ‘my generation’? Orwill they develop a more matureimagination that adapts to thechanging priorities of midlife andbeyond? Such questions raiseimportant issues about how theyspend their money; the benefitsthat accrue from the objects thatare purchased; and the broaderquestion of the relationshipbetween consumption and adultidentity. The outcomes of thedecisions made will have a stronginfluence upon policy and servicesfor succeeding generations.

The project has been fundedunder Cultures of Consumption, anew £5 million researchprogramme that studiesconsumption in a global context. It isfunded by the ESRC and AHRC andbrings together leading researchersfrom the social sciences and thearts and humanities.

Stem cell debate

Another stem cell first for King’s

If you have an item you wouldlike to be considered forinclusion on this page, pleaseemail [email protected]

Two of the ninespeakers are fromKing’s

A new page recording some of the most recentresearch news stories and funding successes.

therapeutic stem cell lines, and the risk of passing on infected materialto thousands if safety testing isbypassed in the rush to provideimmediate treatment.

Flashback


Departmental focus


KCL Enterprises works onbehalf of the College tomaximise the uptake of

King’s research and results and tosupport research funding. ‘Therole of Enterprises is a challengingone within the current market andfinancial climates,’ says Dr AlisonCampbell, Managing Director ofKCLE, ‘but with King’s researchexcellence we are in a strongposition. We are committed tocreating value for academics andthe College by ensuring that theright relationships, education,innovation, investment andcommercial skills are in place inorder to maximise the return onresearch and teaching at theCollege for the benefit of societyand wealth creation.’

Creating new businessRelationship building is anessential aspect of KCLE’s work,but for the Business Developmentdivision it is key. The team ofBusiness Development Managers(BDMs) aim to create links with

industry and the public sector, forthe good of the College –consultancy; promoting contractand collaborative research;professional courses; short coursesand student work placementopportunities available at King’s.

‘BDMs are now embedded inmost Schools acting as one-stopshops for enquiries fromacademics related to KCLEactivity,’ explains KatharineRabson, Director of BusinessDevelopment. New business isalso generated by the KCLConsultancy (KCLC) unit withinKCLE. It supports and promotesconsultancy activity in King’s.

Innovation and investment The Technology TransferDivision is dedicated to protectingand commercialising theintellectual property of theCollege, normally by licensing orthrough the establishment of aspin-out company. Workingclosely with the BDMs toidentify potential, this division

KCLEnterprisesKCL Enterprises (KCLE) is responsible for businessdevelopment, commercialisation and themanagement of research grants and contracts.

administration of research fundsonce they have been acceptedformally by the College. There is aclose interface between ResearchGrants & Contracts and theFinance Department, particularlyin respect of financial managementand reporting of grants.

Education and trainingKing’s success as an innovativeuniversity will come through itsacademics and students actingentrepreneurially.

In collaboration with a numberof other HEIs, KCLE hasestablished the London scienceenterprise centre, Simfonec, andmore recently the LondonCulture & Creative EnterpriseCentre. Both offer enterprisetraining and continuingprofessional development tostudents and academics,equipping them with thenecessary skills to exploit theirresearch commercially.

‘I have been delighted by thesupport for our endeavours acrossthe College,’ says Dr Campbell.‘This is a very exciting time to beat King’s and we at KCLE arelooking forward to working withacademics and students toincrease the volume, quality andvalue of interactions with theprivate sector.’• For enquiries: [email protected]

researches markets, makes acommercial assessment of newtechnologies and developsstrategies to commercialiseopportunities.

KCLE benefits academics byhaving long-term relationshipswith funding providers such asHeptagon, a proof of concept fundfor new technologies in lifesciences and healthcare, and withIP2IPO Ltd, the investmentcompany that has created a seedfund of £5 million for the College.

KCLE works closely withIP2IPO to find and develop newbusiness ventures in the areas ofphysical and life sciences. Thispartnership resulted in the recentfloatation on AIM of ProximagenNeurosciences. It raised £14.5million and the College was ableto realise a proportion of itsequity share netting £1 million (seefront page).

New venture creation is animportant part of KCLE’s workand the Spin-out CompanyMentoring unit providesdedicated support for academicswho want to set up a spin-outcompany including developing abusiness plan, support throughthe funding process andcontinued assistance once thefirst round of investment issecured. The spin-out team workclosely with colleagues inTechnology Transfer.

