Bangor International February 2014

BANGOR INTERNATIONAL February 2014 UK Law Teacher of the Year Award

£30 million Investment in New Student Village

Bangor lecturer on shortlist

A Bangor University lecturer has been shortlisted for the prestigious Law Teacher of the Year 2014 award. Sarah Marie Nason from the School of Law is one of six shortlisted law teachers who were nominated from institutions from across the UK. The Law Teacher of the Year Award is sponsored by Oxford University Press, and is the only one of its kind in the UK set up specifically to reward great law teaching.

Delighted at the news, Sarah said:

"I am absolutely bowled over at having been shortlisted, and of course very grateful to the students and colleagues who took the time to nominate me. I have always tried to balance my teaching between preparing students for exams and for the real world of legal practice. More recently I have seen the great benefit of research-led teaching particularly as regards access to justice issues. The shortlisting is really a reflection of the generosity of Bangor law students and the high quality of teaching provided by colleagues across the Law School."

An image of the proposed development A consortium of three companies has been selected to develop Bangor University’s residential site at St Mary’s. An Investment of over £30 million will enable the University meet the demand from second and third year students who want to live in halls.

University Pro-Vice Chancellor, Professor Carol Tully said:

“The new rooms will include all the facilities that today’s students would expect to see on a modern residential campus. It will offer students the best in comfort and design with a café bar, shop, laundrette and sports and fitness facilities all on site. At the heart of the design is a commitment to provide a real sense of community with an enhanced social and living space environment.

By developing the St Mary’s site the University will make sustainable use of existing property and construct BREAAM excellent buildings, meeting today’s increasing environmental expectations. The development will also incorporate an electric bike scheme to encourage sustainable forms of transport.”

Work is expected to be completed by September 2015.

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

New Alumni Network in Nigeria Engineering School wins £500k for CLARET Project See our centre page spread on our Chinese New Year Celebrations www.bangor.ac.uk/international

Celebrating the Chinese New Year of the Horse at Bangor Staff and students at Bangor University took part in and enjoyed the various celebrations during the Chinese New Year of the Horse.

Here are some pictures and stories showcasing the various events that took place...

Celebrating at the Senedd in Cardiff On the 30th January, Kate Linck from the International Education Centre, Chunwang Jia (President of Chinese Students Society) and Lijun Zhao (PhD student and one of our International Student Ambassadors) were invited to celebrate Chinese New Year at the National Assembly in Cardiff. The event was hosted by Carwyn Jones, First Minister of the Welsh Assembly Government.

There were around 150 guests at the reception, including representatives from the Chinese Embassy, along with staff and students from Universities and Confucius Institutes across Wales. Liying Zhang was at the event representing the Bangor University Confucius Institute.

We were treated to a Chinese lion dance and a traditional Chinese fan dance performed by a local primary school.

After the performances came speeches by the Welsh First Minister and the Chinese Embassy, which were then followed by a delicious Chinese buffet.

The event was a great opportunity for networking, learning about Chinese culture and, of course, welcoming in the New Year! We wish everyone a lucky and prosperous Year of the Horse.

L-R: Carwyn Jones, First Minister of the Welsh Assembly Liying Zhang of Bangor’s Confucius Institute & Lijun Zhao, an Government, Minister Cong, Chinese Embassy representative, international student ambassador at Bangor University Liying Zhang, Lijun Zhao & Kate Linck of Bangor University

Chinese New Year Party at Bangor University The Confucius Institute held a fun filled Chinese New Year party on the 31st January in the Garth Common Room at Bangor University.

Over 40 international students from different countries and regions, including Ireland, Italy, Poland, China, Colombia, USA, India, Hong Kong and the UK attended the celebrations.

A second party was held the following day on Saturday 1st February in the Prichard Jones Hall, Main Arts Building. The party was sponsored by UKEC and attended by Bangor University’s Vice Chancellor, Professor John Hughes (4th from left in middle right photo), as well as other staff members and students.

The afternoon party included various forms of entertainment including karaoke and comedy sketches and everyone thoroughly enjoyed the day.

A few lessons in Chinese culture for IEC staff members

A lesson in Chinese Calligraphy by the Confucius Institute.

Bangor University staff members Sheila Brook, Iwan Roberts and David Joyner attempting to play the Ehru.

