RAISING THE GAMEJeremy Kilburn, New Vice Principal and Executive Dean for Science and Engineering on his ambitions for the Faculty page 10

The Science and Engineering Newsletter • Queen Mary, University of London • Spring 2011

www.qmul.ac.uk

New software created to help drummers at live gigs page 3

Researchers see how bees view the world page 8

Dr Paul Curzon wins National Teaching Fellowship page 12

SPRING 20112

news

Welcome to the first edition of SE News, a publication which is designed to let you know about some of the amazing things

that have been happening in our Science and Engineering Faculty at Queen Mary.

I’m pleased to have inherited a Faculty which is brimming with potential. As you can see from the pages in this publication, we are a Faculty which is involved in some very exciting research – from developing more interactive elements for viewing sport on television to the discovery of a rare bat species in Sumatra.

I want to take this opportunity to commend a couple of our academics who are making just some of the many exceptional contributions to research and teaching at Queen Mary. Dr Paul Curzon was awarded a National Teaching Fellowship by the Higher Education Academy for his contribution to teaching and learning, and Professor Igor Larrosa who reached a milestone 100 citations from his first published independent paper.

I’m also pleased to announce the appointment of David Lee as the new Head of the School of Engineering and Materials Science who I’m sure will support me in making Queen Mary’s Science and Engineering Faculty an outstanding success.

I hope you enjoy reading SE News and we welcome your comments and suggestions on this publication to help shape our future editions.

Professor Jeremy KilburnVice-Principal and Executive DeanScience and Engineering

Queen Mary’s tradition of tying scientific innovation with business potential was emphasised when spin-out company ApaTech was awarded top prize in the

Apatech achieves top prize in business impact awards

PraxisUnico Impact Awards last year.Apatech was established at Queen

Mary’s Interdisciplinary Research Centre in Biomedical Materials nine years ago, to manufacture and market synthetic bone substitutes. The initial investment of £3 million was considerably justified when the company was acquired by global healthcare company Baxter International Inc. for total consideration of up to $330 million.

The company was recognised in the “Business Impact – Achieved” category, which recognises projects that have made an outstanding business impact through successful knowledge transfer.

KIlbuRN’S

CoLUMN

(L-R) PRof DaviD SecheR (PRaxiSUnico chaiRman), GRaeme BRown (QUeen maRy innovation), maGGie PhiLBin

More information on upcoming events for science and engineering can be found at www.qmul.ac.uk/qmul/events

Science and Engineering goes off with a bangQueen Mary inspired groups of budding young scientists and engineers during March by opening its doors to schools for National Science and Engineering Week (NSEW) and showcasing its teaching and research at the Big Bang Fair.

NSEW at Queen Mary involved students participating in activities where they learned about how mammals, and humans in particular “communicate”, the theme for NSEW 2011.

They explored the use of the internet using mathematics and found out about the applications at the Large Hadron Collider in CERN and even how their own body and behaviour affects communication.

All five of the Faculty’s schools exhibited, covering a wide range of activities including building a bionic man or the universe, exploring materials, engineering, physics and mathematics and visualising the effects of audience interaction with special avatars.

Students attending the Big Bang Fair at the ICC London ExCel also

had an opportunity to see Queen Mary’s activities in action.

Participants were encouraged to “build the universe” using 20,000 pieces of LEGo, try their hand at mathematical magic tricks, and get to grips with bioimplants.

They were also able to play the drums with the help of a computer programme and explore artificial intelligence, all with the aim of inspiring young people into science and engineering.

Dean for Taught Programmes at Queen Mary, Professor Peter Mcowan, said: “This year’s Big Bang was spectacular, as was the amount of hard work put in by staff, students and technicians across the Faculty in bringing it all together. Queen Mary science and engineering seemed to be everywhere, enthusing the next generation.”

SE News is written and compiled by bridget Dempsey. Contributions to this issue have been made by Simon levey and James lush. If you have any comments or ideas please email b.dempsey@qmul.ac.uk

SPRING 2011 3

news

Big grant for Big Pitch in nanomedicine

and Beyond”, newly introduced by the research council to support “exceptionally pioneering research projects that cross the boundaries between chemistry and other disciplines”. For the award, the EPSRC launched a Dragons’ Den style method of assessing the candidates.

Her research in the burgeoning field of nanomedicine focuses on nanogels. She hopes that by 2012 her team will have a working proof of a nanogel which will be useable for delivering drugs into the body, before disassembling at their destination. one of the major

fears over nanotechnology is safety, but as Dr Resmini said: “The advantage of this method is that the drug would be released, but you wouldn’t have the issue with the toxicity because the material would essentially be decomposed.”

The EPSRC panel praised Dr Resmini’s proposal as “the model big pitch”, for the style in which she presented her project, its practical applications and the economical impact of it. She confessed that watching Dragons’ Den on TV helped her in delivering the right tone to her presentation.

Drummers working with pre-programmed music will have free reign to speed up and slow down the pace of their performance at live gigs, thanks to new software developed at Queen Mary’s Centre for Digital Music (C4DM).

Many music bands use metronome-type clicks fed to the drummer via earphones but unless the drummer keeps a precise, predetermined rhythm, pre-programmed material will not synchronise properly with the rest of the music.

The new software, B-Keeper (short for Beat-Keeper), means drummers will be able to give more spontaneity to their performances and respond better to the crowd. Dr Andrew Robertson, who developed the software at the School of Electronic Engineering and Computer Science’s C4DM, said: “Usually, the drummer follows the click track, but with B-Keeper the click track follows the drummer.

“The software follows the beat of the kick and snare drum and uses that information to make sure everything stays synchronised by changing the replay speed of the pre-programmed parts.”

The kick and snare drums are linked to the software via microphones and the tempo of any pre-programmed music is automatically adjusted through the software.

In using a sequencer that incorporates a pitch-tracking algorithm, the tempo of the pre-programmed music can be changed without affecting its pitch.