Supporting researchThe research funding obtainedby the College is of criticalimportance to its success. ResearchGrants & Contracts is the divisionof KCLE which deals with alladministrative, financial and legalaspects of externally-fundedresearch, including clinical trials.The division’s roles are allocatedaccording to Pre-Award, whichdeals with the issues involved inapplying for research funding,and Post-Award, which deals withthe issues involved in the

To learn more about the businessdevelopment, licensing, consultancyand spin-out support available fromKCLE and to meet your campus staff,you are invited to attend:

‘Innovation - Your Key Contacts’ A KCLE Roadshow

All events are 13.00-13.45

• Strand 16 May, Council Room

• Denmark Hill 19 May, Lecture Room 2, 2nd Floor, Weston Education Centre

• St Thomas 20 May, Seminar room, 10th Floor North Wing

• Waterloo 24 May, Seminar room G80, Ground Floor, FWB

• Guy’s 25 May, Classroom 1 (G4), Ground Floor, NHH

Key contacts at KCL Enterprises

Managing Director Dr Alison Campbell ext 3322Email: [email protected]

Director of Business DevelopmentKatharine Rabson ext 6792Email: [email protected]

Deputy Director of Business DevelopmentDr Jane Gate ext 6093Email: [email protected]

Director of Technology Transfer Dr Sue Smith ext 8120Email: [email protected]

Director of Research Grants & Contracts Paul Labbett ext 3939Email: [email protected]

Spin-out Company MentorGeorge Murlewski ext 8121Email: [email protected]

Consultancy ManagerDr Sandy Gourlay ext 6509Email: [email protected]

Marketing ManagerDr Susan Foynes ext 6150Email: [email protected]

WHEN ROBERTGordon returned toEngland following a

successful career as a banker inNew York he intended to retire tothe countryside. Fortunately forKing’s he didn’t stay retired forlong, preferring to take a job at JSMorgan & Co, London, where heworked until his 70th birthday,and then becoming a Governor ofGuy’s Hospital. As a Governor hedonated gifts worth more than£45,000 to the medical school tosupport pathology research andteaching, the most notable giftbeing the Gordon Museum.

CollectionThe Museum, which opened itsdoors in 1905, contains many rareor unique artefacts. These includethe first stethoscope used inBritain, one of the first Listerantiseptic sprays, and the originalspecimens used by Hodgkin,Addison and Bright to describethe conditions that bear theirnames. It also houses Sir AstleyCooper’s collection, whichcontains examples of his manysurgical innovations. Thearchitecture of the building is alsoof note, being a Victorian-stylecast iron and glass constructionsimilar to that of Crystal Palace.

Yet, what strikes you when youfirst walk into the Museum arethe walls lined with specimens inclear ‘pots’. The Museum’sprimary function has always beento help train medical professionalsto diagnose disease and this is inpart achieved by using the largestcollection of pathology specimens

in the UK. The 8,000 pots, whichhave been assimilated over 400years, show ‘classic’ and ‘rare’ casesof many diseases. The history ofall of these specimens is fullydocumented, and this protectedthe collection in the aftermath ofthe Alder Hey scandal. Now theMuseum is now one of the fewleft in the country that continuesto accept new specimens withinstrict regulatory guidelines, to fillgaps in the collection and todocument new and emergingdiseases like HIV/AIDS.

TeachingDespite the age of many of thesespecimens, they are still a valuableteaching resource. Bill Edwards,the curator, says, ‘You can take asmany pictures of diseased organsor tissues as you like, but theycan’t compare to seeing acondition in three-dimensions.’

Trainee dermatologists agree thatthere is still benefit to be gainedfrom studying Joseph Towne’s 150year-old wax models of skincomplaints.

Yet, Mr Edwards believes thatmuseums need to move with thetimes if they are going to stayrelevant to their visitors’ needs.The Gordon Museum houses oneof the College’s PAWS networks,and has its own intranet wheredetailed information about thespecimens sits alongside video,CD-Rom and PowerPoint slideson medical topics. ‘I don’t mindwhat medium it is, or whether it’sfour hundred years or four minutesold,’ said Mr Edwards. ‘If it’s agood teaching aid, we’ll use it.’

The specimens themselves arealso being brought up to date.Current projects include analysingDNA extracted from organs, todiscover whether the patients

suffered from malaria, andscanning larger specimens usingmagnetic resonance imaging(MRI) to gain insights into thediseases’ effect on the organs’internal structures. And it isunlikely to stop there. MrEdwards comments, ‘Who knowswhat technology will come alongin the future, and what newinformation we will haveextracted from these specimensin another 100 years.’Gemma Bradley

Gordon Museumcentenary

One hundred years onand the Museum is stilla valuable teachingresource for traineemedics, dentists, nursesand biomedical scientists.

Owing to the sensitive nature of thecollection, the Museum is not open tomembers of the public. Staff andstudents of King’s or Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust canvisit, and practising or traineemedics and dentists and medicalhistorians can view the collection byarrangement. To book an appointment,call Bill Edwards on: 020-7188 2676

GREG FUNNELL

A model of the inner workings of the chest and abdomen, exquisitely carved in wax by Joseph Towne is overlooked by two storeys of galleries in the Gordon Museum.

News


THE UNIVERSITY OF LONDONhas been actively encouragingconstituent Colleges to seek

degree awarding powers. Imperial,UCL and LSE either already havedegree awarding powers or are inthe process of being assessed forthese.

College Council, on the advice ofthe Academic Board, resolved thatKing’s should seek degree awardingpowers but, if granted, should holdthese powers in abeyance.

