Bangor International February 2015

Bangor International February 2015 Bangor ranked in Top 100 World International Universities

British Ecology Society Awards Bangor Lecturer breaking new ground in monitoring conservation outcomes as well as understanding incentives to conserve”.

Bangor University has been ranked 90th in the world and 38th in the UK in the latest ‘THE 100 most international universities in the world 2015’.

The rankings have been based on the ‘international outlook’ indicators which include, the percentage of international staff, international student numbers, proportion of research papers published with co-authors from at least one other country.

Read the full article here: www.timeshighereducation.co.u k/news/the-100-most-international-universities-in-theworld-2015/2018125.fullarticle

Dr Julia Jones, picture taken during fieldwork A lecturer at Bangor University’s School of Environment, Natural Resources and Geography has been awarded the prestigious British Ecological Society’s Founders’ Prize for 2014.

On receiving the Award, which is awarded every two years to an outstanding young ecologist who is making a significant contribution towards the science of ecology, Dr Julia Jones was described as “an inspiration to young conservation ecologists, who has developed a novel and highly successful research programme which is

On receiving the Award, Julia Jones said: “In my research I use methods and theory from a range of disciplines (including economics, education and psychology) and apply them to challenges in environmental management.

However my disciplinary background and natural intellectual home is ecology, so to have this recognition from the British Ecological Society is a real honour.”

Julia is currently leading a project looking at how global ecosystem service schemes can best be designed to reduce poverty. This is a large consortium project funded

by Ecosystem Services for Poverty Alleviation. She has a new grant which uses a Randomised Control Trial of a water-based payment scheme in Bolivia to explore how such schemes can contribute to local welfare benefits and broader environmental benefits.

In this issue of our newsletter... u u u

Top 10% of World’s Greenest Universities Sacred forests in Ethiopia Research News www.bangor.ac.uk/international

Research News Bangor University and

Horizon Nuclear Power sign up to formal joint-working A Study on Mangroves Qatar University has launched a collaborative new study on mangroves with Bangor University. They have embarked on a follow-up study of ‘Essential Ecological Processes and Ecosystem Functions in Arid Mangrove Plants’ as the first part of the research project was completed. The university was awarded a funding in the 7th Cycle of the National Priorities Research Programme (NPRP) by the Qatar National Research Fund (QNRF) for the present project.

This new project is being led by Dr Ibrahim al-Maslamani of Qatar University’s Environmental Studies Centre and Dr Lewis LeVay of Bangor University’s Ocean Sciences department. The first project has resulted in the publication of three papers so far.

The focus of the present study will be on coastal zone management and biodiversity conservation in Qatar and regionally as mangroves and sea grass habitats are essential in supporting coastal biodiversity, productivity and fishery in coastal waters and are vulnerable to development and pollution.

The new study will continue the collaboration with Bangor University and the project is part of a wider marine science collaboration between Qatar University and Bangor University under an agreement, promoting research co-operation and postgraduate training.

Signing the agreement are Alan Raymant, Horizon Nuclear Power’s Chief Operating Officer and Professor John G. Hughes, Vice-Chancellor of Bangor University

Bangor University and Horizon Nuclear Power, which is owned by leading global electronics company Hitachi, Ltd., have signed a formal Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) which will enable both organisations to collaborate and work more closely together in future years.

Horizon Nuclear Power are in the process of building a new power station. The University has already introduced new engineering degrees in Control and Instrumentation and Critical Safety Engineering to train suitably qualified and skilled staff to support this development, and this MOU may lead to further co-operation in many areas including student employability, work placements and research.

Alan Raymant, Horizon Nuclear Power’s Chief Operating Officer said

“This agreement furthers our ongoing commitment to supporting skills development and training across North Wales, creating long term career opportunities for the region’s young people.”

“We look forward to working with the University as the Wylfa Newydd project moves forward and utilising the first class research and development facilities and expertise it has developed over many years.”

Professor John Vice-Chancellor University said:

G. of

Hughes, Bangor

“Given the enormous scale of investment being made by Horizon in Wylfa Newydd, to create a facility which is likely to operate for many decades, the signing of this Memorandum of Understanding represents a significant moment for both our organisations.

“I am delighted that we now have in place a formal framework which will enable us to work together, for both our mutual benefits and for the benefits of the local and regional economy, for many, many years to come”.

Research attracts worldwide media attention

Image credit Bruce Moffat

Bar-headed geese Bar-headed geese’s ability to fly at extreme high altitude, where there is less than 10% the oxygen found at sea level has fascinated biologists for decades.