Dr Robertson’s work was funded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council. He now aims to simplify the software in an effort to make it commercially available within the next 12 months.

DR maRina ReSmini

Dr Marina Resmini, reader in organic chemistry at the School of Biological and Chemical Sciences was awarded a grant total of £212k for

her proposal titled “From big to small: domino-disassembled nanogels as new drug delivery vehicles” of which 80 per cent is from the EPSRC.

Dr Resmini took part in the “Bright IDEAS Awards – The Big Pitch: Chemistry

New software keeps drummers on track

DR anDRew RoBeRtSon

SPRING 20114

news

PhosphonicS, which uses proprietary chemistry to make novel materials, has secured second round financing of £3.5m

The new capital is principally being used to fund the global market development of a range of precious metal catalyst recovery products. Without recovery, these extremely expensive metals such as platinum, rhodium and palladium are lost in waste streams. The new precious metal scavenger products developed at PhosphonicS make economic recovery of these valuable metals possible, thereby eliminating waste and improving process economics.

Professor Alice Sullivan and Dr John

New Internet project set to improve home broadband servicesActual Experience Ltd., a Queen Mary spin-out company, has recently launched the BBFix project, which aims to help home broadband users improve their actual experience of real applications. The Actual Experience software that is being used to help large corporations is now available free to home broadband users.

The BBFix project is the world’s first scientific analysis of the Internet in terms of real human experience (rather than speed or other technical metrics which do not provide an accurate measure of performance). Developing from ten years of research by Professor Jonathan Pitts, from the Networks Group in the School of Electronic Engineering and Computer Science, it is already helping people improve their broadband experience. one BBFix participant was having difficulty with BBC iPlayer on his laptop – it kept freezing part way through programmes – and the diagnosis from AE’s Analytics Engine pointed to a very congested WiFi environment. The solution was to use an Ethernet cable in the evenings instead of WiFi.

For one of AE’s commercial clients, a sales rep was finding her sales tools so frustrating to use at home, that she had given up working from home. AE could see that her experience was quantifiably poor in comparison with her colleagues. The Analytics Engine identified where the problem was, and now, she is enjoying her new-found freedom!

Anyone who is having problems with home broadband, or is willing to find out how their broadband service compares with others, can benefit for free from the BBFix project by applying at www.actual-experience.com/bbfix.

Sandra Rogat, Marketing Manager, Queen Mary Innovation Ltd.

PhosphonicS spin-out raises £3.5 million of funding

Wilson formed the company in 2003, using their technological expertise from over 20 years work in the area of modified inorganic materials. Dr Wilson is now Chief Technology officer and Professor Sullivan acts as a Chief Scientific officer to the company, while continuing her work at Queen Mary.

Professor Sullivan said: “The innovative chemistry behind PhosphonicS materials gives them leading performance in their application areas and it’s great to see the growth of interest in this technology.”

SPRING 2011 5

news

Mathematics resources in high demandThe School of Mathematical Sciences produced two exciting new employment resources, one online and one in booklet form, which are in considerable demand from other mathematics departments across the country.

The resources were produced as part of the Communication and Employability Skills Project, a one-year initiative led by Dr Vivien Easson and funded by the Queen Mary Student Experience Investment Fund.

The booklet, Where the Maths you learn is used, looks at the university mathematics curriculum and its varied and exciting applications beyond the subject. Michael

Yates, Project officer for the School, said: “Maths has been referred to as the ‘Queen of sciences’ and few subjects can boast such a key role in areas such as energy and the environment, space and navigation, and internet security which dominate all our lives and will do so for generations to come.”

The online element was the development of a series of videos, featuring employers of mathematicians from blue chip companies providing expert advice and guidance.

Further activities produced under the dynamic project include a speed-meet event for students to meet employers including EDF Energy, Procter and Gamble and Bank of America.

Where the Maths you learn is used

Graffiti app goes onlineonline graffiti artists now have the ability to digitally project their images on a massive scale after the development of a new iPhone app, Graffito, at Queen Mary’s Centre for Digital Music (C4DM).

Graffito is an experiment in massive crowd-made graffiti. It allows anyone to scrawl digital paint on a giant projection wall using their iPhone, iPad or iPod Touch, or by dancing around with their handset.

Computer scientist Dr Nick Bryan-Kinns, from the Interactional Sound and Music Group in C4DM, developed the technology behind the crowd-created graffiti in collaboration with digital art company BigDog Interactive.

Underground creatives tested out the technology at the London Design Festival last year, splashing 3D graffiti on a giant screen.

The online version runs continuously, so anyone online can draw graffiti at any time with anyone else from anywhere in the world.

Graffito is supported by Horizon Digital Economy Research through a Research Councils UK grant. The partners are:

BigDog Interactive (lead); the Interactional Sound and Music Group, Centre for Digital Music at Queen Mary, University of London; Mixed Reality Lab and Horizon Digital Economy Research, University of Nottingham; Proboscis; and the University of Glasgow.

xxxxx

Queen Mary’s Astronomy Unit became part of a £3.65m UK Space Agency scheme to help scientists prepare for three new space missions, including one hoping to find Earth-like planets in deep space.

Professor Ian Roxburgh from the Unit, part of the School of Mathematical Sciences, is working with scientists from five other UK institutions on the PLATo (Planetary Transits and oscillations of Stars) mission that seeks to identify potentially habitable ‘exo-planets’, which orbit stars other than our own sun.

In June 2011, the scientists will learn which two of the three missions will be built and launched between 2017 and

2020 as part of the European Space Agency Cosmic Vision programme. PLATo is competing against projects to study solar weather and find dark matter.

Professor Roxburgh explained the purpose of the proposed mission, which was featured in the Metro in July: “PLATo is designed to seek out planets far beyond our solar system, orbiting nearby bright stars in our Galaxy,

Space competition ‘out of this world’

Queen Mary’s ourSpace partnership with the UK Space Agency, led by Professor Peter Mcowan, was launched in 2010 as a UK-wide competition for students.