During March, academic staff and

News


other staff with teaching dutieswere asked to complete an onlinequestionnaire to provide informationfor the College’s application.

More than 1,200 responses werereceived and a full report on theresults of the survey will beavailable in due course.

The College’s application is due tobe submitted to the Privy Council atthe beginning of May.

Katharine Lewis, Senior AssistantCollege Secretary explains, ‘Theapplication will then be considered

by the Quality Assurance Agency’sDegree Awarding PowersCommittee at the end of May and, if

the application is given the greenlight at that meeting, the scrutinyprocess will begin. The QAA hasindicated to the College that the

scrutiny process is likely to takeplace towards the end of thisacademic session and it will involveassessors scrutinisingdocumentation, meeting staff,members of Council and students,and observing a number ofcorporate committee meetings.’

She adds, ‘Thanks are due to theweb team for setting up the webpage and underlying database andto all the members of staff who tookthe time to complete thequestionnaire.’

Degree awarding powers: application update

AT LEAST 25 PER CENT OFjournal and conferencearticles published by King’s

authors do not cite ‘King’s CollegeLondon’ as part of their affiliation oraddress. Furthermore, this figuremight be as great as 40 per centwhen targeting all publicationcategories. Incredibly, there areeven recent instances of authorsciting UMDS (which ceased to existin 1998) on academic papers.Others only cite ‘GKT’ or ‘Universityof London’. Why does this matter?

Increasingly, universities arebeing subjected to ranking in leaguetables based on various criteriaincluding teaching quality, staff-student ratios, graduate jobprospects, and research output.The acquisition of research outputdata, in terms of peer reviewed

publications, is usually contractedout to specialised databasesuppliers of citation data. Rarelyare the bibliographical searchstrategies utilised for eachinstitution reported upon despitethe fact that these can dramaticallyaffect the overall results and aninstitution’s ranking.

The Research Gateway is across-King’s project, to integrateinternal and external data sourcesrelating to research staff, students,awards, and research output.During initial database searches,the unexpectedly low volume ofretrieval on the phrase ‘King’sCollege London’ revealed that a

More than 1,200responses werereceived

significant amount of King’spublication output was not beingcaptured. Consequently, asophisticated search strategy wasdevised by ISS, which incorporated

every permutation and combinationpossibly used by King’s authors,including postcodes of every siteand research centre. Subsequentsearches showed that up to 40 percent of articles published by King’sauthors do not cite ‘King’s CollegeLondon’ as part of their affiliation.

It is understandable andcommendable that King’s authorswish to promote their School,Department, or Research Divisionin publication citations; however,this promotion is often,inadvertantly, at the expense ofciting the full name of the College. A standardised approach isessential to ensure thatcommercial databases index ourinstitutional name in a consistentmanner. This is important so thatresearch output is retrieved andaccredited appropriately to King’sCollege London and its staff,particularly in the context of leaguetable rankings.

Vice-Principal (Research)Professor Sir Lawrence Freedmancomments, ‘It is essential thatacademics cite King’s CollegeLondon first in all citations and thenfollow with whatever institutionaldetails they wish to add. I hope thatcolleagues will pay special attentionto this in future.’

New Prospectus

THE NEW UNDERGRADUATE PROSPECTUS FORentry 2006 has now been published and copieshave been sent out to schools and colleges.

There have been a number of improvements to thisedition including clearer contents with alphabeticallistings, improved layout of the ‘magazine’ sectionand navigational aids, the introduction of aninternational students’ page and a new fundingsection.

Olivia Davenport of the Marketing Departmentcomments, ‘I would like to thank colleagues acrossthe College who helped me produce the prospectusand I am particularly pleased that it was published onschedule. The changes we have made have been wellreceived and I hope it will prove to be a extremelyeffective tool in recruiting home and overseasstudents.’

Feedback on the prospectus would be welcome,email [email protected]• Copies of the 2006 undergraduate prospectus

are available to order on the web, please visit:

www.kcl.ac.uk/staff/prosporders.htmlwww.kcl.ac.uk

UndergraduateProspectus2006

Credit rating

The College has retained itsStandard and Poors credit

rating of AA-. Factors which haveresulted in this continued highrating include King’s strongreputation for research andteaching; high student demand andentry requirements; good financialperformance; full economiccosting for government-fundedresearch, and the successfulimplementation of an ambitiousestates redevelopment plan.

Funding rename

The Student Loans & AwardsOffice has been renamed the

Student Funding Office. The officeoffers a full range of fundingadvice on Student StatutorySupport and discretionaryfunding. This includes a number ofbursaries/scholarships and othergeneric funding such as Socratesgrants. A wide range of funding

information for new and existingstudents can be viewed atwww.kcl.ac.uk/funding

Events change

The Ceremonies & Events Officehas been renamed the Student

Registration Office. The servicesprovided include the projectmanagement of myKCL,involvement in the management ofstudent data, overseeingtranscript production, organisingevents such as graduationceremonies, enrolment andinaugural lectures, and co-ordinating other activities such astravel awards, prizes andUniversity of London SummerSchools. Further details can befound at www.kcl.ac.uk/graduation

National Science Week

As part of its mission ‘topromote engagement with

medical research’ the MedicalResearch Council sponsored 12events during National ScienceWeek. One of these included anAlzheimer’s disease researchopen day at the Institute of

Psychiatry which demonstratedthe process of research in action.