Research News

Bangor University Establishes Alumni Network in Nigeria

BITES (Bioinformatics and Information Technology to address Envenomation by Snakes): an International Research Staff Exchange Scheme funded by the European Commission India has the globally highest annual death rate from venomous snake bites and in some states it is the largest contributor to mortality, exceeding even AIDS and malaria.

Clinical management of snake bites requires timely administration of antivenin, neutralizing the lifethreatening toxins in snake venom.

Snake venom composition varies both between and within species, and so the design and production of efficient antivenins depends on thorough understanding of venomous snake diversity and distribution. This four-year project addresses the lack of studies investigating the link between venomous snake systematics and regional venom variation in India, through collaboration between taxonomists, molecular biologists, protein biologists and herpetologists based in the EU (Drs Anita Malhotra, Wolfgang Wüster and John Mulley from Bangor University, Prof Juan Calvete from the Instituto de Biomedicina de Valencia, Spain and Dr Ulrich Kuch from the Biodiversity and Climate Research Centre in Senckenberg, Germany) and India (Drs BL Dhananjaya from Jain University, Robin Doley from Tezpur University, and Kartik Shanker from the Indian Institute of Sciences, Bangalore). The resulting biological information and standards will contribute to improving the outcome of snake envenomations and providing a baseline for future work.

Members of the Nigeria Alumni Network with Professor Dermot Cahill, Head of Bangor Law School (far right) and Ajoke Olakunle, Bangor University’s Nigeria Representative (2nd right)

In a great start to 2014, Bangor University reconnected with its Alumni by launching the Nigerian Alumni Network. The network which was established following a visit to the country by Prof Dermot Cahill, Head of Bangor Law School, and Dr Ama Eyo, Lecturer in the Law School provided an opportunity for graduates to reunite with lost friends and colleagues, and for some to make new friends.

The network was first launched in Abuja, the country’s capital on 17th January 2014 and had in attendance graduates from; Bangor Law School, School of Education, Bangor Business School, School of Engineering, School of Computer Science, School of Modern Languages, School of Social Sciences, and the School of Chemistry.

Following this initial launch event, a second event was held in the busy commercial hub of the country - Lagos, on 24th January 2014. The second event was not only attended by alumni from the university but provided an opportunity for students interested in studying at Bangor to meet and interact with past students. Also, the University’s in-country representative Ajoke Olakunle met with past students, and provided her with an insight into the excellent pastoral care, teaching and research facilities at Bangor University.

Those present at the event thanked the University for establishing the network and remarked that it had presented them with opportunities to explore professional and personal relationships with lost friends and new contacts.

One of those present, Mrs Rose Jones, a graduate from Bangor Business School (MSc International Banking and Development Finance) noted that this was a welcome development as the network offers Bangor’s alumni in Nigeria opportunities for fostering the reputation of the University in the country, creates a support network for students in the country on their return from studying in the United Kingdom and would enable the alumni to strengthen ties with potential students, who may have questions about life as a student in Bangor.

Engineering at Bangor wins £500k for CLARET A unique new facility has opened at Bangor University. The Centre, the first of its kind in Wales, will enable businesses to test a huge range of plastic electronics, space-related equipment and solar cells.

The ‘Centre for Lifetime And REliabilty Testing’ (CLARET) in Wales has been made a reality by the Welsh Assembly Government funding through the A4B programme, which awarded the School of Electronic Engineering at Bangor University a grant of £500k to create the Centre. The main aim of the new facility is to attract outside users - specifically industry.

This new industry-standard facility will provide regional and national businesses involved in the design, manufacture or integration of opto-electronic and material technologies, with lifetime and reliability testing facilities, with access to academic expertise and business support.

Glyn Fargher, the Business Development Manager for the Claret project said:“The new CLARET Laboratories will support high-level research at the School as well as allowing the School to work with local business on research and development for new and exciting plastic electronics such as OLEDs as found in television and mobile phone display screens and lighting or next generation solar cells that can be integrated directly into building infrastructure, transportation or space applications.”

The project will enable the School to purchase a suite of new test equipment. These will form part of a basic functional facility at the School.

After testing, the Centre will broaden its capabilities in order to create a European Large-Scale Facility.

CLARET will build on activity in the School of Electronics which has been supported by the EPSRC, Royal Society, ASTUTE, Interreg and TSB to provide a new industry-facing facility at Bangor University.