Entrants were challenged to ‘dream up their own amazing space adventure, a flight of imagination about their own space to reach prizes that are out of this world’.

The awards were judged by a panel of space, education and media experts including British-born astronaut Richard Garriott. Professor Mcowan said: “Everyone who made it through as a finalist was a winner. It’s been an amazing journey for the team working

PLATO: Extra-solar planetsthe Milky Way. It would be powerful enough to detect rocky planets in the habitable zone – the region around a star where liquid water can exist: in other words, to find new earths if they are out there.” The properties of the parent stars will be determined by studying their oscillations, which is Professor Roxburgh’s area of expertise.

The design of PLATo is a collaboration with the following institutions: Queens University Belfast, University College London, University of Leicester, the Institute for Astronomy in Edinburgh and University of Cambridge.

news

on making these space adventures accessible, educational and fun.”

The Grand Prize winners were invited to the Parliamentary Space Committee’s Christmas Reception on December 7th, at one Great George Street, Westminster. They also won a trip to the Kennedy Space Centre in Florida and Johnson Space Centre in Texas, tickets to the National Space Centre, and World Space Week invitations.

SPRING 20116

SPRING 2011 7

news

For many years Queen Mary physicists, engineers and technicians have been part of a huge international collaboration constructing the massive ATLAS experiment at the CERN Large Hadron Collider (LHC).

The LHC started up in autumn 2008 to great worldwide excitement and expectation but unfortunately an accident soon after caused a delay of about a year for repairs.

The LHC restarted late in 2009 without further incident and in early 2010 became the World’s highest energy particle accelerator operating at 7 TeV (the energy equivalent of acceleration by 7 times 1012 1 volt batteries) overtaking the previous record of 2 TeV at Fermilab in the USA.

The ATLAS experiment was ready to take data as soon as the LHC turned on and the quality of the data quite remarkable for a newly commissioned experiment.

The first ATLAS physics paper was published in March 2010 and included several Queen Mary authors. Throughout 2010 the LHC delivered more and more proton collisions and in fact

the rise was so rapid that half the 2010 data was taken in the last week.

At the end of 2010 the LHC switched from colliding protons to colliding lead ions and ATLAS very rapidly published a paper showing the possible effects of a so-called quark-gluon plasma – a hypothesised new state of matter.

originally the plan was to run the LHC through 2011 and then to shutdown in 2012 to complete the repairs necessary to allow the machine to operate at its design energy of 14 TeV.

However, because the LHC ran so well in 2010 it will now run through 2011 and 2012 deferring the shutdown till 2013. If all goes according to plan this would allow the experiments to either discover or rule out the elusive Higgs particle by the end of 2012.

In addition there is the possibility of new discoveries. It is a very exciting time to be a particle physicist and Queen Mary is at the forefront of this unique opportunity.

Professor Steve Lloyd, School of Physics

Making the decision to amputate someone’s limb often falls into an area of uncertainty for many experienced surgeons, yet some new research from the School of Electronic Engineering and Computer Sciences is hoping to make it a lot easier.

Dr William Marsh is working with Mr Nigel Tai at Barts and The London NHS Trust on the problem of determining criteria for deciding to amputate an injured lower limb.

He is part of a research group that specialises in risk assessment and decision analysis whose approach is to build decision systems combining both data and human expertise.

Two PhD students, one medical, the other a computer scientist, are working together to apply this approach to the problem of amputation.

Decisions about amputation could become easier

New physics masters to graduate next yearThe first students admitted to Queen Mary’s EuroMasters physics degree are expected to graduate october in 2012. The new Masters in physics is part of Queen Mary’s involvement as one of the six universities in the South East Physics Network (SEPnet), a £12.5m initiative funded by the Higher Education Funding Council for England to promote physics in the South East of the UK.

The EuroMasters two-year programme consists of one year of lectures, project work and skills training and one year research in an area of specialty within physics and astronomy. It qualifies students to pursue a career in physics or a PhD upon completion. Applications for 2012 are now open. For more information on SEPnet and the EuroMasters programme, visit www.sepnet.ac.uk.

Large HadronCollider update

SPRING 20118

the imaGe aBove ShowS a PhotoGRaPh of a cReePinG zinnia (SanvitaLia PRocUmBenS) USinG a Uv fiLteR, GivinG jUSt one examPLe of the coLoURS that aRe ‘hiDDen’ to US

research news

The scientists have developed the Floral Reflection Database (FReD) which is a catalogue of the colours different flowers can appear through the eyes of bees. Due to the variation in bees’ and humans’ colour detection systems, bees can see in the ultra-violet range.

Professor Lars Chittka from Queen Mary’s School of Biological and Chemical Sciences said: “This research highlights that the world we see is not the physical or the ‘real’ world – different animals have

very different senses, depending on the environment the animals operate in.

“on a global scale we will be able to identify the colours preferred by pollinators and see how this varies. This is very significant in terms of the global food supply, which relies on these insects and bees in particular.”

Professor Chittka and his team have measured the spectral reflectance of a number of flowers in different locations and analysed what bumblebees perceive, including different shades of ultra-violet.

A PhD student funded through the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council, Samia Faruq, is assisting Professor Chittka on the computer modelling side of the project. She said: “FReD provides over 2000 records with the colours that the bee sees presented in a very simple way. A successful flower has to be ‘noticed’ by the bee, and FReD provides a better understanding of the strategy flowers attain.”

Sarah Arnold, a PhD student who was also involved in the project and is funded by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council, said: “We have created a database in which the colours of flowers are indexed from

Sports couch potatoes could get interactiveWatching sport on television could get a lot more personalised and interesting thanks to research being undertaken at Queen Mary’s School of Electronic Engineering and Computer Science.

