Welcome to the Spring Issue of News Bites from the College of Science where you can find out some of the latest news and events. For more information about the College of Science visit www.swan.ac.uk/science

STUDENT ACTIVITIES / STUDENTS IN THE NEWS

Will Kay continues his pioneering research

Mathematics student to promote the use of Welsh

Computer Science graduate helps schools in Zambia

Tuesday 26th January was a day of celebration for 23-year-old William Kay, who received his MSc by Research in Animal Movement Science at Swansea University’s graduation ceremony at Swansea’s Brangwyn Hall, cheered on by his very proud parents and grandmother.

William’s master’s degree explored concepts of decision-making in the behaviour of harbour seals. This involved further advanced investigations of diving behaviour and foraging movements using time-depth recorders and dead-reckoned GPS tracks to reveal patterns in the routes that seals swim during trips out to sea.

Now Will will be continuing his studies in this field of research by undertaking a PhD project investigating how marine mammals interact with, and move within the vicinity of, marine renewable energy (MRE) installations.

Kayleigh Jones who is studying Welsh and Mathematics at Swansea University is one of three students who have been selected by Coleg Cymraeg Cenedlaethol to promote the use of Welsh in universities across the country.

Kayleigh will be responsible for completing various tasks throughout the year, although her main role will be to persuade school pupils to follow part of their university studies through Welsh and present the advantages of studying through the language.

Kayleigh said she was delighted to have had the opportunity to study through Welsh after attending Gower College, Swansea.

‘‘After studying Welsh as a second language, I wanted to challenge myself, and ensure that I used Welsh in different situations, outside the classroom’’.

Connor Smith, a Computer Science graduate travelled to Zambia at the end of January as part of project developed by Swansea-based IT services company, GiaKonda, to install Raspberry Pi computers in schools.

The Welsh-made Raspberry Pi computers have been installed in nine pilot schools in the Siavonga region of South Zambia by GiaKonda as cost-effective low-power platforms which will enable pupils to learn about programming as well as office software.

Now a further 26 schools will be able to benefit from the educational support from GiaKonda, and Connor’s role will be to assess how the pilot schools have used the resources provided and to identify further schools where the project will focus. 

Stuart Thomas wins Elsevier Prize at Swansea University

We are delighted to announce that Stuart Thomas has won the 2015 Elsevier Prize at Swansea University for the best Physical Geography MSc dissertation with findings that have a clear societal impact or a potential for practical application.

Stuart’s winning dissertation was on the efficiency in terms of transport and environmental effects of the bus-based Park and Ride scheme in the Swansea area.

In the picture are (left) Elsevier Prize winner Stuart Thomas and (right) Dr John Hiemstra (Head of MSc in Geographic Information and Climate Change).

Maths and stats success!

Five Mathematics students are acting as specialist tutors for the university’s Maths And Stats Success (MASS) programme. This is a new service available to all students which aims to help them with the maths element of courses.  Friendly, one–to–one support is offered via informal weekly drop in sessions.

MASS is part of The Centre for Academic Success. The Centre aims to empower students with the skills and confidence necessary to enable them to reach their maximum potential.

The five Mathematics students acting as tutors are James Cairns, Tomas Dukto, Aled Evans, Samuel Lapworth and James Lewis.

Geography student dissertation 'highly commended'

Congratulations to Adam Lindley, who graduated in July 2015 with a first-class degree, who has received a “Highly Commended” award for his dissertation in the British Sedimentological Research Group’s annual competition for the best UK undergraduate project in sedimentology.

Adam’s project assessed lateral variation in the turbidites of the Aberystwyth Grits Formation and was mentored by Dr Jenny Stanford.

Each year the BSRG (a specialist group of The Geological Society of London) names one winner and commends two others in this prestigious national competition.  In the last 5 years, sedimentological projects by Swansea students have won or been commended 3 times.

Welsh-medium Scholarships awarded

Congratulations to Geography students Jeno Llwyd Lewis (1st year) and Sara Lowri Owen (2nd year) who have been awarded Swansea University's Welsh-medium Scholarships for 2015-16.

Smart cat flap wins 2015 Maker Competition!

The Maker Competition was once again a great success. On 9th December 2015, teams were able to demonstrate their inspirational creations made from 'The Kit' - a collection of computing elements, in front of a judging panel.

The winners, with the Smart cat flap, were Tadas Nikonovas, Alistair Everett, Mathieu Duteil and Jacques-Olivier Laloë who received £450 in Amazon vouchers. Well done!

COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT & OUTREACH ACTIVITIES

Cherish-De project to boost digital innovation

Skills labs for early career researchers

A new five year initiative that will help people to understand and make better use of technology and digital innovations has been launched by Swansea University.

‌The CHERISH-DE (Challenging Human Environment and Research Impact for a Sustainable and Health Digital Economy) programme will focus on three main areas: health and social care, resource constrained communities and cyber safety and security.

The project will combine research expertise from a range of disciplines, including social science, computer science, economics, medicine, law, arts and humanities.

Professor Matt Jones, head of the College of Science who is leading the CHERISH-DE project, was at the launch and during an inspirational speech he set out his view that human need should always be the starting point for digital innovation projects. He said "I am delighted to see the commitment, passion and enthusiasm from our industry, government, third-sector partners and Swansea researchers. This is a morning full of hope – hope that together this fantastically rich and diverse set of stakeholder can change the world over the next five years.”

The Digital Economy Crucible is one of the integral streams of CHERISH-DE. It’s an exclusive leadership and career development programme for Early Career Researchers (Postdoctoral with 1-7 years’ experience in any discipline).

It is residential-based, where researchers can meet with other researchers engaged in other disciplines, collaborate on project ideas that are centred on human challenges, apply for potential funding from CHERISH-DE, learn leadership skills, understand how digital technology can help your research have a greater impact, listen to and engage with guest speakers who have progressed extremely well in their careers, and build a broad network of peers within the research community.

Tornado tubes and cloud chambers!

Year 3 pupils from Pennard Primary School enjoyed a visit to Swansea University's Geography Department back in November as part of their topic on the Weather. Pupils enjoyed using the facilities and equipment of the lab to carry out a few hands on activities such as Twister in a bottle and clouds in a bottle.

Project Seagrass a success!

In 2012, together with two enthuisastic CoS students, we embarked on a journey to set up a unique marine conservation charity named Project Seagrass. A proudly Welsh entity with a global vision to make an impact on marine conservation. Project Seagrass is devoted to the conservation of seagrass ecosystems through education, influence, research and action.

That journey now seems to have a life of its own and is going from strength to strength, resulting in us reaching the final of this years Peoples Project in Wales. 

On the webpage is a short video made by ITV that explains our proposed project – ‘Mission Sea – Inspiring children to project our seas’

Recently, Project Seagrass had its official launch as a registered UK charity. Swansea University and particuarly SEACAMS has been integral to that achievement.

RESEARCH IN THE NEWS

Panning for Green Gold: Enalgae project documentary launched online

Tree-ring data reveals how European summer temperatures have changed

The Swansea University led EnAlgae project has launched its documentary on the project’s YouTube account, following its official unveiling at an event last month in the Taliesin Arts Centre at the University.

Panning for Green Gold: developing the algal bioeconomy tells the story of the work which has been undertaken on the project over the past four years.

The film itself gives an insight into the context in which the work of EnAlgae was undertaken, and offers a vision of where the research and the algal industry might now journey in the future.

Principle investigator, Professor Kevin Flynn said “It’s clear from all the work and studies we’ve done that algae for energy alone is not a viable proposition. This documentary offers viewers an insight into why that is.”

Professor Danny McCarroll and Dr Mary Gagen, Department of Geography, were part of the research group of 45 scientists from 13 countries who worked on the research which was  published in the journal of Environmental Research Letters (29th January 2016). 

Most of Europe has experienced strong summer warming over the course of the past several decades, accompanied by severe heat waves in 2003, 2010 and 2015. New research now puts the current warmth in a 2100-year historical context using tree-ring information and historical documentary evidence to derive a new European summer temperature reconstruction. 

Professor McCarroll said: “We now have a detailed picture of how summer temperatures have changed over Europe for more than two thousand years and we can use that to test the climate models that are used to predict the impacts of future global warming.”

Where has all the antimatter gone?

Patent granted for new mathematical image-processing tool

Professors Niels Madsen and Mike Charlton, Department of Physics, recently featured on BBC Wales Science Cafe to discuss matter and antimatter. 

Their new research, published in Nature, in collaboration with scientists based at CERN, comes closer to explaining one of the great unsolved questions in physics - why is the universe almost entirely devoid of antimatter and what could explain this asymmetry?

A team of researchers has been granted a UK patent for new techniques that can improve image and data processing. Dr Elaine Crooks, Department of Mathematics, developed the toolbox of novel methods with Professor Kewei Zhang from the University of Nottingham, and Professor Antonio Orlando from Tucumán University, Argentina.

