MPS Weekly Update
24 September 2015
Last week’s first issue of the new academic year was already jampacked
and, not wishing to overlook the recent success of our faculty in the
student-led teaching awards, below are details of our winners.
This is the first year for this new set of awards and MPS received more
nominations than any other school on campus. These awards lead on to
the Teaching Excellence awards (which then go to the School Teaching &
Learning Committee and those nominated are required to produce a
reflective statement on how they would spend the £5000 award to improve
teaching) > National Teaching Fellow scheme – the University as a whole
can only nominate two people across all the schools.
MPS School Meeting
Friday 25 September
1pm-3pm
Shawcross lecture theatre
AS02
Outstanding or innovative undergraduate teaching
Mathematics – Filippo Cagnetti, Nicos Georgiou, Peter Giesl
P & A – Claudia Eberlein, Daniel Litim, Steve Wilkins
Outstanding or innovative postgraduate teaching
P & A – Mark Sargent, David Seery, Steve Wilkins
Outstanding or innovative assessment and feedback
Mathematics – Derek Robinson
P & A – Marco Peccianti
Outstanding support for the learning experience of students
Mathematics – Nicos Georgiou, James Hirschfeld, Vanessa Styles
Mathematics (left to right) Filippo, Nicos, Peter, Derek, James & Vanessa
A reminder to faculty
Please update your feedback
hours for this term – on the web
and on your door
The University
of Sussex has
climbed six
places in the
Times/Sunday
Times Good
University
Guide to take it
back into the
top 20.
www.sussex.ac.uk/students/
newsandevents/?id=32035
Physics & Astronomy (left to right) Claudia, Daniel, Steve, Mark, David & Marco
Physics & Astronomy news
OBITUARY
Professor Mike Pendlebury, an
experimental physicist of the ‘old
school’, has died at the age of 78.
Having obtained a first class degree in Physics, he
moved to the University of Sussex in 1962 and for the
next 50 years he played a significant role in both the
teaching and research of the University.
He retired in 2002 but remained as a researcher and
worked particularly closely with Professor Philip Harris
on the nEDM project. Mike received a Sussex 50th
anniversary fellowship, awarded to those associated with
the University who had made a distinguished
contribution in any field or activity since its foundation in
1961.
Mathematics news
Professor James
Hirschfeld hosted the
second annual Alumni
golf tournament on
Wednesday 23
September.
The format of the day was informal and friendly, with a
Stableford competition. Longest drives and nearest the
pin prizes were also awarded.
Thankfully, the omnipotent James had organised a
morning of glorious sunshine and the going was good
(or is that another sport?!).
Some comments from colleagues on hearing of his
death include:
‘An outstanding colleague and friend to many’
‘Wise, kind, gentle, lovely man’
‘Friendly and humorous personality’
‘Unpretentious, though so capable’
Details of Professor Pendlebury’s memorial service will
follow in due course.
Physics & Astronomy news cont’d
Congratulations to Dr Iacopo Vivarelli
who has been promoted to Reader in
Experimental Particle Physics, with
effect from 1 October 2015.
www.sussex.ac.uk/internal/bulletin/staff/201415/11092015/michaelpendleburyobit
Information for Academics
The autumn programme of training and development
events for postdoctoral research staff and early
career academics has now been published and all
events are open for registration.
Wednesday 2 December 2pm-4pm
Peer reviewing manuscripts for journals (for STEMM
researchers)
Monday 7 December 2pm-3.30pm
Adding your publications to Sussex Research Online
Thursday 8 October 10am-1pm
Effective networking for career success
Monday 19 October & Monday 2 November 2pm-5pm
Managing your career (2-part course)
Monday 9 November 9.30am-4.30pm
Enhancing professional effectiveness
Wednesday 18 November 9.30am-5pm
Writing & publishing strategies: journal articles
Wednesday 25 November 10am-12pm
Aiming for promotion at Sussex
For full details of the autumn 2015 events, please visit
www.sussex.ac.uk/staff/research/researchstaff/
traininganddevelopment
Departmental seminars coming up this week
MASS
Astronomy
www.maths.sussex.ac.uk/
seminar
Thursday 24 September 3pm in Pev 3 5C11
Prof Michele Piana (University of Genoa)
Glucose metabolism, positron emission tomography
and inverse problems
www.sussex.ac.uk/astronomy/
newsandevents/calendar
Friday 25 September 3.30pm in Arundel 401
Eiichiro Komatsu (MPA)
Position-dependent power spectrum
Admin news
Maths induction week ‘pub’ quiz success
A reminder of today’s cake sale, lovingly produced by
the Admin team, in aid of Macmillan.