Dr Stefan Poslad is leading the My-eDirector 2012 project which is creating a video delivery platform to offer viewers much greater choice and freedom to interact with live sports video content. The main innovation of the project is to support scalable, real-time, personalised interaction with content so viewers can track people and objects and select various cameras and video angles for an interactive viewing experience.

The research is part-funded by the European Union and is a collaborative project between Queen Mary and institutions in Greece, Portugal and Italy. The outcomes are expected to be commercialised in time for the London olympic Games in 2012.

Flowers appear to bee different

this vitally important pollinator’s point of view. For the first time, this database will allow us to analyse global trends in flower colour, for example how flower colours might change in areas with high UV radiation. There are many possible applications for scientists from different fields.”

The project is a collaborative effort from two schools at Queen Mary: the School of Biological and Chemical Sciences and the School of Electronic Engineering and Computer Science; and Imperial College.

Professor Peter Mcowan, a computer scientist who helped in developing the technical side of the project, said: “This combination of biology and computer science, allowing scientist to collaboratively access important data in new ways shows the power of combining these two scientific disciplines. This interdisciplinary approach can produce significant new applications that will help make a real impact in better understand the natural world.”

The research was reported in the open-access journal PLoS oNE.

Bees see the world differently to humans and research from scientists at Queen Mary, University of London and Imperial College has revealed exactly how they see it.

SPRING 2011 9

research news

Bone strength discovery could lead to better osteoporosis treatment

Rare bat found in oil palm plantation’s oasisis not actually an effective strategy for protecting wildlife.

Researchers from Queen Mary were collaborating with conservationists from the Zoological Society of London and the Durrell Institute of Conservation and Ecology (DICE) when they discovered the bat in a 300ha fragment of forest, during a biodiversity survey in West Sumatra.

Survey leader Dr Matthew Struebig, who holds a joint post at Queen Mary’s School of Biological and Chemical Sciences and DICE at the University of Kent, said: “The finding of this survey suggests that a network of forest fragments may be appropriate for some species of high conservation concern.

“The scientific community needs to continue to support the business community to find ways in which our threatened wildlife can persist in these managed areas over the long-term.”

Amongst many other species found by the biodiversity survey were sunbear, tapir, agile gibbon and banded langur, all of which are of conservation concern.

DR aLan DRew

Leverhulme Fellow Dr Alan Drew and his team from the School of Physics have been making breakthroughs in the field of spintronics which

could lead to remarkable changes in the way computers work.

In a collaborative study with researchers form the University of Fribourg in Switzerland, the team have shown

World first discoveries in spintronics

Dr Asa Barber and his PhD student Fei Hang have discovered that bone gets its strength from stretch-responsive fibrils. These tiny fibres either get stiffer or more malleable when they are stretched.

Using scanning electron microscopy and atomic force microscopy in the School of Engineering and Materials Science, Dr Barber and Hang analysed individual fibrils of collagen that form around 30 per cent of bone. They found that the fibrils varied in their responses to force increases, some becoming stiffer and some more malleable.

Following this, further analysis revealed that raised mineral content may be responsible for the increased strength of some of the fibres.

“The presence of collagen fibres with different mechanical properties within bone helps to increase its ability to absorb energy, and makes it such an effective and tough material,” said Dr Barber. He continued: “our discoveries into the chemistry affecting fibril strength could provide a better understanding of how osteoporosis and related conditions affect the mechanical properties of bone.”

Queen Mary’s conservationists have discovered a rare bat species in a tiny fragment of rainforest surrounded by an oil palm plantation, demonstrating that even small areas of forest are worth saving.

This first record of the Ridley’s leaf-nosed bat in Sumatra, Indonesia followed the publication of a paper in the journal Conservation Letters suggesting that retaining forest fragments within oil palm plantations

that a magnetically polarised current can be manipulated by electric fields.

This important discovery opens up the prospect of simultaneously processing and storing data on electrons held in the molecular structure of computer chips – combining computer memory and processing power on the same chip.

Commenting on the study, which was published in Nature Materials, Dr Drew said that the use of the technology “could offer a step-change in power efficiency and reduced weight of these devices”.

Stepping outside his Southampton comforts of the past 20 years, Professor Jeremy Kilburn has quickly settled in to life in London’s East End. Since taking the helm as Vice Principal and Executive Dean for Science and Engineering, he has been keen to expose the Faculty’s potential.

“one of the things that attracted me to the job was the great potential of science and engineering, and of Queen Mary generally,” he said. “It’s a university on a very marked upward trajectory. It’s done really well and it’s got a real sense of ambition and positivity within it.”

Ambition is definitely high on Professor Kilburn’s agenda. His goal is to raise the profile of Queen Mary’s Science and Engineering Faculty and make it one of the leading faculties in the country for research and study.

“I want the University’s Science and Engineering Faculty to stand alongside those of the other London universities.

“My aspiration and vision for the Faculty is to be a leading, cutting-edge place, making breakthrough research, and with an international reputation.

“I want Queen Mary to be the place that every student wants to go to. We need to attract high quality students and lead the way in cutting edge research.

“If we offer really high quality courses and opportunities which respond to what students need and want, then they will be prepared to pay the fees to study here.”

Professor Kilburn is also realistic about what he wants to achieve in his new role and believes that Queen Mary should aim to be distinctive in what it excels at and not necessarily simply aim to match what other universities are good at.

“We’re not going to be great at everything. We need to focus on areas where we can make a difference or where we can harness our strengths,” he said.

Seven months into the role and Professor Kilburn has a pretty good idea about areas he wants to concentrate on including life sciences, bioengineering and materials and more multi-disciplinary projects.

“Bioengineering and materials brings together a range of different academics and areas of expertise: engineers, chemists, physicists, material scientists, and mathematicians and it also leads into

biomaterials and medicine,” he said.“We also want to focus on the life sciences

making sure we benefit from working with the School of Medicine and Dentistry.