The toolbox contains robust methods for image or data processing and computational geometry tasks. The methods are based on the mathematical concept of convexity and can help users to detect features in images or data and remove unnecessary “noise” from images. Potential applications include restoration of old images, biomedical image processing, optical character recognition, forensic watermarking, terrain modelling and road network detection, impulse noise removal, and computer-aided geometric design. 

British seahorses at risk as our seagrass meadows disappear

Dr Richard Unsworth and his team from the Department of Biosciences, together with scientists from Cardiff University have found seagrass to be in a ‘perilous state’ with at least 50% of these habitats already being lost around the British Isles.

These unique and fragile ecosystems which are being destroyed through factors such as pollution and trawling, provide the main food source for seahorses. Scientists are warning that the last colonies of both the spiny and short snouted seahorse will starve and die as their food vanishes.

Dr Unsworth said, “seagrasses are like the ‘canaries of the sea’ in that their condition can  be used as an indicator of the health of coastal waters.”

Swansea mathematician visits to Italy, Poland and Denmark

As a part of his research leave during the Michaelmas Term 2015, Professor Tomasz Brzezinski, Department of Mathematics, visited Italy (Trieste), Poland (Bialystok) and Denmark (Odense).

Tomasz spent one-month at Scuola Internazionale Superiore di Studi Avanzati (SISSA) in Trieste, 3 weeks in Bialystok and one week in Odense. During his visit, Tomasz was able to collaborate, give invited addresses and lectures and forge closer links that could result in future student and staff exchanges.

TEACHING DEVELOPMENTS

State-of-the-art Chemistry Department at Swansea University!

We are delighted to be working with the Royal Society of Chemistry to introduce Chemistry as a subject within the College of Science at Swansea University. This is an interdisciplinary initiative supported by the Colleges of Science, Engineering and Medicine that will facilitate a unique chemistry programme enriched with research expertise in materials and medicinal disciplines.

The new multi-million pound Chemistry Department will create a state of the art teaching and research facility and expand and strengthen the ambition of both the College and University, enhancing STEM provision within the region. 

Long distance teaching

Biosciences researcher visits Mexico

Distance really is no obstacle for Dr Bob Laramee, Department of Computer Science, as he manages to fulfil his teaching duties despite recently being 4000 miles away from Swansea.

On a recent visit to Poinciana, Florida, Bob received a request from some of his students for help in preparing for an exam. Even though he was thousands of miles away, Bob enlisted the help of the SeaBreeze Recreational Centre where he was able to use a whiteboard to film his lectures and answer questions before uploading the presentations to the internet for his students to view.

Dr Claudio Fuentes Grünewald, Postdoctoral Researcher, Department of Biosciences made a research visit to Universidad Jesuita de Guadalajara and the Oleofino company (both based in Guadalajara, Mexico) earlier this year. The aims of the trip were to undertake lab training and participate in talks and networking.

The research visit focused on the microalgae technology currently being developed at Swansea University. There was also a public discussion called "Cafe Scientifique" where the audience learned about micro and macroalgae.

Professor picks up second 'gold' medal

Professor Alayne Street-Perrott, Department of Geography, has been awarded the very prestigious James Croll Medal by the Quaternary Research Association (QRA).

The QRA sponsors several prizes in recognition of excellence in the field of Quaternary research. The James Croll medal is awarded to a member of the QRA who has not only made an outstanding contribution to the field of Quaternary science, but whose work has also had a significant international impact.

This is the highest award of the QRA and is named in honour of James Croll (1821-1890). Croll is most closely associated with fundamental work on the astronomical theory of the ice ages, but he also made seminal contributions on the glacial geology of Scotland, on the mechanisms that drive ocean circulation and the impact of that circulation on recent climate, on tidal theory and the rotation of the Earth.

In August 2015, Alayne also received a International Paleolimnological Association (IPA) Lifetime Achievement Medal at a ceremony in Lanzhou, China.

And a forthcoming special issue of the Journal of Quaternary Science is being produced in Alayne’s honour.

Physical Geography MSc schemes receive accolade!

An external examiner’s report (14/15) has described both the MSc Environmental Dynamics and Climate Change and the MSc Geographic Information and Climate Change courses as ‘impressive’ with ‘impressive results’.

The report also states that the courses are a beacon for the university and that the prizes awarded by Elsevier are an indication of the quality. The output was also described as being of high value to Wales and the Welsh economy and society.

Well done to all the hardworking lecturing staff!

