July 18, 2013, by Zoë Goodwin
News from the week in brief
Very brief
This week many positive things have happened. Our psychologists in Malaysia have discovered new insights into our working memory, two charities have been honoured for their generous philanthropic contributes to the University and a new study shows that the British public are fully supportive of energy change. The University of Nottingham and Nottingham Trent have teamed up to encourage more students from less privileged backgrounds to study law and again when both their Students’ Unions achieved national recognition for their impact in the community. A Nottingham art history graduate is given the responsibility to look after a £23m masterpiece while a new Head of Brewing Science is appointed. The Lakeside Arts Centre is to tour internationally for the first time and China’s most successful table tennis star receives an honorary degree.
Clearly the press office has been busy this week. Want to know more? See below.
Brief
We take it for granted that our thoughts are in constant turnover but now a research team led by Dr Matthew Johnson in the School of Psychology at Notting
ham’s Malaysia Campus have pinpointed an effect that makes people turn their attention to something new rather than dwelling on their more recent thought. Dr Johnson said: “We have discovered a very promising paradigm…I think this could turn out to be a very important part of our understanding of how and why our thoughts work the way they do.”
Read more about the significance of this discovery here.
The David Ross Foundation and The Haydn Green Charitable Trust will both become members of the prestigious College of Benefactors for their generous philanthropic contributions to The University of Nottingham. The David Ross Foundation made a £2.1m donation to the University, the biggest single gift ever received from one of its graduates. The Haydn Green Charitable Trust donated £1.5m to the University to promote innovation and entrepreneurship.
Read more about these two charities and what the Vice-Chancellor has to say about their donations here.
Nottingham academics now know the values and factors that influence people’s decisions on whether to accept or reject changes to the energy system and, alongside Cardiff University, they have revealed that people in Britain are fully supportive of the idea of energy change.
Read precisely what changes the public favour here.
Following the official launch of The Legal Education Foundation (TLEF) both Nottingham-based universities will join its Pathway to Law access programme to encourage more students from less privileged backgrounds to study law. The programme, which is open to low and middle income state schools, offers a series of activities to support students through their progression to university and helps them to develop skills and knowledge that are relevant to the legal profession.
Read what our Head of Widening Participation thinks of this university collaboration here.
The Students’ Unions from both Nottingham universities have also been coming together this week but this time to accept an award for being the winners in the Community Relations category of the annual NUS Awards 2013. The judges particularly commended their joint campaign to engage students with the Police & Crime Commissioner elections held in November 2012.
Read more about this award winning campaign and its many benefits for both students and the local community here.
Amy Concannon, an art history graduate from Nottingham University has gone on to become an Assistant Curator at the Tate Britain. She played a central role in petitioning for the Tate’s latest acquisition, which was bought for £23.1m from the family of Lord Ashton of Hyde. A chance to save such a pivotal piece by one of the most significant British landscape painters of all time is rare.
Read Amy’s description of the painting and why this painting is so important here.
This week sees a new high-profile appointment to lead its world class research into brewing science. Joanne Hort has been appointed as the SABMiller Chair of Sensory Science and Head of Brewing Science within the University’s School of Biosciences. Her research focuses on how people perceive their food and beverages, extending beyond the purely chemical analysis of taste to consider the consumer’s emotional response to what they eat and drink.
Get to know more about Joanne Hort here.
An exhibition which is based on curator Dr Anna Lovatt’s research as a lecturer in the University’s History of Art department will be the first exhibition organised by The University of Nottingham’s Lakeside Arts Centre to tour internationally for the first time. ‘Michelle Stuart: Drawn from Nature’ which was held at Lakeside’s Djanogly Art Gallary between February and April 2013, will open at the Parish Art Museum, New York, on 21 July.
Read more about this ‘first of its kind’ exhibition here.
And finally…
Dr Deng Yaping, China’s most successful table tennis player has received an honorary doctorate at The University of Nottingham Ningbo Campus. Yapi
ng has won 18 world tennis table championships and four Olympic gold medals. She is an alumna of The University of Nottingham, completing a masters degree here in 2002, having retired from table tennis in 1997. She said: “No matter where you come from and where you are going, what occupation you take, please don’t forget that you are alumni of The University of Nottingham, carrying on its honour and traditions.”
Read more about this honorary graduate here.
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