And a common theme that has emerged across all the Schools in the Faculty and links into SMD is complexity, modelling and simulation. “The manipulation, management and understanding of huge amounts of data will play an ever increasing role in almost all areas of science and engineering.

”other areas will also emerge but they’re not all clearly defined yet.”

There is also a growing focus for research to respond to global challenges such as renewable or sustainable energy; global security; environmental and climate change; health issues such as the aging population. It is well understood that real progress in these areas will be made by multidisciplinary teams of researchers and not by scientists working in isolation.

“And it’s very clear that funding will be focused on these large, multidisciplinary projects so we need to build the culture to tackle things in teams and work together because increasingly that’s where they will get funding and have success,” Professor Kilburn said.

Professor Kilburn’s area of research is in supramolecular chemistry, synthesising and investigating molecules which have interesting functions or properties. So in seven months he’s had to learn about lots of other areas of research too.

“It is of course one of the most interesting parts of the job, learning about all these other fascinating aspects of science and engineering.

Moving to Queen Mary has been quite a new experience for Professor Kilburn, after 20 years with the University of Southampton.

“I have quite a lot of experience of university senior management but I’ve never faced this challenge of picking up a faculty almost new as it were, where it is clear there is much to be done, but where there

TAKES THE REINS AT QUEEN MARYJEREMy KIlbuRN

Jeremy Kilburn – a snapshot

SPRING 201110

special feature

In recent years Science and Engineering may have played third fiddle to the other faculties at Queen Mary but as Bridget Dempsey talks to Jeremy Kilburn, it’s clear the new Vice Principal wants it to change.

• GraduatedfromCambridgeUniversitywithafirstclasshonoursdegree in Natural Sciences in 1983 and then stayed on to study for a PhD.

• MovedtoColumbiaUniversityinNewYorktoundertakepost-doctoralstudiesbeforereturning to the UK in 1988 as a Lecturer at the University of Wales in Bangor.

• In1990hemovedtoalectureshipattheUniversityofSouthamptonandwaspromoted to Professor in 1999. He remained at the University of Southampton where he was the Head of the School of Chemistry (2002-2007) and the Dean of the Faculty of Engineering, Science and Mathematics (2007-2010)

• HewasawardedanHonoraryDoctorateDegreefromRamkhamhaengUniversity, Bangkok, Thailand in 2008.

is great potential everywhere you look. “In the first few months we’ve made

great progress, in the Faculty team and working with the Schools. We’ve produced a really strong strategic plan and the next phase now is really to implement it – that is the next challenge.

“It’s clear coming into this job from outside that there is a real desire in Queen Mary to continue to raise the academic performance in terms of the quality of research and in terms of the educational experience we provide, the quality of students we attract and the quality and employability of students that we graduate.

“There’s a strong desire to see Science and Engineering raise its game because it has not grown as successfully as the other two faculties over the last few years.

“I don’t have any doubt that it’s possible to make a huge difference to the Science and Engineering Faculty. We have some great people here but it’s not always been possible for them to shine, so we need to make it possible.”

“We’re going to be clear with what we’re expecting and what we want to achieve. We’re going to invest in new people and in selected areas. We’re going to think carefully about the areas that are not performing and how to take them forward.

In getting the most out of staff at the Science and Engineering Faculty, Professor Kilburn wants to encourage them to be more aware of opportunities for knowledge and technology transfer and to develop spin-out companies.

He says there are “several great examples” of spin-out companies originating in Queen Mary. ApaTech, a company which was set up in 2001 to manufacture and market synthetic bone substitutes, was eventually sold for $330m (US).

other recent spin-outs include Degrasense set up in 2008 by Dr Mike Watkinson from the School of Biological and

Chemical Sciences and Dr Steffi Krauss from the School of Engineering and Materials Science to develop a point of care dental diagnostic aiming to improve the treatment of inflammatory conditions such as periodontal disease, and Emdot developed in 2007 by Professor John Stark from the School of Engineering and Materials Science. which uses revolutionary electrostatic inkjet technology.

“And there are also lots of great things coming out of Electronic Engineering and Computer Science, around media, arts and technology and for example developing new software for surveillance and security,” Professor Kilburn said.

“These are all examples of innovation within the faculty and quite often cross-disciplinary activity where staff have engaged with the entrepreneurial agenda – wanting to take their ideas out to the commercial market.

“We just need to make sure we have the right reward structure in place so if something is a commercial success, everyone sees the benefit of that including the School.”

It’s easy to see the new Vice Principal has a lot of enthusiasm for the Science and Engineering Faculty and is keen to see it succeed. While he recognises that there is still a long path to follow to success, he also acknowledges there is a lot of excellent work already underway.

“We put a lot of effort into outreach at Queen Mary and I’ve really noticed how much really high quality outreach work is going on and how many people, at all levels, are committed to delivering it,” he said.

“outreach is hugely important. With good outreach you are able to convince people, in a general sense, that science and engineering is interesting, useful and relevant, and are subjects that they want

to study. And at the same time you can engage and enthuse people about

the exciting research that takes place at Queen Mary.

It’s absolutely crucial to what we do. And it will continue to be crucial to communicate the message about how great we are but also to attract high quality students to our courses.

“We’ve got some great examples of outreach

such as Computer Science for Fun, More Maths Grad,

work from SEPnet (South East Physics

NETwork) and a lot of work was showcased at

the Big Bang 2011. We also participate strongly in Science

and Engineering Week but I am sure we will be doing even more

in the future.“outreach is not just for young

kids; it’s also a great way of engaging with the local community because

you can open up the doors of the College and you can

invite families to come in.”

SPRING 2011 11

special feature

SPRING 201112

awards and achievements

Physicist Professor Peter Kalmus becomes an Honorary FellowProfessor Kalmus’ research has been

integral to the discoveries in physics and specifically at the CERN laboratory in Geneva, Switzerland.