Geography Professor receives the Eilir Hedd Morgan prize

Professor Siwan Davies, Department of Geography, has been awarded the Eilir Hedd Morgan prize for her contributions to Science through the medium of Welsh. The prize is awarded annually by the Coleg Cymraeg Cenedlaethol in memory of Dr Eilir Hedd Morgan. Siwan received the prize during the Annual Congregation of the Coleg Cymraeg Cenedlaethol in March.

Life membership for physical geography lecturer

Congratulations to Dr Rick Shakesby on receiving Honorary Life Membership of the Quaternary Research Association. Well deserved!

Swansea mathematician takes his research to Parliament!

Dr Lloyd Bridge, a Lecturer in Mathematics at Swansea University, is attending Parliament to present his mathematical research to a range of politicians and a panel of expert judges, as part of the SET for BRITAIN event held on Monday 7th March.

Lloyd’s poster, which presents new mathematical models of the processes involved in plant water use and cooling, was judged against dozens of other mathematicians’ research in the only national competition of its kind.

Students keen to enrol for new biosciences module

Dr Ines Fürtbauer will coordinate and teach a new 3rd year module this semester on Animal Personality: Physiology, Behaviour and Evolution.

Swansea physicist to represent nuclear physics community!

Professor Gert Aarts, Department of Physics, has recently been elected to serve on the Scientific Board of the European Centre for Theoretical Studies in Nuclear Physics and Related Areas (ECT*), Trento, Italy.

ECT receives funding from the Science and Technology Facilities Council and Gert will represent STFC and the UK theoretical nuclear physics community.

ECT organises workshops, collaboration meetings, doctoral training programmes and specialised courses throughout the year, with guidance from the Scientific Board. Moreover, ECT offers visiting fellowships for junior and senior researchers. 

OTHER NEWS AND EVENTS

Science Central a great success!

The refurbishment of the Wallace Building landing has created a unique space for staff and students alike to chat, connect and collaborate and for visitors to relax!

Professor Siwan Davies travels to the Maldives to film documentary on climate change

Professor Siwan Davies recently travelled to the Maldives to film another episode for an S4C documentary series on climate change. Siwan visited the capital Malé, a local island Kudufari and a tourist resort to learn about the environmental challenges facing the islands, from congestion and waste management to coral bleaching and rising sea-levels. Her activities included discussing government policies with the Minister of Environment and Energy, planting trees to limit coastal erosion with local island communities and constructing coral frames for reef propagation. The series is due to be broadcast later in the spring.

Most read mathematics article

An article by Dr Vitaly Moroz, Department of Mathematics, on Choquard equations (joint work with Jean Van Shaftingen, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium) was featured as one of the six most read articles of 2015 published by the journal "Communications in Contemporary Mathematics."

Swansea Famelab 2016 winners announced!

Four contestants, which include Lloyd Hopkins, a postgraduate research student in biosciences, have won the first round of Famelab, the science communication competition.

Lloyd, together with Amy Jenkins (Human and Health Science), Sandra Lopez (visiting researcher) and Jeff Webb  (University of Nottingham) went forward to the regional final which will took place in Cardiff, 25th February at Techniquest’s After Hours evening.

Other contestants from the College of Science were Elizabeth Evans, Dr Sara Barrento and Daniel Sankey.

Celebrating women in mathematics!

Physics Department hosts workshop for teachers visiting CERN

Successful biosciences symposium

The Further Maths Support Programme FMSP recently hosted a conference at Swansea University entitled “Celebrating Women in Mathematics”. The conference was held on 15th March 2016 as part of British Science Week.

The conference consisted of workshops and lectures aimed at Sixth Form Students from state-funded schools and colleges.  The final talk 'Behind the Scenes' was delivered by staff from the Department of Mathematics at Swansea University and gave students a taste of what it means to study Mathematics at university as part of a STEM degree.

On Friday 12th February, a group of Welsh physics teachers spent the day in the College of Science to extend their knowledge about particle physics.

These lucky teachers then made their way to CERN, the world’s home of particle physics for a week long tour of the laboratory. Whilst there, they had tours of the experiments, including the antihydrogen facility where Swansea Physicists are busy making antimatter and testing fundamental theories of gravity. The teachers also meet some of CERN’s leaders such as Prof Lyn Evans, a Swansea graduate who was the Project Leader of the Large Hadron Collider.

The final year students of the Department of Biosciences were provided with an opportunity to present the results and implications of the research that they had undertaken during their dissertations in front of their peers and staff. The symposium was organised by Dr Edward Pope and aimed to give students real life experience and practise of presenting scientific information to an audience, which are key skills required by many employers and for those students wishing to pursue further research.