Media Fellowship scheme

The BA Media Fellowshipscheme aims to offer

scientists and engineers theopportunity to experience howthe media works. Participantsspend three to eight weeks on aplacement with a mediaorganisation learning how scienceis reported. Previous hostorganisations have included TheGuardian, BBC Radio, Natureonline and Countryfile. Applicantsshould have a minimum of twoyears’ postgraduate experience,be a UK citizen, and work at anylevel in an academic or researchinstitution. For further informationand online application visitwww.the-ba.net/mediafellows

New research council

Arts and humanitiesresearchers have been given

their own research council, puttingthe discipline on an equal footingwith the sciences. On 1 April theArts & Humanities Research

Council – which has an annualbudget of more than £75 million –replaced the Arts & HumanitiesResearch Board.

ESRC website

The UK’s largest funding agencyfor research and postgraduate

training on social and economicissues – the Economic and SocialResearch Council – launched anew online initiative for socialsciences research. ESRC SocietyToday will offer academics, studentsand researchers unrivalled, freeaccess to high quality social andeconomic research available,planned and in progress.www.esrcsocietytoday.ac.uk

Clarification

On the front page of the lastedition of Comment we noted

that ‘more than £2,000 was raisedby the College’. This meant bothstaff and students, but in case thiswas unclear we would like to pointout that KCLSU played a majorrole in the fundraising effort andspearheaded the charitableresponse on behalf of the College.

News in brief

THE PUBLICATIONS OFFICEhas recently been designatedthe Corporate Design Unit,

with Christine Ayre in the newlycreated post of Corporate IdentityManager. Christine has worked forthe College on a consultancy basisfor many years and has a thoroughunderstanding of design issues atKing’s. The Unit’s focus has shiftedfrom being solely on Collegepublications to any use of thecorporate identity such as its fontsand logo. Please feel free toapproach the Unit with queries:Christine Ayre or Peter Graham on3092 will be delighted to assist.

PublicationsOffice

What’s in a name?

A standardisedapproach is essential

Dr Mary Davies, Deputy Director of Information Services & Systemsand Director of Customer Services reveals why the issue of citations is central to the College’s future.

Student news


News


KCLSU StudentActivities Awards

ON 19 MARCH AN EVENT WASheld to celebrate theachievements of volunteers,

clubs and societies. Around 300students attended The Brewery,Moorgate, at which 14 major awardswere made.

Danny Craites, 800m gold medallistin the 2004 Paralympic Games andthe UK’s only amputee rugby player,addressed the gathering, receivinga standing ovation for his account ofhow sheer determination enabledhim to achieve his dreams.

Winners included Dance,commended as Society of the Year,for, amongst other achievements,their outstanding level ofmembership and the production ofHollywood Showstoppers one ofthe most successful shows theGreenwood Theatre has hosted inrecent years. For sport the SquashClub was recognised as both men’sand women’s teams reached the last16 in the British University SportsAssociation (BUSA) knockouts. Andvolunteers with local communityproject Blackfriars Settlement, wereawarded for their outstandingcommitment to activities supportingelderly residents in Southwark.

management consultant, John Windle, were retained toconduct the review. Theysubsequently reported to theKCLSU Governance Review Group –consisting of Executive Committeeofficers, the Academic Registrar,Brian Salter, Dr Alan Gibson, andKCLSU staff – making a series ofrecommendations.

These were presented to theSRC for discussion, and debated bystudents in three open fora. Theviews and opinions that weregathered informed a finalrecommendation by the ExecutiveCommittee, presented to the Aprilmeeting of the SRC for approval.

‘KCLSU is the first students’ union

in the country to undertake such areview, and we hope that theprocess and results will become atopic of debate throughout thesector, as the pattern of fallingcommercial revenue andengagement with the democraticprocess continues to dominate,’says Samantha Williams, Vice-President Media & Publications

Make PovertyHistory

KCLSU IS SUPPORTING THEMakePovertyHistorycampaign, launched on

1 January in response to the UK’shosting of the G8 summit andholding of the EU Presidency thisyear. The initiative is calling fortrade justice, cancellation ofdeveloping world debt and moreand better aid for the poorestcountries in the world.Approximately one sixth of theworld’s population lives on less than$1 per day, and it is estimated that33,000 people die needlessly everyday as a result of poverty.

White wristbands are available inKCLSU and Oxfam shops for £1, to demonstrate your commitmentto making this world a fairer place for all.