In 1977, his research group at what was then Queen Mary College became part of an international collaboration to design and build a forerunner of the Large Hadron Collider.

In 1983 this collaboration discovered ‘W’ and ‘Z’ particles. This experiment verified theories which united two of nature’s seemingly very different fundamental

PRofeSSoR PeteR iP kaLmUS oBe

one of Queen Mary’s most distinguished academics, Emeritus Professor of Physics Peter I P Kalmus oBE, has been made an Honorary Fellow of the Institute of Physics.

He joins 38 previous Fellows, including seven Nobel Prize winners, 25 Fellows or Foreign Members of the Royal Society and 15 Lords, Knights and Dames.

forces: electromagnetism (which underlies electricity generation) and the weak force (which allows the Sun to shine).

For this work, Kalmus received the Institute of Physics’ Rutherford Medal in 1988. The unification of these two forces is part of a quest to see if all forces in the universe can be united into a “theory of everything”.

Despite his notional retirement, Professor Kalmus is still heavily involved in Queen Mary life.

Dr Hazel Screen and Dr Hasan Shaheed were awarded the Drapers’ prize for promoting student engagement and deep learning through problem based learning and pictorial presentation of subject matter.

Dr Screen and Dr Shaheed, from the School of Engineering and Materials Science, have been using pictorial presentation, adopting real-life images and animation to describe the relevance and importance of each subject matter.

This has been complemented by adopting a problem based learning approach to the laboratory sections.

Drapers’ Prize awarded for Development in learning and Teaching

DR PaUL cURzon

The School of Electronic Engineering and Computer Science’s Dr Paul Curzon has continued Queen Mary’s recent success in the competition for

National Teaching Fellowships, with at least one Fellow appointed every year since 2006.

The Higher Education Academy recognised Dr Curzon for his individual excellence and professional contribution to development in teaching and learning. Dr Curzon’s philosophy is that learning should be enjoyable, which is certainly popular with his students.

Dr Curzon’s wild metaphors and the theatrical elements to his teaching

have drawn praise from his peers, with one fellow lecturer commenting after observing one of his classes: “Paul clearly enjoys his lecturing and brings great energy and enthusiasm. The class engaged in interactive exercises with enthusiasm.”

His side-project ‘cs4fn: computer science for fun’, is an international campaign to get people excited about computer science. By taking the same off-beat approach that he uses in his lectures to teach research topics to kids, it has led to a dramatic turn-around of interest in the subject. one feature of the programme, an interactive website, received 15 million worldwide hits in 2009.

Dr Paul Curzon awarded National Teaching Fellowship

Computer Science for Fun

Computingon thecatwalk !

Issue 12

ISSN 1754-3657 (Print)ISSN 1754-3665 (Online)

Computerevolution

creates mutantclothing

The fashion of Iron Man

Why are robotsalways naked?

Chemistry paper receives 100th citation

Professor Igor Larrosa from the School of Biological and Chemical Sciences has reached a milestone 100 citations from his first independent paper published in February 2008 on the first example of a room temperature C-H arylation that uses readily available starting materials – indoles and iodoarenes.

Professor Larrosa developed his research interests in the competitive area of C-H activation in which chemists try to selectively make a specific C-H bond in a molecule react – a very difficult task given their number and

chemical similarity in most molecules.His paper was published in the

Journal of the American Society and is in the top four per cent of original research papers cited in the area of C-H arylation. Professor Larrosa received the Thieme Journal Award 2009 for contributions to organic chemistry for his work.

Professor Mike Watkinson from the School of Biological and Chemical Sciences said Professor Larrosa has “made a tremendous start to his career and has done much to put chemistry at Queen Mary back on the map”.

Computer Science professor wins POPl award

one of the leading publication venues in computer science has given Queen Mary’s Professor of Computer Science, Dr Peter o’Hearn, a retrospective award for the Most Influential Paper of 2001.

Dr o’Hearn, in conjunction with co-author Samin Ishtiaq, won £1000 for their 2001 paper titled BI as an Assertion Language for Mutable Data Structures at the Principles of Programming Languages (PoPL) symposium.

Dr o’Hearn, who is also the Microsoft Research Chair in Computer Science, said he was “delighted to receive the award”.

SPRING 2011 13

recent research grants

School of biological and Chemical Sciences

Dr Jonathan Grey, Dr Mark Trimmer, Dr Guy Woodward & Prof Alan HildrewChemosynthetic and Photosynthetic Support of River Food WebsNERC£548,450 01/01/2011 (36 months)

Dr Stephen RossiterMolecular Convegence at the Sequence levelBBSRC£432,755 01/09/2010 (36 months)

Dr Mark Trimmer & Dr Guy WoodwardCommunity Structure and Ecosystem FunctioningNERC£480,740 01/09/2010 (36 months)

School of Electronic Engineering and Computer Science

Dr Simon Dixon & Professor Mark SandlerMusicology for the MassesEPSRC£312,627 13/09/2010 (18 months)

Professor yang HaoHigh power EbG antennasoffice of Naval Research£97,166 15/01/2011 (12 months)

School of Engineering and Materials Science

Dr Michael ReeceKTA Scheme 3: New Thermoelectric MaterialsEPSRC£101,986 01/07/2010 (12 months)

Dr Andrew WheelerKTA Scheme 3: Transonic Turbine Tip CoolingEPSRC£30,032 01/07/2010 (12 months)

School of Mathematical Sciences

Professor David burgessKinetic Plasma TurbulenceSTFC£415,013 01/04/2010 (36 months)

Professor James lidsey, Dr Karim Malik & Professor Reza TavakolInflationary CosmologySTFC£400,361 01/10/10 (36 months)

Dr Raul Mondragón-CeballosRAVENEPSRC£444,307 14/05/2010 (36 months)

Professor Carl MurrayCassini Imaging CentreSTFC£89,252 01/04/2010 (12 months)