A team led by researchers from Bangor University has tracked the flight of these geese and revealed the basis for the birds' "rollercoaster flight" pattern.

Such is the achievement of the researchers, this story has attracted worldwide attention being reported in the press in Australia, USA, Germany, India, Denmark, Bangladesh and many other countries.

These geese achieve physiological feats that seem impossible, and by using GPS trackers this team has recorded one bird flying at 24,000ft. The implanted devices which measured altitude, acceleration, body temperature and heart rate of seven geese caught in central Mongolia.

Lead researcher Dr Charles Bishop and other biologists hope, eventually, to understand the genetics of what makes these animals able to perform energetic feats at such high altitudes.

Read the full story on the BBC science news pages at: www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-30799436 Image credit Nyambayar Batbayar

Bar-headed goose in flight in its native Mongolia

Research News

New Understanding of venom could open doors to more effective antivenoms New research, which disproves the theory that venom evolved just once in reptiles, could also lead to new medical treatments to counteract snakebite.

The “Toxicofera hypothesis”, which proposed that venom evolved and that the majority of reptile species alive today descended from a common venomous ancestor was first put forward nearly a decade ago. At the time this was a radical proposition, as traditionally venom was believed to have multiple origins. Whilst the Toxicofera hypothesis has become widely accepted, it had never actually been tested, until now.

Researchers in the School of Biological Sciences at Bangor University used cutting-edge DNA sequencing technology to study gene expression in the venom and salivary glands, as well as several other body tissues from a range of venomous and non-venomous reptiles to test the robustness of the Toxicofera hypothesis.

The research was supported by the Royal Society, the Wellcome Trust and the Biosciences, Environment and Agriculture Alliance between Bangor and Aberystwyth universities, with analyses carried out using High Performance Computing (HPC) Wales infrastructure.

Bangor in top 10% of World’s Greenest Universities Bangor University’s commitment to sustainability has again earned it a commanding position in an international league table of environmentally friendly institutions. The UI Green Metric, a league table of the world’s greenest universities, was first launched by Universitas Indonesia in 2010 to highlight sustainability and environmental management at universities around the globe. Each year the number of Universities taking part increases; in the current league 360 Universities from 62 countries took part and Bangor has been placed in 28th position.

Vice Chancellor Professor John G Hughes said: “I am delighted that Bangor continues to maintain its position as a sustainability leader within the international higher education sector. This latest announcement demonstrates our ongoing commitment to taking positive action in promoting sustainability and achieving continual environmental improvement”.

Ricky Carter, Environmental Manager in the Estates and Facilities Department added: “We are continuing to make significant progress not only at home but globally, as shown by our recent achievement of the internationally recognised ISO14001 Environmental Standard. In addition we have held the Welsh Green Dragon environmental certification since 2009”.

Sacred values are crucial for conservation of remaining forests in Ethiopia the sacred forests do receive greater protection from local communities they are still under considerable threat. They remain as just small isolated patches and the traditional cultural values linked to these forests are being eroded within local society.

Forests that are sacred to local people are less likely to suffer deforestation according to results of research by Bangor University.

The research was undertaken by former Bangor University student Dr Desalegn Desissa Daye, an ethiopian national, who completed his PhD at Bangor in 2012, alongside Professor John Healey of the School of Environment, Natural Resources and Geography at Bangor University in partnership with the Ethiopian Wildlife and Natural History Society.

Therefore, conservation of biodiversity in this part of Ethiopia will depend on a combination of support for traditional cultural values, practical conservation measures to protect and restore the sacred forests, and improvement in the sustainability of agricultural land use across the highlands landscape.

“As sacred forests are found in many cultures around the world, there is some hope that, in addition to their cultural significance, the persistence of these values can make an important contribution to conservation of biodiversity,” commented John Healey, Professor of Forest Sciences at Bangor University.

The remote Gamo Highlands in the far south-west of Ethiopia are a globally important centre of biodiversity.

It is therefore concerning that research just published in the journal Global Ecology and Conservation1 by Dr Desalegn Desissa Daye and Professor John Healey has shown that the remaining area of natural forests and grasslands in the Gamo Highlands has been reduced by more than a third since 1995 due to their conversion to farmland.

However, all is not lost as the Bangor research has shown that the remaining natural forests which hold a sacred status for local people have suffered much less deforestation than those forests which lack this cultural value. While

Dr Desalegn Desissa Daye

UK’s Bargain Discounts and Consumer Behaviour “What's happening is that the retailers have created two senses.