The event was held in the impressive Dylan Thomas Museum and ran over three consecutive days.  The quality of the talks was very high and subjects spanned a very impressive range including animal behaviour, immunology, conservation and evolutionary biology.  Some excellent questions were asked by the students, and the conference was greatly enjoyed by everyone despite the initial nerves that many students (understandably) felt. 

Exploring the Wallace zoology museum

The doors off the Wallace Zoology Museum were opened up to members of the South West Wales Wildlife Trust and the general public recently during an interactive talk by Dr Dan Forman (Swansea Ecology Research Team). Over 60 people had the opportunity to view the specimens on display in this unique teaching and research resource and hear about many of the species’ fascinating evolution, behaviour, ecology and conservation.

Of particular popularity were the many moths and butterflies in the collection, many of which had been collected locally during the 1950s onwards, as well as skeleton of an anaconda.

Biosciences - a world of career possibilities!

Mathematics meet the employer!

Physics Professor awarded an Enhanced Eurotalents fellowship at CEA-Saclay, France

The Department of Bioscience hosted a day long employability conference on the 28th of January in the Singleton Park Campus.

The event, specifically for students, provided all who attended an experiential journey into a wide range of careers that can be accessed with a Biological degree obtained from Swansea University. Held during the Universities Employability Week, the  event consisted of talks and seminars from a wide variety of speakers who provided a great insight into the type of work available, and how best to stand out from the crowd when trying to secure a job in the sector. 

In February 2016, Price waterhouse Coopers (PwC) gave a talk to Mathematics students to find out about what PwC could offer in the way of Graduate Opportunities and Placements. PwC is one of the world’s leading professional services organisations specialising in Audit, Tax, Technology, Finance and Consultancy.

PwC invited Swansea University students to take part in their interview competition and compete for a £500 prize.  We are delighted to announce that previous winners have included Swansea Mathematics students. Past Mathematics students have gone on to have successful careers with PwC as we hope current and future students will do.

Professor Dirk van der Werf, Department of Physics, has been awarded a two year Enhanced Eurotalents fellowship at the "Commissariat à l’énergie atomique et aux energies alternatives” (CEA) at Saclay, France. He will be working, within the GBAR collaboration, on the "Production of the negative hydrogen ion by using protons and positronium, as preparation for antihydrogen plus production”. This research should ultimately lead to a measurement of the acceleration of the antihydrogen atom in a matter gravitational field at CERN. 

The award comes together with an amount of 200,000 € to build a so called "buffer gas accumulator" needed to collect the large numbers of positrons required to produce the (anti)hydrogen atoms and ions.

Quantum Advisory Prize for Mathematics

Mathematics scholarships

Mathematics PhD success!

This summer, Quantum Advisory will award a prize to the best Swansea University Mathematics graduate. Quantum Advisory is a Financial Consultancy company based in Cardiff, but with offices across the UK. They are keen to develop their links with the Mathematics department in Swansea, and with the pool of talent that our undergraduate student body forms. The prize of £1000 will be awarded on the basis of the student’s final-year dissertation, and will be awarded at the summer graduation ceremony.

The Mathematics Department will be offering Mathematics prizes/scholarships worth up to a total of £3000 for students starting their university studies in September 2016. The prizes will be awarded on the basis of a competitive two and a half hour examination, which took place in March 2016. 

Congratulations to Dr Ghaliah Yahyam Alhamzi who successfully defended her Mathematics Ph.D. thesis on “Homotopy Deformation and Itô Calculus in Noncommutative Geometry” at her viva in January 2016.  Her supervisor was Dr Edwin Beggs.

The Swansea Ecology Research Team hosts 'week of work'

The Swansea Ecology Research Team, Department of Biosciences hosted a number of “Week of Work” work placements for current students of Swansea University from a variety of academic disciplines including Geography, Biology, Zoology and English Literature.

Placement students undertook short projects on a variety of subjects including animal rehabilitation, moth biodiversity and abundance, carnivore diet, mammal distributions and many more. More work placements will be available in SERT in June 2016.

SERT are also pleased to continue to work in partnership with Ocean Ecology, a marine based ecological consultancy (www.ocean-ecology.com). Ocean Ecology has provided placements for a number of marine biology students from the Department of Biosciences over the past 12 months via the Swansea University Paid internship and Santander placement schemes. These schemes offer the chance for undergraduate and recent graduates to participate in paid work for between 1 and 3 months.  

For further details on any item reported above, please contact the member of staff concerned, or email Anna Ratcliffe