Mr William WhiteDTA 2011/11EPSRC£161,251 01/10/2010 (48 months)

School of Physics

Professor Stephen lloyd, Dr lucio Cerrito, Dr Frencesca di lodovico, Dr Adrian bevan, Professor Graham Tohmpson, Dr Eram Rizvi & Dr Alex MartinParticle Physics Experiments 2009- 14- Roller (2)STFC£2,286,846 01/10/2010 (24 months)

Dr Alex MartinGrid PP3 Traunche 2STFC£234,200 06/08/2010 (12 months)

Dr Rodolfo RussoMMRTSb Marie Curie IEFCommission of the European Community£123,781 01/10/2010 (24 months)

Mr John SullivanDTA 2011/11EPSRC£70,387 01/10/2010 (48 months)

Dr Caroline brennanZebrafish behavioural AssaysMedical Research Council£446,166 01/11/2010 (36 months)

Professor Mark Plumbley, Dr Panos Kudamakis, Dr Simon Dixon, Dr Josh Reiss, Professor Mark Sandley & Dr Nicholas bryan-KinnsSustainable Software for Digital MusicEPSRC£1,183,821 01/04/2010 (48 months)

Professor Yang Hao from the School of Electronic Engineering and Computer Science has been awarded a £5m grant for the QUEST programme (the Quest for Ultimate Electromagnetics using Spatial Transformations) from EPSRC.

Professor Hao leads a consortium which includes oxford, St Andrews

and Exeter universities looking into spatial transformations, a concept built on the prospect of invisibility – one of the marvels of science fiction and fantasy.

The grant will enable the consortium to investigate applications of spatial transformations in areas that span communications, energy,

healthcare and security.Professor Hao and the consortium

aims to develop new theory relating to engineering requirements and transform science into a manufacturing reality.

“In doing so, we hope to open a wealth of opportunities whose scope we can’t yet imagine,” he said.

The cloak of invisibility could be revealed with £5m grant for QuEST

SPRING 201114

in the news

The Science is Vital campaign united the British science community last year, and also attracted significant public

support. The Government announced a freeze to research spending, despite this being a cut in real terms and less generous than the economic measures taken by Germany, the USA, France and others.

Queen Mary’s Principal, Professor Simon Gaskell, was interviewed for the Guardian following the announcement. He said: “The flat cash settlement for science is much better news than was feared and suggests that the arguments for the fundamental economic importance of scientific research have been heard and at least partly understood.” Universities will still need to make ‘efficiency savings’ to make up the inflation-generated shortfall.

The campaign culminated with a demonstration outside the Treasury, with speakers including former MP Dr Evan Harris, Professor Colin Blakemore and Dr Ben Goldacre.

Nobel Prize reaction – carbon science and engineeringoctober was Nobel Prize month, and the focus was on carbon studies with the prizes for Chemistry and Physics going to researchers in this field. Professor Ton Peijs, School of Engineering and Materials Science, commented in The Observer: “Now we have the opportunity to use graphene (the substance produced for

Principal Gaskell and the Science is Vital campaign

Queen Mary’s resident ‘stand-up mathematician’ Matt Parker was interviewed for BBC Radio 4’s More or Less in December following his press release that was “completely factually accurate about correlation, but has no real causal link”.

on the programme Matt described his release: “I took all the data on the number of mobile phone transmitter masts in each county in the UK, and showed that it has an extremely high correlation to the number of births in the same regions. For each additional mast you get on average an extra 17.6 births. It really is a phenomenal link between the two. our instinct is to think that one is causing the other. In this case, if you actually do think about it a little bit, a third factor – the population size – controls both variables.”

Presenter Tim Harford described the release as “a work of art” and questioned Matt about the media response. Although the media

“did well” in this case, Matt highlighted that assumptions of correlation being causality are still regularly reported as such. Using a recent, widely reported example, he said: “There’s a strong link between the diet of kids and their behaviour and their attainment at school, but that’s not necessarily because the diet is causing that. It could be as simple as parents who take an interest in their kids’ education does have an effect on them attaining more, and that the same parents pay more attention to making sure they have a healthy diet. There could be other links. It’s very difficult to pin an actual causal link.”

Matt provided a reason for the regular oversimplification: “our brains have developed to be able to recognise patterns very quickly and respond to them, and it makes sense to do that and identify causal links. I think we should always try and overcome our instinct to assign causality to get to the bottom of the matter.”

Matt Parker highlights standards of statistics reporting on Radio 4

the Physics prize) to make even lighter and stronger carbon fibres and so make our aircraft even lighter and stronger.”

Earlier in the week, Dr Andrei Sapelkin’s exciting spintronics project at Diamond Light Source was brought to prominence with an article in The Engineer. other research at the facility

involves studying the potential use of carbon frameworks to store hydrogen for fuel cells.

© M

AR

K R

AM

SAy, FLIC

KR

SPRING 2011 15

in the news

Terminal lung cancer research continues at Queen Mary

Researchers in the Synthetic Chemistry group, School of Biological and Chemical Sciences, are synthesising biologically active molecules to target mesothelioma, a type of cancer which is generally caused by exposure to asbestos.

Dr Adrian Dobbs, supervising the research, hosted a mesothelioma sufferer at his lab, Steve Lee, who has raised more than £40,000 with his running club, Reading Roadrunners, to support research. Queen Mary matched the generous amount Mr Lee raised to further back the team and the story was covered by BBC Berkshire in December.

Dr Dobbs and his PhD student, Seble Lemma, were also interviewed alongside Mr Lee by the BBC World Service for its Health Check programme.

Dr Dobbs said: “Two years ago a natural product was found, which was the first to be active in killing mesothelioma cells.

“What we’re hoping to do is use the natural compound as a starting point to find ways to artificially synthesise that compound, and then do some activity studies. Then we’ll know if it could be developed into a treatment.”