One is that there is a bargain to be had, but you have to be the first to get it. They create this sense of urgency by doing things like opening the store at 5am, which sets off an alarm in your head that there might be a scarcity, and primes people to be in a state of emergency.

Professor James Intrilligator Black Friday* in November and Boxing Day in December drew crowds of shoppers to UK cities’ high streets competing frantically for bargains on consumer products.

This is a growing UK phenomenon widely reported in the press and media.

James Intrilligator, Professor of Consumer Psychology at Bangor University has provided expert commentary on this topic for the UK press, including for The Independent a leading UK daily newspaper, and he believes there are two key influencing factors:

At the same time, the store has made a social promise to you. If you get here early, you can get a TV for just €100. People feel that they have been promised that, which leads to a single-minded focus on one thing. But, of course, there are many other people who feel they have been promised the same thing, and when those focuses collide, you get that type of behaviour."

The full article in The Independent Professor contains which Intrilligator’s complete expert commentary can be found at: www.independent.ie/life/family/s ale-of-the-century-why-do-wewomen-love-a-bargain3 0 8 6 2 6 8 0 . h t m l * last Friday in November

‘Professor appointed chair of International Working Group

Professor Gary Carvalho

Gary Carvalho, Professor of molecular ecology at Bangor University has been made chair of the working group on application of genetics in fisheries and mariculture for the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea. The Council is a global organisation that develops science and advice to support the sustainable use of the oceans. It has a network of over 4,000 scientists from over 350 marine institutes in 20 member countries. Through strategic partnerships, the Council’s work extends to the Arctic, the Mediterranean Sea, the North Pacific Ocean and the Black Sea.

What IS Consumer Psychology?

What makes some television ads more effective than others?

Why do big brands pay so much for famous spokespeople?

Why are “sale” signs usually red?

Why do we share some Facebook posts and not others?

Today’s successful businesses and organisations need highly trained people who can help them understand their consumers and understand issues such as: what makes them choose one product over another? Do brand names and advertising really affect our thinking? Will the internet change the face of urban and suburban shopping areas?

Consumer psychology is a specialty area that studies how our thoughts, beliefs, feelings and perceptions influence how people buy and relate to goods and services. One formal definition of the field describes it as "the study of individuals, groups, or organizations and the processes they use to select, secure, use, and dispose of products, services, experiences, or ideas to satisfy needs and the impacts that these processes have on the consumer and society.”

Bangor University is home to the UK's top consumer psychology group. We offer undergraduate and postgraduate streams focusing on this exciting interdisciplinary area.

In addition, our researchers work with a range of national and international companies (such as Cadbury, Unilever, Mars, and the National Trust) on issues ranging from shopping, to packaging, to brain activity and advertising.

Ban

New partnership with Volgograd State Pedagogical University, Russia

Bangor University Ocean Physicists visit China

On Tuesday 27 January, the Confucius Institute at Bangor University welcomed Professor Olga Leontovich, Head of the Department of Intercultural Communication and Translation at Volgograd State Pedagogical University (VSPU) the biggest teacher training university in southern Russia.

Prof. Leontovich is head of the Russian-Chinese Intercultural Communication Research Centre in Volgograd and also a member of VSPU’s Confucius Institute Board. Her lecture; Confucius Institutes as a Medium for Intercultural Communication Practices given at the Confucius Institute here in Bangor, marks the start of a strong collaboration between the two universities in Bangor and Volgograd; a partnership that aims to explore the issues surrounding intercultural communication and practice in the UK, Russia and China in relation to the growing global nature of the Confucius Institute.

Physicists Prof Tom Rippeth and Dr Holly Pelling with research collaborator Dr Zhiyu Liu Ocean Physicists Professor Tom Rippeth and Dr Holly Pelling recently visited Sothern China on research collaborations and to develop new research and teaching links.

They were invited to present at the Xiamen Marine Science Symposium. The Symposium is organised by the University – which has one of the largest Ocean Science departments in China – to enable the University to show case its own research as well as enabling Xiamen students to question international scientists about their research.

Tom and Holly already have a joint NERC research grant with Dr Zhiyu Liu, an expert in Ocean Mixing at Xiamen University. Dr Liu spent two

years of his PhD studies at the School of Ocean Sciences in Bangor University.

Tom and Holly also took the opportunity to visit Sun Yat-sen University in Guangzhou, at the invitation of Professor Jiaxue Wu. Although SYSU is a well-established University, and rated number 1 in Southern China, it only recently setup a Marine Science Department (2008) and is very interested in forming links with Bangor.