THE COLLEGE’S RESEARCHEthics Committee (REC) hasbeen running for 21 years.

Established in 1984, it examines allproposals for research which involvehuman subjects and materials derivedfrom them. It was chaired by Dr TonyLeeds of the Department of Nutrition& Dietetics until 2001 when ProfessorAnthea Tinker of the Institute ofGerontology took up the post.

Professor Tinker explains, ‘At theheart of our work is trying to ensurethat all participants in research givefully informed consent, that is, theyknow what the particular study is,the full extent of their involvementand what will happen to the data.This is why we put so much

emphasis on the information sheetsand consent forms that are given toparticipants. We are especiallyconcerned about ethical issueswhere the researcher is in a positionof authority over the participant,

such as a lecturer and their students,a care home manager and residents.’

The REC is probably one of thelongest established universityResearch Ethics Committees,reflecting King’s strong commitmentto academic excellence and service

to society.Examples of the kinds of research

that the REC scrutinises include:

• Interview, questionnaire or focusgroup (based on topics such asprofessional practice; financialabuse; language proficiency; HIVlevels in a population; eatingbehaviour; abortion; ideals ofbody shape; palliative care;smoking; alcohol use).

• Physical activity (exercises suchas cycling, stair climbing, pilates;ultrasound; x-rays; CT scans;EMG scans)

• Invasive (taking blood)• Administration of a product

(alcohol; vitamins; food; non-

The annual Simfonec business plan competition,LEAP has reached the second stage with judgesselecting the top business plans to go through to

the next stage.More than 50 entries were received from

participating London universities including King’s.Fourteen entries are through to the next round, ofwhich five are from King’s. They now compete for thetop prize fund of £50,000 and have to develop a fullbusiness plan and present to the panel of judges, whoare made up of sponsor companies and in housespecialists.

The King’s five entries include a mix of academicsand students. Three teams are from the Departmentof Electrical Engineering, (led by Dr MohammadGhavami, Senior Lecturer in the Centre forTelecommunications Research; Dr Paul Pangalos alsoof the Centre for Telecommunications Research andstudent Jose Gil Gonzalez), the Department ofMechanical Engineering (led by Carlo Quaglia, fourthyear student) and Pharmacy (led by PhD studentYuhao Ren).

Winners will be chosen in June with the judgesselecting the ideas they feel have the most potential to

succeed as a commercial reality and progress in thecompetitive marketplace.

The competition provides a valuable opportunity foraspiring entrepreneurs to take their innovativescience, engineering or technology based ideas intothe commercial marketplace. Support is offeredthroughout the process in the form of workshops,mentoring and business clinics with leading industryexperts.

Simfonec’s director Dr Julie Logan says, ‘Thecompetition acts as an excellent outlet for staff andstudents to explore potential new ventures anddevelop their entrepreneurial skills at the same time.’

Simfonec is London’s largest Science enterprisecentre. It is collaboration between four leadingLondon universities and led by Cass Business School,City University. The other collaborators are QueenMary’s, King’s and the Royal Vet College.

LEAP has been made possible through sponsorshipfrom leading providers of finance and professionalservices to entrepreneurial ventures – Rawlinson &Hunter, Kilburn & Strode, NESTA, KPMG, Salters,Heptagon and Ithaka Life Sciences.LEAP: www.leap2005.com Simfonec: www.simfonec.co.uk

medicinal products; non-investigational medicinal products)

• Non-invasive samples (eg, saliva,bacteria from the mouth, urine,fingerprints Human Tissue samples)

Membership of the REC covers awide variety of disciplines – health,social science, law and humanities.There are also lay members and apostgraduate student. It reports toCollege Council.

The work of the Committee isbecoming increasingly complexwhich is due to factors including EUlegislation, guidance fromGovernment, professionalguidelines, the Data Protection Act,the Freedom of Information Act,and an increasingly litigious society.

‘We are now helping to establish

an informal network for universityResearch Ethics Committees thatwill help us all to share experienceand information. On 6 May we co-hosted, with the Centre for MedicalLaw & Ethics, a one-day conferenceon the issues facing university RECsat a time of great flux in thearrangements for ethical review,’said Profesor Tinker.

Last September, Professor Tinkerwith her colleague Vera Coomber,Research Associate, published anational survey of all UniversityResearch Ethics Committees in theUK. The research, funded by theNuffield Foundation, concerned theethical scrutiny of non-medicalresearch involving humanparticipants not covered by theNational Health Service.www.kcl.ac.uk/research/crec

Competition hots up

Ethics comes of age

New KCLSU President Matt Pusey

GREG FUNNELL

Squash receive their Club of the Year Trophy. Both men’s and women’s teams of this mixed clubwon their BUSA leagues – the top leagues in the South East and both will have play off matches inthe summer term for promotion to the Premier League.