DR michaeL PRoULx

Can you see sound? It seems extraordinary, but the voICe system has been helping the blind recover their sight by translating visual images to ‘sound-scapes’.

Dr Michael Proulx, a cognitive psychologist from the School of Biological and Chemical Sciences is using the system for his own research at the college. He gave his insight for an interesting article covering the technology in New Scientist in August: “What’s exciting to me is that it is possible, through extensive use, to actually have some sort of direct, qualitative experience that is similar to vision,” he said.

A team led by Queen Mary’s Dr Genoveva Esteban, at the River Laboratory, Dorset, discovered more than 100 new species in the East Stoke Fen nature reserve.

The discovery of the microscopic pond organisms was reported in Environment Times, Nature and Metro, which succinctly headlined the story “Dirty pond holds new organism” in January. Dr Esteban, from the School of Biological and Chemical Sciences, stressed the importance of these ‘non-charismatic’ species to the continuous functioning of ecosystems.

The unusual physiology of Loxodes rostrum was highlighted, which survives through obtaining oxygen from the green algae that lives inside it.

Scientists find new pondlife on reserve

Ear today, eye tomorrow

November saw Laura Martinez-Levasseur, who works jointly at Queen Mary’s School of Biological and Chemical Sciences and the Zoological Society of London, and Professor Edel o’Toole, from the Blizard Institute of Cell and Molecular Science, hit the headlines with their study into the

Scientists catch sunburn in whaleseffect of ultraviolet radiation on whales.

A concerned public heard from Professor o’Toole, who predicted: “Whales will experience more severe sun damage if ultraviolet radiation continues to increase.”

The team found blistering caused by the radiation, and that just as in humans, damage was more severe in the paler-skinned whales.

The research was reported widely in the media, including the Daily Telegraph, The Independent, and BBC Radio 4

on the Today programme.

With outer space receiving plenty of public attention last year, researchers from the School of Physics and School of Mathematical Sciences were in demand to provide comments throughout the year.

In September, Metro came to Queen Mary with questions. Dr David Berman tackled the subject of the location of the centre of the universe, saying: “The remarkable thing about the universe is that is the same everywhere and in all directions has no centre.” Professor Carl Murray – whose research contributed to the hit BBC series Wonders of the Solar System – explained that despite asteroids being metal-rich, “the Earth’s magnetic field has virtually no effect on their orbits”.

Deep space and wonders of the solar system

SPRING 201116

published books

Dr Magda osman, School of Biological and Chemical Sciences, has recently had her book Controlling Uncertainty: Decision Making and Learning in Complex Worlds published by Wiley-Blackwell.

As an expert on decision making, Dr osman discusses our degree of control over the ‘uncertain’ world. She explores how people make decisions and when the feeling of control is an illusion, with implications for every facet of our modern lives.

Recent works have suggested that humans are bad at decision making. Dr osman writes that we can and do make ‘good decisions’ when we have

experience of what will happen, or when we have a strong sense of agency. “Without it, our understanding of the world breaks down”, she says.

She argues that, for example, it is a bad idea to change too many things when the outcome is uncertain, such as the state of the economy. To be effective, we must set goals, be aware of risks and err on the side of caution to avoid foolhardy strategies.

Economists might do well to take on board Dr osman’s general advice: “Studies have shown that when you try to create certainty in an uncertain situation, your decision making is impaired. It is best to appreciate

uncertainty and make minimal changes to systems. That way, you can really monitor how what you do affects the outcome.

“We are awash with ideas currently promoted in popular science in which we are told that we should go with our gut feelings/intuition. This is nonsense; in fact it can set us back.”

Dr Magda Osman (School of biological and Chemical Sciences)

Controlling Uncertainty: Decision Making and Learning in Complex Worlds

Professor John bignell (School of biological and Chemical Sciences)‘biology of Termites: a Modern Synthesis’ (edited with Professor

yves Roisin and Dr Nathan lo)This work provides a modern addition to the decade-old standard text on the termitology: Abe et al’s Termites: Evolution, Sociality, Symbioses, Ecology. Termites are highlighted as a vastly useful organism for researching a variety of unresolved issues, and since the publication of the last seminal work many advances have been made.

Many leading experts have contributed to the work, which was edited by Professor Bignell and his colleagues. The book is expected to be the standard reference for the next decade, and has clear applications for related fields including evolutionary biology and sociobiology.

Dr Andrea Cavallaro (School of Electronic Engineering and Computer Science) ‘Video Tracking: Theory and Practice’ (with Dr Emilio Maggio)

Dr Cavallaro and Dr Maggio’s book Video Tracking gives a detailed account of how

Dr Ranjan Vepa (School of Engineering and Materials Science) ‘Dynamics of Smart Structures’This work has been published to compliment

the emergence of one of Queen Mary’s newest study strands, led by Dr Vepa.

Dr Ranjan Vepa (School of Engineering and Materials Science)‘biomimetic Robotics: Mechanisms and Control’Dr Vepa has provided a commended reference

text for students of this branch of robotics, with suitability for both the beginner and advanced student.

The progressive and logical format provides a framework for study, in practical and accessible terms. Exercises at the end of each chapter provide a framework for strengthening the users understanding of the discussed principals. The book is recommended for students of aerospace and underwater robotics, and the mathematical study of general robotics.

to develop video tracking technology for a variety of applications. Reference

is provided for use in medicine and biological research, robotics and unmanned vehicles, augmenting reality in media production,

and many others.The volume promises to be an

indispensible guide for developers and students, following logical steps from problem definition to advanced

solutions, such as those based on the Bayes’ recursive framework.

Smart structures have many evolving applications under investigation at Queen Mary, which now has research and courses on biomimetic robotics (a special area of Dr Vepa’s expertise on which he has written another book, smart composite structures, micro-electro-mechanical systems (MEMS) and prosthetic control).

There are high hopes for the field of smart materials and smart structures, and Queen Mary expects to make significant contributions to the research and training of students to advance it.