This new facility will complement the existing multi-million pound investments that the School has received to create a clean-room, inert atmosphere fabrication environment, laser micromachining facility and a surface analysis laboratory.

This combination of facilities will be unique in the UK and Europe and the School aims to develop a European centre of excellence in North Wales.

The new equipment provides a synergy with other centres across the UK. The Centre will provide an added dimension to the five Plastic Electronics Centres of Excellence (PECOEs) and major solar cell R&D centres. in the UK. The School of Electronics, Bangor University is currently ranked 2nd in the UK for research.

Research News Academics from Bangor research into the warnings on Cigarettes Two academics from Bangor University’s renowned Business School have been applying their knowledge of marketing and managerial studies to investigate a new medium forgetting the no-smoking message across the cigarette itself.

Dr Hassan and Prof. Shiu published a piece of research in the journal ‘Tobacco Control’ that explored an innovative extension of the frontier in anti-tobacco policy initiatives by governments. (“No place to hide: two pilot studies assessing the effectiveness of adding a health warning to the cigarette stick” by Dr Louise M. Hassan and Prof. Edward Shiu (Bangor Business School).

Hassan and Shiu’s research examined the potential of health warnings printed on the cigarette stick through two related studies.

Prior research shows that smokers have shorter life expectancy by around 14 years, with a typical cigarette ‘costing’ 11 minutes of life lost. Based on these past findings, cigarettes (photograph in Study 1 and a ‘real’ one in Study 2) were created and shown to smokers in Hassan and Shiu’s research. The mock-up cigarette displayed 11 minute time lines together with the warning that “each puff reduces your life expectancy by …” Results of both studies show a significant increase in smokers’ quit intentions after exposure to the mock-up cigarette (6.9 % in Study 1, and 15.7% in Study 2). Hassan and Shiu’s research is timely given the move towards plain packaging, with strong incentive for tobacco companies to relocate branding information on to the cigarette stick. The research also has wider impact as despite bans on the sale of single cigarettes, this practice is still prevalent in parts of the world.

Dr Hassan commented: "This is only the start in the investigation of the potential of including a health message on the cigarette stick and there needs to be much more research in this area to understand the tangible benefits that

might arise."

www.bangor.ac.uk/international

Bing Li

Sukhjinder Bhatti

Maggie Parke

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

Tel: +44 (0) 1248 388874 Email: s.bhatti@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 International students in the UK

Argentina Brazil Canada Chile

Sarah Jones-Morris

Noor Al-Zubaidi

Michael Rogerson

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

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

Tel: +44 (0) 1248 382879 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 Vietnam

South Korea Taiwan Philippines

Upcoming Visits for 2014 We shall be visiting the following countries during 2014: Bangladesh Bahrain Brazil Cameroon China Ghana Hong Kong India Indonesia Iraq

Kuwait Malaysia Nigeria Pakistan Saudi Arabia Singapore Thailand Turkey USA Vietnam

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

W: www.bangor.ac.uk/international E: international@bangor.ac.uk www.facebook.com/BangorUniversity

Oman Saudi Arabia Turkey UAE Qatar

Colombia Mexico USA

New Programmes in Business and Law for 2014 Bangor University is pleased to announce the addition of eight new Masters programmes in the areas of business and law.

Building on its reputation as the no.1 business school in the UK for accounting and finance research, and one of the world leaders for research in banking, Bangor Business School introduces MSc International Banking, MSc International Finance, MSc Investment Management, MSc Accounting and MSc Accounting and Banking.

Expanding on its innovative suite of MBA programmes, the School has also created an MBA in International Business.

The Masters programmes in Investment Management, International Finance and International Banking will also be delivered in London through the Bangor Business School London Centre, located in Broadgate Tower in the heart of the city’s financial district.

Bangor Law School is also expanding on its postgraduate teaching provision, with two new programmes for September 2014: LLM Maritime Law and LLM Law of the Sea. These Masters represent a new addition to the School’s current research activity.

All of these programmes will be available from September 2014, with some also offering a January intake.

Further details will be published in due course on the Schools’ websites: Bangor Business School: www.bangor.ac.uk/business Bangor Business School London Centre: www.bangor.ac.uk/londonbusiness Bangor Law School: www.bangor.ac.uk/law