More than 2,500 studentsturned out to vote for nextyear’s representatives,

which include the ExecutiveCommittee, Student RepresentativeCouncil (SRC) members, Universityof London Union delegates, andrepresentatives of the Lesbian Gay& Bisexual and International studentcommunities. The newly elected2005/06 Executive Committee ismade up of a mix of students, someof whom have been heavily involvedwith KCLSU and others who aremaking their first foray into theworld of student politics. All positionstake office on 1 August 2005.

2005/06 EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE

President Matt Pusey

VP Education & Representation Emma Wynne

VP Media & Publications Sneha Solanki

VP Sites & Services Lee Peterson

VP Student Activities Fran Doran

Campaigns & Communications Officer Laura Norris

Equal Opportunities Officer Aditi Sharma

Executive Officer Saud Khawaja

Medical & Dental Students’ Officer Ambroise Muchembled

Postgraduate Officer Chaney Ojinnaka

Societies Officer Ben Wiseman

Sports Officer Rhys Davies

Student Volunteering & Development Officer Lucy Grassby

Union Chair Rajesh ‘Josh’ Joshi

KCLSU governancereview

THE FACE OF HIGHER EDUCATIONhas changed, is changing, andwill continue to change as

never before, a situation which willnot leave students’ unionsuntouched. ‘In recognition of this,the September meeting of the SRCmandated the Executive Committeeto instigate a review of KCLSU’sgovernance structures’, explainsRajesh Joshi, Vice-PresidentEducation & Representation.

A firm of solicitors, Bates Wells& Braithwaite (BWB), and a

KCLSU elections

Examines all proposalsfor research whichinvolve human subjects

One of the longestestablished university RECs

Arts


In the news


LiterarydetectivesThe Man on theHeath: Johnson andBoswell investigate

Aplay written by Professorof English Literature,David Nokes, was

performed on Radio 4 at thebeginning of May. The Man on theHeath: Johnson and BoswellInvestigate, tells the story of Dr Samuel Johnson and JamesBoswell who investigate themystery of a reluctanthighwayman and confound hisenemies with a cunning plan oftheir own devising.

This play, the first of a series ofplays about Johnson and Boswellas literary detectives, was writtenin conjunction with thetercentenary biography of Johnsonwhich Professor Nokes is writingand is due to come out in 2009.

Professor Nokes, whospecialises in 18th centuryliterature, has previously adaptedRichardson’s Clarissa and AnneBrontë’s The Tenant of Wildfell Hallfor television.

King’s expertisecontributes toBBC radio play

The gentle art of dying

Agroup of academics andstudents from King’s havecollaborated with the BBC

World Service Drama Departmentand renowned playwright ClaireLuckham, on a play entitled Thegentle art of dying, which wasbroadcast on 23 April.

Gillie Bolton (Department ofEnglish), Dr Karen Lowton(Lecturer in Nursing), Dr HowardCohen (Honorary Lecturer in the

Department of General Practice& Primary Care), D’Oyly CarteProfessor of Medicine & the Arts,Brian Hurwitz, and a group ofmedical students contributed theirresearch findings and experiences.

The hour-long play exploredhow dying and death is perceivedand managed by peoplethroughout the world, especiallythose working within the healthservices, by interweaving ClaireLuckham’s narrative with thesefirst-hand accounts.

When the Head of BBC Drama

for the World Service approachedplaywright Claire Luckham lastyear, she had recently finished anattachment as Artist in Residenceon a Leverhulme Award in theKing’s Department of English.Claire had previously drawn onthe knowledge and expertise ofCollege academics whenresearching plays with a medicaltheme and approached ProfessorHurwitz to set up a workshop withKing’s people. The workshop,held last summer, was run bycreative writer and researcher

Gillie Bolton, who was studyingtherapeutic writing with cancerpatients in palliative care settings.

Dr Karen Lowton was verypleased with the result of all thecontributors’ hard work and said‘I find it exciting that such acollaboration has enabled King’sresearch findings and medicalexpertise to be disseminatedthrough the media to a hugeglobal lay audience, rather thanbeing restricted to the moretraditional research outputs suchas academic journals.’

World premierePhysick Lies a Bleeding or TheApothecary Turned Doctor

The world premiere of a viciously satiricaland inflammatory piece about apothecariesand physicians at the close of the 1600s will

be staged at Apothecaries’ Hall on 18, 19 and 20May and is directed by Abigail Anderson.

Entitled Physick Lies a Bleeding or The ApothecaryTurned Doctor it was written by Thomas Brown in1697 and has now been rediscovered by DeeCook, the Apothecaries Society’s Archivist.

Featuring six main characters, four are London-based apothecaries of differing backgrounds andprofessional pretensions, the play spotlights thegreed and dishonesty of London apothecarieswhile revealing the hypocrisy of the physicianswho frequently secretly aided and abetted themby going ‘snips with their Apothecaries’ in theproceeds from the exorbitant prices charged formedicines.

