Contact details:

Arthur Dafis
Development & External Affairs
Tel: 01970 621763
Mobile: 07811 412295
E-mail:aid@aber.ac.uk

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News in Brief...

Tuesday 28 January 2004
The Department of Theatre, Film and Television  donate towards the Theatre in Wales 2003 awards

The Department of Theatre, Film and Television at the University of Wales, Aberystwyth has donated money towards the ‘Theatre in Wales’ 2003 awards. These are the third annual awards to be held, and the winners willbe announced at a special ceremony at the Aberystwyth Arts Centre on the 23^rd of January at 6.30pm.

The winners were selected by visitors to www.theatre-wales.co.uk , the leading internet resource for news, information and reviews on performance in Wales. There were eight categories in the competition, which were best English language production, best Welsh language production, best new writing, best dance or performance work, best design, best male performer, and best female performer. The James Westaway memorial award will be given for an outstanding performance by a Welsh or a Welsh based actor.

According to Keith Morris, the editor of the Theatre in Wales web site “the response this year has been amazing, with votes coming in thick and fast right up to the final moment. It’s a reflection of the strength and vitality of the theatre and dance scene in Wales that we had such a turn out.”

According to Professor Ioan Williams, the Head of the Theatre, Film and Television Studies at the UWA “As the biggest department of its kind in Wales we felt that it was important for us to contribute towards these awards. The University has become a part of the performing industry here in Wales, and that industry contributes towards the teaching and the research done here. We also feel that everyone within this industry should work together.”

 Each winner will receive a £150 cheque from the department as well as a glass trophy by Sian Lyle, a young artist from Aberystwyth. The awards received financial support from New Welsh Review and from the Aberystwyth Arts Centre. For more information contact Keith Morris on 01970 611106 or 07710 285 968; keith@theatre-wales.co.uk
 

Wednesday 7 January 2004
University Grants

Professor RN Jones: a grant of £750 to cover excess page charges for publication of:-

Neil Jones 2004. McClintock’s controlling elements: the full story.
In: "Plant Cytogenetics" - a special volume of the International Journal Cytogenetic and Genome Research.

Barbara McClintock’s discovery of mobile genetic elements in maize (jumping genes) won her the Nobel prize in 1983. She first presented her work at a meeting of the Cold Spring Harbor Symposium in 1951, and was heard ‘in stony silence’ and then ostracised by the international genetic community and considered by many to be insane. Only after the molecular cloning of mobile elements, including those in maize, some twenty years later was her genius recognised. Her own published account of her work in 1951 is virtually unreadable, and to this day is understood by only a handful of people. This paper reconstructs the full story of what I consider to be the most intellectual work of genetic analysis ever made by a solitary scientist, and is based on the annual reports of her work over many years from 1941 onwards in the Carnegie Institution of Washington Yearbook. The paper will make McClintock’s work intelligible to many teachers and their students for the first time. The Journal of Cytogentic and Genome Research is a high quality journal with a wide international readership.

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Wednesday 7 January 2004
University Grants

The Dance of the Carbon Atom’: socio-industrial régulation and the political ecologies of the Carbon Cycle.

Carbon, in its various compounds and molecular forms, has played a crucial role in the development of modern industrial society. Despite its central role in fueling industrial growth, however, the exploitation of Carbon has also created a series of socio-ecological barriers to continued economic development. Consequently, whether it is in terms localized pollution and the loss of clean air experienced in nineteenth century industrial cities, or the planetary threat of global warming which we face today, there has been a constant pressure to control, monitor and regulate the use of Carbon. This project explores the tension described above. This tension revolves around the fact that while Carbon-based fuels continue to provide the major source of energy for contemporary society, the use and exploitation of Carbon threatens the social and ecological systems upon which the global economy depends. Focusing upon different historical and contemporary strategies to regulate Carbon use in the UK, this project combines theoretical work in economics on the regulation of socio-industrial systems with archival research at the Royal Society and interviews with key figures in the British Energy industry.

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Wednesday 7 January 2004
Success for former student of the Institute of Rural Sciences at Aberystwyth

Dr. Julie Baumber, a former MSc student of the Institute of Rural Sciences at the University of Wales Aberystwyth has won the 2003 Wilson Award for her work on the effects of reactive oxygen species on equine sperm.

Dr Julie Baumber completed an MSc in equine science at the University of Wales Aberystwyth after graduating in physiology from the University of Sheffield in 1997. She continued her studies and received a PhD in comparative pathology from UC Davis, California in June 2003. She is currently working as a postdoctoral fellow in the UC Davis School of Veterinary Medicine.

According to Dr Mina Davies-Morel, a lecturer in Equine Science at the Institute of Rural Studies, Aberystwyth, “We are extremely happy at the Institute to hear of the success of our former students. Most of our MSc equine students go on to careers in equine or related research and in lecturing and teaching. The vast majority of the Colleges and Universities currently running HE Equine courses have ex MSc students of ours teaching on and running their courses. This is great for the Institute as it helps to maintain our position as the premier provider of Equine Education at the HE level.”


“Our MSc Equine is the longest established equine course in UK established in the late 1970s and regularly attracts students from abroad. Our MSc graduates find jobs in the UK but also abroad. Such success obviously helps support our belief that we provide students with an excellent post graduate education.”

The Wilson Award is given each year to the most outstanding equine research publication by a graduate academic student. Dr.Julie Baumber was honoured with the Wilson Award for her publication, “Reactive Oxygen Species and Cryopreservation Promote Deoxyribonucleic Acid (DNA) Damage in Equine Spermatozoa.”

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