During their visit they attended a specially organised workshop which Professor Wu hopes will “strengthen mutual understanding and will promote the substantive collaboration between SYSU and Bangor in the near future”.

The Confucius Institute logo

www.bangor.ac.uk/ confucius-institute

Professor Tom Rippeth with Jiaxue Wu of Sun Yat-sen University in Guangzhou

Bangor’s BioComposites Centre awarded new project

Staff from the Central South University of Forestry and Technology (CSUFT) visit Bangor

CSUFT delegates pictured in Bangor University’s ‘Quad’

Example of pilot scale equipment in the BioComposites Centre that will be used in the project The BioComposites Centre has just been awarded a new 2 year project with a Total value of £593K. The project is funded through Innovate UK and aims to develop a novel biotech approach to produce a range of products based on straw.

The project is in partnership with the Beijing Forestry University with industrial partners in the UK and China.

BioComposites Centre Director, Dr Rob Elias explains “The EPSRC funding allows us to re-establish a link with a former member of staff, Prof Runcang Sun. Prof Sun is now Dean of College of Materials Science and Technology at Beijing Forestry University and we are really pleased to be working with him again,” .

Prof Sun’s work in Bangor in 1995 helped establish a new line, which will be used to fractionate straw into valuable chemicals and fibres for applications in packaging and composites.

The Centre sees this link to China as important for their future development. It will lead to student exchanges and other complimentary funding opportunities for technology exchange. Dr Adam Charlton, Head of BioRefining has already visited China on a Trade Mission organised

by Welsh Government. In December 2014 Adam met with Chinese officials and had a tour Prof Sun’s laboratories.

‘This prestigious project will help consolidate the link with Prof. Sun’s group and highlights an excellent example of collaboration between Centres of Excellence in China and the UK. The project will showcase some of the upscaling technologies available within the BioComposites Centre and purchased through support from the Welsh European Funding Office and demonstrates the use of this type of funding for capacity building within Welsh HEIs’, commented Dr. Charlton.

Visit the BioComposites Centre website: www.bc.bangor.ac.uk/

Members of staff from the Central South University of Forestry and Technology’s (CSUFT) academic schools and support services visited Bangor University at the end of last year for a month of training and experiential visits to lectures and laboratories.

The delegates from CSUFT observed teaching across a range of topics in Business, Engineering, and Environmental Science; and took part in compliance training for UK academic regulations. In addition to this, the delegates particularly enjoyed seminars on research skills, business development and student enterprise and employability. A highlight of their visit was “the opportunity to get to meet local people and explore the beautiful North Wales countryside.”

CSUFT and Bangor University collaborated to create an international college ‘Bangor College China’ which was launched in May 2014. The college is based in Changsha City, the capital city of Hunan province in China and it opened it’s doors in September 2014 to 200 Chinese students.

www.bangor.ac.uk/international

Country Representatives Bing Li

Ali Khan

Maggie Parke

Tel: +44 (0) 1248 388207 Email: b.li@bangor.ac.uk

Tel: +44 (0) 1248 388874 Email: a.khan@bangor.ac.uk

Tel: +44 (0) 1248 388416 Email: maggie.parke@bangor.ac.uk

Responsible for:

Responsible for:

Responsible for:

Bangladesh India Nepal Pakistan Sri Lanka

Argentina Brazil Canada Chile

Sarah Jones-Morris

Noor Al-Zubaidi

Michael Rogerson

Tel: +44 (0) 1248 388843 Email: s.jonesmorris@bangor.ac.uk

Tel: +44 (0) 1248 382879 Email: n.al-zubaidi@bangor.ac.uk

Tel: +44 (0) 1248 383648 Email: m.rogerson@bangor.ac.uk

Responsible for:

Responsible for:

Responsible for:

Brunei Russia Indonesia Singapore Kazakhstan Thailand Malaysia Sub-Saharan Africa, including Nigeria, Ghana and Cameroon

Bahrain Egypt Iraq Jordan Kuwait Libya

European Union Countries

Mainland China Hong Kong Japan Philippines Singapore

South Korea Taiwan Vietnam

Oman Saudi Arabia Turkey UAE Qatar

Colombia Mexico USA

International students in the UK

Upcoming Visits for 2015 We shall be visiting the following countries between February and March 2015: India - February Bangladesh - February

Pakistan - February Vietnam - March

Please do contact us if you would like one of our international oďŹƒcers to visit your school or if you need any advice.

W: www.bangor.ac.uk/international E: international@bangor.ac.uk

www.facebook.com/BangorUniversityInternational

For further details about country visits please contact the relevant Country Manager.