In the wittily acerbic, coffee-house language ofits day, Physick Lies a Bleeding rehearses some of thearguments which featured in the three-yearlawsuit, known as the Rose Case, which endedwith a ruling in the House of Lords in March1703/04. This settled the longstanding disputebetween the Royal College of Physicians ofLondon and The Worshipful Society ofApothecaries of London by giving legalrecognition to an apothecary’s right to practisemedicine. This ruling paved the way for theemergence of ‘surgeon-apothecaries’ and, 100years later, the distinctive professional role ofGeneral Practitioners in the UK.

Brian Hurwitz, D’Oyly Carte Professor ofMedicine & the Arts says, ‘The Medical Schoolhas a close relationship with the Society ofApothecaries; some 20 or so medical studentsundertake Special Study Modules in the Historyof Medicine every year, and many take theextended SSM allowing them to gain the Society’sDiploma in the History of Medicine.

‘When Dee Cook told me about her discoveryof Physick Lies a Bleeding I immediately wonderedif we could arrange for a performance withinKing’s and am delighted that the Guy’s and StThomas’ Charity will fund a free performance forpatients, the public, staff and students in the St Thomas’ Governors’ Hall on 21 May at 3pm.’• Tickets are available by ringing 020-7004 3283 or email

[email protected]

• For performances on 18, 19 and 20 May, tickets cost £75,

visit www.apothecaries.org to book.

Pope’s healthCNN interviewed Peter Jenner,Professor of Pharmacology andexpert on Parkinson’s disease,about the Pope’s worsening health.

ChimericexperimentationPeter Braude, Professor of Obstetrics& Gynaecology and Dr StephenMinger, Head of the Stem CellBiology Laboratory, appeared onRadio 4’s Today Programme in afeature on the practical and ethicalquestions raised by ‘chimeric’, thepractice of mixing of cells fromseparate creatures.

Sick leaveThe Independent reported onresearch by Max Henderson andcolleagues at the Institute ofPsychiatry, which shows the stressof modern living has, for the firsttime, resulted in mental healthproblems overtaking physicalailments as the chief cause of long-term sickness in Britain.

Brain foodAn article in The Daily Telegraphon healthy alternatives to high-calorie junk food for boostingexam success quoted Dr MichaelNelson, Senior Lecturer inNutrition & Dietetics, on theimportance of iron in the diet fora good academic performance.

Terror attack riskProfessor Michael Clarke, Directorof the International Policy Institute,was featured in The EveningStandard and Metro stating that aterrorist attack on British troops inIraq is more likely than a strike onLondon in the run-up to the generalelections.

Sun debateOne report says we should coverup in the sun, another says beingin the sun is important. TheGuardian asked Professor AntonyYoung, Division of Skin Sciences,School of Medicine, about therelative benefits of sun exposure.He explained there is anincreasing amount of evidencethat vitamins from the sun play arole in preventing certain typesof cancers and auto-immunedisorders.

Syria and LebanonDr Rory Miller, Senior Lecturer inMediterranean Studies, wrote anarticle for The Irish Times on Syria’soccupation of Lebanon.

Abortion lawsAs the Archbishop of Canterburystepped into the debate overabortion and called on politiciansto review the present law, KyprosNicolaides, Professor of FetalMedicine, commented in TheSunday Times on the need toimpose a 20 week time limit.

Racist attacksincreaseBen Bowling, Professor ofCriminology and Criminal Justice,commented in The Observer onfindings that ethnic minorities livingin parts of Britain are now fourtimes more likely to have sufferedfrom racism than they were beforethe last general election.

What makes a hero?In the light of the Victoria Crossbeing awarded for acts of braveryduring the Iraq war, Dr AndrewDorman, Lecturer in the DefenceStudies Department, was quoted

in The Observer which asked whatfactors – physical, psychologicaland moral – create a heroic act.He was also quoted in aNewsweek article about howEuropean defence contractorsplan to follow the US lead inmaintaining the arms embargoon China, and was interviewedon Sky News about the inquiryinto how four young soldiersdied at the Deepcut armybarracks.

All in the mindDr Paul Moran, Clinical SeniorLecturer at the Institute ofPsychiatry, discussed the latestresearch into Personality Disorder and the current availabletreatments on Radio 4’s All in the Mind.

Cyber heist Dr Richard Overill, Senior Lecturerin Computer Science, wasinterviewed for Capital Radionews to explain how the foiled$424 million ‘cyber’ heist onSumitomo Mitsui Bank’s Londoncomputer systems was likely tohave been set up and carried out.

Child crueltyDr Richard Hoskins, Visiting SeniorResearch Fellow in the Departmentof Theology & Religious Studies,took part in discussions on BBC 2’sNewsnight and BBC World Serviceabout incidences of child abuseresulting from west and centralAfrica religious beliefs that childrenwho misbehave are possessed byevil spirits.

Cancer conAfter it was found that womenwith a disorder similar toMunchausen’s Syndrome areinventing family histories of

breast cancer in order to havetreatment, Simon Wessley,Professor of Epidemiological andLiaison Psychiatry at the Instituteof Psychiatry, commented on thepsychology of such behaviour. Hewas quoted in The Guardian, Daily Telegraph, Daily Express,Daily Mirror, BBC News Onlineand many regional papers.