Thursday 24 September from 10.30am in the foyer, until
the cakes run out
Please come and support this very worthwhile cause
www.macmillan.org.uk/
(NB We can’t promise that cakes will look like these,
but be assured that whatever is on sale will be yummy!)
HPC training sessions
To any new research students or staff (or existing
students if you want a refresher), training sessions on
the HPC cluster are being held in ITS Computing
Suite 1 on Wednesday 30 September, with the first
session 10.30am-12.30pm and the second 2.30pm4.30pm.
A lot of the information found here will be covered in
these sessions https://info.hpc.sussex.ac.uk
If you can, it's worth having a quick read through the
'Getting Access' page before attending.
If you want to attend either of these sessions, please
email [email protected] with your
name, username and what group you belong to
(physics/maths etc). Also, if you haven't already done
so, email [email protected] with the same
information to get an account on the system.
The beauty and brains (and, possibly, age!) of the
admin staff trounced the opposition in last Thursday’s
Maths induction week ‘pub quiz’ which, as well as
teams of new students, consisted of admin and
academic staff.
The admin team, Densa, turned out to be something of
a misnomer. Having made a bet with the academic
team who participated that they would beat them, in
this case we did not need to beware of Greeks bearing
gifts, especially as the gifts just so happened to be in
biscuit form! A very welcome forfeit.
O2 visitor Wi-Fi
ITS have started a visitor wi-fi service that anyone can
use without needing to give prior notice or
setting up visitor accounts
www.sussex.ac.uk/its/services/networkandstorage/
networkandinternet/visitor
Sussex staff can now swim for £1 at
the Prince Regent and St Luke’s pools
in Brighton, King Alfred’s in Hove and
pools in Lewes and Newhaven.
For more details, see
www.sussex.ac.uk/staff/
newsandevents/?id=31919
Unfortunately I don’t think that the scheme extends as
far as the magnificent Moseley Road Baths in
Birmingham or the marvellous Victoria Baths in
Manchester below ….
The Sussex Centre for Language Studies (based in Arts A)
offers courses for a range of languages over two terms in
the evenings and during some lunch times. These courses
are open to students, staff and members of the public. The
courses include Arabic, Chinese (Mandarin), British Sign
Language, French, Spanish, German, Italian, Latin,
Japanese and Russian.
To enrol and for further information on the courses, see the
SCLS website or contact the Course Coordinator on T 2575
or E [email protected]
Courses start on Monday 28 September.
UNIVERSITY EVENTS & INFORMATION
The Library introduces new user-friendly
book renewal system
www.sussex.ac.uk/library/news?
id=32066
You can book your place on
autumn term classes at the
Sport Centre
www.sussex.ac.uk/sport/
staff/cgec/courses
Thursday 24 September 1pm-1.30pm
Careers & Employability Centre, Library
What now? For finalists and masters students
www.sussex.ac.uk/staff/newsandevents/
eventscalendar?id=31855
A list of forthcoming CEC events can be viewed at
www.sussex.ac.uk/careers/newsandevents/
Thursday 24 September 7pm-8.15pm
Meeting House
Alice in Wonderland film with live
music by the New Music Players
Tickets £10/£6 on the door
LOCAL EVENTS
Saturday 26 September 10am-3pm
The Keep, Woollards Way, Brighton
Keep eating! Celebrate food through the ages at the
Keep’s open day
No booking required – just turn up
www.sussex.ac.uk/staff/newsandevents/
eventscalendar?id=31212
24-27 September at the Brighton Dome
Brighton Art Fair
www.brightonartfair.co.uk/
Saturday 26 September 2pm at the Floral Clock
Hove (actually) guided tour – Brunswick and Bull rings
£5 per person/students & children half price tickets
If you have any items for inclusion in the next MPS
weekly update, please contact Dorothy Lamb
E [email protected] by 12 noon at the
latest on Wednesday before Thursday
publication.