Food supplements banProfessor Joseph Lunec, Head ofMolecular Toxicology, was quoted inThe Times as part of a story abouthow the EU will ban 300 foodsupplement ingredients thissummer.

Not the Queen’sEnglishDr Jennifer Jenkins, SeniorLecturer in Education &Professional Studies and expertin world Englishes, talked aboutnon-native dialects of English ina Newsweek article looking at theincreasing number of non-nativeEnglish speakers.

Pollution protestGary Fuller of the EnvironmentalResearch Group was interviewedfor West Kent News on KM FMabout pollution concentrationsaround the M25 as part of story ona local group who are lobbyingGovernment to halt an increase inair pollution.

See www.kcl.ac.uk/headlines for asummary of the latest mediacoverage for King's and highereducation generally with linksthrough to the full articles. ThePublic Relations Department iskeen to know of any stafffeatured in the media, contact uson 020-7848 3202 or [email protected]

Books


Classical Athensand the DelphicOracle: Divination andDemocracy

Hugh Bowden, Lecturer in AncientHistory

The Delphic Oracle waswhere, according toGreek tradition, Apollo

would speak through hispriestesses. This work exploresthe importance placed onconsultations at Delphi byAthenians in the city’s age ofdemocracy. It demonstrates theextent to which concern to dothe will of the gods affectedAthenian politics, challengingthe notion that Atheniandemocracy may be seen as amodel for modern seculardemocratic constitutions.

All the known consultations ofthe oracle by Athens in theperiod before 300 BC areexamined, and descriptions ofconsultations found in Attictragedy and comedy arediscussed. This work provides anew account of how the DelphicOracle functioned, and presentsa thorough analysis of the

patients who visit the dentalpractice and the next steps to betaken, this book is an essentialmanual for guidance in an area inwhich the dental team hashitherto been left somewhat onits own. As well being generallyinformative, the manualspecifically contains practicaladvice on how to discusssuspicions with the patient andwhat to do next in order to helpprotect them. Additionally, itcontains resources such as samplereferral letters and a wholechapter devoted to team training.

Chapters cover topics includingchild abuse, domestic violence,abuse of vulnerable adults andeffective protection.

The authors draw on a widefield of clinical experience as wellas co-operation with organisationssuch as the Metropolitan PoliceAuthority, Refuge, the Women’sAid Federation of England andAction on Elder Abuse.

The Haig Diaries: The diaries of Field Marshal Sir Douglas Haig: war diariesand letters 1914-1918

Sir Douglas Haig, Gary Sheffield, (SeniorLecturer in Defence Studies) John Bourne

There is a commonly held view thatDouglas Haig was a bone-headed,callous butcher who, through his

incompetence as commander of the BritishArmy in WWI, killed a generation of youngmen on the Somme and Passchendaele. Onthe other hand there are those who viewHaig as a man who successfully struggledwith appalling difficulties to produce anarmy which took the lead in defeatingGermany in 1918, winning the greatest seriesof victories in British military history.

Just as the success of the Alanbrooke war

diaries can be put down to its ‘horse’s mouth’view of Churchill and the conduct of WWII,so Haig’s Diaries, hitherto only previouslyavailable in bowdlerised form, give his viewof Asquith and his successor Lloyd George,of whom he was highly critical.

As Haig records the relationship wasstormy (‘I have no great opinion of LG as aman or leader’ – Sept 1916). The diariesshow him intriguing with the King (George V)vs Lloyd George. Additional are his day-by-day accounts of the key battles of thewar, not least the Somme campaign of 1916.‘I found Foch (Allied C-in-C) most selfishand obstinate. ... Foch suffers from a swollenhead, and thinks himself another Napoleon.’

Haig is revealed as an early admirer of thetank and of the airoplane. He revels inturning the well-meaning BEF under SirJohn French into the professional fightingforce that eventually won the war.Weidenfeld & Nicholson Military

relationship between theAthenians and the Oracle,making it essential reading bothfor students of the Oracle itselfand of Athenian democracy.Cambridge University Press

The managementof abuse:A manual for thedental team

Tim Newton, Professor of Psychologyas Applied to Dentistry, plusmembers of the Department of OralHealth Services Research & DentalPublic Health, The Dental Institute

This is currently the onlybook to deal with thisincreasingly important

issue and to offer direct, practicaladvice for the dental team.

Outlining the reasons whyabuse occurs, how to identify it in

COMMENT is the College’s regular newsletter, produced by the Public Relations Department | Articles, and/or photographs are welcomed from allmembers of the College, but please note that the Editor reserves the right to amend articles | Copy for the next issue can be sent to the Public RelationsDepartment (ext 3202), James Clerk Maxwell Building, Waterloo campus, or emailed to [email protected] by 1 June 2005

comment 160 - may 2005

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